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RC3 First thoughts

pukunui

Academy Player
Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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Gday, Not a regular poster but have been watching closely for a while to get any of the limited info that has been coming out about RC3 since it was announced.
I got my hands on a copy of RC3 today (ordered online in NZ,posted to Aust) and thought i'd add some thoughts for those who still have to wait a few more days.
I've been a long time rugby video game player and still play RC2 regularly so know it pretty well.
I will probably just write this in dot points as it comes into my head. Im playing on an xbox360 which i have to connect with component cables due to broken HDMI ports on the TV so can't really comment of graphics.
Haven't tried be a pro yet because i want to sort all the squads out first. Haven't tried the Fanhub because it wouldn't let me access it, not sure if i have to wait until the game is released elsewhere for that to work. I have been playing on Hard mode as that is what i played on RC2 most as i didn't find pro mode played very well on RC2. I have tweaked a few sliders but that will be a work in progress to get right.

- First thoughts/feelings after playing for a couple of hour: Pretty disappointing for a game that had 3 years to advance but not as bad as feared after the lack of info released, the delays and the initial youtube videos of gameplay.

- Game play has definitely changed slightly. Can't really put my finger on what it is. Its not a huge change but similar to the RC1-RC2 change. It is definitely harder to run through gaps in the backline and run around the outside with a winger. The AI defence just seems to react better or chase harder or something. You do still get the defenders running along with you not closing the gap of you are running away for a try but it seems a bit more realistic now. The AI attack seems more realistic as well. Less flinging it left the back right then back left. Although that still does happen occasionally. AI seems to hold onto the ball a lot longer now which can mean you are living off scraps.

- There seems to be a few new animations. When breaking a tackle there are new ones as far as i can tell, like a little spin. Could be wrong.

- Sevens is kind of fun, plays better than i had expected it to because of the tweaked defence.

- Goal kicking is a better system than previous versions but it's too easy. Especially in 7s

- You can now copy a player to make it easier to create a player but that only copies name and stats, not any likeness. You can now also select preset stats for each position rather than having to start from scratch, pretty sure that is new to RC3. You can also search a player name in editing now. However see below issue with Licensed player editing.


Now for the most frustrating bits that haven't been changed or have been made worse:

- Defender movement. ie. running back in cover defence to tackle a winger you are often trying to run sideways if that makes sense. This was one of the worst things in RC2. It has been toned down a bit i think but still happens. Frustrating.

- Poor support lines from team mates still. See my wish list at the bottom.

- Forward pass animations where the ball clearly travels forward but is let go. Same as previous versions. Various other bugs still there too.

- Player editing: As far as i can tell all licensed players are locked for editing. No stats editing, no physical editing, nothing. Some of the stats are terrible too. 7's players seems to rate very highly.

- Squad selection: A decent search function in squad selection is still missing, you need to filter the names alphabetically and scroll for hours. A search function like in the player editor (see above) would be perfect or at least a nationality filter.
Just on that, as seen in one of those Cornflake videos on youtube, you can select non national players in international teams, not just 7s but 15s also, Stupid.

- Squads: This one is worse than expected. The squads have been slightly updated but some of the players were definitely not even around in 2015 let alone 2016. Rene Ranger doesn't appear to be in the game and Kaino and Sonny Bill are pretty poor attempts at likenesses even though they had the properly constructed ones in RC1. Akira Ioane is listed as a scrum half and winger in 15s, wasn't in the sevens or Blues squad but can be found in Auckland's ITM squad.

- Still missing a pregame option to fine tune your lineup for that game. Mainly applicable to single matches.


Overall it's not too bad. It's just the fact that we have waited 3 years for not much advancement and bugs from RC1 are still in the game that makes it frustrating.
Here are a few things that I think would make the game a hell of a lot better via a patch or later version just in case the developers ever look at this.

- Better support lines from team mates in close to the ball runner. Outside players cutting back inside instead of getting bunched up as you angle out etc. Even if you need to call the to cut with LEFT trigger or something. This would make a HUGE difference. Better yet just have sprint controlled with the stick and use left and right triggers to control short passing or support player movement.

- Player name search function in squad selection and/or more filters.

- Allow licensed player editing. I realise this is probably a licensing issue but surely changing stats is ok as in previous versions. Not a deal breaker.

- Tweak defensive player movement to eliminate the issue with players trying to run sideways when chasing back diagonally.

- Split sliders to tweak AI and user gameplay separately. or at least explain a bit better what each slider actually does.

- Player development/regression in Career mode (see cornflake video on youtube) this would give it more life.

- A world league (similar to Rugby 08 and others) in career mode. If this isn't possible due to license restrictions allow custom tournaments to be used and/or have interest and job offers based on performance in career mode similar to 'be a pro'.

That's all i can think of for now but will add more if it comes up while im playing.
 
Hey man, all good if i hi-jack your thread?

The first things I've done after an afternoon and night of owning the game is play a couple of 7's games and be a pro. I havent played career since the reviews have said no player progression, but will probably get around to it some time.

