S
Stiv
Guest
I've been a lurker on this site for quite a while but just thought I'd post a couple comments on the new game. Over the past five years I've become fairly obsessed with Rugby, which is a fairly lonely sport to appreciate in California. Unfortunately, FOX Sports World was my portal to the game and I've watched it dry up over the years from dropping Six Nations coverage and now dropping all but one game per week of the Super 12. So, with Rupert Murdoch opting to throw the finger at me in place of some decent Rugby coverage, I'm pretty much forced to fulfill my Rugby fix with the virtual world of PC gaming.
I've been playing on my PC since Rugby 2001 and have worked my way through the disappointments of both Rugby 2004 and Swordfish's games. While I'm probably not quite as hardcore about my computer gaming as most of you posting on this forum, I definitely have come to recognize how badly Rugby 2004 sucked and how the Rugby releases as a whole have failed to sufficiently translate to the gaming world.
However, EA's Rugby 2005 is f**king hugely superior to previous releases. I had to order my copy via Ebay from Ireland and spent more than a few weeks watching the video captures posted by Locksley (much appreciated by the way). Rugby 2005 has overcome the most annoying aspects of previous releases and actually offers a gaming environment that captures the game properly as much as a computer game can actually capture. The graphics are hugely improved over all previous releases and the flow of the transitions from game play and video sequences are impressively fluid. The audio commentary, crowd noise, etc., has a very impressive fluidity and the song selection when loading/pausing/etc. is great. It's also an added benefit to have audible ref calls. The game as a whole moves at a much more accurate timeliness than any other release and the camera angles, gamepad control logic, kick guaging, set play options and overall gameplay are hugely improved over any release I've played. There's still a few aspects of the gameplay/gamepad controls that I'm trying to improve on, but as a whole the game itself operates with a challenging, yet complete fluidity that is a seriously night and day improvement over all prior releases.
In my opinion the only thing lacking in this release is the lack of online gaming. Other than that, this game is hugely satisfying to those of us in the United States who have to go to extremes to catch the real-world matches and have been forced to indulge ourselved in virtual versions of the game. While the game is available on Playstation and X-BOX in the US, as a PC gamer (who is extremely disappointed that the game was not released on PC in North America) Rugby 2005 is absolutely well worth grabbing via Ebay or someother overseas site service.
In closing, thanks to all of you who regularly post on this forum. As a native Californian, being a Rugby fan is a difficult addiction to sufficiently satisfy. And, as a fairly amatuer gamer, your various tips and comments about Rugby 2005 have been very helpful.
Thanks again to all the posters on this site and to anyone here in the states who might be hesitant to get a copy of this game for PC from somewhere else in the world, it's absolutely worth getting. I've sh*tcanned my other Rugby games and I'm thoroughly enjoying this one. Get this game and play the hell out of it.
I've been playing on my PC since Rugby 2001 and have worked my way through the disappointments of both Rugby 2004 and Swordfish's games. While I'm probably not quite as hardcore about my computer gaming as most of you posting on this forum, I definitely have come to recognize how badly Rugby 2004 sucked and how the Rugby releases as a whole have failed to sufficiently translate to the gaming world.
However, EA's Rugby 2005 is f**king hugely superior to previous releases. I had to order my copy via Ebay from Ireland and spent more than a few weeks watching the video captures posted by Locksley (much appreciated by the way). Rugby 2005 has overcome the most annoying aspects of previous releases and actually offers a gaming environment that captures the game properly as much as a computer game can actually capture. The graphics are hugely improved over all previous releases and the flow of the transitions from game play and video sequences are impressively fluid. The audio commentary, crowd noise, etc., has a very impressive fluidity and the song selection when loading/pausing/etc. is great. It's also an added benefit to have audible ref calls. The game as a whole moves at a much more accurate timeliness than any other release and the camera angles, gamepad control logic, kick guaging, set play options and overall gameplay are hugely improved over any release I've played. There's still a few aspects of the gameplay/gamepad controls that I'm trying to improve on, but as a whole the game itself operates with a challenging, yet complete fluidity that is a seriously night and day improvement over all prior releases.
In my opinion the only thing lacking in this release is the lack of online gaming. Other than that, this game is hugely satisfying to those of us in the United States who have to go to extremes to catch the real-world matches and have been forced to indulge ourselved in virtual versions of the game. While the game is available on Playstation and X-BOX in the US, as a PC gamer (who is extremely disappointed that the game was not released on PC in North America) Rugby 2005 is absolutely well worth grabbing via Ebay or someother overseas site service.
In closing, thanks to all of you who regularly post on this forum. As a native Californian, being a Rugby fan is a difficult addiction to sufficiently satisfy. And, as a fairly amatuer gamer, your various tips and comments about Rugby 2005 have been very helpful.
Thanks again to all the posters on this site and to anyone here in the states who might be hesitant to get a copy of this game for PC from somewhere else in the world, it's absolutely worth getting. I've sh*tcanned my other Rugby games and I'm thoroughly enjoying this one. Get this game and play the hell out of it.