Rugby Challenge

[Jonesy]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Sounds good. After playing the crappy demo of the other game this is pretty much a no brainer choice for me. RC all the way...

[stizz]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Well, I've finally got to play Rugby Challenge and it's kind of a mixed bag. First of all the graphics are pretty good. I've played with mostly only NZ sides and most people are recognizable. The animations are also pretty smooth and there seems to be a variety for certain situations.

The gameplay is where its either hit or miss. Passing is a bit iffy, with passes sometimes missing it's target. An example was when I was playing coop with my bros and we had a 2 on 1 breakaway, we were lined up perfectly and attempted a draw and pass. The result was a pass thrown way behind me. Passes from the rucks are also miss a few times as well. I thought it could be due to the backline not being set up properly but the halfback picks up the ball if you wait too long.

Kickings ok. I only have major issues with the box kick which is pretty ineffective and the fact that it seems like everyone is decent at kicking, eg. My brother getting a dropkick from te sideline with George Whitelock, a forward. Place kicking is also too simple in my opinion.

Scrums are also ok. I like the mechanism with pushing the sticks forward, but I would have preferred if we could insert the ball manually instead of being automatic. What I don't like is the animation, the scrums move way too much and it seems like they're on wheels.

Lineouts are pretty cool for the offensive side, who have the ability to move the players and tap or catch the throw. The defensive side of the lineouts seem random and I dont think they actually do anything. What it's missing is the ability to have a maul once you catch the ball. It's like they didn't have enough time to implement it or something because everything else is in place.

Mauls and rucks are pretty random. When a maul is created only two players are involved in the beginning with others joining in after a session of button mashing. The whole maul system is stupid IMO and it would've been better to remove the button mashing part. Rucks involve adding players quickly or with power but I don't really notice any difference. It would have been better with one button IMO.

The game itself is pretty glitchy. I've noticed a few, some small but some pretty major, and I've only played for a few hours. Things like balls being teleported back into a ruck after being passed out. One major glitch I've had was during a created tournament. One team was the Blues and another the All Blacks. The Blues' Rokocoko got injured which also made the All Blacks' Rokocoko injured, who hadn't even placed a foot on the field. Not having the ability to save during a tournament is pretty terrible as well

Overall, it's not a bad game but it's not perfect as well. I'd probably give it a 7 or 8 out of 10 but this only versing my bros. It could drop more if it is like what I've read versing the CPU who apparently offload way too much.

[Milla]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Well nevermind an RC 2, you could patch this **** in easily enough if you want to make your community happy and yes I realize that patches aren't as easy as some people may like to think, but this could be done. Looks like the majority of the community, at least on the games forum, thinks this is stupid, so really lets see if Sidhe thinks it's worth the time and effort to please its supporters.

Happy community = better chance of a successful sequel.

and you hold this type of **** out basically right until the last minute? why wouldn't you share this information earlier and get feedback from the community?

The idea of changing it so private online matches aren't normalised is being looked into, but I don't know if it is as simple as people think. We'll find out!

The same could be said for all our design decisions. It just so happens that this particular one has caused a fair bit of noise. We've set out to make our own title, rather than a knock-off of previous rugby games, and we have taken a lot on board from the various communities in making the game, but running all of these decisions past them just isn't viable, and is why we have usability testing. We also have design preferences and goals. As an example, we spent a lot of time with and paid a lot of attention to our League fans when Rugby League Live came out, and they were incredibly helpful with regard to addressing the problems of rage quitters, match-length options, and more, but we consulted professional rugby coaches and consultants where some of the major game mechanics are concerned.

By the way, sorry for my extended absence. Our own forums have kept me very busy.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: Rugby Challenge

The idea of changing it so private online matches aren't normalised is being looked into, but I don't know if it is as simple as people think. We'll find out!

The same could be said for all our design decisions. It just so happens that this particular one has caused a fair bit of noise. We've set out to make our own title, rather than a knock-off of previous rugby games, and we have taken a lot on board from the various communities in making the game, but running all of these decisions past them just isn't viable, and is why we have usability testing. We also have design preferences and goals. As an example, we spent a lot of time with and paid a lot of attention to our League fans when Rugby League Live came out, and they were incredibly helpful with regard to addressing the problems of rage quitters, match-length options, and more, but we consulted professional rugby coaches and consultants where some of the major game mechanics are concerned.

By the way, sorry for my extended absence. Our own forums have kept me very busy.

I think we all appreciate the communication from you guys pre and post release. Can't wait to try out the game for myself —especially since reading that many people criticizing the passing early on are starting to re-assess their stance after trying the mechanic out more thoroughly.

A patch adding features and fixing bugs up would be nice though. I think the best example of this was what the developers of Backbreaker did with their title post-release. They compiled a list of user feedback and released a massive patch that addressed many of the game's shortcomings and vastly improved it. I don't know how viable something like that would be for Rugby Challenge, but it sounds there's an interest in turning the collective feedback into something tangible for the users.

[Stormyhog]

Re: Rugby Challenge

The idea of changing it so private online matches aren't normalised is being looked into, but I don't know if it is as simple as people think. We'll find out!

The same could be said for all our design decisions. It just so happens that this particular one has caused a fair bit of noise. We've set out to make our own title, rather than a knock-off of previous rugby games, and we have taken a lot on board from the various communities in making the game, but running all of these decisions past them just isn't viable, and is why we have usability testing. We also have design preferences and goals. As an example, we spent a lot of time with and paid a lot of attention to our League fans when Rugby League Live came out, and they were incredibly helpful with regard to addressing the problems of rage quitters, match-length options, and more, but we consulted professional rugby coaches and consultants where some of the major game mechanics are concerned.

