Operation Sports Forums - View Single Post - Rugby Challenge 3 Announced, Coming to Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC Later This Year

theEDGE5 · 05-11-2016, 10:15 AM

As a massive fan of both union (which I played for many years in school) and league I am extremely disappointed with this game. RLL3 is far from perfect and there are some things it could do better (such as the hit-up mechanism), but on the whole it is just a vastly better representation of it's code. I don't expect an amazing game on par with the stuff that EA or 2K puts out, but when you compare to RLL3 or even older Union games it falls pretty short. Apart from the addition of sevens and a be pro it's essentially the same as RC2 and given the length of time it took between the two, the fact that this was delayed and the amount of money it costs I think it's very poor...in fact if anything it's a step back from RC2 from my point of view, because it has less licenses and so I can't even have fun using my own team.

I mean, don't get me wrong the game is still somewhat fun because it is rugby on some level, but it's just ridiculously 'arcade' like. The AI is pretty terrible and forwards will just stand aimlessly around the ruck, there are no pick and drive options (forwards don't form pods anyway). This is less noticeable when you can control all the players but when you play be a pro you notice how truly woeful the AI is. Forwards will often just stand there, not joining the ruck while the ball is being turned over for example.

As for back play, again it's not great and is often little more than a game of hot potato, shoveling the ball across the line. There are no dummy runners and unless I just haven't found it, no option to run attacking moves (like wrap around's and so on). I think the kicking mechanism is decent, it's better than RLL3s actually. The worst thing is the passing itself though, players just fling passes about with reckless abandon and can throw it huge distances even in mid-tackle but then you'll get simple passes that will be inexplicably knocked-on.

All in all, not very good but at the end of the day...it's still rugby, so I'll play it while I pray something better will come along. I am also not surprised to learn that this was developed by 'Wicked Witch' rather than 'Sidhe' who made RC2, as they are the company responsible for butchering AFL Live 2 after Big Ant made a solid first attempt.

05-11-2016, 10:15 AM	#187
theEDGE5 Rookie OVR: 3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Ireland	Re: Rugby Challenge 3 Announced, Coming to Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC Later This Yea As a massive fan of both union (which I played for many years in school) and league I am extremely disappointed with this game. RLL3 is far from perfect and there are some things it could do better (such as the hit-up mechanism), but on the whole it is just a vastly better representation of it's code. I don't expect an amazing game on par with the stuff that EA or 2K puts out, but when you compare to RLL3 or even older Union games it falls pretty short. Apart from the addition of sevens and a be pro it's essentially the same as RC2 and given the length of time it took between the two, the fact that this was delayed and the amount of money it costs I think it's very poor...in fact if anything it's a step back from RC2 from my point of view, because it has less licenses and so I can't even have fun using my own team. I mean, don't get me wrong the game is still somewhat fun because it is rugby on some level, but it's just ridiculously 'arcade' like. The AI is pretty terrible and forwards will just stand aimlessly around the ruck, there are no pick and drive options (forwards don't form pods anyway). This is less noticeable when you can control all the players but when you play be a pro you notice how truly woeful the AI is. Forwards will often just stand there, not joining the ruck while the ball is being turned over for example. As for back play, again it's not great and is often little more than a game of hot potato, shoveling the ball across the line. There are no dummy runners and unless I just haven't found it, no option to run attacking moves (like wrap around's and so on). I think the kicking mechanism is decent, it's better than RLL3s actually. The worst thing is the passing itself though, players just fling passes about with reckless abandon and can throw it huge distances even in mid-tackle but then you'll get simple passes that will be inexplicably knocked-on. All in all, not very good but at the end of the day...it's still rugby, so I'll play it while I pray something better will come along. I am also not surprised to learn that this was developed by 'Wicked Witch' rather than 'Sidhe' who made RC2, as they are the company responsible for butchering AFL Live 2 after Big Ant made a solid first attempt.