Next Generation Rugby Games (for PS3 and Xbox)

First topic message reminder :

Like London buses, you wait for ages for one and then two pop up at the same time!

I know there was a lot of chat on 606 (RIP) about Rugby games for PS3 and I thought I would bring some news about two games that have been confirmed for August 2011.

Firstly, there is Rugby Challenge, produced by Sidhe:

http://rugbychallengegame.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_Challenge

https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Blacks-Rugby-Challenge-Game/162875610443414


I think this is an update from the 'World Cup Challenge' produced just after the 2003 World Cup and may be a descendant from Jonah Lomu Rugby.

The screenshots look very impressive.

They have confirmed licences for the All Blacks, Wallabies, ITM Cup and Super 15. There has been no confirmation of whether they have any European national teams or leagues - which is a bit of a downer - but, going by the Wiki link, there seems to be an extensive editing mode.

In addition, the team behind the game seem very 'on the ball' and have opened up a fans forum asking for advice and answering any queries:

http://forums.sidheinteractive.com/forumdisplay.php?f=85

I would advise going on there and giving the details for your favourite team!


The other option is the RWC 2011 Official Game which is made by HB Studios:

http://www.rwc2011game.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RWC2011game

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_World_Cup_2011_%28video_game%29


This game is a direct descendant from Rugby 08, 06, 04, etc. - I don't know whether this is a good thing! Although they were fun games, they were very limited

I presume that this will have licences for all teams at the RWC 2011 (this is, however, disputable due to Rugby Challenge claiming to have exclusive licenses to the All Blacks, Wallabies and Super Rugby) but I am not sure about the gameplay outside of that.

I haven't seen any screenshots for this game.


So which game are people going to buy?

I'm kind of torn because HB Studios should, in theory, be able to make the best game but it remains to be seen whether this will be another rush job just to maximise sales while the RWC is on.

My only issue with Rugby Challenge at the moment is what licences they will have for Northern Hemisphere rugby.

Has anyone else got info on these games?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Having an absolute nightmare trying to get Rugby Challenge in Edinburgh just now - every store says they only brought in enough for the pre orders so they don't have any other copies!! Did they really not expect people to want to buy they game despite not pre-ordering??

Shows how little coverage rugby has in Edinburgh!

RDW it's the same in Gloucester. My copy hasn't arrived, so I thought I'd just go an buy it and return the posted version (if it ever arrives), but nowhere had it except for the reserved pre-order copies. Seems a pretty stupid oversight by these retailers.

I couldn't get one anywhere, I don't even think the spotty teen in one shop even knew what rugby was.

I e just put it on. It's good. It's different, but it's good. It's fairly realistic. Ales brew dropped his first 2 passes!!! There are loads of competitions to get stuck into and I must say that The sportsground in Connacht has had a real re-vamp. As has Rodney parade. It's good to see the dragons getting 72,5000 for a pro 12 game against Glasgow!!!
It i's arcadey, but it's fun. It could do with more realism, but it's a good start.
Just wish that the suppliers handed messed things up and that it wasn't £50 in game.

manofgwent wrote:
Just wish that the suppliers handed messed things up and that it wasn't £50 in game.

Did you really pay £50 in Game? I've bought it from them for £39.99

I got mine from Amazon and it came Thursday I got it online as my local Blockbuster said they probably would not be getting it.
Where it beats RWC is

Amount of customisation, you can pretty make up any of the NH international teams as you like ,you just replace existing players with players from the Appropriate competition.
Kicking out of hand .drop goals
The game does not conjure up magic scores from the opposition on the last play of the match so you lose
You have to actually try to find space ,work overlaps
You will get turned over if you get isolated
Lineouts are good

RWC is better at

Scrums and mauls
The commentary

Overall Rugby challenge is much better if you overlook the odd glitch which are not really game breaking anyway . The only ones ive really noticed is that the commentaters say its a penalty from a not straight lineout but its actually a scrum in the game and a fair few passes go awry through no fault of the player.

Hongkongcherry.
Yep. £49.99. Wasn't happy at all. Said they only got 1/3 of their order. I said it was a joke and walked out. Then realised I couldn't get it anywhere else so had to go back. Oops.

NEGATIVES of Rugby Challenge

1) Defensive Organisation - The opposition defences on the computer and generally pretty good, however there should be an option to choose to defend tight or more spread out. Which was an option Rugby 08 provided.

2) No set plays, which is a massive shame. That was one of the best things about Rugby 08, having four main options you could use. Such as pivot, drop fly half to the pocket, crosskick, specific full back lines...

3) The mauling is very unrealistic and slow. Everyone just seems to watch as two players have a little wrestle for about 7 seconds.

