Rugby Challenge - You will say WOW

[bdoughty]

Finally a Rugby game with next gen graphics.



http://rugbychallengegame.com/

Rugby Challenge for console and PC is a new title in development by Wellington based games developer Sidhe and published by Sydney based Home Entertainment Suppliers (HES) under their Tru Blu Games label. The game will be released in Europe as Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge, All Blacks Rugby Challenge in New Zealand, and Wallabies Rugby Challenge in Australia, and seeks to capture the attention of a growing number of rugby fans around the world.

Rugby Challenge will include the All Blacks, the Qantas Wallabies, the USA Eagles, Tri Nations, Bledisloe Cup, Super Rugby teams, Aviva Premiership Rugby, TOP 14 Orange, RaboDirect PRO12, ITM Cup, and Ranfurly Shield, amongst other licensed teams and competitions, and will feature multiplayer online play via PlayStation®Network, Xbox LIVE®, or Steam, a multi-year franchise mode, a tutorial mode for novice players, 31 stadia, 93 teams, extensive customisation options for creating or customising players, teams, and competitions, and dynamic real-time commentary by Grant Nisbett and Justin Marshall. More features, content, platforms and details will be announced in the future.

Rugby Challenge will release for PS3, 360, PC, and Sony Vita in Q3 2011. Stay tuned to this website for more information and ongoing updates about the game.

[bdoughty]

Also there is a another Rugby game

Rugby World Cup 2011 (Xbox, PS3)

Made by HB Studios

First Trailer

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/07/24...bjectid=105547


The Rugby World Cup 2011 demo will be live on Xbox LIVE online entertainment network on August 2, 2011 and PlayStation Network on August 3, 2011.

[morsdraconis]

Wow, looks beautiful.

[SmoothPancakes]

Fuck yeah!

[JBHuskers]

Looks smooth...may have to give it a try, even though I know not one single thing about Rugby

[bdoughty]

Here is a guy who has played both and given reviews (had to copy/paste from another site than the review because they have a weird guest policy at the original site)

Getofmeland's Review of Rugby Challenge

Right as some of you may know I was lucky enough to be given the chance to play Rugby Challenge, also it was a stroke of luck that I was up in London the night before to play Rugby World Cup 2011 with a few guys from staff. I was planning to compare these two games, but feel there is no need to compare them, as this review will explain.

I have been a strong believer that 2 games coming out this year is to the benefit of Rugby as a sport and as a viable genre in the gaming market, we all know why 2 games are aiming to be released this year, as it is the biggest event in the Rugby Calendar and brings Rugby to the world stage, one specifically targeting that area and the other going for the club and a couple of big International licences. So I will start off with the easy stuff, when I got in the room and met up with Billy from HES, he asked what console do you want to see this on, so to be fair I decided to go for the Xbox 360 rather than the PS3, the first loading screens are Jonah Lomu motion captured, these start off as Lomu as default against a random team, this was England in this instance, we then went into the settings and modified this background to show London Irish against another Random Team, these are usually another opposing club side from the same tournament, I believe this was still using the motion capture from Lomu, showing some big hits and hand-offs, very nice to look at graphically straight away, not much difference between PS3 and Xbox 360 tho.

Billy then went on to showing me the features of the game, we all know that these are the tournaments, online play, Team/Player Editor, Tutorials, Individual Match and Season mode. So straight away a lot of features to get to grips with, we started off looking at the Tutorials Section, where there is basics to pro tutorials to teach you everything about the game that a beginner would want to know, there is even a 2 minute video explaining the rules of the game of rugby, and finally a free play section, which allows you to run round with your players pass and practice the stuff you just learnt in the tutorials. I quite like the free play section but after the first play of the game this won't get used much after, as there is a free play mode whilst the game starts up. The next area we looked at was the player editor, this is something I liked quite a bit, the ability to create your own team will allow you to replicate the teams which are licensed or even your mates in your local team, the facial editor is superb, lots of detail has gone in to this, I would happily say this is better than the Fifa editor. Just to cover the other areas off obviously we are all aware of the the following teams/competition are Licenced: Aviva Premiership, Magners League (Rabodirect thingy), Top 14, New Zealand, Australia, ITM Cup and the NZ/Aus teams in SupeRugby, these are selectable in the Tournament Mode and Season Mode. The Season Mode is spread over 13 seasons, which covers both Club and International, within the season mode you can select to follow either a Club or an International team or both.

Now onto the bit you have all been waiting for, how does the gameplay, what are the features in there and what are the positives and what are the negatives...

