I downloaded the demo today hoping that BLC would be a game that would meet my expectations which are not in any way too demanding.
Firstly I would like to talk about the graphics, I am never big on graphics, but I appreciate them as much as a normal user. BLC's graphics are solid, sure they are a bit cartoonish but they did exceed my expectations. Without a doubt the most satisfying part of the game were the animations and just the ability of the game overall to run really smoothly unlike Cricket 05. I dont have a strong machine by any stretch but BLC ran as smooth as anything.
Let's talk about the main part of any game, and thats the gameply. I dont mean to offend any hardcore BLC fan's but BLC has not come close to meeting my expectations. The original BLC was a incredible achievment at that time and this current one fails to even match EA's Cricket 05.
I was reading some posts on this board argueing the fact that the lack of batting control with out the inclusion of Front/back foot shot selection and advanced shot is not a worry because of the stellar gameplay. I really tend to disagree in this regard, BLC has fallen a great deal jsut because of not implementing these absolutely essential features. Being able to use the front and backfoot are so vital even in real life cricket, the movement and correct use of the feet is what the coaches focus the most on. How could codemasters have not included such an important feature, A great deal of batting control has been taking away. I mean I was batting and the batsmen were playing front foot shots so short of a length deliveries!!!!! thats jsut ridicoulous, I would much have prefered to rock back ont he back foot.
This problem is increased by the non inclusion of the advanced shot!!!! This feature becomes even more important if back/front foot options are not included. I mean if a bowler is consistently bowling a good lenght, its very ahrd to put them away, you have to either take a huge risk or you come down the track to make it a half volley or distrub the bowlers lenght. That just cannot be done in BLC, But BLC makes up for that by allowing you to play good lenght deliveries with ease!!!! but thats not realistic!. Overall the lack of control on batting just forced me to dislike this game.
I will be honest, the batting in this game was like bowling in cricket 04. Just too limited.
I dont understand how anyone of you would say that exlcusion of such important features is not a draw back.
I dont even want to talk about the autoplay.
What did impress me although was the bowling, it was much more fun to ball in BLC then to bat, the bowling actions for spinners were great, but the bowling action for fast bowlers is jsut too dull, it has no feel of power, you get that feeling of someone bowling in slow motion especially because of the loop the ball has.
There was swing in the game but a bit too much, and the batsmen were easily able to play the swing which was rather odd. I felt it was fun to bowl spin more then anything because of good folwing actions especially the leg spin action.
From the first prevewi videos what I was really worreid about was the lack of bowling actions! It is so odd to see a Glen Mcgrath and a Shoaib Akhtar bowling with the same dull action, it completely takes away the realism. All the codemasters really had to do was capture a few more still actions of other bowlers, that would have been a HUGE step from before and would have given BLC a major advantage over EA's Cricket 05.
Overall the game seems fun to play but it just is too unrealistic for me to take it as a proper cricket game because its not. Codemasters should focus more on the gameplay aspects of the game before focusing on additional features such as hawkeye which was a great addition but other things could have been addressed instead of.
I am not a fan of EA, There games should have been at another level provided the state of thier company compared to codemasters. EA, cricket 2005 has just taken a graphical step forward, but I would pick EA's cricket 05 over BLC just because of the 2 features that BLC didnt implement, the back/front foot option and advance down the pitch. I can not emphasize enough how important these features are. It would not have taken that much for codemasters to add them.
Firstly I would like to talk about the graphics, I am never big on graphics, but I appreciate them as much as a normal user. BLC's graphics are solid, sure they are a bit cartoonish but they did exceed my expectations. Without a doubt the most satisfying part of the game were the animations and just the ability of the game overall to run really smoothly unlike Cricket 05. I dont have a strong machine by any stretch but BLC ran as smooth as anything.
Let's talk about the main part of any game, and thats the gameply. I dont mean to offend any hardcore BLC fan's but BLC has not come close to meeting my expectations. The original BLC was a incredible achievment at that time and this current one fails to even match EA's Cricket 05.
I was reading some posts on this board argueing the fact that the lack of batting control with out the inclusion of Front/back foot shot selection and advanced shot is not a worry because of the stellar gameplay. I really tend to disagree in this regard, BLC has fallen a great deal jsut because of not implementing these absolutely essential features. Being able to use the front and backfoot are so vital even in real life cricket, the movement and correct use of the feet is what the coaches focus the most on. How could codemasters have not included such an important feature, A great deal of batting control has been taking away. I mean I was batting and the batsmen were playing front foot shots so short of a length deliveries!!!!! thats jsut ridicoulous, I would much have prefered to rock back ont he back foot.
This problem is increased by the non inclusion of the advanced shot!!!! This feature becomes even more important if back/front foot options are not included. I mean if a bowler is consistently bowling a good lenght, its very ahrd to put them away, you have to either take a huge risk or you come down the track to make it a half volley or distrub the bowlers lenght. That just cannot be done in BLC, But BLC makes up for that by allowing you to play good lenght deliveries with ease!!!! but thats not realistic!. Overall the lack of control on batting just forced me to dislike this game.
I will be honest, the batting in this game was like bowling in cricket 04. Just too limited.
I dont understand how anyone of you would say that exlcusion of such important features is not a draw back.
I dont even want to talk about the autoplay.
What did impress me although was the bowling, it was much more fun to ball in BLC then to bat, the bowling actions for spinners were great, but the bowling action for fast bowlers is jsut too dull, it has no feel of power, you get that feeling of someone bowling in slow motion especially because of the loop the ball has.
There was swing in the game but a bit too much, and the batsmen were easily able to play the swing which was rather odd. I felt it was fun to bowl spin more then anything because of good folwing actions especially the leg spin action.
From the first prevewi videos what I was really worreid about was the lack of bowling actions! It is so odd to see a Glen Mcgrath and a Shoaib Akhtar bowling with the same dull action, it completely takes away the realism. All the codemasters really had to do was capture a few more still actions of other bowlers, that would have been a HUGE step from before and would have given BLC a major advantage over EA's Cricket 05.
Overall the game seems fun to play but it just is too unrealistic for me to take it as a proper cricket game because its not. Codemasters should focus more on the gameplay aspects of the game before focusing on additional features such as hawkeye which was a great addition but other things could have been addressed instead of.
I am not a fan of EA, There games should have been at another level provided the state of thier company compared to codemasters. EA, cricket 2005 has just taken a graphical step forward, but I would pick EA's cricket 05 over BLC just because of the 2 features that BLC didnt implement, the back/front foot option and advance down the pitch. I can not emphasize enough how important these features are. It would not have taken that much for codemasters to add them.
) but did beat the batsman's bat a few times.
