S
St Helens RLFC
Guest
Got your hands on RC06? Post your thoughts in here. As the game filters out this week and next we'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
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H
Handsomebob
Guest
Hi Guys
i've got my hands on RC2006 yesterday so i'll try to share my point of view on the game with you.
first of all, it's important to state that this game was not developped as a rugby sim, it's an arcade game all the way....
Gameplay :
Even though it's full of interesting ideas, the gameplay is subpar to me. Something is missing, especially when playing solo:
The passing game is far from reallistic, some passes look really weird (the ball sometimes flies like a rocket). You can offload but it usually results in a turnover or a bad situation (works well 45% of the time) but it can be really usefull at times and lead to some nice actions.
The in game kicking game is not very accurate, the "growing cone" used to set the power and aim your kick doesn't feel right....so you rarely use it and it makes the game a bit one dimmensional : run-pass-tackle-ruck-pass-run-tackle....and so on
I like the system they use for penalty kicks, it's interesting :
1st you have to aim your kick (moving the cone left or right according to the wind)
then you set the kick power on a value scale from 0 to 100
and the last step is to press x with timing for accuracy
There rucks feel like they are automatic even if you have to press buttons to bring players in, the outcome doesn't always feel right and there are so many difference between teams that on the highest difficulty level you can play an entire game without winning a single ruck. ( the srucking system is the same : put player in with x, remove player with square.....an icon system shows the number of players in the ruck for each team...)
scrums and mauls are different, there is a pushing system involved (i think it's new and wasn't in WCR but i'm not sure). In as scrum, you have to put the ball in with square then a round icon appears with a color mark, to win the scrum you must press x in timing everytime the white cursor hits the middle of the color mark. the more you push, the faster the white cursor moves making it more difficult to keep pushing effectively: i'm not sold on this one. if you lose your timing (which might occur sometimes) it's very difficult to recover and you end up losing more scrums than you should.
AI : On offense, the AI keeps it simple, they kick when deep in their territory.
when attacking they will use stiff arm, sprint and sometimes dummy passes.
easy difficulty is way too easy, normal is ok against good teams, too easy against subpar teams. Extreme diificulty is too difficult (after 5-8 games played) i couldn't beat Bayonne (1 and a half star rating) with leicester (3stars and a half).
Defense is ok, no weird gaps you can exploit every time, the AI tackles well and is fearsome in extreme difficulty.
in the 8 games i played i'm still waiting to see the AI commit a single penalty, no offsides, no fouls......nothing
Graphics and animations:
Animation is poor, player movement look weird.
some are nice tough, some tackling animations are great
sidestep and dummy pass animations are nice but it works 20-30 % of the time
3D models of player are OK, but i don't really like the cartoonish style.
Stadiums look good, there are only a few and not all of them licensed
Game modes :
plenty of game modes
- friendly
- competitions : World cup / 6 nations / 3 nations / european cup (H cup) / rugby tour / championship ( top 14, premiership, celtic league, italian league, super 12 without licence, create your own championship)
- cup ( english, french, celtic etc.....)
- challenges : Classic games, survival, superstar etc....
- carreer : Like the world league, build your team....with a few management features. you get to chose your coaches and you can participate in training sessions to build up your crappy players.
- practice : some interesting practice drills here, it almost feels like real practice.
Overall :
I'm not sold on this game because it's way behind the competition as far as technology is concerned, the animation almost kills the game by itself......it doesn't look good. On the other hand the game can be fun with friends (like lomu used to be) so i think it's worth trying it IF you like arcade games and you have friends interested in playing with you.......but you might want to pass on this one and wait for rugby 2006 if you want something deeper and more true to modern rugby.
Bottomline :
solo play 12/20
Vs play 14/20
i've got my hands on RC2006 yesterday so i'll try to share my point of view on the game with you.
first of all, it's important to state that this game was not developped as a rugby sim, it's an arcade game all the way....
Gameplay :
Even though it's full of interesting ideas, the gameplay is subpar to me. Something is missing, especially when playing solo:
The passing game is far from reallistic, some passes look really weird (the ball sometimes flies like a rocket). You can offload but it usually results in a turnover or a bad situation (works well 45% of the time) but it can be really usefull at times and lead to some nice actions.
The in game kicking game is not very accurate, the "growing cone" used to set the power and aim your kick doesn't feel right....so you rarely use it and it makes the game a bit one dimmensional : run-pass-tackle-ruck-pass-run-tackle....and so on
I like the system they use for penalty kicks, it's interesting :
1st you have to aim your kick (moving the cone left or right according to the wind)
then you set the kick power on a value scale from 0 to 100
and the last step is to press x with timing for accuracy
There rucks feel like they are automatic even if you have to press buttons to bring players in, the outcome doesn't always feel right and there are so many difference between teams that on the highest difficulty level you can play an entire game without winning a single ruck. ( the srucking system is the same : put player in with x, remove player with square.....an icon system shows the number of players in the ruck for each team...)
scrums and mauls are different, there is a pushing system involved (i think it's new and wasn't in WCR but i'm not sure). In as scrum, you have to put the ball in with square then a round icon appears with a color mark, to win the scrum you must press x in timing everytime the white cursor hits the middle of the color mark. the more you push, the faster the white cursor moves making it more difficult to keep pushing effectively: i'm not sold on this one. if you lose your timing (which might occur sometimes) it's very difficult to recover and you end up losing more scrums than you should.