By the way, sorry for my extended absence. Our own forums have kept me very busy.

Thanks for taking the time to respond Milla as you must be getting bombarded of late. Any word yet if the PS3 version will be coming to North America? Thanks again.

[Milla]

Re: Rugby Challenge

I think we all appreciate the communication from you guys pre and post release. Can't wait to try out the game for myself —especially since reading that many people criticizing the passing early on are starting to re-assess their stance after trying the mechanic out more thoroughly.

A patch adding features and fixing bugs up would be nice though. I think the best example of this was what the developers of Backbreaker did with their title post-release. They compiled a list of user feedback and released a massive patch that addressed many of the game's shortcomings and vastly improved it. I don't know how viable something like that would be for Rugby Challenge, but it sounds there's an interest in turning the collective feedback into something tangible for the users.

We're not quite in the zone where one can put out huge patches making sweeping revisions, but Tru Blu have given the nod to patch and we're looking into the possibility unranked matches fix, plus bug fixes. What that ends up including is beyond my ken, but I'll share information as and when I am able.

Thanks for taking the time to respond Milla as you must be getting bombarded of late. Any word yet if the PS3 version will be coming to North America? Thanks again.

Heh, understatement of the year. I'm buried

No news on PS3/NA yet. Tru Blu are still working on that, amongst other things.

[stizz]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Games pretty fun but there's still a couple of annoyances that hold the game back, like playmaker passing not passing to the 'best' kicker and, while it doesn't affect gameplay, the fact that they don't actually do drop kicks during drop kicks.

[Sanchez_Mareno]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Is there a difference between All Blacks Rugby Challenge and Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge?

[stizz]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Is there a difference between All Blacks Rugby Challenge and Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge?

Nah, just different covers.

[YoungBuck3]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Is the patch just going to fix bugs? or is it also going to address gameplay concerns that people seem to be having? like people are saying there's too much offloading, people are saying they sometimes the pass to playmaker won't actually pass to the playmaker, will this stuff get addressed too?

[Milla]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Is the patch just going to fix bugs? or is it also going to address gameplay concerns that people seem to be having? like people are saying there's too much offloading, people are saying they sometimes the pass to playmaker won't actually pass to the playmaker, will this stuff get addressed too?

The team are looking into the possibility of changing the normalisation of stats in unranked matches. We'd particularly like to give gamers the ability to play unranked matches without full individual stats, but we need to check out the technical aspects of such a change first.

They are also developing bug-fixes. Beyond that I can't tell you what might be included

[JohnDoe8865]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Thanks for the update Milla. I'll be keeping an eye out for any news on what is getting patched!

[bulls23]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Maybe it's good that we aren't getting it in the USA until the bugs are fixed.

[blogking]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Posted this earlier today after reading game wouldn't come out until mid-Sept. or even mid-Oct., but it seemed to disappear:


Still, this is disappointing, getting the game AFTER the RWC has started or even concluded. After all, RWCs are every FOUR years, plenty of time to lay the groundwork for North American distribution. Sidhe should send free copies to all of us who have been wowing and drooling over a rugby game that finally lives up to its potential.

Lost sales would surely be made up as we bring the game to our PS3 and Xbox rugby brethren.

My Teams
---------
All-Blacks
Crusaders
Knoxville Possums (U.S. Division III men's club side)
Knoxville Minx (women's club side)
University of Tennessee (men's college side)
Maryville (high school girls and boys teams)

Then I read how all teams are "nornalized" and it's up to the gamers' skills for the USA Eagles to beat a Top 5 rugby nation - that's not going to happen in our lifetimes (excluding a 7s upset or two), so why would it happen in the game?

Guess we'll all have to feed our good players heavy doses of PEPs (performance enhancing points) to make the game realistic.

Coming from a person who played the awful RWC '95 game on such an out of date TV that the screen literally bounced up-and-down (like the first time I took an Ambien after I had a couple of beers), I did because I love rugby (and had already been playing for a decade back then).

But not so sure I am liking what I hear now, esp. the review from the Kiwi that talked about a forward nailing a drop-kick froim near touch, - obv. the dude has a bit of Zinzan Brooke running thru him.

Oh well, I can hardly believe Alama Ieremia (sp?) was an AB as long as he was, I believe at the eventual expense of Frank Bunce. No room for Carlos Spencer for much of his AB career? Replacing Doug Howlett because he was a tad slower than other wings? Insane - he was a ballplayer. Christian Cullen and Jeff Wilson only being "semi-stars?"

Potential ... that's what Sidhe's game has at the moment from where my mostly uneducated view about the game is now. Guess I'll wait for RWC England 2015 or RWC Japan 2019 and stick with MLB: The Show - at least it's so much like watching a real game on TV I fall asleep half the time while playing.

With you ... if you can make the long, cutout pass AND be in support when I toss a lineout to myself, dummy to a trailing flanker to slow the defense, then pass long to midfield for a sure try ... only to see some iron-handed eightman cough it up ...

[YoungBuck3]

Re: Rugby Challenge

Surely when you talk about the "awful RWC 95 game" you aren't talking about Jonah Lomu Rugby which is pretty much the consensus greatest Rugby game of all time?

Alama Ieremia was an All Black for so long because he was a great player.

There was no room for Carlos in the AB's for most of his career because he was an inferior player to Merhtens, as almost any New Zealander will tell you.

On what planet are Wilson and Cullen only "semi-stars"? clearly regarded as two of the greatest backs of all time, especially Cullen.

Howlett was eventually dropped because we had Sivivatu and Rokocoko edging him out of the team, two guys who also went on to have outstanding international careers. We also had Rico Gear trying to get a shot who was pretty handy himself.

Where are you coming up with all this rubbish?