I have played both Brian Lara 2K5 and EA Cricket 2K5 and have to say EA's effort is a lot better than Codemaster's. The main reason is the realism in EA - batting is a lot tougher & you need to work hard to score runs. However, in BL 2K5, batting is way too easy and you don't enjoy bashing the bowling mindlessly after some time. However there are plenty of things that Brian Lara 2K5 excells in. For example bowling and fielding is way better and much more fun in this game as compared to Cricket 2005. In fact if batting side of Brian Lara 2K5 can be improved & enhanced, it has the potential to be one of the ultimate cricket game. Here are my suggestions and am sure the game would be a lot better if they are incorporated...
1. Add shots off the back and front foot similar to cricket 2005.
2. Add Advance down the wicket shot... it's a legitimate cricket shot and should be there. This will also add stumping to the game thus enhancing realism in gameplay.
3. Have shots like sweep, hook, cut etc. Most of the shots are very similar. In fact most of the shots are drives - even a glide or cut to 3rd man looks like a off drive but played finer!!! Come on, give us shots like Cut, Hook, Sweep and the works.
4. Fielders shud throw at the bowler's end also.
5. 'Generate Innings' or 'Autoplay' feature similar to crkt 2005 in case you don't feel like bowling or batting and the innings can be resumed at a pre-defined moment - end of innings, fall of wkt, fall of certain no. of wkts, after a certain no. of overs have been bowled and so on.
6. Camera should follow the ball till it hits the ground or crowd when you hit a six. Right now, as soon as the ball reaches the boundary, even though it's in mid-air, the scene is cut off and it feels quite weird & abrupt. It would enhance the gameplay experience a lot more if you show the ball on it's downward arc and follow it till it reaches the crowd or hits the ground.
7. Various options like spider, manhattan, wagon wheel etc. should be available for viewing. Currently only wagon wheel and hawk eye features are available but they are automatic and you can't see them on demand. All the other features that are present in crkt 2005 (spider, manhattan etc.) should also be included.
8. More options and ways to display team, player & match stats.
9. You can't see no. of 4s and 6s hit by batsmen in their innings on the scorecard - this info is only displayed once the batsman reaches 50, 100, 150 and so on. You should be able to view this for all the players on the scorecard along with their strike rate.
10. Currently confidence of a batsman drops all the way down while approaching a landmark (50, 100 and so on). This is ridiculous as a batsman on 48 should definitely be more confident than a batsman on 2 as sometimes a batsman arriving on the crease has more confidence than a player approaching a landmark.
11. Difference between slower and normal deliveries is not realistic. A slower delivery should be bowled at say 20% less than the average speed. Right now a bowler bowling at 100 mph can suddenly bowl a ball at 60 mph, which is not realistic enough. Also, the number of slower balls bowled is a bit too high - happens 2-3 or sometimes more in an over. Realistically slower ball should be bowled at max twice an over and generally once every 2-3 overs.
12. AI/computer should take singles when the ball is hit in the deep. Currently the comp/AI takes a single where 2 can be scored and 2 when 3 can be run. Please revamp this aspect of the game and they should take singles whenever they are available. This is the main aspect where I lost interest in the game as after a week I was able to run up a total that was beyond comp/AI as it never took any singles.
13. AI/comp plays too slowly in odis. Even while chasing a score of 350, it plays as if it's chasing a score of 120. And in tests you can get a team like Aus out for less than 150 most of the times, which is quite unrealistic.
14. It's quite easy to beat comp in odis as the comp/AI batting is too weak. I have yet to see a comp batter score a century and even when I started with the game I was able to bowl AI team pretty cheap and this trend is the same at all levels (village, county or test).
15. Add a manual appeal button for LBW.
16. Add an additional level of difficulty for folks like me who appreciate scoring 40 runs off 15 overs against McGrath & Lee in a test. This way you can please your current fans as well as lure folks like me from EA series
17. Instead of point 16 maybe you can have a slider for difficulty. 0% should be slog mode and 100% should be perfect mode. The existing 'Test' mode difficulty level should be around 60% on the slider, with current Village level at 20% and County level at 40% on the slider. I have heard they have slider difficulty setting in Madden football.
18. Career mode fast bowlers bowl too slowly. I created a fast bowler and I get a speed of 38-40 mph from the bowler, which is even slower than spinners!!!
19. Confidence bar is too volatile - a batsman can lose confidence in a matter of a few balls. This shouldn't be the case. Please take a look at the way EA have implemented confidence bar in Cricket 2005 - it takes a long time to build confidence but you don't lose it either in a few balls. Also, confidence doesn't affect batsman quite a lot - again EA seems to have implemented it in a slightly better way.
20. Currently some of the shots in the game are quite unrealistic. E.g., you can drive a spinner over 3rd man for a 6!!! I have never seen this happen in real cricket. In fact major scoring areas on this game seem to be 3rd man and fine leg whereas in the game the main scoring areas are 'V' (arc between wide mid on and wide mid off), cover and mid wickt. 3rd man and fine leg usually get you singles or 4s through edges or fine glides & glances. Also, you can easily hit 6 over 3rd man & fine leg whereas in the real game, most of the sixers are hit in the V or midwicket region. Please look at a few cricket games to ensure that scoring is easier in the normal scoring regions rather than 3rd man or fine leg.
Bottom line is make batting more realistic & challenging, add more shots and enhance AI (while taking singles and chasing in odis) and you will have one great game. Hope someone at codemasters does something about it. In fact Brian Lara version that came out on Sega Mega Drive in mid 90s was a cracker and I wish you guys can build off that game.
