C
CeeJay
Guest
Well i decided to keep this game and not return it, after i found that it did get better after extended play. However, for me it still falls short of the mark. Here is a list of the resons why, as well as some of the resons why this game has potential.
Bad points first
1. Lack of turnover. As ive previouly stated, turnovers are far too few and far between. There is just no way to get the ball other than the odd big it. When you hav possession yourself the opposition cant get the ball off you. But, if you play on intnsive care with a weaker team then you get turned evry 2 or three phases regardless of how many of your players reach the breakdown first, while the opposition still hold it for an age, largley removing the fun. Long possession times also ruin the kicking game, when you finally get the ball you sure as hell arnt going to kick it, and why would you, you dont need to. Unless you are a week team likely to be turned, but even then you are just returning possesion to the other team for a long time, so you might aswell just run
2. Defending is a mess. When you select a new player, it automatically gives you the man outside the guy that you want to tackle, so if you try to make the tackle you leave your man unmarked, and if you wait he just runs by his marker and you! This leads to alot of frustration, and alot of free breaks and tries to the opponent. If you are using a week team especially, the constant scramble is just too much. Especially considering the defence of the ai is great, just not the ai on your team.
3. Getting sucked into tackle animations early. Much like in rugby 2005. This was very dissapointing, as WRC did not hav this problem, rugby 2005 should hav been a good reason no to do this. Great opportunities are almost always shut down by ankle taps or that pick up and dump animation, even thogh you push the button early these animations take over. Also the break tackle animatios, while good for breaking line, they force you to lose control and slow down for a second after the animation, ensuring that someone else nails you every time.
4. Forward passes and knock ons. These happen far too often right when you make the final pass to put a guy into space. At first i thought is was just bad luck, but after extended play, i think it must hav been coded that way to make it a bit tougher, which is understandable, but it just ruins too many much needed opportunities.
5. Like RL2 you cannot really catch the opposition off guard with quick ball. Usually Rucks are delayed until the opposition is back in position. On the odd occasion that you do catch them out, they will play offside and not get penalised for it!! There is nothing worse than getting a hard earned possoessin turned over by an offside player, especially in the dying minutes when the games on the line, as you know that you wont be getting the ball back in a hurry. For me this was a big game killer. You just cant let players play offside.
The rest are more minor problems but still conributed to my disapointment.
6. On intensive care the opposition steal 90% of lineout ball.
7. Offloads dont work properly, or very often, and usually end in turnovrs, which is frustratig coz most of the time it an offload that wasnt intentional.
8. When you send the no 10 back in the pocket to kick, he runs onto the ball at full pace, causing him to run straight into the defense and get tackled.
9. When you try to sidestep, sometimes you get sucked into a break tackle animation instead, only to then throw a pass straight into touch when the animation is finished.
But wait! Theres more, its not all bad!
Good points
1. Animations. All the animations, including running, tackling, and espcially the sidesteps are very well done and give the game a more realistic look than last year.
2. Career mode. Career mode is the thing that kept me playing this game. Its simple, but very well done. The stat building is alot of fun and you can see the results. The training games are genius, absloutely fantastic, the best in any game, actually getting to train your players with a huge variety of training games every week is a video game first i think.
3.Goal kicking. Awsome and challenging goal kicking system
4.Unlockables and cassic matches. There are plenty of these and they add to the game, even if you cant play as nz in ny classic matches.
5. Graphics are very clean and tidy looking. (stadiums lack a bit of detail)
6. The world cup winning celebration is a nice touch.
7. Multiplayer is quite fun, but still suffers from lack of turnovers, so unless you employ the six tackle rule(already mentioned by someone on this forum) it gets old real quick. the six tackle rule being that you you use rucks like tackles in league.
Rc 2006 is a potentially good game that suffers from a combination of flaws seen in past rugby ***les, and some possoession balancing issues. While extended play in career mode is fun, eventully the frustration just gets a bit too much.
I give this game a 6/10
On the plus side though, Swordfish could easily bang together a great RL game. Theyve got all the ground work done, and it already plays like league anyway. Theyve got the gameplay, the grubbers the bombs etc, all they need to do is replace the rucks with playing the ball. Player control is awsome compared to RL2, so it would pease alot of people. Seriously, even an unliscensed league game with all the features of RC 2006 (career mode etc) would be awsome, and it would dissolve alot of the problems with rc 2006.