First game I played, I choose my Favourite team Bath Rugby and after some gentle persuasion Billy suggested I played against New Zealand on very easy to get a feel of the game, so at the start of the game, we get to see a visually stunning Haka, which is really realistic, this is obviously only if you play as New Zealand. Once the game got underway, I slowly picked up the controls, there are a few differences to RWC 2011 but this was soon ironed out. The first thing I noticed was the passing the majority of the time it was quite smooth, however there was the occasional stray pass, but that's to be expected tho, this didn't just happen just to the player it happens to the AI as well, however I noticed this continues right the way through the skill levels of the game as well. Next was the defence this is something that I found difficult to get to grips with especially with the switching of active players, I found the B button being rather annoying, would of potentially liked a trigger, but this is by the by, the next thing with this is the fact the player selected is usually not the closest player to the ball, this may just be my experience of it, but I found this rather annoying as it made it awkward to defend against.

Now to start talking about the breakdown, there has been a lot of talk about the rucking system, and how it is not a button bashing system, I discovered otherwise, I found the harder and faster that you pressed the button, the more likely you are to win the ruck, I think there are some attribute based advantages in this, but I managed to turn over a ball when it was the opposition looked like they would win the ball. You have 2 options, one being going in Hard and one Normal. As far as I could see there was no way to change the method of play at the Breakdown, which means there is no pick and drive, no quick ball if you get isolated, also I noticed there was no way of causing an infringement either in the ruck. The method that has been put into this could of worked but I think the balance is biased towards button bashing.

The next area was the set plays, when I first saw the gameplay video, I really liked the look of the scrums as it looked like they had done something very special with them, however I don't think they have gone far enough with this feature, they have created a contest with the Scrum, using the 2 analogue sticks, however this requires you to push them at the same time in the radar, this is skill based, however you have no control of when the ball is put in and hooking the ball. I may have missed it but I also found it very difficult to wheel the scrum and collapse the scrum, which is now quite a big part of the modern game. All in All I think they have made a good addition to this but feel it could of gone further. Staying on the set plays, I really liked the lineouts in the game, the ability to move the line back and forth and the throwing direction have revolutionised the Lineouts in my opinion, it adds another aspect of the game, and doesn't slow the game down a bit, they have however missed a trick with the lineouts by not including the a quick lineout option, this is going and does slow down the pace of the game.

Looking at Mauls, I found it difficult to form a Maul in the game, this may be down to the fact of the opportunities arising in the game, but when I did I found the method to be rather clunky, having to press A to add players to the maul and X to drive the maul, this made them very rigid, I was unable to work out whether you could direct the maul, or even collapse the Maul. I would need to play more before I could make a judgement on them in the context of the game.

Kicking... Well now this was something I was unsure from the start if I am honest not sure I liked the fact that it slowed the play down, so you could concentrate on a kick, thought this would make it very easy to judge kicks and take some of the skill and speed away, to start off with I thought I was right but the more I played the better it got, I wouldn't suggest it is the best method, but the ability to take some time to place the kick is great, however this is likely to de-skill people when they start playing the game online, if the slow down feature is disabled. There are two methods of taking a kick a quick button press and a press and hold method, I found the quick button press didn't really work well for me, the kicks weren't directed in anyway which becomes annoying however the press and hold method did work for me, the animations around the kicking are superb and its obviously an area they have taken a lot of time in. In terms of styles of kicks you have punt, drop, grubber, chip and Up and Under, these are now apparent to be standard kicks in all rugby games. When you do slow the kick down, press and hold, this shows the wind conditions in front of you allowing you to adjust your kick for your needs, this is handy, when kicking for touch or a drop goal. As for the place kicking you have the ability to place the kick wherever you like, but in terms of aiming your kick, thats all your doing your not deciding the length, this is done using the A button with the similar kind of system used for the Scrum, this is rather annoying in my opinion.

The only other things that it leaves me to talk about is the camera angles, I played around with them a bit to try and find the one which suited me best, there is a lot to choose from but the best for me was the end on vision, this was quite a high view which game you good spacial awareness of the pitch, however the downside with this view is when you make a break, you get an almost Be A Pro style camera angle, which is cool, but just not practical for Rugby in my opinion, you do have the ability to turn this off if you want to. Having tried playing with the side on camera, I found this very hard to get on with, it was extremely difficult to judge kicks and also the running play of the game, it was almost quite a rigid and shallow angle, but like I said above the end on works really well, enabling you to see the entire screen. Semi-Related to the camera angles is the fact that when you do get a player sin-binned there is no indication you or the opposition have a player in the bin, this is something small but I would of liked, it would enable you to tell you have the advantage, and potentially look for the exploit in the defence.

