Brian Lara / Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2005 - Media Releases

Note: – The game is being released as Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2005 in Australia/New Zealand and as Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 in the rest of the world.

1st July 2005

Warm up for the game of the summer – PC demo of Brian Lara International Cricket now available!

Set to be the official game of the summer, it’s time to pad up and practice your spin drives and googlies with the PC demo of Brian Lara International Cricket, now available for download.

Step up to the crease playing as England, Australia or the West Indies in a one-day warm-up of six overs played at world famous cricketing venue The Oval. Test your skills and try smashing the ball to all parts of the boundary like world-record holding batsman Brian Lara, or see if you can beat the Aussies again!

The demo is available in two download sizes. The full demo comes complete with atmospheric commentary from David Gower, Tony Greig, Jonathan Agnew, Ian Bishop, and Bill Lawry. Alternatively a 350Mb demo without commentary is also available.

In the full game you’ll be playing as some the most powerful international cricket professionals from every team in the ICC Champions Trophy and ICC Cricket World Cup 2003. The top-level batsmen all have their own signature shots featured in the game: including the stylish one-knee cover drive, the risky but hugely effective hook from outside off stump and Lara’s own signature pull shot, which continues to plunder runs from the world’s greatest bowlers.

As the game that gives everyone the chance to be the best in international cricket, Brian Lara International Cricket will hit you for six when it’s published on Thursday 21st July – the first day of the hugely anticipated Test Ashes series – by Codemasters for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox and PC.

14th June 2005

With England giving its old Australian enemy an almighty thrashing last night in the UK’s first ever international Twenty20 cricket match, you’ll soon be able to try and better the team’s incredible 100-win score in Brian Lara International Cricket, coming July 21st to PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

A quick 20-over slog match is just one of the many cricket tournaments you can create in the game and, today, Codemasters reveals the complete box-busting line up of game modes featuring in Brian Lara International Cricket.

Representing a complete compendium of cricket competitions, the game includes Exhibition, Tournament, Challenge, and Coaching play modes in addition to Career Player, Customise and The Pavilion.

Thanks to a licence from the International Cricket Council (ICC), the game includes the opportunity to play as the stars of the ICC’s world famous tournaments, in the ICC Cricket World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy.

Making it the most complete edition in the best-selling series, Brian Lara International Cricket’s seven game modes delivers superb single-player and multi-player action.

Exhibition (One-Day International, Test Match, Double Wicket):

Step up to the crease and choose to play in a One-Day International offering a vibrant quick fix of cricket. You can select how many overs are played, up to a maximum of 50, meaning you can create a 20:20 slog fest too. Alternatively, immerse yourself in the classic atmosphere of Test Match, with a 5-day Test in all 10 test-playing nations. Also in Exhibition is Double Wicket providing a very accessible and customisable game with two cricketers on each side.

Tournament (ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, World Tour, World XI Series, Double Wicket Tournament):

Time to get serious and compete in the ICC’s official tournaments. Meet the best in the world in the ICC Cricket World Cup, featuring 14 limited-overs national teams, or take part in the ICC Champions Trophy with all the One-Day International nations in a concentrated round-robin competition. The Tournament mode also offers World Tour, where you take your team on a world tour playing Test matches and One-Day Internationals across the globe. Then there’s the World XI Series, featuring customised teams from around the world including Asian, African, Northern & Southern Hemisphere XIs and, ultimately, the World XI. Finally, there’s a Double Wicket Tournament for up to 16 players to compete in short snappy cricket matches.

Challenge (Classic Matches, World XI Challenge, Classic XI Challenge):

When you reckon you’re the best, the Challenge mode is where you can really show off. The Classic Match mode delivers 10 scenarios where you take over a genuine historic match at a critical point and see if you can pull off, or better, the same amazing cricketing feats as your real-life counterparts. There’s also the World XI Challenge, which has you playing as every international team versus the world’s best XI, and the Classic XI Challenge for you to pit your selected World XI against history’s greatest players in the ultimate cricketing test!

