A decent game with a wealth of options, can't help but feel a little something's missing though.
It's loads of fun to play against a human opponent of reasonably comparable standard to yourself but against computer controlled opponents very basic and usually far too easy. As a huge 20/20 fan myself I like to see the batsmen attack the bowlers scoring big boundary's and racing between the wicket's trying to grab the quick single's. Unfortunately the computer's AI doesn't allow this to happen in BLIC 2005. Running out the computer seems impossible to do and is something I have never seen in 6months of regular play now. Blocking shot's seems to be the order of the day for the computer especially during one day matches. In 50 overs matches against the Aussies, with Pakistan, the highest computer total I've had to beat on Test difficulty was a miserly 104.
Test matches improve things slightly but with them usually lasting for 5 days I find myself losing interest midway through the 3rd or early on the 4th day's play. Weather can often come into play, especially in England, this actually adds to the excitement of the occasion at time's.
One of the major benefits or drawbacks depending on how you look at it is the speed at which the game moves along. As I'm sure you'll know cricket is a fairly slow game with 13-14 overs taking an hour to play in real time. In BLIC you will have easily completed a 20/20 match in the same timescale. No auto generate innings feature exists as it did in the original game, so when you're in, you're in for the long haul.
Player name's appear incorrectly, but these are easily edited. Unfortunately where you'd like to add a new player into an International squad, for example, Mike Hussey in for Darren Lehmann, you can only edit the name. You therefore have a bald Mike Hussey who bowls pretty good left arm spin. This is an area which will hopefully be looked into for the new version, out in March.
Batting is fun and easy to do with a huge variety of shots available to you. The computer automatically decides whether you should play off the front or back foot so stumpings don't come into play but unfortunately there is no option to advance down the crease, so spanking Shane Warne for 6 is pretty difficult to achieve. Bowling is again easy enough to do with trademark special deliveries thrown in too. Shane Warne can deliver Flippers and Wrong 'uns, Murali the Doosra and wicked Yorkers come from fast bowlers such as Brett Lee, these "special" balls only become available when the bowler's confidence reaches the maximum. As I hinted at earlier, bowling's maybe too easy to do, as getting team's all out for tiny totals is a fairly regular occurence. You have full control over your field placements, with fully customizable fielding maps or several pre-set options if you'd prefer. Most of the catches come behind the wicket from the wicket keeper and the slip cordon and the computer automatically fields for you, but you are in control of the guys on the boundary. Catching and basic fielding are relatively easy to pick up. Simply stop the cursor as near to the centre of the bar that appears on the screen to catch or to throw the ball to your wicket keeper, depending on the circumstance. When fielding the ball cannot be returned to the bowler's end, but with run out's seemingly an impossibility this doesn't really affect the gameplay that match.
Several real life test stadia are included, replicated thoroughly, the player uniform's aren't, unless you're involved in one of the licensed ICC tournaments, World Cup or Champions Trophy. Player names are also licensed for these tournaments, unfortunately the squad's date back to 2002/3/4. (Alex Stewart and Nick Knight opening the batting for England.) Every test team is included as well as a few of the smaller names on the one day circuit. Hawk Eye, pitch maps and replays are all included along with real life commentators including David Gower and Tony Greig and this all add's to the Televisual feel that codemasters were obviously trying to re-create. A nice touch here is when appealing for lbw a virtual replay of the shot come's up and explains to you why the appeal didn't stand up or contrastingly why it did. Graphic's are a little cartoony and player likenesses almost don't exist but the vast commentary more than makes up for this.
Plenty of playing options exist from Exhibition matches , Classic Matches and World XI challenges, but no option to play an entire 9 yr calendar with a single team as previously existed in the original Brian Lara back in the late 90's.
Overall this is a pretty good game and you'll get hours and hours of gameplay from it. There are plenty of unlockable's to be earned these range from classic players and World select team's to photograph's and plenty of trophies. Limited over matches are great against a friend or two but unfortunately a lot of the sparkle is lost when going up against the computer's AI. If your a fan of cricket and video games then this is the best title currently available to you, but if you are hoping to find a game as good as the original Lara game then I'm afraid you might be a little disapointed by what you find here.