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The more I play it.....the more I hate it.......

N

NZL Fan

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Everybody is entitled to there opinion, so here's mine............please note these thoughts are based on the one player mode. If games are meant to only be good on multiplayer then they should be advertised as such. The only real way to judge any other game, and compare it to others, is to base your judgement on single player mode - the most used mode by the majority of people playing the game.

Like most I bought the game on release and was amazed at how well HB studios had done. However as days wore on, and the improved graphics I had seen had lessened in importance, the poor gameplay and overall design of the game started to grate - to the point now that a week later I think I've had enough.

For instance.

*Difficulty modes are ********. Normal is far too easy, and hard is a real snooze fest against teams like England, where turnovers occur against you regardless of a given situation, and the oppostion players have been "sped up" to make it harder (rather then they actually play better). I can beat England more times then not on hard, but to be honest it isn't FUN in the way you have to play, due to the handicaps you have been given in hard mode.

*The game comes across as far too automated. In normal difficulty the same type of tries are scored all the time. You'll break the line, and regardless of how quickly you free the ball the opposition will have a perfect line of defenders waiting. Watch any super 12 game and look at the defensive lines after several phases of play. some players are deeper, some flat - not all lined up in a row like in rugby 2005. If this occured in rugby 2005 you would then be forced to try different attacking approaches, and defending would be harder. At present defending is FAR too easy, and on hard mode the opposition AI tends to just kick endless drop goals in order to acheive a win (yawn).

*Talking about the automated feel.........set pieces are still far too slow. On one of the set peices you can never tackle one of the passing players due to the animation being half completed!! Certain players in certain set moves always have a hole to run into.

*The biggest issue is the motion capture animation problems. This is especially evident when you go to pass but cannot (even though the tackler is still five mtrs away from you), because the "tackling animation" has already kicked in. More of a gameplay issue on the hard mode as the opposition have been unfairly sped up to make it harder, so the animation problem occurs when the tackler is even further away from you! It also affects the ability to grubber kick on the run, and also the use of the right stick.

*The right stick moves are fairly useless (mainly due to the timing problems caused by the "animation problem"). Some people will swear black and blue that they "use them all the time", but you'll actually find you'll beat more players by just changing direction yourself using the left stick.

*Lack of penalties awarded you. Penalties are an important element in any rugby union game. You hardly ever get a penalty given to you. I've played a lot of games and just about all my penalties came from the opposition collapsing the maul. I ONCE got awarded an offside penalty (yippee!!), but this was after about 40 games where the computer controlled opposition seemed to be able to tackle my players regardless if they had retired behind the last mans feet or not. Really annoying when your first five is tackled by a retreating player who suddenly tackles your man when he is at least 10mtrs offside!!

*All camera angles are crap - two are virtually unusable, the other two both have major gameplay issues, or are unattractive to play from.

*The rucks are a dogs breakfast. There appears to be no decent reasoning behind a majority of the ruck wins - in fact on hard mode the computer downright cheats to deny you possession. You can sometimes have your entire forward pack at the breakdown but somehow lose the ball to the opposition forwards arriving half an hour late. You can make multiple big hits that drive the opposition back 15 mtrs or so but still you can not get a turnover??

There are millions of other annoying things (ie. players "warping" into position, the 8mtr diving tackles, player creation problems, poor player research, unable to create a tourney, players seemingly anable to catch a simple punted ball, passes going 40mtrs backwards to nobody etc etc).

Yes it is the best rugby game created thus far (though that isn't saying too much!!) but I now find this game VERY boring.

In fact the biggest improvement have been in the graphics (which had very little to do with HB studios ability as developers) whilst the gameplay from rugby 2004 has been "tweaked", with some annoying issues still not rectified.

The real problem gameplay issue for me is hard to finger, but if I had to try to explain it I would say that it doesn't feel like real rugby (like PES4 feels like real football), and the PLAYERS seem to have no real redeeming qualities that make one seem different to one another (except for speed).

Thats it I think - the developers have captured the TEAM element of the sport without capturing the INDIVIDUALITY of the different players that make up the teams.........
 
You know what? That's spot on.

I bought the Xbox version on release, after having the PS2 version for so long, and I don't touch the single player mode at all. The Xbox version is far slicker and a lot more responsive than the PS2's, but it's still boring.

Multi-player, however, is a different story. I still play it regularly on multi-player mode and enjoy it a lot. The weaknesses of the game are evened out between both players in multiplay matches.

Yes, after a lot of play, I do agree that Rugby 2005 for the single player gets stale very quickly!
 
as much as i hate to say it....I AGREE!
-the AI is CRAP.....kick, kick, kick
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-no offloads
-cut out passes look crap
-set moves too slow
-kicking
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-lineouts are way too simple
-mauls (why cant we drive it all the way and TURN it?)
-fly half too flat
-camera angles
 
Yeah... this game isn't one that will last long.

-AI kicking drop goals on hard??? wtf
-Funny movements off the ball by halfback and when balls goes out of play.. they warp around in circles
-The ball rolling back to the Halfback ALA r2004 sometimes the halfback is 2m from the ruck and it magically rolls back to him
-passing too slow
-Stupid camera views... especially for kicking to touch etc


Not enough action in the game.. AI kicks more than jonny
 
in a way the game sorta feels like r04.
eg
-the passing is not responsive
-ball physics
-some of the animations

HB hav not started frm scratch they hav tired to build from rugby 2004...
 
Yeah, cut out passes look crap. Why do they practcly stop running. In real life u are more likely to keep running after u've completed the pass.
 
