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Rugby '15 announced

I tries to find some more information about this on their web site and couldn't even find their website. There doesn't seem to be any info or forums to read any progress on this.

If anyone finds anything please post some links
 
People talk about licenses but ultimately what matters most is having a playable game! We've seen time and time again that mod communities are proactive and self-sufficient and will make up for a lack of licenses.

Rugby Challenge 1/2 had pretty good licenses but I agree with thingimubob - the gameplay itself just annoyed the crap out of me and the career mode was so poor it destroyed any immersion. I would have much preferred sidhe to plough every last cent into developing the engine.

I think that it'll be key in the games success whether the developers can find a way to make npc's not behave like complete idiots in-game. Bunching is a bit of a killer for rugby simulation!
 
Well well like others have said this is a huge surprise for me. My interest in a "next gen" has been raised. The only game that has triggered interest fore so far has been arkham knight, and with that being delayed I needed something else. Here it is.

Has a look around the net and found big ben have published a "handball" game for this year. Obviously i know the difference between developer and publisher but I hope Hb's efforts will be an improvement on what i saw on the net with the handball game.

Rwc11 was a decent game, I just hope they can improve on it and not just port the foundations of it with a coat of next gen paint. I guess new animations and gameplay mechanics are a bit of a big ask, but one can respectfully hope :) i look forward to screens :)
 
I'd imagine that some of the assets from previous games are still there at HB, so if nothing else there'll have been some look back at "how did we handle this aspect", "what is still usable here" that might've influenced to some degree this upcoming ***le.

I also hope there'll have been some good looking at how other ***les have done some things, like Rugby League Live 2's attacking support, defensive lines, tackling, fending/stepping & customisation (which aren't perfect, but are as close as any in rugby gaming), Rugby Challenge's graphics, Jonah Lomu Rugby's kicking. On top of that they'd need some good AI for the user's team and the CPU teams, which has been pretty poor to date.

So, there's a lot required to make something good and I'm really not holding my breath to be honest. I just hope it's a good platform to build off. I hope Rugby Challenge's series rather odd "game-play" (term used loosely) will not have created the idea that people will accept whatever's thown at them as long as it has decent graphics.
 
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Crazy

I'd imagine that some of the assets from previous games are still there at HB, so if nothing else there'll have been some look back at "how did we handle this aspect", "what is still usable here" that might've influenced to some degree this upcoming ***le.

I also hope there'll have been some good looking at how other ***les have done some things, like Rugby League Live 2's attacking support, defensive lines, tackling, fending/stepping & customisation (which aren't perfect, but are as close as any in rugby gaming), Rugby Challenge's graphics, Jonah Lomu Rugby's kicking. On top of that they'd need some good AI for the user's team and the CPU teams, which has been pretty poor to date.

So, there's a lot required to make something good and I'm really not holding my breath to be honest. I just hope it's a good platform to build off. I hope Rugby Challenge's series rather odd "game-play" (term used loosely) will not have created the idea that people will accept whatever's thown at them as long as it has decent graphics.

I think you're all crazy.

Rugby Challenge was excellent, certainly more complicated than rugby 08 (I'm not talking about RWC 2011, which was very bad) but with a good gameplay, freedom as in rugby (the position of players), the rucks...

In fact, if hb studios simply do RWC 2011 or Rugby 08 release PS4, the game will be bad, do not sell well and will not allow the installation of a series!
 
I think you're all crazy.

Rugby Challenge was excellent, certainly more complicated than rugby 08 (I'm not talking about RWC 2011, which was very bad) but with a good gameplay, freedom as in rugby (the position of players), the rucks...

In fact, if hb studios simply do RWC 2011 or Rugby 08 release PS4, the game will be bad, do not sell well and will not allow the installation of a series!



NO
 
I think you're all crazy.

Rugby Challenge was excellent, certainly more complicated than rugby 08 (I'm not talking about RWC 2011, which was very bad) but with a good gameplay, freedom as in rugby (the position of players), the rucks...

In fact, if hb studios simply do RWC 2011 or Rugby 08 release PS4, the game will be bad, do not sell well and will not allow the installation of a series!

Bit confused, are you trying to say the player positioning was good in Rugby Challenge?! Players were never where they were meant to be, lost count how many times in a game where your fly half simply wasnt at first receiver! The game did have a lot of strong points (rucking, lineouts and open field kicking in particular) but player positioning was just not one of them.

