Hawk-Eye in Brian Lara

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 May, 2005

New shots, trailer, details.

Codemasters has revealed a few more details about its forthcoming cricket title Brian Lara International Cricket, which is due out on PS2, Xbox and PC this July.

As well as releasing new screenshots and a trailer (the latter available through Codies' website), the publisher has drawn attention to the incorporation of Hawk-Eye and a third umpire.

Hawk-Eye is of course the tracking and analysis graphics system you may have seen on Channel 4 and Sky Sports' cricket coverage, in between giggling at that C4 presenter bloke's bizarrely shiny bonce, and Brian Lara will be the first game to use it under license.

The technology aggregates, replays and analyses ball and player movement to improve Leg-Before-Wicket (LBW) decisions, compare bowlers' speed, swing, line and length. It monitors and analyses this data and shows the path of each delivery, where it pitches, and whether the umpire's decision was the right call.

Codies also spoke of the inclusion of a third umpire decision aid, which comes into play when a run-out is too close to call.

The inclusion of Hawk-Eye and the third ump' paint the picture of a game that not only simulates the game of cricket, but simulates the nail-biting aspects to within a certain margin of error.

If that's the case, then it's an interesting approach and we'll be interested to see how it pans out. It could be divisive, but it's certainly gutsy, and it's certainly tapping into the heart of why cricket's so popular.

Not that these two elements are going to be alone in doing that. The game will also feature classic scenarios, picture-in-picture presentation (showing the ball going flying with an insert demonstrating the batsmen legging it between the wickets), loads of replay angles (including our favourite, stump-cam) and silly little duckies marching across the screen when someone's out for nought.

As a closet cricket fan (albeit only a fair-weather one - ha!), yours truly rather likes the sound of it. We'll let you know more about Brian's thwacking odyssey closer to its release.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (4) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • afray #1 7 years ago

    All of those features (bar Hawkeye) were in the original BLC. Not that I mind -- it was great -- but some innovation would be nice. Hows abouts skipping down the wicket at a spinner? Or more varied stats?

  • Decoded #2 7 years ago

    I'm sure you could advance down the wicket in the original. Or it could have been EA's effort, can't remember.

    But it all sounds rather lovely, except for the July release date.

  • Ginger #3 7 years ago

    Hawkeye's great - originally developed by the company I work for :)

  • Stickman #4 7 years ago

    It was EA's game you could come down the wicket for. I'm excited about this game, the only thing I want is for them to make sure it's not another 'the ball pitched there so play this shot' effort. If I'm playing a one-day game and need 10 to win from the last over, and the AI decides to bowl perfect yorkers for 6 balls, I want to be able to do something about it, not have to defend or get bowled!