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On Monday last week, I got invited up to London, to not only play Rugby World Cup 2011 but also meet someone who The Rugby Forum had been dealing with for over a year, Alastair Jarvis. This was a fantastic opportunity for myself and the forum to get hands on with the game as well as have a chat with Alastair, the only problem was that I was in Cornwall on Holiday, so a logistical nightmare, meaning I would have to wait till I could post any useful information up, and you will be pleased to know that this is the post. (Finally!!!)
On my arrival to this boardroom, I was met by Alastair and the team from Things with Wings and 505 Games. The boardroom was laid out with a 50+ inch Screen and an Xbox 360 with 2 Controllers, the screen was illuminated with the front screen of Rugby World Cup 2011, in a crisp blue colour, my initial reaction in my head was “WOW I WANT TO PLAY NOW!†but got engrossed into a great conversation with Alastair, who praised the forum for their feedback and the staff for helping out with everything they have done so far. We talked a little bit about stats and how the site was progressing in detail until the time came to start talking about what we all want to hear about, the game!
The Gameplay
Well time to just get on and talk about the gameplay, recently I have been playing a lot of Rugby 08, trying to get back up to speed, however playing on the PC, one thing that popped to mind when playing it was how slow the gameplay was, immediately I noticed that the game play was at more of a match speed this is something that made it automatically more exciting straight away, and allowed you to pick up the controls very quickly, it felt a very natural game to play. The set plays and the defensive lines were automatically very realistic, with more natural movement of the players and the ball.
The Control System
Straight away a quick look at the control system before the game started, it became very easy to judge which controls to use, how to do different moves, the first major change that Alastair spoke to me about was the ruck, and the ruck intensity, this feature is superb, basically when a ruck is formed both teams have to tap to increase the intensity that they want to use in the ruck, however it’s about getting the intensity right as too much could cause an infringement at the ruck resulting in either a penalty or advantage to be played, this makes winning rucks easier but also creates a bit of a contest which allows the speed of the game not to be compromised. Also in terms of isolation there is now the feature that if a player is tackled and isolated a ruck is not always formed, and the ball can be picked up to let play carry on, this is something which is going to take some time to get mastered, you need to be fast to do it. There is now the option to Chip Kick, I have seen this mentioned elsewhere, but this is a welcomed feature, that I believe was mentioned on The Rugby Forum and taken forward.
Licencing
I don’t think I need to talk too much about this as we all know that this game is international teams now, we know that the following Unions have been announced as being fully licenced in the game: England, South Africa and France. We also know that there are more and more announcements due over the next couple of weeks, which will give us a clearer picture of where things stand. In terms of the player editor, this is going to be a name, position and attribute editor, there is no create your own player, and there is no create your own team. The editor will be good as you will be able to modify the position of a player and their attributes if you don’t feel they are as good as what’s been rated or they are better than what they have been rated.
Features
The Feature List is not as full as people would like but HB Studios have done the best they can with the licences they have got, the games features:
Rugby World Cup 2011: This is what it says on the tin, from the pool stages to the knock out stages of the tournament, with either the official pools or randomised pools.
International Match: This is a simple single game format.
The Warm Up Tour: This mode allows you to take any team and tour any part of the world you choose. It is a great addition to the game to give it an additional factor for longitivity. However to unlock some of the
bigger nations you have to tour with a Tier 2 nation.
Place Kick Shoot Out: This mode is going to be party mode, I can see myself playing this to death with a bunch of mates round and a few beers, the idea behind it is a quick and easy game which you can pick up and play with a group of mates. This will no doubt involve some great drinking games around this.
Online Gameplay: One of the biggest factors around this game is the online gameplay, we know it is going to be supported by both Xbox Live and Playstation Network, the true power of this game will be released, OK its not going to be club based but rugby comes into its own at International level, we at The Rugby Forum are already having a think how we will be able to create some fantastic games around this to keep the community involved, but more on this at a later date.
Roundup
All in all this game is superb, HB Studios have done well, the AI difficulty has been modified to make it harder, especially with the Hard mode now being Hard, that should trick Gay Guy and co. But right down to have the try Celebrations in game and no more cut scenes make a big difference, I found when I picked this game up it was like I had been playing it for years, there was a certain form of familiarity to it, but also on that basis I was only doing the basics, there are so many elements of gameplay to play with, which makes it a beast to try and master, which is all part of the fun. The graphics have been talked on the forum about a lot but it really does look good, better than the screenshots give it justice, you are never going to be able to tell how good the graphics are until you play a game or at least see a video of it. All in all HB Studios have created a great game and 505 Games are lucky to have the rights to publish it. All I want to say now is if you have any questions please ask and HB Studios/505 Games I think I need to play it again, I can’t wait until August to play it, I have tasted it and want more more and more.
