A Review of C2005 on PS2 for anyone thinking of buying it...

Scots_Windies

School Cricketer
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Feb 24, 2005
Location
Glasgow
Online Cricket Games Owned
First of all I'd like to state I was a fan of C2004 and played it for hours on end so I wasn't going into this game thinking it was going to be terrible or wanting EA to fail, but I was quite dissapointed by the result...

The graphics are the one major improvement but I'm sure everyone has already noticed so I'd prefer to focus on gameplay, as that in my opinion is the most important part to any game.

Batting

Negatives:
Batting is far too similar to C2004 with many shots playing the same, albeit looking more smooth. Many shots will go in the exact same place rather than a yard or two either way. The straight drive (front or back foot) seems impossible to score many runs of as it always seems to go to the bowler or mid on/off. Tailender's still appear as accomplished batsmen and I've hit a couple of lovely shots with Andy Caddick of all people. To be honest I haven't been enjoying batting that much as it feels like I'm still playing C2004 which I eventually tired of.

Positives:
Edges seem to be more prominent in this game which is an improvement and cutting the ball onto your stumps (although annoying in terms of your score) is nice to see.

Too sum up, in terms of attacking batting C2005 has made no real improvement but it has increased the amount of more realistic ways it can get you out.

Bowling

I always used to autoplay bowling on C2004 because it was pretty naff but C2005 has introduced some good new ideas and I actually quite enjoy bowling. In Twenty20's for example, your spinner's can be lethal weapons with many catches on the boundary,especially if you mix and match your deliveries. Special deliveries are also a good invention, and that fact that special deliveries are specific to the bowler is refreshing. All in all bowling is the most improved part of the game.

General Comments:

- When a no ball is bowled the batting team is given two runs which is just mind boggling how such an amateur mistake could have been made.
- The free-hit rule looks stupid, firstly your not told you have one, then if your caught out and the fielding team celebrates then the batsman who jus got out walks out to the crease and continues where he left off. strange??
- Create-a-player mode is good although BLC's sounds a lot more exciting as you can't develop this player or take him through a career mode.
- Apart from Twenty20 (which has been executed very poorly) there are no new game modes such as a Test Championship or Career Mode.
- The tracking of a players form and average throughout tournaments is a nice addition but then again a long overdue one.
- I've turned commentary off because it's too painful to listen to.
- 3rd umpire replays are quite strange and not really helpful, also if you look at the score in the top corner it will show you whether the player is out before actually going to the 3rd umpire
- The byes bug appears to be gone
- The computer does bowl no balls
- Finally the AI seems to be one of the major improvements in batting and bowling as the bowlers will bowl good line and lengths while the batsman alter approaches in different situations.

Conclusion:

To be honest I feel like I've bought the same game I bought last year apart from some small differences and the fact that Andrew Flintoff was on the cover instead of Michael Vaughn. I'm really hoping BLIC delivers the goods because this game might have me playing it for a week or two at best :(

Anyhoo, hope that helps anyone sitting on the fence over whether to buy it

Cheers,
Mark
 
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Thansk for the excellent review. I'm still not sure whether I've made the right decision in not buying C2k5 but you've made some important points.
Lack of variety on shots was one of my biggest problems with Cricket2004, I hated how shots would always go in exactly the same place. I can't believe they've left out career mode as well after nearly implementing it in C2k4. That's definitely one area where BLIC will excel. Overall the game sounds rushed but still an improvement on C2k4.
 
Scots_Windies said:
.

General Comments:

- When a no ball is bowled the batting team is given two runs which is just mind boggling how such an amateur mistake could have been made.

In county championship cricket and county one day cricket a no ball = 2 runs :)
 
Jon S said:
No it doesn't.....

It only used to be one. But they changed it about 4 years ago to encourage the bowlers to not overstep and to get the overs in quicker.
 
Sureshot said:
It only used to be one. But they changed it about 4 years ago to encourage the bowlers to not overstep and to get the overs in quicker.

This is typical ECB, making me look stupid :p
 
Jon S said:
This is typical ECB, making me look stupid :p
...and me :(

although i'm sure I saw it in an international match but ah well :rolleyes:

And cheers barmyarmy, your right to keep your money in your pocket on this one - I'm thinking of trading it in when BLIC comes out to save some money.
 
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Scots_Windies said:
...and me :(

although i'm sure I saw it in an international match but ah well :rolleyes:

And cheers barmyarmy, your right to keep your money in your pocket on this one - I'm thinking of trading it in when BLIC comes out to save some money.
I think you probably saw it in the Aus-Eng Twenty20 match, the same rules as county cricket apply in any Twenty20, international or domestic.
 
Without exception, C2005 for the PS2, (in Britain did the game box feature Freddie Flintoff?) was the worse cricket game that I attempted to play. Batting was just about impossible. Just couldn't get the ball to the boundary...slog shots were caught about 8 times out of 10..running between the wickets was slow and laborious..bowling, well I didn't bowl as I thought that I wasn't going to spend hours bowling when my batting would be over in around 20 minutes. Honestly, I did try everything batting wise. Different timings..different shot choice..nudging singles as the ball ran towards a fielder..hoiking ofside shots onside..even tried the old "press the pause button as fielder goes to catch/field the ball" to get cheap runs but then though that It was such a cheap trick to have to do and just binned the game. The negative feelings that this game gave me are still locked in my psyche. Resurfacing when a new cricket game is brought out.
 
Hold on......my opinion of this game has changed somewhat. I bought a PS2 C2005 game for ?1 just for the koudos of having it. Then I read online somewhere that playing the longer versions of matches give better AI scoring rates and therefore better matches. My usual scores in 10 over matches were around 6 all out. So I play many daft games just batting, batting, batting...what shots score and what shots don't...what shots give wickets.
Now...I play 50 overs games....The AI typically scores at 2 an over....which leaves me to just play the bad balls to score smmit like 200 runs in 50 overs.
 
^^ Plz c2k5 is the best ever release of EA cricket series which without modding is tough enough to enjoy and play for generations...... :yes

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batting is better than c2k7 where we can hit six on every ball even on hard......
 

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