I guess the reason I struggle going back tO Rugby Challenge (and so far haven't ventured towards Rugby Challenge 2) is that there's rarely any structure to the gameplay. Simply put, its like 7's on steroids! I don't even know how many times I conceded tries from kick offs that were just offloaded impossibly out of contact between players right to the try line. Even with the offload slider all the way down the sheer number of offloads was ridiculous!

Believe me, RWC 2011 has a lot of kinks that just make me want to facepalm, but I can still play and enjoy it because I can throw a 2 on 1 without worrying that the pass will fly backwards randomly reason, or that my second row will be able to pull of a perfect 20m+ out the backdoor pass, but then not be able to pop it up to the bloke next to him. Plus I like kicking long penalties when I get them, and the RC kicking system pretty much couldn't get anything further than 35m - 40m (longest one I kicked was 41m with a big wind behind me).
 
I think you're all crazy.

Rugby Challenge was excellent, certainly more complicated than rugby 08 (I'm not talking about RWC 2011, which was very bad) but with a good gameplay, freedom as in rugby (the position of players), the rucks...

In fact, if hb studios simply do RWC 2011 or Rugby 08 release PS4, the game will be bad, do not sell well and will not allow the installation of a series!

None of the rugby games I mentioned are flawless. Rugby '06 and Rugby '08 were products of 2005 and 2007 and were good at the time. They were a step in the right direction. Sure they have problems and flaws. The structure of how your own AI played was average at best and the gap in the centres was terrible. By 2011, a lot f what was being done there had become terribly outdated and the game felt too rigid, tending towards being on rails. The graphics were terrible and the customisation, a joke. HB's rugby games were not great but they are not alone on this.

Rugby Challenge had serious flaws.

It has little to no structure, it has a lot of bugs.
Crazy passes, even when they should go to hand.
The defensive line would just not be there at times.
It has a ridiculous number of offloads to attempt to compensate for poor AI.
Players wander off-side of their own accord.
You don't have great control of your player, when scoring tries you can get forced out by 3 consecutive tackles where you stay on your feet (RC2).
Players can also (if they are strong enough) can go from chain animation to chain animation, getting knocked around in a sea of tackles (RC2).
There was a massive database error in the first ***le which meant you couldn't do much customisation on console without players duplicating themselves.
Forwards spend little time in rucks or following the ball (unless you wanted to lose those rucks).
Backs were often wildly out of postion.
The fullback and first-five wouldn't pocket in the first game and not deep enough in the second.
It has the camera cutting off large chunks of some grounds on side-view. This was known with a ground at least on RC1 and not taken care of RC2.
Glitches galore (mid-field line-out anyone)?

It is not excellent. It has nice graphics and a good degree of customisation in RC2 (the most broken one). If memory serves, you were into customisation/modding and in RC2, that's all people do now, they don't play it, it's become dress-up dolly rugby "I've got these jerseys and this player with his new hair-do!".

Although, I have not claimed any rugby game to be excellent.

I don't see a series of Rugby Challenge continuing either unless they address serious bugs in the way they've made the past two games. I would even claim Rugby Challenge 1 as the better of the two. Tru Blu did not stand behind their game by paying for a decent patch for Rugby Challenge 2, the one that went in was miniscule. I think they couldn't fix what was broken without investing a lot more time and money. Patches now (and for some time have) cost nothing on PS3 and Xbox 360, yet they did nothing to really address the issues they could have.

I really hope Big Ant make a rugby game. They've gone from a poorish Rugby League Live, to a good game in Rugby League Live 2 and only look to be getting better with their just released Don Bradman Cricket '14. They follow up with patches where necessary (did a few for Rugby League) and listen to feedback from their consumers. In AFL (Aussie rules), they released their first ***le, to a largely "hey it's okay, could be better" sort've response and then the producer Tru Blu gave the sequel to another developer. Now the fans are screaming for them to be given back the franchise! That's the kind of developer that we need for a rugby game. Even if they don't get licenses, they allow for a huge amount of customisation.
 
