Game Overview
Through the pre release stages it has cropped up here and there not really being to prominent like EA make their titles but when you have a legend such as Brian Lara endorsing the product you really don't need to advertise it all that much, people just seemed to know that it was coming out and that it was bound to be good competition to EA.

We have to say that the opening sequence for the game is not really all that special, it starts, you watch it, it finishes and you think "darn, i could be slogging some balls by now if i hadn't watched that. Unfortunately it is a bit poor, you will only watch it once! But do not let that put you off the game!

With loads of different game types and in game match options there is enough to alter and change the game of cricket so that you hardly ever play the same game twice! This is great! You can have a slog fest between Pakistan and India, or you can have a Test match between England and Australia, you can have quick 4 overs, 10 overs, 20 overs, white ball, red ball, coloured kits, white kits, in Australia, England, West Indies, you can make the game so hard that it takes you a life time to take any wickets! The choice is yours, it does add a lot of depth to the game and varies things to keep it interesting which is a big plus for a sport, which, lets face it, can get a little boring!

The graphics aren't going to blow you away to be honest, they are good and are what you have come to expect from all games, but it is a little bit of a let down with the lack of detail to the top name stars, unfortunately they don't look a thing like the real life counterpart, which is a bit of a shame but they all have hats and face paint on anyway so it doesn't matter a great deal! The thing that did annoy us about Brian Lara 2005 was the lack of a names license, Freddy Flintoff is now F.Flantiff and Shane Warne is now S.Warde, bit of a let down but if you can be bothered then its probably quite easy to change, we don't tend to let minor problems like that bother us anymore!

One note that we do have to make about Brian Lara Cricket 2005 is the commentary is brilliant! Some comments do get repeated a little bit to much like most games but at times the commentators actually get into proper discussions about who the best ever bowler or batsman is, who the all time XI should have in it, it can be quite interesting to listen too at times but the problem is you are so eager to take a wicket or smash the ball in to next week you don't really have time to listen to the banter!

Our Conclusions
As with previous titles, Brian Lara Cricket 2005 doesn't let the legend down, he has endorsed a sturdy computer game that captures Cricket to a T! OK, sometimes it can be a little annoying and sometimes can get incredibly boring if you can't work out how to get a particular batsman out but that’s all part of Cricket, just keep plugging away, and if you’re the batsman just keep slogging for six!! A definite purchase for Cricket fans, whether it competes with Cricket 2005 we don't know because we haven’t played it but Brian Lara Cricket 2005 is more than sufficient to please a cricketer! Happy Slogging!

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Big thanks to Codemasters