Now to talk about one of my favourite bits, the ability to hold up a try, this is something which is currently missing in RWC 2011, and we noticed several times when playing it yesterday, however Rugby Challenge have got this right, they allow the players to tackle in the in goal area and make that try saving tackle. I know this is only a small part of the game, but I think it does make it very realistic.

I think I have covered the majority of things, but feel free to ask questions on this. I have written this as a completely unbiased opinion, and with its faults there are some very strong positives, we have to remember this is SIDHE's first Rugby Union game they have made and I think that is very important, this game will create a good platform for them to build on, they have some of the basics working well but they also lack some of the fundamentals of the game working. I really enjoyed playing the game, and will be buying it, purely for the season mode and the licences, but then I will also be getting RWC 2011 for the gameplay and the core game. As I keep saying these two games are going to help each other and develop both games and the genre of Rugby Gaming, I think we have an exciting couple of years ahead.

Just a massive Thank You to Mario, Sebastian and Billy for arranging today, it was great to be able to play the game, and I hope you find this review informative, and be able to build on the foundation you are currently laying.

There is currently no release date for Rugby Challenge, but it will be available on Xbox360 and PS3 as well several other formats, I also think its worthwhile noting this was not played on the final build of the game, the version I played is about a week out of date...



Getofmeland's Review of Rugby World Cup 2011

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 *** 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.

[bdoughty]

Feature comparison list (to be fair this list comes from the official forum for Rugby Challenege)


http://forums.sidhe.co.nz/showthread...parison-thread

[SmoothPancakes]

Damn, I could just end up having to buy both in the end. Which I don't mind at all. I happy as hell to finally have Rugby again to play, I'd gladly buy both games.

[bdoughty]

Both look great and I am in the same boat. If I can find a source and of course the games are region free (360 owner) I would get both. It is pretty much like buying Fifa WC and the regula Fifa in the same year. One for the International Tourney and one for league play.


Now if we can just get the guys who made AFL Live 2011 to bump their game up, after seeing this we might have a good Aussie game too.

[SmoothPancakes]

Both look great and I am in the same boat. If I can find a source and of course the games are region free (360 owner) I would get both. It is pretty much like buying Fifa WC and the regula Fifa in the same year. One for the International Tourney and one for league play.


Now if we can just get the guys who made AFL Live 2011 to bump their game up, after seeing this we might have a good Aussie game too.

And release it worldwide and not have to be $108+ to get it exported and shipped from Australia.

[bdoughty]

Australia and video game prices, sigh. Well on the bright side they did give us Elle McPherson.

[bdoughty]

DEMO Alert: Rugby World Cup 2011 DEMO is available to all regions - 540.48MB (Xbox 360 - have no clue if it is on the PS3 since I do not have one)

(this is the game that I listed in on the second post.)

I was hoping for the Rugby Challenge game but at least it is something. On the bright side it could get the company making Rugby Challenge to put up a demo for all.

[JBHuskers]

Demo is in now?

[bdoughty]

Demo is in now?

Is that you Yoda?

Yes, on my hard drive, 360 Ruby World Cup 2011. I have just downloaded.

[JBHuskers]

Is that you Yoda?

Yes, on my hard drive, 360 Ruby World Cup 2011. I have just downloaded.

Friends you have there.

Sweet, I'll have to get it when I get home.

[bdoughty]

Demo details

You can pick from four announcing teams (English, English (New Zeland), French, Italian)

England (86) vs South Africa (88)

These can't be changed
ONE 5 minute half
Difficulty Easy
Stadium: Auckland
Night
Dry
Wind: Random

[SmoothPancakes]

Sweet!!! About to download now.

[bdoughty]

Definitely not as an attractive looking game as Rugby Challenge, the cut scenes are fairly nice. Only one camera view (high sideline) and does not look like the others, if any are available in the demo.

The control will take serious getting used as you have to do all your passing in the open fieeld with the shoulder buttons (and I hate the shoulder buttons). The face buttons are used for the different kicks and set pieces. You can use the R-Stick to side step and shoulder charge and even hand off.

[JBHuskers]

Has so much of a FIFA feel to it.

It was okay, but I have no idea what I'm doing in the first place

[SmoothPancakes]

Holy crap is this fun. Currently at halftime, playing as South Africa, I'm losing 17-14 after England got a drop goal right at halftime to take the lead. We both have 2 tries, we're both 2/2 on conversions.

It was rough at first, but after I finally got the hang of the selecting the correct bumper to pass left or right, I'm enjoying this game a lot.