I think its easy to bag on this game, but I feel it holds up. at first their are a couple of glaring problems but once you learn to deal with it its not so bad.
Again from a review of my be a pro their are only two issues which let the game down for me.
Firstly, god is the commentary awful. And its bad on three fronts too. Firstly its so boring! seriously how can JLR have the best commantary? secondly, its relatively repetitive. But most crucially, and I cant see how it would just be me, but it sounds really tinny or muffled or something. Like you know when you hear a bad recording from a LP on youtube? really bad.
Secondly is more specific to be a pro. Ive done two pros, both with the same starting stats etc, but in two clubs. My pro is primarly a 12, secondary 10 and third 13, with the default stats of a flyhalf so i could eventually be a goal kicker. My first pro played for melborne rising, at 12. My second was at the blue bulls at 10. What is annoying so far is you cant call for the ball from the ruck/set piece. It makes it so ****ing annoying because you cant start a set play. In fairness, i think when i was at the rising, playing at 12, i was probably positioning too close to the breakdown, but this should have been fine when at 10. Also the amount of times they go to the blindside is annoying too.

Something a little cool i noticed from watching the scottish cannons videos is kicking straight from the contest win or after receiving the ball. in his videos he said it was from tapping o, x or [] too many times, but i actually think, much like how you call to kick down field/to touch, your team calls for you to do it too. This has happened a number of times when we have won a ruck in our 22, and i receive the ball, it automatically kicks.

For those wondering, 7's is fun. Its something that, i guess, i wouldnt buy a game for. like you know how their are stand alone 3v3 madden games out there and such, it wouldnt be worth shelling out extra money for it. But its something fun as a bonus. A quick game goes for 7min a side, which is a bit too long i feel for a video game. but yeah, a fun extra.

The other thing that people are asking is "I have RC2 (or RC1), is it worth buying?" my answer is, if you a guy that is still playing fifa 12 - and still happy with it, then I guess not. But I feel like if you are here reading this, then yes, yes it is. It does feel a lot better than 2. Less eccentric, less jerky, more fluid. It does have some major flaws which are irritating (commantary mentioned prior, old format for super rugby (ffs)) but it is a significant improvement on the last two imo.

My hopes are for a patch allowing for two things. firstly, the sunwolves and jaguares ,missing from the super rugby is a terrible mistake. fan hub blah blah blah yeah, its not that the teams are missing/unlisenced that is the problem, you cant edit the competition to add them in. This is my other thing i would love in a patch. again, fan hub blah blah blah - sure, i can play as the 2016 blues team, but cant play them in a competition unless i edit the actual team. I dont have time for that.
 
Yes, I'm glad you mentioned the quality of the commentary audio, I thought my TV speakers were crapping out. Very tinny and distorted. Not sure what is going on there.
Found the crowd noise strange too. It seemed to go completely silent during cut scenes and goal kicking. Not a big issue but i did find it strange. Improving this aspect would also be on my wish list below the other things i've mentioned. A more reactive crowd when breaks are made and tries scored would add a lot to the feel of the game in my opinion.

Overall I'm happy with the game and would buy it again.

Anyone know if the fanhub is only available after the global release or is my xbox live account broken?
 
Thanks for the write up boys. From the sounds of it this is beginning to seem like the sort of jump we had with RLL2 and RLL2 WCE, so not so much as sequel than a roster/jersey update with new tournaments and a few minor tweaks.

I probably would have bought it last year, but it kinda ****** me off that they didn't bother to update Super Rugby and everything is now a year out of date so I'm not sure.
 
Great first impressions guys, very insightful. Still got my pre-order active and trying to complete my Welsh squads in time for the release, so I'm gonna stick with it and give it a try. Sounds like there's loads of room for improvement still, but at least it isn't a step backwards like Rugby 15 and RWC 2015!
 
On a scale of "I'm glad I bought it -to- I would rather watch Miami Vice" I definitely have it on the "I'm glad I bought it" side. I'm hoping that some decent squads get put on the fan hub, I downloaded the current super rugby NZ teams plus a few aussie ones, and the unlicensed Pacific Island Teams, and 6 nations teams, and they were pretty bad. I take back what I said about replacing teams before... you can... my bad.... TBH, given time from the fan hub, and a patch (I've been out of the loop, is a patch on the cards like RC1 (2) on the cards?) this is a really good game.

I don't like the whole "its a rugby game, if you want a good rugby game you have to buy it" rhetoric, and I don't think its even fair to class this game in that category either. I would place it in the most hated category for game developers in "its a good game, but it could be better" class. This game is not bad. However I feel a lot of discussion so far has been RC2.1, and it is not. It isn't jerky. I feel its got a lot more substance in the forwards. when you make a line break, it feels really good. like you feel that excitement of turning their line around. The only problem with the game, in my opinion, is the glaring mistake of the old super rugby format... and the commentary which i dont have on anymore.

Ive been getting better at be a pro, and to update my last post - I was standing both way too close to the ruck, and way too flat. after moving back and out a bit I have a lot more control over my lines etc. However I still cant call for the ball at the ruck.
 
