First Reviews, new screenshots and video.

[Ste]

The first two reviews of Cricket 2005 have appeared in the Official XBox and PS2 magazines in the UK. The game was given a score of 6.7/10 by the Xbox magazine and 7/10 by the PS2 magazine.

PS2 Magazine summarised :

"Graphics – 07 – Decent mainly, but arse picture in picture
Sounds – 07 – Slightly repetitive, but some entertainment
Gameplay – 07 – Deep tactics, unresponsive controls
Lifespan – 07 – One match could easily last two hours
Overall – 7/10 – Cricket 2005 is not for casual, half hour sessions, its also sodding difficult. But persevere and you’ll find it’s a well judged simulation"



While the Official Xbox Magazine gave a list of the positive and negative points from the game:

"+ Excellent presentation throughout with great TV-style replays and the reassuring aussie drawl of Richie Benaud backing things up.
+ Amazing comprehensive line-up of teams and competitions on offer, with full options to edit details and add new players.
+ The training nets offer good advice for the cricket novice, although the lack of a Cricket 101 mode is a disappointing oversight

- The timing required for the batting to too far on the simulation side of things for casual gamers. It should have been much more forgiving
- The lack of live play is a real missed opportunity. Shouldn’t this come as standard in all EA Sports games theses day

The Verdict

Complete cricket package that suffers from a very demanding batting system. The cricketing hardcore should like it. 6.7/10"

Thanks to forum member Graham1 you can read the full reviews in our Reviews section which can be accessed from the main menu on the left of the screen or by clicking here
All the images from the reviews including the first images of the game showing English county sides can be viewed in our Screenshots Gallery.

A new video of Cricket 2005 has also been released by the Aussie Xbox Website. It was taken using a video camcorder of a showing of a player v player demonstration of Cricket 2005 at a special EA Play event held on Tuesday (14th June) in Sydney.

A ODI match between Australia and Canada is shown in the 4 minute video with Canada batting. You view the video in our Media gallery in 3 formats, original 35MB WMV version, a compressed 8MB WMV version or compress 3MB lower quality Real Player version.

[ZoraxDoom]

Nice screens. Did you scan them?

Watching the video now

Well, the Canadian lineup is still old...

Video sucks, flat out(not quality wise however )

[m_vaughan]

Screens are amazing. The Review also seems to be good.

The quality of the video does indeed , but it was expected as it was taken off a camcorder.

Overall. So far so good.

[ZoraxDoom]

Originally Posted by m_vaughan

Screens are amazing. The Review also seems to be good.

The quality of the video does indeed , but it was expected as it was taken off a camcorder.

Overall. So far so good.

I meant that the gameplay, graphics, lineups, etc. of C2K5 suck, not quality.

[andrew_nixon]

Review copy and it still has white sightscreens in ODIs. Oh dear.

[taxial]

Looks fantastic. Too bad the people playing it don't really seem to know what they are doing ( no ball almost every delivery ) I can't wait to get one off the shelf to call my own.


(~in regards to the shaky Cam video~)

[fanirama]

Looks superb.
The reviewer is funny. Probably someone entirely new to cricket. Cricket 101 mode missing. Hahahaha.
Some of the captions of the screenshots are funny too. For the wicketkeeper -- "when you gotta go, you gotta go". LOL.

Some positive things -- they said its for the Cricketing hardcore. Looks like many people here are gonna be pleased to hear that.

Looking good. :-)
Can't wait for EA cricket 2005 now.

[skater]

Looks good but rusty.
I find the reviews quite detailed. They even tell you tips on how to get wickets. The caption "Tubby umpires as standard" is funny. LOL.

Still looking forward to BLIC more-- I can't forgive EA for Cricket 2004.

Looking rusty. :-(
Will buy it though to review.

[Satish555]

wots cricket 101??


n by the way guys cricket 2005 is a mixture of cricket 2000 n cricket 2002.

with just graphics modied a bit. blic is new n looks much better. motion capture shots features everything.

ea can never ever produce anything new again. i give up hope on ea now. goin for blic.

[zimrahil]

All the videos so far look like Cricket 2004 but with different bowling animations


EDIT - just looked at the Aussie XBox video. Watch the very first delivery. It hits the pads, the bowler collects the ball and throws to the wicket keeper

The batsmen then set off for a suicidal run. The WK has the simple task of whipping off the bails, but for some reason decides to throw the ball to the bowlers end allowing the batsman to get home

What does that tell you about the AI ?

[fanirama]

That is perhaps because the player controlled the bownling team being Australia and chose to throw to bowlers end instead of whipping the bails off ?

[Mahesh Babu]

The game is very good
It is excellent and the video was awesome

[bhail256]

After reading the reviews , i found one very important statement in each of the magazines

PS2 - Could be worth waiting for codemasters' brian lara game to lace its pads before deciding.

XBOX - Our advice? don't rush out and buy cricket 2005 just yet, especially not on the strength of the EA logo alone. Not even if you're desperate to play a cricket game over those long summer afternoons. Wait another month and see how codemasters' brian lara international cricket shapes up in comparison, because on these impressions, it might just turn out to be the superior option.

what does this all really mean?

[zimrahil]

Originally Posted by fanirama

That is perhaps because the player controlled the bownling team being Australia and chose to throw to bowlers end instead of whipping the bails off ?

Knew I could rely on you to respond

This would be an interesting departure for EA. In 2002 and 2004 if manual fielding all you could choose was which end to throw the ball too. If your theory is correct, then not only can you choose which end to throw the ball to, you also now have the ability to determine whether to whip the bails off or throw to the other end

[crick4life]

Zim, I have decided not to trust any reviews as the ones doing the review have no idea about the game or the history of EA cricket games. The game looks slightly better than what I expected. I thought this time around there are not 11 Waqars and Haydens but each player have their own faces. As you said the video looks pretty much the same but I thought the umpire moved the lips when he said no ball so they have improved on the animations I suppose. Fieldset of course is the same. Nice to see they show the pitch type, weater et al at the begining they were all missing in cricket 2004. Anyways I am going to get a hand on the copy soon, you will know my review it wont be after just playing 2 overs for sure.