So with the Rugby World Cup 2011 currently in progress and a rather weak "official" game out right now I thought I'd start this thread for the other contender in the ring, Rugby Challenge.
To clear things up before I start I believe this is called All-Blacks Rugby Challenge in New Zealand, Wallabies Rugby Challenge here in Australia and will be called Jonah Lomu's Rugby Challenge when it releases in the UK very soon. I understand there has been a delay on the release in the UK but it should be out before the knockout stages on the world cup.
Also this is made by Sidhe, who are the makers of the only other decent (IMO) rugby game... Jonah Lomu Rugby on the PsOne... so this one has a bit of pedigree.
Is it any good? Well yes it's actually pretty bloody decent, if full of imperfections.
What is nice is that they have obviously looked at titles like FIFA and PES before working on the presentation here. From the way you can practice in the loading screen beforehand (FIFA) or edit all the non-licenced stuff back in (PES) and the menus in general they've done an admirable effort on what must be a water-tight budget. I also understand that for the PS3 there is already a game-save out to auto-patch teams in an update (google it) but I've been playing on the 360 version.
There's also a great amount of recognisable tournaments in here at both club and international level even though they may be named under some pseudo-name to get past the licensing. The world cup is an obvious inclusion but you also have the tri-nations, six nations and pretty much all of the club level leagues as well.
On the pitch what first grabs you is that the controls are actually very sensible and intuitive. On the 360 the LB/RB shoulder buttons pass left and right, RT sprints and all of the face buttons are used to select various kicking options from touch finders (A), grubber (B), drop-kick (X) and up & under (Y). A quick stab of these will initiate a quick inaccurate short range effort of each variety but holding down the button initiates a slow-motion aiming reticule for more precise kicking. Basically it just works.
Similarly passing plays can be modified using combinations of the passing buttons with face buttons. You can throw miss passes by holding the shoulder buttons and pressing A or B (for 1 or 2 misses). On the right stick up will fend (hand-off), Left then Right or Right then Left does a side step and down throws a dummy pass. You can also fake kicks by passing mid-aim.
All things considered once you grasp the controls you begin to appreciate you should just throw it around like crazy... and you learn to play a measured game where retaining possession is key.
Set-pieces are functional, if a little too rigid. The scrum could do with some more options like using the number 8 to make runs and the line-outs seem a bit overly complex and a bit of a gamble (for me anyway, until I watched the tips video below). There are also a complete lack of strategy / set-piece moves which would have been nice to see. What is there is useful though and rucks more than anything lend a hand to more expert strategy moves.
What is lacking however is the AI. Play against a mate and this can be really good fun once you learn how to play it right. Play against the AI on higher level difficulty and you find they have too much of an emphasis on offloading the ball in the tackle and it becomes super-ping-pong. There has been one patch already to rectify some of this but it's still very apparent in-game and unfortunately whilst you can use the AI sliders to alter how the game plays you have to do this on a per-team basis which is just stupid.
I hear another patch is on it's way which aims to fix a lot of the current issues and may be available on UK release.
Anything else? Well yeah the commentators are truly awful and weirdly when you play online the teams always have equal stats to make it fair even if you're playing Georgia versus the All-Blacks. Go figure... but it does make for some interesting dummy spits when you play against guys whoring the better teams because they dont realise!
For me, I've been playing it for a week and it's grown on me immeasurably since first play. Once it clicks it can play a rather nice replication of the sport albeit with some room for improvement. That said it is far and away superior to the RWC 2011 game that is currently out there and hopefully this is a good template to perhaps see an improved sequel somewhere down the road.
In short... if you like Rugby and need a videogame fix, get this game and avoid RWC 2011. It has more content, better gameplay and better presentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL0EJkoMHW8#!
To clear things up before I start I believe this is called All-Blacks Rugby Challenge in New Zealand, Wallabies Rugby Challenge here in Australia and will be called Jonah Lomu's Rugby Challenge when it releases in the UK very soon. I understand there has been a delay on the release in the UK but it should be out before the knockout stages on the world cup.
Also this is made by Sidhe, who are the makers of the only other decent (IMO) rugby game... Jonah Lomu Rugby on the PsOne... so this one has a bit of pedigree.
Is it any good? Well yes it's actually pretty bloody decent, if full of imperfections.
What is nice is that they have obviously looked at titles like FIFA and PES before working on the presentation here. From the way you can practice in the loading screen beforehand (FIFA) or edit all the non-licenced stuff back in (PES) and the menus in general they've done an admirable effort on what must be a water-tight budget. I also understand that for the PS3 there is already a game-save out to auto-patch teams in an update (google it) but I've been playing on the 360 version.
There's also a great amount of recognisable tournaments in here at both club and international level even though they may be named under some pseudo-name to get past the licensing. The world cup is an obvious inclusion but you also have the tri-nations, six nations and pretty much all of the club level leagues as well.
On the pitch what first grabs you is that the controls are actually very sensible and intuitive. On the 360 the LB/RB shoulder buttons pass left and right, RT sprints and all of the face buttons are used to select various kicking options from touch finders (A), grubber (B), drop-kick (X) and up & under (Y). A quick stab of these will initiate a quick inaccurate short range effort of each variety but holding down the button initiates a slow-motion aiming reticule for more precise kicking. Basically it just works.
Similarly passing plays can be modified using combinations of the passing buttons with face buttons. You can throw miss passes by holding the shoulder buttons and pressing A or B (for 1 or 2 misses). On the right stick up will fend (hand-off), Left then Right or Right then Left does a side step and down throws a dummy pass. You can also fake kicks by passing mid-aim.
All things considered once you grasp the controls you begin to appreciate you should just throw it around like crazy... and you learn to play a measured game where retaining possession is key.
Set-pieces are functional, if a little too rigid. The scrum could do with some more options like using the number 8 to make runs and the line-outs seem a bit overly complex and a bit of a gamble (for me anyway, until I watched the tips video below). There are also a complete lack of strategy / set-piece moves which would have been nice to see. What is there is useful though and rucks more than anything lend a hand to more expert strategy moves.
What is lacking however is the AI. Play against a mate and this can be really good fun once you learn how to play it right. Play against the AI on higher level difficulty and you find they have too much of an emphasis on offloading the ball in the tackle and it becomes super-ping-pong. There has been one patch already to rectify some of this but it's still very apparent in-game and unfortunately whilst you can use the AI sliders to alter how the game plays you have to do this on a per-team basis which is just stupid.
I hear another patch is on it's way which aims to fix a lot of the current issues and may be available on UK release.
Anything else? Well yeah the commentators are truly awful and weirdly when you play online the teams always have equal stats to make it fair even if you're playing Georgia versus the All-Blacks. Go figure... but it does make for some interesting dummy spits when you play against guys whoring the better teams because they dont realise!
For me, I've been playing it for a week and it's grown on me immeasurably since first play. Once it clicks it can play a rather nice replication of the sport albeit with some room for improvement. That said it is far and away superior to the RWC 2011 game that is currently out there and hopefully this is a good template to perhaps see an improved sequel somewhere down the road.
In short... if you like Rugby and need a videogame fix, get this game and avoid RWC 2011. It has more content, better gameplay and better presentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL0EJkoMHW8#!
