L
locksley
Guest
XBM MAGAZINE REVIEW – RUGBY 2005
It would be easy to dismiss a bad review of a rugby game by suggesting that reviewer has no idea about the sport or the rules! Well, too bad, because we know our sports buddy, and Rugby 2005 still sucks!
Why? Well, how about the dumbest AI we’ve witnessed in a sports game since, well, FIFA Street. Players run in a pack – there is no independent thought involved, and try replays often result in comical scenes, packs of defending players running away from the scorer! They drop balls, and balls hit them in the face, fall at their feet and remaining there until the rest of the pack catches up.
EA’s Americanisation of the sport also means that you can’t place the ball down, but actually have to dive to the ground – you will actually dive out of bounds occasionally and give a dropkick to the opposition rather than score. And after throw-ins, your players stand around like statues and fail to pick up the loose ball – the game is full of bizarre such EA-isms.
We really wanted to like RUGBY 2005; it would have made a change from the football/basketball/ice hockey ***les that drop through our door. As it stands, this is a clumsy and rushed game, that any discerning fan should dropkick into touch!
IAN D
VERDICT
Out of 10
LOOKS – 5
SOUNDS – 3
GAMEPLAY – 2
LIFESPAN – 2
OVERALL - 3
Why we’d buy it:
It’s Rugby
Lots of options
Why we’d leave it!
Poor AI
Rubbish controls
End Quote
Rubbish. A step back from Rugby 2004, and for sports games in general!
It would be easy to dismiss a bad review of a rugby game by suggesting that reviewer has no idea about the sport or the rules! Well, too bad, because we know our sports buddy, and Rugby 2005 still sucks!
Why? Well, how about the dumbest AI we’ve witnessed in a sports game since, well, FIFA Street. Players run in a pack – there is no independent thought involved, and try replays often result in comical scenes, packs of defending players running away from the scorer! They drop balls, and balls hit them in the face, fall at their feet and remaining there until the rest of the pack catches up.
EA’s Americanisation of the sport also means that you can’t place the ball down, but actually have to dive to the ground – you will actually dive out of bounds occasionally and give a dropkick to the opposition rather than score. And after throw-ins, your players stand around like statues and fail to pick up the loose ball – the game is full of bizarre such EA-isms.
We really wanted to like RUGBY 2005; it would have made a change from the football/basketball/ice hockey ***les that drop through our door. As it stands, this is a clumsy and rushed game, that any discerning fan should dropkick into touch!
IAN D
VERDICT
Out of 10
LOOKS – 5
SOUNDS – 3
GAMEPLAY – 2
LIFESPAN – 2
OVERALL - 3
Why we’d buy it:
It’s Rugby
Lots of options
Why we’d leave it!
Poor AI
Rubbish controls
End Quote
Rubbish. A step back from Rugby 2004, and for sports games in general!