AI : On offense, the AI keeps it simple, they kick when deep in their territory.
when attacking they will use stiff arm, sprint and sometimes dummy passes.
easy difficulty is way too easy, normal is ok against good teams, too easy against subpar teams. Extreme diificulty is too difficult (after 5-8 games played) i couldn't beat Bayonne (1 and a half star rating) with leicester (3stars and a half).
Defense is ok, no weird gaps you can exploit every time, the AI tackles well and is fearsome in extreme difficulty.
in the 8 games i played i'm still waiting to see the AI commit a single penalty, no offsides, no fouls......nothing
Graphics and animations:
Animation is poor, player movement look weird.
some are nice tough, some tackling animations are great
sidestep and dummy pass animations are nice but it works 20-30 % of the time
3D models of player are OK, but i don't really like the cartoonish style.
Stadiums look good, there are only a few and not all of them licensed
Game modes :
plenty of game modes
- friendly
- competitions : World cup / 6 nations / 3 nations / european cup (H cup) / rugby tour / championship ( top 14, premiership, celtic league, italian league, super 12 without licence, create your own championship)
- cup ( english, french, celtic etc.....)
- challenges : Classic games, survival, superstar etc....
- carreer : Like the world league, build your team....with a few management features. you get to chose your coaches and you can participate in training sessions to build up your crappy players.
- practice : some interesting practice drills here, it almost feels like real practice.
Overall :
I'm not sold on this game because it's way behind the competition as far as technology is concerned, the animation almost kills the game by itself......it doesn't look good. On the other hand the game can be fun with friends (like lomu used to be) so i think it's worth trying it IF you like arcade games and you have friends interested in playing with you.......but you might want to pass on this one and wait for rugby 2006 if you want something deeper and more true to modern rugby.
Bottomline :
solo play 12/20
Vs play 14/20
T
THE CHIROPRACTOR101
Guest
great review....good stuff
now to play and judge on my own...its gonna be awesome having rc and r06 side by side...
now to play and judge on my own...its gonna be awesome having rc and r06 side by side...
L
locksley
Guest
Nice review there. Very honest.
KnowsleyRoader summed up RC2006 to me last night. He said it's the "Virtua Tennis" of Rugby games.... and that's no bad thing.
He's spot on. Fast, accessible, and much better with 2 players.
I still love RC2006, but I'm getting used to Rugby 2006 now, and, as a single player game, Rugby 2006 will satisfy the lone gamer much more.
L
loratadine
Guest
cany anyone answer a few question - who has got the game - what are the ratings of the big teams?
T
TheBokke
Guest
Good review Handsomebob. How funny your review is exactly how I thought the game would be. I never got to excited about ths game especially after WCR which apart from Rugby 2004 which I never bought was the worst of the lot in my opinion!!
I will be giving this game a miss this time and not on your review alone I just had a feeling this game would be very poor on single player which is my bread & butter due to no online feature.
Sorry all the boys at Swordfish I know how tough it must be on a limited budget and short time constraints, not to mention all you had to deal with behind the scenes.
Hope you boys get the financial backing one day and produce something like Lomu with better graphics and I am all yours
.
I will be giving this game a miss this time and not on your review alone I just had a feeling this game would be very poor on single player which is my bread & butter due to no online feature.
Sorry all the boys at Swordfish I know how tough it must be on a limited budget and short time constraints, not to mention all you had to deal with behind the scenes.
Hope you boys get the financial backing one day and produce something like Lomu with better graphics and I am all yours
Q
QKXV
Guest
I'll join you in giving this one a miss and I had decided this a while ago and not because of the very honest review (well done HandsomeBob). WCR didn't do it for me since the rucking system left me feeling like I had carpaltunnelsyndrome for a week after playing a couple of games. The kicking was awful too in my opinion. What I did like was the ole classic matches. I was hoping EA would include it as unlockable feature but not to be.
K
knowsleyroader
Guest
Think those giving it a miss will be missing out on a great game. For the record my review was honest, as was Lox's and SHRLFC and Boy's. Because we said it was good, does that make it less honest ?
FWIW Cant wait to get my hands on this game.
FWIW Cant wait to get my hands on this game.
S
spearman
Guest
Will locks etc all agree with what Knowsley has said?
