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Rugby League 2 Review

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doovepop

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Rugby League 2 review

http://www.varsity.co.nz/games/articles.asp?id=5061
Well, what can I say?

I hope Jonah makes a sturdy recovery back to the All Blacks for RWC07, because we really need a rugby/league console game that competes against his '95 version, and sadly, this is not it.

Don’t get me wrong, they’ve tried really hard, and you can tell.

The similarities to actual players, both in looks and ability in play is amazing. The attention to detail to the stadiums and crowds is awefully accurate and the Franchise game mode option is full of detail off the paddock. However the playing of footy gets rather frustrating.

Again, they’ve tried real hard.

On paper, it should actually be a real good game of League. You have all the options you could think of for a console game. From the tackle ball you can pass one out, two out, three out, even skip three players to a fourth, you can pass directly to one of your two playmakers, and you can even scoop and run from dummy half.
With ball in hand, you can offload in the tackle (depending on which player it is) skip pass, dummy, step and fend, you can punt, bomb and grubber kick. On defense you have three different types of tackle options, including stripping. So really you should be set up for a mean game of League.

But you aren’t.

The reaction time from pushing your chosen play to it actually happening is slower than a Brent Webb conversion. All the camera angle options are like Benji Marshall post try celebrations “just not rightâ€. Whenever an infringement or break in play takes place, you are waiting a solid amount of time as it goes to a “Logo screen†then to a player shaking his head, back to this logo screen before waiting for a scrum to pack down. Which doesn’t sound like much here, but the button delay’s for skipping these screens are more apparent here than during play, and after a few games it really does get more frustrating than Stephen McIvor hyping something up.

We spent more time swearing at the screen than the players do.

So, unless you have a League teams brand tattooed on you arm, play in the NRL or your first name is Mad, surname Butcher, your tolerance for this game will be low. Hire it sure, have a bit of fun with some mates, by yourself play the franchise option. However purchasing this game will have you dropkicking yourself after about 3 hours of play.

Go Jonah. Put Cardiff Blues at the top of the Premiership, come back for a kiwi season, put that black jersey back on and fulfill your destiny of bringing that Webb Ellis trophy back to its rightful home. We need your console game upgraded.

I have spoken

Mike aka t-wrecks
 
the best thing about it is that he mentions Jonah

He mentions Jonahs Comeback
He mentions the benchmark antique of a rugby game
He puts 2 and 2 together, and hopes the comeback is in both forms...real life and virtual form.
He know his rugby....especially in the gaming world!
 
This guy must have a lifetime ban from the Sidhe forums after that review.
 
Originally posted by C A Iversen@Jan 1 2006, 03:25 PM
This guy must have a lifetime ban from the Sidhe forums after that review.
<

Probably right! Mario and his sidhe mafia buddies don't take criticism well it seems.
 
3DAvenue.com review.............

A few years ago HES put itself on the map with the first NRL game in a long time. After taking the license from EA, HES enlisted Sidhe, a New Zealand developer to get the game done. The result was a quality ***le that showed so much potential if Sidhe was given more time and more money to develop a second ***le. That second ***le is now here and Sidhe is now a much bigger developer. Rugby League 2 gives fans exactly what they want but still has a few issues to contend with before jumping to the next generation of consoles.

As with the original game, most of the game modes revolve around the NRL Telstra Premiership. You can play a season or exhibition match for a quick play but for the true die-hard NRL fans, franchise will be the order of the day. The franchise mode is new for Rugby League 2 and mimics that of many higher profile sport ***les such as Madden.

The default camera is top/down but Sidhe have really worked on the TV style presentation and we found the dynamic camera to look the best while remaining playable. Aside from that really Rugby League 2 is a graphical update of the original game which to be honest is a little disappointing. Sidhe had two years to build this game, and decided the animation engine they used for the original was enough. Don’t be surprised if you feel a little too familiar with the game when you first start playing if you have played the original game.

With that said, the guys have worked very hard on getting this year’s game right. The AI has been reworked and generally offers a much better challenge to gamers this time around. The days of passing five or six times and sprinting to the try line is over. They have also heavily worked on the presentation but on the PS2 version this becomes more an annoyance than anything as it greatly increases the load time between plays. We found ourselves turning this off within the first match as the game flows much better without it.

In terms of animation, it appears not much has changed. The tackles seem all the same and this was one of our biggest disappointments with the game. It is obvious Sidhe has worked on many aspects but this is not one of them. However there are also many positives to the game. The franchise mode has given Sidhe the option to add recruitment and long term injuries to the game as well as the judiciary. The game only comes up with a ticker to indicate the amount of suspension. It would be nice to have the option to watch a replay and decide whether to contest it or not in the next edition of the game.

In terms of licensing, Sidhe does not disappoint. The game includes both the Telstra Premiership and English Super League and the grounds that make those competitions up and like the last game the representative teams are all here with the Blues and Maroons, International Teams and even City vs Country. The difference is with the franchise mode, this like the real world can affect your ability to play due to injuries or suspensions incurred while on rep duty,

The actual grounds have been updated once again and again appear be the real standout feature. Sidhe has put a huge level of detail into each structure right down to the advertising boards and surrounding areas of the stadiums. Even so, this also adds a little disappointment as we expected Sidhe to really re-work the graphics engine. It’s not a bad engine, but it’s also not that much better than the original. The game is also on console exclusive to Playstation so this obviously has limited the work that could be done to improve the graphics.

Rugby League 2 is hopefully a stop gap until a better game for the next gen. The addition of franchise is what makes this game probably worth buying for NRL fans but for those who can wait and have the original, it’s almost as good and the upgrade is not worth the money in our opinion.

Verdict: 3 stars out of 5 stars.
 
Nice review, I agree with most, but i hav found that there are quite alot of new tackle animations, especially all the two man tackles, agreed that alot of the old ones are still there, but there are definately lots of new ones to.

with regards to the graphics the player models are awsome, but the stadiums, they look like crap on both versions, and I cant see any noticable improvements from RL1 in this aspect.(other than updates)

Do u actually play extensively on dynamic! Does anyone else?!
 
Some one should post these reviews on Sidhe Forum and check out the response from the Nazi
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They are pretty much spot on!
 

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