4) Lack of rights mean that you have to organise most of the international teams yourself.

5) The teams haven't been updated for the 2011/2012 season. With certain players such as Butch James still playing for Bath and Dan Ward-Smith still on Wasps rooster, despite retiring.

6) There is no option for a number 8 pickup at the back of the scrum, whilst around the fringes at rucks there is no option to carry with your forwards or create pods, to set up going forwards.

7) I personally think the lineout is poor, with no option to keep it tight and create a maul.

8) The scrum-halfs passing is poor, you have to press L1 and R1 at the same time to pass to your fly half.

9) Lack of rights for international kits is a little bit silly.

While I enjoy the game, I find the passing to be so infuriating. After a bit of tinkering, I have an team full of good passers, yet the number of hospital passes thrown behind the players is ridiculous, especially from the base of the ruck. I have the pass success rate up high aswell., yet it is very hard to get clean ball to my wingers, as someone will almost always Flip up along the line.

Second major gripe is the positioning. My scrumhalfs are only present at about 50% of rucks, and random forwards show up far too often at first receiver, while my stand off is hanging about on the wing, or has piled into the ruck while a forward waits to pass from the base. Only the back three are ever consistantly in the right areas of the pitch.

Ok I got mine at the week end and I have enjoyed it so far after just 3 matchs

Good points:
1. Its challenging, line outs, srcums and kicking are all timing based and really does make a difference.
2. Amazing amount of depth in the game which will keep you going.
3. No major glitchs so far.
4. Realistic, looks real enough.
5. The kick around mode before matchs like in fifa, its a nice touch.
6. Wipes the floor with the World Cup game
7. Great editing options and you can make competions, players and clubs.
8. One of the trophies on PS3 is "The Catt Memorial Service" "Run through a full back with Jonah Lomu" Classic

Bad points
1. No NH licenses, I would mind this if you could move players from the leagues to the national teams but you can't as a result of the licensing argeement with the Pro12 and the Top 14. This mens hours of editing if you want the proper squads. This does not applie to the Jeff though and you can pretty much tell who the main players are though so its names and some positions and stats mainly, I just got the lists of the actual squads and are using them to edit the teams.
2. Offloading is rediculous, everyone is like Sonny Bill Williams at his best and you can run the pitch just by offloading. Can be changed though in the options menu.
3. Defence is not great, tackling is poor and defenders are at 6s and 7s after 2 or 3 offloads
4. Rucks are good and competive but pick and gos are not an option except with the scrum-half. That said the scrum half is normaly not there
5. No music in menus
6. Most NH players look nothing like in real life. Flannery is blonde with flowing locks?? WTF
7. Squads out dated and poor ratings.
8. Commentry is cr@p its very patch-work like and poor.

Most can be edited and I really like the game but it could have been alot better. 7 out of 10 so far.

about the offloading, in the game settings on the main page there are sliders where you can reduce the amount of offloads.

perand25 wrote:Amount of customisation, you can pretty make up any of the NH international teams as you like ,you just replace existing players with players from the Appropriate competition.

Whenever I try to do that on the PS3 it come up with some nonsence about you can't do that due to licencing issues. Total pain in the rear.

gcBlues wrote:about the offloading, in the game settings on the main page there are sliders where you can reduce the amount of offloads.

This only applies to the computer controlled opponents, a human player may offload as many times as he likes.

But if you stop offloading this game quickly becomes very boring, as you cannot get quick enough ball off a ruck. The defense always has time to organise itself, you have to do fancy offloads to make the big breaks.

Despite the million flaws in the RWC game, it is far more fun playing a human controlled opponent than the rugby challenge game. Tried playing both games with a friend recently, and we had far more fun playing the RWC game.. The rugby challenge game is a better rugby simulation, RWC game is much more simple.. so it allows you to score those length of the field tries which to be fair we all love todo..

So in summary, while RWC is totally unrealistic its just more fun. Ive had Rugby challenge long enough to get bored of it, I think some people who've recently acquired the game will probably see my point of view in a few weeks time.

tom - to be honest as a regional fan first and formost I would have to argue with you on that. I played the SH tours and RWC on the RWC game and then put it away, after a weekend. Purely because whilst I enjoyed the game, I don't really want to play as anyone other than my team so I have no desire to do a NH tour as another nation. That is the plus of Rugby Challenge, as I am able to play as the Welsh national side in the RWC, and 6Ns, and in custom competitions, and also as the Scarlets in the Rabo, HC and custom tournaments. Which means i have not put it in the cupboard by now, as I did with RWC.

Fair enough Scarlet.

Im only talking about gameplay though, the rugby challenge game is better in every other aspect. I agree as I wanted to play as my local team too, the first thing I did was start a career with london Irish. But the player likeness's were rubbish, so I started playing a career with the Hurricanes in the Super 15 instead as player likeness and stats much better.

