As another of the people who have been waiting for a decent PS3 rugby game for some time, I was really looking forward to this next installment and quite optimistic for the fact that HB were asking questions and making all the right noises. What concerns me is this...
It's been a good three years since the last game was released which is beyond being plenty of time to create a game. It feels like a lot of the process of asking what people want from this game has come after the fact in a way, and that for the most part the structure of the game was decided long before any questions were asked. Now, having read the answers that the team has given, I feel like we're being told that effectively this will be a glossier repackage of what we've seen before with 08.
So here's my question: why, when there have been a full three years since the last game and literally hundreds of sports titles to learn from in that time, plus an entire three years worth of people on forums begging the creators to deliver a game that works on a better engine with cleaner movement and more refined aspects (passing, kicking etc), has the developer just gone back to the old tried and true?
Maybe I'm misinterpreting what is being said, but it reads to me a lot like "thanks for the feedback, it'll be a glossier Rugby 08 and we'll work on it in the years to come".
What you're more likely to do is turn a lot of people off the game by releasing something that isn't completely honed and doesn't deliver on at least a similar proposition to anything you'd get from another major sports title. And all because you want to release around a world cup.
Just my two cents, feel free to rip them apart.