Coaching:

To help you perfect your skills, Coaching offers The Nets, a comprehensive training facility for bowling and batting. Having trouble performing a square cut? Select a fast bowler to only bowl short and wide outside the off stump and in no time you will be launching exquisitely timed square cuts to the boundary in crucial fixtures.

Career Player:

Create your own Career Player to represent your nation in every available mode. You can select real licensed kit manufacturers: including Slazenger, Kookaburra, Duncan Fearnley. You can even set your player’s specialist skills, be it as a batsman, bowler or all-rounder, and determine if your player needs to have sun-cream applied! Through performing well, you can earn stat points to improve your player’s abilities.

Customise:

Using the Custom Squad option, build your dream XI from all the players featured. You can even design your own tournaments and leagues using the Custom League or Cup mode.

The Pavilion:

The Pavilion mode is somewhere to relax after a day at the crease. Here your achievements on the field unlocks classic players and photography of historic cricketing moments. The Records show off hundreds of One-Day, Fielding, Batting, Bowling, and Team records. Finally, there are three Trophy cabinets to fill with silverware, including the ICC Cricket World Cup and ICC Champion’s Trophy!

With more than enough content to fill your entire summer with great cricketing moments, Brian Lara International Cricket will hit you for six when it’s published on Thursday 21st July – the first day of the hugely anticipated Ashes series between England and Australia- for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.

12th May 2005

The ball’s hurtling towards you at 95mph, hit it for six and you’re a hero, miss it and you’re history… In Brian Lara International Cricket your every move is captured and analysed using innovative television presentation techniques.

Coming this July to PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, you can catch the action in the first video.

A key innovation is the incorporation of Hawk-Eye, the cutting-edge sports tracking and analysis graphics system, as used by Channel 4 and Sky Sports in their televised cricket coverage. Brian Lara International Cricket will be the first video game to make use of Hawk-Eye, incorporated into the game under license from its creators, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd.

Hawk-Eye uses sophisticated image technologies to aggregate, replay, and analyse ball and player movement to improve LBW decisions and compare bowlers’ speed, swing, line and length. Hawk-Eye monitors and analyses your bowling accuracy throughout an over, showing the path of each delivery, where it pitches, and, most controversially, is used to see whether the umpire’s LBW decision was the right call.

Additionally Brian Lara International Cricket makes use of the Third Umpire decision aid. This comes into play when a line decision for run outs are too close to call by the umpire alone.

From the most modern technologies of Hawk-Eye, Brian Lara International Cricket takes players back in time to compete in Classic Matches from history, played out in black-and-white newsreel-style presentation.

The Classic Matches mode has you joining in a genuine historic match – such as the Test Match of 1882, which led to the creation of the Ashes – at a critical point. Can you pull off the same amazing cricketing feats as the greatest cricketers from times past, or even improve on their performance?

Back in the modern-day, the televisual presentation extends to a ‘picture-in-picture’ display. When you’ve timed the ball to perfection and sent it flying across the outfield, the main screen shows the fielders chasing after the ball, while the inset picture-in-picture shows the batsmen belting between the wickets, racking up the runs.

There are also glorious action replays of boundaries being hit, batting milestones being reached, aggression between batsman and bowler, wickets falling, even the stump-cam blacking out when ball hits the stumps! And it wouldn’t be cricket without the ubiquitous animated ducks waddling on-screen when players have been dismissed without scoring.

And for the ultimate in TV presentation, Brian Lara International Cricket brings together the voices of cricket, including David Gower, Tony Greig, Jonathan Agnew, Ian Bishop, and Bill Lawry, to form the biggest commentary team ever featured in any cricket game.

As the game that gives everyone the chance to be the best in international cricket, Brian Lara International Cricket will hit you for six this July when it’s published by Codemasters for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Prepare to don your cricket whites with the new video now available online.