I think it all depends on what you like in the end, I get bored of playing the computer opponents quite quickly these days. Playing Rugby challenge online is usually always a gribbly affair with usually only one or two tries a game and the winner decided on whos the best at drop goals as penalties are pretty much non existent in this game. While RWC with all the frustration aside, at least provides lots of opportunities to Score so the scoreboard is always ticking over for both teams so usually most games are always pretty high scoring.. even though unrealistic, this is more fun.

Online is annoying because of two things -

A) It seems like nine times out of ten I'm playing againt the All Blacks or Crusaders. An option to go into for example a 6 Nations lobby or a Top14 lobby so you could play matches that involve teams from other competitions. Would be alot less tedious and more competitive. Though in one of my first games I did beat the Crusaders with the Dragons

B) Whenever I'm doing well the other player seems to go quit on me

Flanker its the same in most online games. Play FIFA online and you'll get drawn up against Real Madrid, Chelsea and Barcelona in every match.

Would agree with Stag's sentiment. Have to pick this up in the next few days.

I'm having trouble getting it, my towns game and gamestation received one copy each.

Do people think they will make another one? Judging from some people on here, game shops aren't stocking it so surely they won't run the risk of losing money again?

The more I play it the more I like it. Kicking is very important and a valuable skill to master in this game, and there is a real tactical element to the rucks. I was winning all my rucks handy then I realised I was struggling to do anything because my 10 was buried under my front row and my backline had a random assortment of forwards. The dangers of over-committing to the breakdown in this game.

I think they will as there is a demand for it but the big shops don't see past the big sports titles these days like fifa, Madden and Pro evo etc.

I hope we don't have to wait another ridiculous amount of time again for the next one.

Just played it for the first time having gone home at lunchtime to check if it had arrived, to my amazement the delivery lady arrived at the same time, so I thought I'd have a quick go before returning to work.

I don't understand what all the negative fuss is about, best rugby game I've ever played and yes I've played them all, ok it’s not perfect I’m sure, but I thought the passing was ok but then again I was Bath! and Banahan did score a try from the halfway line knocking off three tacklers in the process, again not unexpected as this is what he does, sometimes, and it was against Exeter.

Can't wait to get home and play some more.

I'm in total agreement to Bath_BTGOG. Mine finally arrived today. I've only played one game so far, but it seemed extremely realistic. Glaws beat Bath 42-0

Trying to take conversions on 'pro' seems to be my downfall!

gcBlues wrote:Trying to take conversions on 'pro' seems to be my downfall!

Thats one thing that is better about the RWC game, the place kicking. I like that your in control of the length and the accuracy. So you can have a go at a place kick 50m out in the 79th min to win the match. You cant do that in Rugby challenge.

The kicking out of hand in Rugby challenge is awesome though, I do like the slow mo.

BATH_BTGOG wrote:Just played it for the first time having gone home at lunchtime to check if it had arrived, to my amazement the delivery lady arrived at the same time, so I thought I'd have a quick go before returning to work.

I don't understand what all the negative fuss is about, best rugby game I've ever played and yes I've played them all, ok it’s not perfect I’m sure, but I thought the passing was ok but then again I was Bath! and Banahan did score a try from the halfway line knocking off three tacklers in the process, again not unexpected as this is what he does, sometimes, and it was against Exeter.

Can't wait to get home and play some more.

Once you get bored of Normal mode and giving teams 40 points to nil drubbings and you move up to hard alot of the flaws in the game really start to expose themselves. An the insane offloads and missed passes really start to grate. If your happy not being challenged and running in loads of tries you'll love this game, but in tight matches against tough opposition this game is abit weak.

Got my copy a few days ago - like it a lot. Gripes are the lack of structured moves.

Most annoying is the team and player ratings - The game is developed for the southern hemisphere, with many SH club teams being really overrated compared to some very decent european teams getting naff stats. I know they are all editable - but I see no reason why they couldnt have been fairly assigned at the game launch.

Rant over - I'm back playing as quins in the jeff and have won 6 on the bounce - happy days.

propdavid, I completely agree that it is poor that they haven't taken the effort to give this season's squads or vaguely realistic stats (I know I am bias but surely Sharples is faster than a 67 rating??). As I suffer from OCD I am going to have to edit the lot to bring it all up to true levels.

propdavid_london wrote:...
Most annoying is the team and player ratings - The game is developed for the southern hemisphere, with many SH club teams being really overrated compared to some very decent european teams getting naff stats. ...

