It's obvious the game hasn't been playtested for more than about 3 minutes. I got it on Friday, and having played it for an hour or so, the following are clear (Xbox 360 version):
The AI is shocking, making the single player games unplayable. In a 10 over match on test level, Kenya made 7-1 against me. No attempt at all to set any sort of a score or attack any of the bowling. Which generally makes the game far, far too easy, even at the (alleged) highest difficulty setting.
As others have said, the computer won't set defensive fields, even if you're going at 16+ an over. They won't really vary the bowling either, so the same shot will usually net you many runs per over in the same place.
Running between the wickets - the fielders are so slow, and the animation takes such a long time, there is basically a run every time you hit the ball, even if straight to a fielder 15 yards from the bat.
If it is a close run out, the batsmen usually make no attempt to hurry but with leisurly lower their bat into the crease. No attempt to even slide in... I know this was explained as a feature they actually incorporated to enable you to run for overthrows, but sensibly you'd just slide into the crease and turn, if you wanted to, a couple of yards further on. As in real life...
Overthrows. The ball will dribble to slip off the edge. Slip will pick it up and throw to the keeper from 5 yards away. Keeper will miss it and the ball will dribble away for overthrows. As both the keeper and bowler will refuse to chase after it, if there's not a fielder nearby you can run 2/3 runs on this every time.
On-line - no way to see your opponent's rating, so no idea how good they are. Seems to be no penalty for quitting a game, even if the opposition need 2 to win from 35 balls (as happened to me). No proper explanation in manual of how on-line World Cups etc work. No proper scoreboard for on-line games. No showing of how many points you won by winning said match. No obvious record of your wins and losses, runs scored/conceded etc. Cricket is so much about stats and they are important to the game. Pro Evo isn't great on-line, but at least it manages to get the basics right - this is just dreadful and embaressing.
Edges - there seem to be about two animations for edges, and the ball never just flies off a thin edge straight to the keeper - he always takes it one handed diving away from him. On that point too, logically the catching bar should give more margin for error on simple catches, and less on diving ones.
Others have said this too, but would it really have been so hard to properly model the bowling actions of the actual players? Especially the ones like Malinga/Tait who obviously have different actions to, say, Glenn McGrath.
Same point for the batting. Different batsmen play different shots better than others, and score well in different areas and on different types of pitches. Not here...
I can only hope Codemasters are planning on releasing a patch fairly quickly for the game, as it is obviously unfinished at the moment and that's a shame - the balance between batting and bowling is pretty good, and it is fun to play. The bugs and glitches just ruin it so quickly though.
Apologies for the length of this post (my first one too!) - I just wanted people to be clear that this is NOT a game worth buying in its current state. Brian Lara 2005 was far better, and that wasn't a great game by any means.
I just find it so hard to believe that after 2 years in the making, Codemasters couldn't get someone who knew anything about cricket to be involved with it and play test it. It would only take a few hours with someone who knew what they were doing to fix almost all of the above, and that would make the thing a much, much better game.
As it is, if you own 2005, I'd wait until the next version to buy another Brian Lara. Mine's going back to the shop first thing on Monday.