They still have the same RC2 bug where the reserves get sorted by their id during a match so you do not get the reserves in the order you set them in before the game.
So your hooker you set as 16 ends up being 21 and your halfback that you set as 21 ends up as 17 because the players is sorted from low to high by their database id.

Also it is ridiculous that you can not edit the licensed player's stats because so many of them are wrong or do not have the correct positions that they play in real life an example is Akira Ioane set as a halfback or Jessie Kriel with a overall rating of 69 when he was the Springboks starting 13
 
The main thing I want to know is whether the passing is still completely mental? Like, can you still through passes which are so long and fast that therer is no point trying to defend because the ball could end up anywhere? Can players still pass left whilst animating to pass right? These things made the previous games unplayable imo
 
The main thing I want to know is whether the passing is still completely mental? Like, can you still through passes which are so long and fast that therer is no point trying to defend because the ball could end up anywhere? Can players still pass left whilst animating to pass right? These things made the previous games unplayable imo

From the videos I've watched, the answers are yes and yes. Offloads are toned down a bit as most of them go to floor, but there's absolutely no consistency or flow to it from what I've seen. The quick turnover thing also just seems cheap and frustrating to me.
 
Does the CPU get called for Hands In Ruck, Holding On, or other penalties this time? In RC2, there were hardly any.

How are the number of penalties called in general?
 
Does the CPU get called for Hands In Ruck, Holding On, or other penalties this time? In RC2, there were hardly any.

How are the number of penalties called in general?

They get called for holding on and rarely hands in the ruck.
 
Does the CPU get called for Hands In Ruck, Holding On, or other penalties this time? In RC2, there were hardly any.

How are the number of penalties called in general?

Ive only played a couple of career games (been playing Be a Pro mostly) and in both games i won a penalty for opposition holding on. Also got penalties for offside and a high tackle.
 
Ok I worked out why my fan hub wasn't working. I didn't have an xbox live gold membership.
Have fixed that and had a look at the fan hub. A problem I have discovered though is that you are only allowed a maximum of 30 created teams (including 7s and 15s) so you have to be selective of which ones you want to download as there aren't enough spots to cover all the unlicensed teams and whatever ones you want to make up.

I have noticed though that if you download a team then delete it the players remain as 'custom' players so that is a way to work around it. But takes a lot longer to manually edit the right guys into the team due to lack of search function or nationality filter in squad selection.

Just on gameplay, I found the passing to be a bit messy so have upped the 'pass success rate' slider. I now remember having to do this in RC1 and possibly RC2 to get my attack to flow a bit better.

Still finding Sevens fun and can get a decent game out of it on Normal, Hard and Pro levels. High scoring but end to end stuff where you can blow out the score by three tries but have it tied up not long after.
 
My copy arrived yesterday - only had an hour or so to play so tried to get a couple online matches in. Rage quitting is an issue, it seems. Both of my games suffered 'disconnections' in the second half when it was clear my opponent was not gonna win and I was pushing for a decisive try!

Otherwise, for me the lack of Pro12 teams is really jarring at the moment - will be upping my own customization efforts but good to see that others have already got the ball rolling (or awkwardly bouncing at conflicting angles), so to speak.
 
Hey guys i dont own a ps or xbox so have to wait for the pc release can someone please have a look for me at the super rugby cellc sharks how is the likeness of the players ?
 
My first thoughts is this just typical rugby game. Average as. Before you even start a game the squads are all out of date, as are the jerseys. The saving grace is the fanhub where we are expected to update and make changes ourselves, that's all good but a bit lazy of the developers who stalled this game for months after already waiting years.

The gameplay to me is ok. No more no less. A bit annoying waiting for the scrum half to arrive sometimes where you want a quick play to take advantage of an unorganised defensive line. Even a quick pick n go option would've been good as soon as a player arrives to the ruck but nah you can't. You can almost run a nice cut too but when you pass to the receiving player they just automatically straighten as soon as you hit pass, even though they are running a perfect angle.

Defensively some of the tackles just take too long, even if by one second. Would be nice to add in rush defence, sliding, man on man etc into strategies rather than wide, normal, compressed. The tackler contesting the ruck seems a bit random sometimes but I still like it.

Set plays are good enough I guess. I've always liked the line outs and how they operate however their should be set play options off them for the backs. Like a simple kick clearance set up or crash ball from the 12. Scrums are just the usual RC scrums.

The audio quality is terrible and tinny.

All in all this gameplay still lacks so many basic things, I sometimes wonder who even makes these games. Will be good if you're into rugby but if you're not a fan there's so many other better sports games.
 
Thanks guys for your thoughts and observations.

I've been a massive fan of the RC series in the past but I'm finding it difficult to get into this one. Partially because I've been playing rugby league live 3 (please forgive me).

One thing that is bugging me ATM is the passes from one side of the ruck to the other. Through the other players. Just a little annoying. Anyone have a fix for that one?

Also in be a pro mode I'm finding the tackling very slow and/or unresponsive.

Hopefully they'll patch it and continue to make more improvements. I'm going to keep going with it. Would love to hear your settings to make the gameplay more free flowing.
 

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