Our new game is coming soon:- "Rugby Champions"

[TRF_Olyy]

How bad of a computer can you run it on?
My laptop can handle overwatch on the lowest settings, reckon I'm good?

 

[GPRed]

My review:

Rugby game with 2019 World cup tournament mode and rosters made by the community to update player names (stats need updating tho). The game doesn't offer AAA graphics and reminds me of EA Rugby 2001 (much improved on the graphics front tho due to the Unity engine). The bonus of this is that I get to play the game on my crappy laptop and my gaming desktop.
The gameplay is fun and much improved from recent years attempts, given that the game is developed by a two man team, you have to take your hat off to them.
The kick is not perfect yet and I'm struggling with slow-mo and out of a slow-mo movement (this might be me not used to controls yet). I do love the slow-mo as it works perfectly with the gameplay. Something I do miss from the game is a fatigue bar when sprinting, I'm not sure if this is implemented tho, but should definitely be on my wishlist.
The controls are well laid out but will take some practice to time perfect. At the current edition, there is no ability to pick up with the 8man from the scrum, lineout and scrums also don't really seem contestable. (If you care about that, doesn't break the gameplay and no need for silly minigames)
Rucks is all about timing and space if you isolate your player you can bet you will lose the ball, especially if you don't preload players to enter the ruck. One can, however, only win the world cup so many times, so how to ensure more hours of fun with the game.
What I would really like to see as a DLC is perhaps a World League edition like the previous Rugby 2008 offered. Throw in in some random clubs on a couple of leagues, player transfers, budgeting with player progression and regression (age and injuries aren't kind to players) and you have a pretty solid game at your hand with years of enjoyment.
The whole package is packed in under 500mb, don't let that fool you. Given the price, I can go and enjoy a nice double whopper meal at my local BK. The launch price is set correctly and you won't be disappointed, it is well worth it. (it's an absolute steal) You have no excuse to support the developers and buy the game!
The developers should be applauded for their efforts, I do see myself getting bored in the near future with only one tournament and hope to see some additions in the near future instead of purchasing a whole new game.
The only ****le I have is that at the start of every game I find my self having to zoom out my camera if the settings could be set beforehand and saved it would be fantastic.

Wishlist:
- Fatigue and fatigue bar
- Camera settings that are saved
- Plater tradeable world league with player progression and regression

Thanks for the review feedback. Really glad you feel the gameplay is an improvement over recent rugby ***les, as that was the main focus of this release.

Your suggestions around adding more competitions is definitely something we will do if the game is well supported. And a rugby 08 World league is a great idea and something we have thought about as we remember enjoying that.

For now I'd suggest progressing up the difficulty levels, but only once you have mastered rookie. It gets quite challenging and you have to play some smart rugby.

Like you said, they game is an absolute steal for the price.

 

[GPRed]

How bad of a computer can you run it on?
My laptop can handle overwatch on the lowest settings, reckon I'm good?

It can run on some fairly modest laptops, but you may have to drop the graphical settings down. It's free to play on Steam for two hours.

 

[Frans.Hendrik]

If you have doubts, I've uploaded a full match

 

[Frans.Hendrik]

Thanks for the review feedback. Really glad you feel the gameplay is an improvement over recent rugby ***les, as that was the main focus of this release.

Your suggestions around adding more competitions is definitely something we will do if the game is well supported. And a rugby 08 World league is a great idea and something we have thought about as we remember enjoying that.

For now I'd suggest progressing up the difficulty levels, but only once you have mastered rookie. It gets quite challenging and you have to play some smart rugby.

Like you said, they game is an absolute steal for the price.

My Pleasure it's a great game!

 

[johandutoit04]

Well done guys, Im still getting used to the controls - love the 1995 element you brought in! To me graphics is not so important, rather the game play and you pretty much nailed it,!

i lost my first 3 games and drew my last game, but the AI attack is impressive and keeps the game interesting

 

[GPRed]

Well done guys, Im still getting used to the controls - love the 1995 element you brought in! To me graphics is not so important, rather the game play and you pretty much nailed it,!

i lost my first 3 games and drew my last game, but the AI attack is impressive and keeps the game interesting

Thanks, appreciate it. The focus was really on capturing the flow of rugby in a way we feel has not been achieved before, so to get some positive feedback on this makes all the effort worth it.