This may seem too critical, and shoot me down in flames if you will - but from observations we seem to get reviews of the moment. I don't think this is intentional, rather it just happens.
I'd be interested to know exactly how Locks thinks RC2006 is compared to R06 - and if they're two very different styles of game I'd like it said and explaned.
I'm not trying to offend anyone, rather just trying to ensure we all know what the basis is for these great reviews of both games.
This may seem too critical, and shoot me down in flames if you will - but from observations we seem to get reviews of the moment. I don't think this is intentional, rather it just happens.
I'd be interested to know exactly how Locks thinks RC2006 is compared to R06 - and if they're two very different styles of game I'd like it said and explaned.
I'm not trying to offend anyone, rather just trying to ensure we all know what the basis is for these great reviews of both games.
Q
QKXV
Guest
Sorry Knowsley, I didn't mean to say yours and the other's reviews wasn't honest, simply a wrong choice of words there. I am sure the game is good as reviewed but R2005 took up quite a lot of my time anyway, so I am opting for only one rugby game and it is R2006
H
Handsomebob
Guest
another disapointment :
i tried to play a championship with a friend
we wanted to pick one team each and then we would play the opposing team for each game.......guess what:
you can't , you can play a multiplayer championship but you have to play your game against the AI except when your playing your friend's team. that's not good.
not wanting to sound like i'm hammering this game, i want to had that there are many bonuses to win and that's a cool feature.
there are at least 7 bonus teams, 5 bonus stadiums, 3 bonus effects (like old time B&W TV), etc.....
i tried to play a championship with a friend
we wanted to pick one team each and then we would play the opposing team for each game.......guess what:
you can't , you can play a multiplayer championship but you have to play your game against the AI except when your playing your friend's team. that's not good.
not wanting to sound like i'm hammering this game, i want to had that there are many bonuses to win and that's a cool feature.
there are at least 7 bonus teams, 5 bonus stadiums, 3 bonus effects (like old time B&W TV), etc.....
M
MightyQuin
Guest
Hmmm ... thats what I would have expected to happen though if you only selected two manually controlled teams.
Are you limited to only 2 teams in multiplayer championship? Can you not select all 3 and alternate who plays as the spare team?
On another similar theme - can you assign all teams in a champ to be manual - but at the game screen reassign one of them to AI? I used to play through the world cup in rugby 2001 always playing as the weaker team ... until Namibia just lost to Australia 17-14 in the final!!!
H
Handsomebob
Guest
in fact we decided to play a french championship (top 14) playing 7 teams each, so we play every game.... that was the only way we could come up with.
it will take a long time to go through the all thing though...
it will take a long time to go through the all thing though...
S
St Helens RLFC
Guest
Fully agreed.
You'll be missing out if you don't buy.
E
el_tk
Guest
Can you move the players around positionally during a match?
K
knowsleyroader
Guest
I sort of got the middle bit, but the bits above and below that, im not really sure what it is your trying to say.
Maybe its just me ?
S
spearman
Guest
Apologies if it wasn't clear. I soughta got the impression each new rugby game created a wave of euphoria that, unintentially resulted in overly optimistic reviews.
However I may be wrong...
It seems you guys are still all behind RC2006, it's just that rugby challenge is a very different type of game to rugby 06 - is that a correct impression?
However I may be wrong...
It seems you guys are still all behind RC2006, it's just that rugby challenge is a very different type of game to rugby 06 - is that a correct impression?
K
knowsleyroader
Guest
I wont be knocking RC2006 regardless of the quality of EA 06. I think RC2006 is a fantastic rugby game and in my opinion deserves a place in everyones collection as much as EA06 will.
We arnt inundated with Rugby games and so I think RC2006 really does deserve a purchase imo. However as with all games im sure some wont like it. Hope more do than dont though.
N
NZL Fan
Guest
No ones being dishonest, however I do think there is a difference between what major rugby union fans want from a "rugby union" game compared to what predominately league fans may be after..........even in an unashamedly "arcade" style game.
As an example someone else mentioned that someone like Locks (no offense intended) may be less concerned about such things as how rucks are decided, as long as play isn't held up too long and the ball moves quickly into the next phase. A rugby union nut would however see the ruck as one of the core elements of a rugby union game, and the gaming experience could be ruined if they felt they had little/no control over how possession from the ruck is decided.
Things like the ability to employ a successful kicking/position game, more options in lineouts/scrums, lack of licenses (which wouldn't bother a league supporter as much) could also be overlooked by a person looking more through the eyes of a rugby league buff.
I for one will be giving this a miss (for the record I couldn't stand the first version, and this seems to be more of the same but with less button mashing).
A
ak47
Guest
STILL GETTING IT
ITS SOUNDS LIKE FUN, LIKE BLIC VERSION OF RUGGERS
ITS SOUNDS LIKE FUN, LIKE BLIC VERSION OF RUGGERS