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I thought, actually, Rugby Challenge 2 was pretty good in co-op, if anyone got that chance. You could position your players and self-impose rules on offloading and kicking. It negated a lot of the gameplay issues, even if the glitches remained. However, not everyone had this luxury of a second player. I felt RWC2011 was a far more fluid game and one I enjoyed more, but I appreciated the range of options (In terms of both customisation and gameplay modes) available in RC2 and it's predecessor, even more so with an alternate pathway to negate the many issues.
 
Call me superficial - but I want damn licensed teams and players - that aren't restricted. Until someone sorts out licensing all main national teams and leagues, I'm just not too interested (although I have no PS4, so maybe no one cares..)
 
I would be more than happy with Super Rugby, Heineken Cup and international teams. That's not too many licensed teams to ask for, is it? Throw in a create a tournament mode, then just focus on the game play. Easy.
 
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Yea to be honest if i had the choice between an hd ps3 version of rugby 08 or rugby challenge 1/2 it would be rugby 08 every time.

The rugby challenge games just aren't playable for the most part. The gameplay is poor and the game modes are an after thought. The only good thing about the game is the graphics and customisation the rest of it is a giant mess. I can only play it online (and these days there isn't anybody online) otherwise it just isn't fun imo.

Rugby world cup was a bit of a joke to be honest. I didn't buy and didn't even bother to play it, there was no point when i already had rugby 08.

So if HB can make the game more open i.e less bunching and so limited in the passing, improve the lineouts and scrums, have more animations and physics, increase penalty options and implement a proper career mode i would be very happy.
Licensees i don't care so much about. Just make sure that the licences you do get have the right rosters which Sidhe couldn't even be bothered to bloody do.
Ill be pretty happy with that.
 
When you say it, it hurts :(.

Hey you asked me to, so I did. :p

Have to agree with welshglory. I really hope HB have had some more time and money for development this go round. They made Rugby World Cup with a shoestring budget. Other than licensing, the creation of the game largely existed without a producer to pay the bills. It pretty much seemed that in-house they had some rugby fans working there who really wanted to make another game, but EA had backed off, World Cup or not. The path from '05 to '06, then '08 was a steady if unspectacular rise from their first crack with a very poor engine in Rugby '04.

To me, all of that points to this game depending on what resources, time and backing they might've had. The Golf Club game they've been working on shows that they've got considerable development talent and it just needs to be proven all over again with Rugby. It could really go either way until we know a lot more.
 
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I don't agree with the praise of HB series vs the criticism of RC series. Both are literally the two sides of the same coin, one has it's strengths where the other has weaknesses and the other way around (I'm talking gameplay only).
RC's running game is excellent while HB long documented 30 man conga line is excellent for all the wrong reasons.
Scrums are mixed, both have good things, HB had feeding and hooking which I think it's huge.
Lineouts are all for RC, unless anyone wants to make a case.
Rucks are mixed too, I liked RC2 approach a lot but missed some of the realistic chaos in HB, while the options after the breakdown were better covered by HB.
Injuries are both poor, with RC stopping play and forcing a substitution and HB stopping the game indefinitely.
General kicking is better by RC but goal kicking goes entirely to HB, RC had a good idea but never refined it, no middle ground, no length, no angle, basically no HB.
Tactics, HB had some plays to run, but they were all too much on rails, once it triggered they will complete it no matter if the ball was lost on the first pass. While RC had a nice thing adjusting commitment, width and depth for different zones of the pitch, but it was a bit too messed up.
Basically, we need RC3 as much as we need R15. Competition forces the other party to raise the bar. Financially it could pose an issue since the market is not big enough for two, but I think the market is small because it has been constantly disappointed for a very long time. I'll worry about licenses when I have a game I can't let go.
 
Rugby Challenge 2 isn't perfect (passes, mauls ...), but it looks like rugby, maybe why you have trouble with this game

Obviously, you have not made ​​adjustments (increase), defense urgency, attack urgency, for a perfect replacement players.

It is perhaps a matter of taste.

Remember if rugby challenge series has sold very well, it is because he is a good series.

Personally, if Hb studios don't make a lot of work on the rucks, the inertia of the players, the freedom and of course the graphics, I will not buy Rugby 15 even if it is the only game rugby on PS4.

Not forgotten that the most selling of Rugby Challenge are in France and that Rugby 15 must take some ingredients of it's series to succeed.
 

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