The thing I really wanted to see in this game, and it has previously been mentioned is a superstar mode. Not only in the context of creating your own playing and only using that player on the field, building his skills and slowly developing his playing career, but where you can play with your favourite player. What I mean by this is that I would like to be able to enter free play mode and choose 'superstar' mode and play with my favourite plays like Jean de Villier or Brian Habana. This to me would be the ultimate development of the rugby game and provide hours and hours of playing time.
Furthermore, I would like the see difficulty levels increased. In rugby08 I got to the stage where I could be using Romania, on elite mode, with the most inconvenient camera setting, to beat top teams like NZ and RSA by more than 100 points in a five minute half game. No way would that ever occur and that's why we need to be given more realistic difficulty levels to be worked with. This way the game would become more of a contest and increase its longevity.
Sticking on the current theme of realism, I want to see basic aspects, such as kicking, running, tackling, to be made more realistic. What I mean by this is I don't want to beable to kick from my try line to the inside of the 22 on the other side of the field with Dan Carter everytime I kick the ball. I don't want to be able to, when playing multiplayer, run and zig zag in circles with Brian Habana so to confuse the other player ridiculously. I don't want to beable to beable to fly-tackle the **** out of Bakkies Botha using Peter Stringer. These kind of things just don't happen in the real life, very much anyway, and I don't want to be able to do it all the time while playing.
Other little cool graphical things such as being able to see the players facial experessions change, sweat drip, muscles contract etc. would be awesome additions. These features can really make or break a game. Too much have I got a game with a great concept behind it and great story lines, to be let down completely by its lack in the graphics and imagination department. Another awesome thing that I almost forgot would be making injuries more than just a guy lying on the ground in the same position everytime, writhing around. I want to see injuries such as a broken leg, arm, dislocated shoulder etc. I want to see an icon pop up with maybe a skeleton or something that outline the injury and provides a little synopsis, i.e. Rupture of the cruciate ligament - Left Knee.
At first I thought maybe that I was asking too much, but I spoke to friends about other games such as Madden10 and NBA 2K10 and they seem to think these games have top notch realism, such as the sweat and superstar modes mentioned earlier. If HB plan on making this game they need to put these amounts of effort into it. Fans of the rugby games have been waiting along time for a new addition to the series and an even longer time for anything new and stimulating. If we don't see huge changes, nobody is going to waste money on the game. If they do, they definately won' be playing for very long at all. Dip into the pockets, make a good game that can really stimulate and excite the game players, and reap the rewards.