Graphics can always be dropped in later when the budget is there, but without a solid gameplay foundation rugby gaming has been stuck in a loop in my opinion.

Once you have mastered the controls on rookie, you should start winning some games and scoring some epic tries.

Get used to fending, and breaking tackles, especially after you make a break. Don't be afraid to chip or grubber in field if your winger is isolated after a break and might get turned.

Also when up in a tackle, don't forget to drive (tap a) and preload a couple of guys to help out at the ruck (tap y a couple of times). Same applies to preloading guys for the ruck when you are holding an attacker up on defence. Don't overdo the ruck numbers though, especially if you feel you don't have a chance of being first to the breakdown.

Also, if you make a big break for a try, click the right stick just before the line to slide in early. It just feels cool!

Just an unrelated games on minigames for scrums and lineouts. We will look to add this in the future, but for now we felt there implementation in other games detracted from the flow of rugby, which was what we were trying to capture. So we didn't want to initially waste development time, especially with a team of only two, on anything that might detract from the objective of capturing rugby. When they are added it will be in a way that adds to the gameplay experience rather than diminishes it.

 

[Boomslangnz]

Hi

Just purchased the game and was pretty lost but ill keep giving it a go

Is there a way to zoom out and change view? It seemed very zoomed in and only from behind which was making it pretty difficult to start with

I checked menus and smashed keyboard keys lol

**EDIT**

played a little more and got the hang of it pretty quick. It's pretty fun game to be honest with a few ****les which would be nice to solve

Had a couple times the game has just quit randomly?

You can zoom out but only at the very start when kickoff is about to begin and you have to do it every game, would be nice for a setting to remember or just add to menu options

There is no scrum, lineout gameplay, seems to be just automatic

the running rugby is pretty good, not 100% fluid but its passable

doesn't appear to be anything other then Rugby world cup 95 and 2019? Is there friendly game option anywhere and i just missed it?

Ill play some more tomorrow when a friend is around and see how multiplayer goes

 

[GPRed]

Hi

Just purchased the game and was pretty lost but ill keep giving it a go

Is there a way to zoom out and change view? It seemed very zoomed in and only from behind which was making it pretty difficult to start with

I checked menus and smashed keyboard keys lol

**EDIT**

played a little more and got the hang of it pretty quick. It's pretty fun game to be honest with a few ****les which would be nice to solve

Had a couple times the game has just quit randomly?

You can zoom out but only at the very start when kickoff is about to begin and you have to do it every game, would be nice for a setting to remember or just add to menu options

There is no scrum, lineout gameplay, seems to be just automatic

the running rugby is pretty good, not 100% fluid but its passable

doesn't appear to be anything other then Rugby world cup 95 and 2019? Is there friendly game option anywhere and i just missed it?

Ill play some more tomorrow when a friend is around and see how multiplayer goes

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for giving the game a go!

You can zoom out at any time just by using the mouse, and the playback menu with the zoom buttons will appear.

There is no friendly option, but definitely something that could be worth adding.

There is no multiplayer either, but this would also be cool to add. You might have to play a half each with your friend. Sorry about that.

 

[unrated]

Ok so you guys convinced me to buy the game.
Does someone know of a relaible xbox controller configuration guide? This is to set my axis 1,2,3,4,5 etc all the guides i saw on google gave contradicting info

 

[die_mole]

Might have to bring out the old pc and give it a go.

 

[Boomslangnz]

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for giving the game a go!

You can zoom out at any time just by using the mouse, and the playback menu with the zoom buttons will appear.

There is no friendly option, but definitely something that could be worth adding.

There is no multiplayer either, but this would also be cool to add. You might have to play a half each with your friend. Sorry about that.

Thanks for reply


Do you have plans to add to this game over time?

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Ok so you guys convinced me to buy the game.
Does someone know of a relaible xbox controller configuration guide? This is to set my axis 1,2,3,4,5 etc all the guides i saw on google gave contradicting info

Inputmapper works

 

[GPRed]

Thanks for reply


Do you have plans to add to this game over time?

Yeah, absolutely. The plan is to continue to improve all aspects so long as it is supported and enjoyed by people.

