If you own Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 it'd be best to avoid this latest offering from the Codemasters team.
Some good news to share with you is that the development team of the game have looked at their previous offering and have made some pretty positive changes in theory. However in practise some of these changes have somewhat ruined the fluid gmeplay associated with BLIC 2005.
Fielding is the main problem now with slip fielding no longer being perfromed automatically by the computer. When the batsman edges a catch to slip the game speed slows down quite dramatically and the catching cursor appears on screen, it's now up to you as to whether or not you take the catch; what you're liable to find is that the catch will go down as it seems nigh on impossible for the fielder to hang onto the ball.
Although conversely the ability of your wicket keeper to stump an opponent is a positive change but unfortunately the amount of time it takes the keeper to take the ball and knock off the bails is laughable and again does nothing to benefit the generally fluid gameplay.
Batting has changed for the better with the introduction of sweep shots and reverse sweeps and even more impressively the opportunity to charge down the crease at the bowler and cream the ball for six. In order to be able to use these shots your batsman must be at 100% confidence. But be wary of overly playing these shots as anything mistimed will land on a fielder or when charging down the wicket you risk having yourself stumped.
Bowling is as it was pretty much but I'd say there is an increased chance of picking up edges off the bat. I could of course be imagining this.
The Cricket World Cup 2007 is fully licensed in this game and features all the teams, all the kits and all the stadia as well as all the players and alleged player likenesses. To be fair the likenesses are much improved on BLIC 2005 but are still somewhat short of proper player likenesses.
As in BLIC2005 correct player names only appear in the licensed competitions World Cup and Champions Trophy. M Hayder as opposed to M Hayden and A Flantiff as opposed to A Flintoff amongst others make up the players in the exhibition modes.
Commentary again is excellent and all of the other televisual aids such as hawk eye and pitch maps make for thouroughly enjoyable presentation of the game. Codemasters and Swordfish should be commended on this. Even more impressive than the presentation though is the training mode. If your new to cricket then I'd thoroughly recommend you start here. Learn your batting and bowling with the aid of hints and tips from the commentary team and learn your leg byes from your googly's with the in game glossary.
Overall the game is fairly impressive but if I'm being honest it isn't as good a game as BLIC2005. If you have the original title then the only benefit to owning this title is the updated World Cup squads, stadia etc but temper that with the fact that the gameplay quality has been somewhat diminished. As a newcomer to Lara Cricket I'd recommend picking up a bargain copy of 2005 over purchasing this but I can certainly see gamers getting plenty of hours gameplay from this title too.
Another good effort from Codemasters but there is still a little missing.