Sorry for the big rant but i thought id better do it now as im getting rugby 2006 today.
Bad points first
1. Lack of turnover. As ive previouly stated, turnovers are far too few and far between. There is just no way to get the ball other than the odd big it. When you hav possession yourself the opposition cant get the ball off you. But, if you play on intnsive care with a weaker team then you get turned evry 2 or three phases regardless of how many of your players reach the breakdown first, while the opposition still hold it for an age, largley removing the fun. Long possession times also ruin the kicking game, when you finally get the ball you sure as hell arnt going to kick it, and why would you, you dont need to. Unless you are a week team likely to be turned, but even then you are just returning possesion to the other team for a long time, so you might aswell just run
2. Defending is a mess. When you select a new player, it automatically gives you the man outside the guy that you want to tackle, so if you try to make the tackle you leave your man unmarked, and if you wait he just runs by his marker and you! This leads to alot of frustration, and alot of free breaks and tries to the opponent. If you are using a week team especially, the constant scramble is just too much. Especially considering the defence of the ai is great, just not the ai on your team.
3. Getting sucked into tackle animations early. Much like in rugby 2005. This was very dissapointing, as WRC did not hav this problem, rugby 2005 should hav been a good reason no to do this. Great opportunities are almost always shut down by ankle taps or that pick up and dump animation, even thogh you push the button early these animations take over. Also the break tackle animatios, while good for breaking line, they force you to lose control and slow down for a second after the animation, ensuring that someone else nails you every time.
4. Forward passes and knock ons. These happen far too often right when you make the final pass to put a guy into space. At first i thought is was just bad luck, but after extended play, i think it must hav been coded that way to make it a bit tougher, which is understandable, but it just ruins too many much needed opportunities.
5. Like RL2 you cannot really catch the opposition off guard with quick ball. Usually Rucks are delayed until the opposition is back in position. On the odd occasion that you do catch them out, they will play offside and not get penalised for it!! There is nothing worse than getting a hard earned possoessin turned over by an offside player, especially in the dying minutes when the games on the line, as you know that you wont be getting the ball back in a hurry. For me this was a big game killer. You just cant let players play offside.
The rest are more minor problems but still conributed to my disapointment.
6. On intensive care the opposition steal 90% of lineout ball.
7. Offloads dont work properly, or very often, and usually end in turnovrs, which is frustratig coz most of the time it an offload that wasnt intentional.
8. When you send the no 10 back in the pocket to kick, he runs onto the ball at full pace, causing him to run straight into the defense and get tackled.
9. When you try to sidestep, sometimes you get sucked into a break tackle animation instead, only to then throw a pass straight into touch when the animation is finished.
But wait! Theres more, its not all bad!
Good points
1. Animations. All the animations, including running, tackling, and espcially the sidesteps are very well done and give the game a more realistic look than last year.
2. Career mode. Career mode is the thing that kept me playing this game. Its simple, but very well done. The stat building is alot of fun and you can see the results. The training games are genius, absloutely fantastic, the best in any game, actually getting to train your players with a huge variety of training games every week is a video game first i think.
3.Goal kicking. Awsome and challenging goal kicking system
4.Unlockables and cassic matches. There are plenty of these and they add to the game, even if you cant play as nz in ny classic matches.
5. Graphics are very clean and tidy looking. (stadiums lack a bit of detail)
6. The world cup winning celebration is a nice touch.
7. Multiplayer is quite fun, but still suffers from lack of turnovers, so unless you employ the six tackle rule(already mentioned by someone on this forum) it gets old real quick. the six tackle rule being that you you use rucks like tackles in league.
Rc 2006 is a potentially good game that suffers from a combination of flaws seen in past rugby ***les, and some possoession balancing issues. While extended play in career mode is fun, eventully the frustration just gets a bit too much.
I give this game a 6/10
On the plus side though, Swordfish could easily bang together a great RL game. Theyve got all the ground work done, and it already plays like league anyway. Theyve got the gameplay, the grubbers the bombs etc, all they need to do is replace the rucks with playing the ball. Player control is awsome compared to RL2, so it would pease alot of people. Seriously, even an unliscensed league game with all the features of RC 2006 (career mode etc) would be awsome, and it would dissolve alot of the problems with rc 2006.
Sorry for the big rant but i thought id better do it now as im getting rugby 2006 today.