 

[Harry Peters]

Awesome work on the game guys. Spent yesterday playing it and it's great fun. Still on Rookie level, but is the first game in a long time to have that real rugby feeling.

Would be great to see some more game modes added - Even having the ability to play as an international team through the years and build into a World Cup.

I had some strange results in games I wasn't involved in. I had Tonga and Fiji both make the semi-finals and England, Ireland, Wales all missing the quarter finals. Is there a way to make the results more realistic?

Keep up the good work!

 

[unrated]

The game seems fun so far, I think it has the potential to become great if the developers keep working on it and improving on it.
It's already better than Rugby 18 was. That game was a piece of ****.

There is naturally a few things to work on, the kicking system can easily be improved, the control is limited in the minimal games that I have played. It does force you to kick quickly though so it's maybe what the developers wanted but IRL kickers are encouraged to take their time... either way not too serious.

There is no third-place playoff so if you fall out in the quarters then the game ends? which is odd, surely it's an easy thing to just add the third place playoff game especially if your only game mode is the world cup.

Otherwise, kudos to the developers. Its the first rugby game since rugby 08 worth spending your money on.

 

[GPRed]

The game seems fun so far, I think it has the potential to become great if the developers keep working on it and improving on it.
It's already better than Rugby 18 was. That game was a piece of ****.

There is naturally a few things to work on, the kicking system can easily be improved, the control is limited in the minimal games that I have played. It does force you to kick quickly though so it's maybe what the developers wanted but IRL kickers are encouraged to take their time... either way not too serious.

There is no third-place playoff so if you fall out in the quarters then the game ends? which is odd, surely it's an easy thing to just add the third place playoff game especially if your only game mode is the world cup.

Otherwise, kudos to the developers. Its the first rugby game since rugby 08 worth spending your money on.

Thanks for the feedback and glad you are enjoying it so far. I hope you will enjoy it even more as you master the controls and start racking up the points.

We'll be compiling a bit of a list of some of the feedback so that we can start making it even better in the coming weeks.

One of the challenges we face is that people seem to be less willing to learn the controls and give the game the same time they might put into other rugby games.

I guess people have been burned in the past, so it is understandable they might be willing to put a little less effort in. But if they do, I think they should enjoy it.

So far South Africans seem to be the most willing to do so. Not sure why that is. Out of interest what is the competition South Africans would most like to see added outside of the World Cup? When we come to doing this we might look to make it our priority.

 

[GPRed]

Awesome work on the game guys. Spent yesterday playing it and it's great fun. Still on Rookie level, but is the first game in a long time to have that real rugby feeling.

Would be great to see some more game modes added - Even having the ability to play as an international team through the years and build into a World Cup.

I had some strange results in games I wasn't involved in. I had Tonga and Fiji both make the semi-finals and England, Ireland, Wales all missing the quarter finals. Is there a way to make the results more realistic?

Keep up the good work!

Thanks Harry! Glad it's the first game in ages to give you that real rugby feeling, that's what we were going for!

With regard to more realistic results in the AI v AI games, I aim to have this fixed in a patch for this coming weekend.

 

[die_mole]

I found my pc charger and once I figure out how to get it connected to WiFi (all my internet stuff changed after I got my MacBook), I'll be downloading.

Really looking forward to it.

I've been watching videos of rugby challenge 2006 and it actually looks quite a bit fun. Has anyone here played it? Looks arcadey but not unbelievable like the later rugby challenge games.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to playing this.

 

[Ezzy]

Thanks for the feedback and glad you are enjoying it so far. I hope you will enjoy it even more as you master the controls and start racking up the points.

We'll be compiling a bit of a list of some of the feedback so that we can start making it even better in the coming weeks.

One of the challenges we face is that people seem to be less willing to learn the controls and give the game the same time they might put into other rugby games.

I guess people have been burned in the past, so it is understandable they might be willing to put a little less effort in. But if they do, I think they should enjoy it.

So far South Africans seem to be the most willing to do so. Not sure why that is. Out of interest what is the competition South Africans would most like to see added outside of the World Cup? When we come to doing this we might look to make it our priority.

Definitely add Super Rugby and the Currie Cup.