1-Mar-2006 The six nations is in full swing, the perfect time to scrum down for a look at EA's latest contender Most of the concerns surrounding Rugby 05 came from a number of factors. It almost felt as if EA couldn't be arsed with making a decent rendition of a relatively marginal sport, and simply did the bare minimum of creating some patchy PS2 controlled players, an oval ball and left it at that. Even the most avid cauliflower head would have been hard pushed to get much pleasure from it.
Now brace yourselves, because we're going to say something which may knock you clean off your feet: EA seems to have listened to the murmurings of discontent and made some appropriate changes. The players now bear only a slight resemblance to reconstructed car crash victims, compared to Rugby 05's plastic surgery from hell; there's now a much needed tutorial section for complete newcomers, outlining rucking and scrumming among other potentially baffling terms; and PS2 controlled player intelligence seems to have been sharpened up to provide a sterner single-player test.
Play itself is much less stop-start than the real thing. Digital players seem to be much more gentlemanly than their real-life counterparts; as far as we could see there was no eye-gouging or stamping going on. Although at times there was plenty of pushing and shoving happening. While the free-flowing feel of the game certainly seems to have improved, manually switching between players is still very cumbersome. By the time the nearest challenger to a flying opposition wing has been selected, the ball is often over the line.
There's a raft of new moves to add variation to matches, so passes can be offloaded when faced with a rampaging forward while quick penalties are an option for keeping play moving. Line-outs can also be rushed to try and catch opponents by surprise. All major competitions and tournaments are well represented, with the Six and Tri Nations championships joined by the Guinness Premiership and even Lions tours for those eager to reverse last year's abortive series. For all the refinements EA has carried out on Rugby 06, it remains to be seen just how fluid the gameplay will be, and therefore how exciting it'll be. Find out next month in our exclusive review.
PSW Staff
// Overview
Verdict
EA has upped its production values for Rugby 06, and the game is certainly a far slicker production. Hopefully a similar improvement will be seen in the gameplay. Fingers crossed, eh?
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