But that's because all "SHers" "know" that the SH teams and players are better*

*Based on the last time an SXV winner played an HEC winner in the late 90's

What are the AI opponents like? Once I got the hang of rugby 08 I could score at least 50 points in every game. And the AI opponents could rarely score at all. This did not lead to much replay value.

It's a gripe I have with most sports games. Once you've gotten good you become unbeatable which isn't much fun. Every sport sim should have an extra 'extreme' difficulty to keep challenging those who've mastered it.

Is the AI any good in this game? Can they create overlaps and score tries? Or do the only score when you mess up?

Feckless Rogue wrote:What are the AI opponents like? Once I got the hang of rugby 08 I could score at least 50 points in every game. And the AI opponents could rarely score at all. This did not lead to much replay value.

It's a gripe I have with most sports games. Once you've gotten good you become unbeatable which isn't much fun. Every sport sim should have an extra 'extreme' difficulty to keep challenging those who've mastered it.

Is the AI any good in this game? Can they create overlaps and score tries? Or do the only score when you mess up?

The Gulf between Hard and Pro difficulty is immense. But kinda annoying, I dont think I have managed to hold onto the ball for more than two or three phases, and each ruck ive had to bind the maximum number of players,, so no one left to run the ball. Also on Pro, the lineout is so hard that I cannot throw a ball straight ever. So very challenging but not in a creative way.

Just got the game delivered and have played a couple of games now (New Zealand V Germany to get me started, then Edinburgh V Connaught) and the game is as expected so far - not overly realistic but good fun!

Thing I've found most difficult is having any kind of structured attacking play - all my tries have basically been from individuals running through people or round people - is there a way to make it more structured and realistic? Mike Blair shrugging off tackles to score was a bit silly....

Also, the NH teams stats are ridiculous - Tim Visser is 62 or something like that and Ross Ford is only 65! Needless to say I have done a bit of editing, but to do that for every team is going to take quite a while.

I'll let you know how I get on after a few more plays1

I don't know RDW, I played a game there (only on normal, have to move up difficulty now- far too easy) two of my tries came from flowing moves, one came from a rolling maul, one came from a scrum and a pick and go and one came from a long kick ahead and a good chase.

My problem is the alignment of the backline sometimes. 10 is often too far out to offer a good get out clause- I mean, if I have a ruck in my own 22 and my 9 is at the base I want the 10 back there ready to leather it downfield. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I almost never find him at first receiver then.

Also - do you guys play with the camera behind or side on?? I have never seen a sports game with the camera being behind, so I changed it to side on straight away! Much better!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Also - do you guys play with the camera behind or side on?? I have never seen a sports game with the camera being behind, so I changed it to side on straight away! Much better!

Never tried the side on camera, I suppose both have their advantages.

Side Camera you can see all the way down your backline so you know if there are players hanging out wide. But when the ball is on the far side of the pitch you cant see nowt.

The perfect option would be to have a Side Camera that changes sides of the pitch depending where the ball is.. But im sure the transistion would be really annoying.

Madden American Football games offers behind view

The 1st EA Rugby game did as well.

It is a shame there is no set moves and the No10 does go missing, but apart from that its not bad, just hope they keep developing it.

Suppose my experience in the past is with Fifa and Pro Evo so am used to the side on view. The Original Jonah Lomu game was side on too!

What a game that was.

I bet if that was released as a new game now it wouldn't sell and branded as unrealistic.

Stag, NFL needs that type of view though same for golf games.

I'd say rugby does too for the best views though I would say zoomed out more. A side on view cripples spacial awareness.

stag - i guess its like driving games, so people want to see it like they would in the car, and others want to have a view that they would see on the tele.

Editing the thing has become a real pain in the back side as it is taking for ever, Its the one thing I intensely dislike about the game at the moment.

Irish - I agree. It takes so long to scroll through the leagues, then the teams then the player, click on him, edit the stats, save then have to go back to the beginning to scroll through everything again!

The editing idea is great but they could have made it a lot more efficient.

Saying that I am really starting to get into the game and am actually looking forward to getting home from the pub tonight so I can play it! Maybe might be better at it when drunk....

Ok bottom line - buy it yes or no. I have 50 burning a hole in my pocket do I buy it or FIFA?

Stag - got to buy it! Fifa is baws - it would be pro evo if anything.

RDW - up until about 3 years ago it was Pro Evo - however only a foolish man refuses to adapt to the times.

I suppose the last time I played pro evo regularly was around 3 years ago....

And in answer to your question - you can either get the new Fifa, which is basically the same Fifa that you've probably been playing for years, or you can get Jonah Lomu and give yourself a brand new gaming experience!

Buy it I haven't bought FIFA yet and I dont intend to until Christmas (Well ok get someone to buy it for me for Christmas )

Ah your quite the sales man RDW - well played!!