15th March 2005

Designed as the ultimate hit and run experience, Brian Lara International Cricket will come packed with official content thanks to a licence from the International Cricket Council (ICC), the governing body for international cricket, Codemasters announced today.

As an iconic sports gaming brand, Brian Lara International Cricket returns to this summer for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC and the ICC endorsement brings the organisation’s world famous tournaments to the title.

You’ll be able to step up to the crease and compete with the professionals in cricket’s most challenging tournaments including the ICC Cricket World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy.

Featuring all the official ICC One-Day International teams, with 16 players per squad, and stadia from around the world, including The Oval, Newlands, and Edgbaston, Brian Lara International Cricket will be a truly authentic experience.

The ICC deal also brings authentic strips and real name players with detailed facial likenesses to the game. So, in addition to Brian Lara himself, you’ll be facing world-class bouncers from the world’s greatest bowlers, including Wasim Akram, GD McGrath or Andrew Flintoff or trying to send the bails flying from cricket’s best batsmen such as SR Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, or Andrew Strauss!

Brian Lara International Cricket will capture all the exciting, athletic, skilful and technical elements of the sport in the only cricket game designed to make batting, bowling and fielding equally enthralling to play. Brian Lara International Cricket will hit you for six this summer when it’s published by Codemasters for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.

3rd February 2005

Ricky Ponting International Cricket – the perfect all-rounder takes to the pitch!

As the ultimate hit and run experience, Ricky Ponting International Cricket will capture all the exciting, athletic, skilful and technical elements of the sport.

In a tense battle between batting and bowling, its your chance to defend the honour of your chosen country in gripping One-Day Internationals, atmospheric Test Matches, fast Double Wicket games, challenging tournaments and even historic clashes – including the Test Match of 1882, which led to the creation of the Ashes!

In addition to the world’s best cricket players and stadia from around the world, Ricky Ponting International Cricket also includes a classic squad featuring some of the greatest names from cricket history.

If you want to get your skills up to international standards, there are Practice Nets to get in shape and then, when you’re ready to play alongside the world’s best, the full team and player editing lets you pick the squad.

Get out on the pitch and experience the fluid, dynamic gameplay mechanics that make batting, bowling and fielding equally enthralling to play. You’ll be bowling bouncers and hitting sixes in no time if you can take the deliveries from the professionals.

If you’re feeling really competitive, there’s multiplayer action for up to four players, with 2 players per team. Players can join the team at any time during a match, providing perfect drop in or drop out play – perfect if you’re engaged in a 5-day Test!

Visually reflecting the contemporary style of televised cricket, the game will also offer intelligent commentary from some of the biggest and recognisable names in cricket, including Tony Greig, Bill Lawry and more!

Ricky Ponting International Cricket will deliver all the atmosphere and excitement of major international cricket, in One Day, Tests and Tournaments, and have the perfect balance of gripping gameplay whether batting, bowling or fielding.

Australian team captain Ricky Ponting commented, “Codemasters has done a great job in capturing the essence of cricket previously and Ricky Ponting International Cricket will bring the strategy and excitement of cricket to a new audience.”

3rd February 2005

Brian Lara International Cricket – the perfect all-rounder takes to the pitch this summer!

He’s back in to bat! Brian Lara, one of cricket’s greatest ever players and one of video gaming’s biggest sports icons, returns to game screens this summer in Brian Lara International Cricket for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.

Bringing its heritage of being the definitive cricket game series, Brian Lara International Cricket comes ten years after Codemasters launched the original Brian Lara game and over five years since the series appeared on any platform.

As the ultimate hit and run experience, Brian Lara International Cricket will capture all the exciting, athletic, skilful and technical elements of the sport.

In addition to the world’s best cricket players and stadia from around the world, Brian Lara International Cricket also includes a classic squad featuring some of the greatest names from cricket history.

Essential for fans of the sport, and a cracking multiplayer game in its own right, Brian Lara International Cricket will bowl you over this summer when it’s published by Codemasters for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.

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