BLCGO BLIC07 Interview

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Has the career mode feature been upgraded from what we saw in the career mode in Brian Lara International Cricket 2005? If so can you give us any insights into what we might see?

In BLIC07 the old Career Player mode has been stripped out and replaced with a brand new Custom Player section. This new mode will allow gamers to create up to 16 individually skilled cricketers.

This means that the gamer will be able to create, and play as, entire teams of Custom Players. We think this adds an entirely new dimension to the game, as it allows gamers to pit a team of their own making against World Class teams such as Australia or India straight away.

Custom Players are created using a new points allocation system – it’s a massive improvement over the old Career Player system seen in the last game. Batsmen will now be able to allocate points to improve a batsman’s timing, power, precision and control whilst bowlers will be able to specialise in skills like movement off the pitch or speed.

Is there going to be a Dive button while running between the wickets?

No dive button this time, but the game will automatically dive for you’re trying to grab a quick single and it’s tight!

Still on the running between the wickets, will the batsmen have different speeds? I guess that also asks the question, will players have different speeds in the outfield?

Yes – there will be different speeds between the batsmen. The Wisden stats that we licence for use in the game are much more in-depth this time – so you’ll be able to tell the difference in speed both in the in-field and in the outfield easily.

Now we know that there is to be online play, any insights on this new feature?

It’s great to see online making an appearance in a cricket game. We’ll make a big splash on online play in the near future so watch out for this, but for now I can say that on PC there’s PvP and Gamespy Arcade action available – with online tournaments available for up to 16 teams. And then we’ll have similar tournaments on Xbox 360 Live as well along with PvP games. So grab 15 of your mates and you could play a World Cup competition online if you wanted!

We know that the squads will be based on the world cup squads but what on the Test players eg. Justin Langer. Will he and others in this instance be implemented into the game?

It’s great that we have the ICC- licensed names in the two main modes – World Cup and Champions Trophy - and also in playing warm-up/exhibition ODIs. Test players will have spoofed names as before, but you’ll still be able to tell which player is Justin Langer (if he’s included of course!).

Still on the Squads, any idea on how many players per squad?

At present it’s looking like it’s be exactly the same numbers as each squad announces for the World Cup, but if there’s space (especially in the PS2 version, that’s bursting at the seams at the moment!) then we’ll try and include more as we know the community wants more and more players available in the game.

Some people are wondering about heath/stamina meters, will we be seeing these in the game?

The game doesn’t utilise health and stamina meters but it’s definitely a feature we want to include - if we can’t find time to include it this time we’ll certainly look to include it in future games. We’ve got the extra meters in this version for both batsmen this time though, which will add to the tactical and strategic nature of the game immensely.

Will we see any new tournaments/challenges (eg. classics matches) in the game?

Classic matches aren’t included this time, but instead we’ve implemented other areas that’ll be interesting to play through – especially a full nets/training mode including over 20 training tutorials to help both batting and bowling. And most people will go straight to the online mode!

We have been told that there is now improved batting with running up the wicket, sweep shots and subtle edges so can you give any insights on the improved batting to be implemented in the game?

Yes, the batting is nearly fully implemented now and there’s a better degree of edges in there, along with some lovely looking sweep and reverse sweep shots along with advancing down wicket. We’ve worked hard on getting more, and better shots and features in for the batting.

There’s also the automatic ability to leave the ball, bowler’s end run outs, manual slips and close-field catches, edges, nicks and much more.

For edges, the meter that appears as you strike the ball has been improved so you can be more accurate in where on the bat the ball hits, so you can be more confident in hitting the ball (as long as the bowler doesn’t fox you of course!).

Also we have heard that the bowling has improved too with the features of reverse swing and improved delivery types, can you give any insights there as well?

Yes, we’ve worked on the bowling as well. The standard was set with the last game, which I thought had an excellent bowling mechanic - we felt it was really well implemented in the last game but we thought we’d add even more for this version.

Bowling has been upgraded to allow for an improved set of delivery types, thanks to changes in the way the ball swings in the air and reacts off the pitch, so there’s a larger variation of spinning deliveries, pace bowling and even reverse swing. And in response to feedback from the community, the speed of deliveries has been more accurately mapped to produce a much more realistic experience.

And last of all, if you were neutral in who would win the ashes, who do you think will win?

My head says Australia, my heart obviously says England. My head will be right this time sadly!

Thank You!

BLCGO has recently interviewed Codemasters on Brian Lara International Cricket 2007.