Notting Hill to Northampton in 1h20... Beat that Clarkson!
On topic - I enjoyed it.
At first I did feel like "oh no, it is a rehash". However once I got to grips with the new mechanics it quickly became good fun.
Visually it is a tad cartoonish, like a mild form of cell shading, but for the most part the camera is too far zoomed out for that to have any real effect.
Gameplay wise bare with me here - The animations look mostly recycled, however the engine is completely reworked. Now if your player is tackled (for example), it is possible to get up and run again when the tackler lets go. Or, a defending player will tackle, quickly get up and then tackle again if the ball was quickly offloaded or recycled.
The ruck system is a thing of beauty, although horribly frustrating when playing against Olyy (who appears to have got the hang of it better then the rest of us)! There's a lot more to it then button mashing.
Penalties are a little too easy to give away - Sadly, that's like real life. I'd prefer for the sake of the game that the refs are made a touch more lenient.
It's not as easy to just give the ball to an outside back and run away (a-la 06/08). Good news with it.
Looks like the ABs and Aussie stats for players are correct, so a quick renaming job and nobody will be the wiser of the licenses.
Commentary is good... And no, I'm not telling who!
I shall be producing the video blog, including gameplay footage, tomorrow!
[/knackered]