I agree 100% NZL fan. I'm just lucky I didn't buy the game. I hired it out, and it's a really fun game to just hire out and thrash at, it's not a game to fork out 100 bucks on though.
 
I only forked out 10

and I got the most out of the game that can possibly be ...got.
 
werent we saying in the other threads dat this is the best rugby game ever ??? geez
 
Yes, but It's no where near best sports game or anything. It's fun in short doses. I still prefer SJRL though.
 
these are just annoying little F!@K ups that should've been dealt with. in rugby 2001 backs ran onto the ball, rucks in WCR looked better and their kick and chases were the best. (and many, many more)

they should have implementd these little aspects but they didnt, they tried to start from scratch and look what resulted. RUGBY 2004 was a quantum leap backwards....rugby 2005 is what 04 should've been....i seriously hope the upcoming rugby games steal all the postive aspects from all rugby games and implement them to make the best rugby game ever, union or league!!!
 
Originally posted by candybum@Mar 28 2005, 07:59 PM
werent we saying in the other threads dat this is the best rugby game ever ??? geez
wel yeh its the best rugby game over alright. But that only means its better than the earlier version *cough* rugby 2004 *cough* and rugby league 2004
 
Originally posted by locksley@Mar 28 2005, 12:48 PM
You know what? That's spot on.

I bought the Xbox version on release, after having the PS2 version for so long, and I don't touch the single player mode at all. The Xbox version is far slicker and a lot more responsive than the PS2's, but it's still boring.

Multi-player, however, is a different story. I still play it regularly on multi-player mode and enjoy it a lot. The weaknesses of the game are evened out between both players in multiplay matches.

Yes, after a lot of play, I do agree that Rugby 2005 for the single player gets stale very quickly!
To be fair locks, you dont play many Rubgy games on 1 player only to hone your skills. I think you need to own up to being a multiplayer nut
<


I think theres too much listening to other people on here at the moment. I think people are now looking for things that other people have mentioned and are probably ending up spoiling the game for themselves.

Im still having loads of fun with it despite the problems and what we HAVE to remember is that this is just another stepping stone ( A BIG ONE ) to the game that everyone wants.

Surely everyone must agree that it has at least gone in the right direction this time and with online play surely looming for the next version, we will all have multiplay at our fingertips.

Just a matter of time....

In the meantime get a sticker that says " My other computer is a spectrum " and you may learn to appreciate the little things about Rugby 2005 again
<
 
@nzl-fan

I agree with everything you've said there.

@knowsleyroader - the more you play this game the more it antagonises you.

I thought the game was great at first but I was still aware I hadn't played it enough to be good enough to find out what was going to a problem.

I find you have to have a decent team to be any good at this game. I've breezed normal mode going as Aus, NZ and England but yesterday I took up as Wales and took the default team it gave me and i got beaten 21-0 by italy on a 20 minute match. This was after losing 31-21 to England in the match before (i scored 3 tries in the last 15).

I just couldn't get into their 22. Everytime I did get close my players knocked and gave away a free kick.

The abysmal kicking game means you cannot compete with the CPU if it decides you won't break its line and you can only do that if you have speedy players else you forget it. This is another game where it really comes down to the speed of everything.

The fact you cannot pass the ball out quickly before being tackled is highly annoying and the fact people suddenly catch balls from 2 meters away from them also spoils carefully placed kicks.

Lke mentioned above, for a sport that usually has a fair penalty count i think I have been awarded one kickable penalty in front of the posts.

On the surface this game kicked WCR's ass but now I find myself doing the same game plan. Constantly, throwing the ball left and right to make up ground.

This cumbersome pc menu and lack of competition options would have been forgiven if the game play was spot on.
 
My biggest issue is boredom, quite frankly single player bores me, as you say, all the tries scored on normal mode are the same, and it gets very frustrating on hard mode turning the ball over repeatedly, then fighting to get field position back only for another turnover, punt and do it all again, until say, a forward commits a basic knock on, or you pass the ball 30 metres backwards.

Even multiplayer only frustrates me, so many times players will turn the ball over without reason, forwards taking the ball up next to the ruck, shoulder charge into the tackle, turnover. I'd love to know how it happens, then other times a centre will be tackled, totally isolated, and keep the ball. The level of knock ons, even when the sliders are adjusted, is a joke, players will drop the ball when tackled from behind far too often, and I've found in many games against my mates, the majority of possesion gained is from either offside penalties that we couldn't avoid, or passes going backwards from the ruck 30 or 40 yards. That's right, our best attacking move is wait until the passing engine f***s up.

Don't get me started on how easy it is (and effective it is) to rush out of the line and belt the crap out of the first or second receiver, how easy it is to run across the line following the passes in defense, making spreading the ball very difficult, and how dodgy some of the outside backs AI can be.

The game is a great base for future games, and I can play one or two games at a time before frustration and/or boredom sets in, but I still now play a lot of games of Rugby League, particularly multiplayer on PC, and even with the massive flaws that game has, at least when it works well it is fun. Rugby 2005 can be fun, but the frustration just seems to override the joy of playing the game more often than not.
 
i think you need to pick a new bunch of fowards if u loose the ball against england i can win 40 percent of the rucks on hard with tonga if i pick the right squad.

and with the all blacks i win round 70% of the ball.
 
I have to admit i do agree with some of teh things said about this game but i am still playing the SP regularly and am having fun. The problem i have is that some of teh single player matches are to inconsitant. EG playing a tri-nations match against SA (i was all blacks) was teh best match iv played on there and iv had teh game since release so iv played alot of matches yet the following match against australia did get very boring very quickly.
This is a big step up in terms of rugby gaming and for that we should be thankful but all in all there is still an awful lot of work to be done.
 

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