On my arrival to this boardroom, I was met by Alastair and the team from Things with Wings and 505 Games. The boardroom was laid out with a 50+ inch Screen and an Xbox 360 with 2 Controllers, the screen was illuminated with the front screen of Rugby World Cup 2011, in a crisp blue colour, my initial reaction in my head was “WOW I WANT TO PLAY NOW!†but got engrossed into a great conversation with Alastair, who praised the forum for their feedback and the staff for helping out with everything they have done so far. We talked a little bit about stats and how the site was progressing in detail until the time came to start talking about what we all want to hear about, the game!
The Gameplay
Well time to just get on and talk about the gameplay, recently I have been playing a lot of Rugby 08, trying to get back up to speed, however playing on the PC, one thing that popped to mind when playing it was how slow the gameplay was, immediately I noticed that the game play was at more of a match speed this is something that made it automatically more exciting straight away, and allowed you to pick up the controls very quickly, it felt a very natural game to play. The set plays and the defensive lines were automatically very realistic, with more natural movement of the players and the ball.
The Control System
Straight away a quick look at the control system before the game started, it became very easy to judge which controls to use, how to do different moves, the first major change that Alastair spoke to me about was the ruck, and the ruck intensity, this feature is superb, basically when a ruck is formed both teams have to tap to increase the intensity that they want to use in the ruck, however it’s about getting the intensity right as too much could cause an infringement at the ruck resulting in either a penalty or advantage to be played, this makes winning rucks easier but also creates a bit of a contest which allows the speed of the game not to be compromised. Also in terms of isolation there is now the feature that if a player is tackled and isolated a ruck is not always formed, and the ball can be picked up to let play carry on, this is something which is going to take some time to get mastered, you need to be fast to do it. There is now the option to Chip Kick, I have seen this mentioned elsewhere, but this is a welcomed feature, that I believe was mentioned on The Rugby Forum and taken forward.
Licencing
I don’t think I need to talk too much about this as we all know that this game is international teams now, we know that the following Unions have been announced as being fully licenced in the game: England, South Africa and France. We also know that there are more and more announcements due over the next couple of weeks, which will give us a clearer picture of where things stand. In terms of the player editor, this is going to be a name, position and attribute editor, there is no create your own player, and there is no create your own team. The editor will be good as you will be able to modify the position of a player and their attributes if you don’t feel they are as good as what’s been rated or they are better than what they have been rated.
Features
The Feature List is not as full as people would like but HB Studios have done the best they can with the licences they have got, the games features:
Rugby World Cup 2011: This is what it says on the tin, from the pool stages to the knock out stages of the tournament, with either the official pools or randomised pools.
International Match: This is a simple single game format.
The Warm Up Tour: This mode allows you to take any team and tour any part of the world you choose. It is a great addition to the game to give it an additional factor for longitivity. However to unlock some of the
bigger nations you have to tour with a Tier 2 nation.
Place Kick Shoot Out: This mode is going to be party mode, I can see myself playing this to death with a bunch of mates round and a few beers, the idea behind it is a quick and easy game which you can pick up and play with a group of mates. This will no doubt involve some great drinking games around this.
Online Gameplay: One of the biggest factors around this game is the online gameplay, we know it is going to be supported by both Xbox Live and Playstation Network, the true power of this game will be released, OK its not going to be club based but rugby comes into its own at International level, we at The Rugby Forum are already having a think how we will be able to create some fantastic games around this to keep the community involved, but more on this at a later date.
Roundup
All in all this game is superb, HB Studios have done well, the AI difficulty has been modified to make it harder, especially with the Hard mode now being Hard, that should trick Gay Guy and co. But right down to have the try Celebrations in game and no more cut scenes make a big difference, I found when I picked this game up it was like I had been playing it for years, there was a certain form of familiarity to it, but also on that basis I was only doing the basics, there are so many elements of gameplay to play with, which makes it a beast to try and master, which is all part of the fun. The graphics have been talked on the forum about a lot but it really does look good, better than the screenshots give it justice, you are never going to be able to tell how good the graphics are until you play a game or at least see a video of it. All in all HB Studios have created a great game and 505 Games are lucky to have the rights to publish it. All I want to say now is if you have any questions please ask and HB Studios/505 Games I think I need to play it again, I can’t wait until August to play it, I have tasted it and want more more and more.
