Rugby 2004

"Definatley should be avoided, it is that bad!"

Introduction
Rugby 2004 is the second Rugby game produced by EA (electronic arts) sports, who are famous for producing games such as the ‘Fifa' and ‘NBA Live' series. As I am mainly a football fan I thought I should get this game when it is cheap, as I managed to purchase off eBay for only £7 around a month ago. After playing EA's first Rugby game, I thought that there had to be major improvements after the previous game entitled ‘Rugby', and after seeing EA produce great sports games such as ‘Madden' and the ones stated above. This game is surely a ‘blip' in the series as I thought that this game cannot be worth £7.

Gameplay – 4-10
The gameplay of this game is very poor. Mainly due to the main aspects of the Rugby game which include rucking, scrums and line-outs. There really isn't much to rucking, when defending all that is required is a mindless tap of the square button to bind players into the ruck, what is wrong with this? The problem is that the defending team has to hope for a turnover (when the defending team get the ball), it is more likely to get a turnover if you are one of the world's elites such as Australia or New Zealand, and this makes the game difficult if you are hoping to win with a less able team such as Italy. Scrums are pretty rubbish as well, however in the scrums there are various strategies to choose from if you win the ball from the scrum. The player is required to carry out the put-in to the scrum and the drive, again if you are playing with a less able team, you will always lose the ball against New Zealand or Australia. Line-outs have different strategies, but are difficult to execute and require precise timing.

There are a wide variety of tournament options to choose from, such as the six nations or ‘Six Countries' as it is called in the game. These are good, but only if you can be bothered to play them until the end, and after playing this game, I really can't! Gameplay is easy to get used to, and perhaps too easy. After a while I managed to weave around the computers A.I and I can now easily beat the computer on Hard mode, which is the hardest difficulty that there is on the game. Users also can create a player in this game. One of the good things from the sports game is that it can be played up to 4 players in single time and users can enjoyed this game with friends and family especially for those who are really passionate about rugby, but it is not recommended as you will probably be disappointed.

Sound – 1/10
The sound is even worse than the gameplay, honestly. The only sound that there is, is the mono-toned crowd, which often freezes into making a very annoying noise. The only time the tone of the crowd changes is when a player scores a try. There is commentary on this game by John Inverdale, a BBC sports presenter, and Gordon Bray, a former New Zealand player. I have given the sound in this game a 1/10 mainly because the commentary is actually there, despite the fact it is very bad. Inverdale makes the player think that he has recorded the commentary in a sound booth, which he is not meant to do. His commentary is very out of tune, for example he shouts ‘‘COHEN……….. is away down the wing'' Gordon Bray make about a total of around 10 comments, and then just repeats them.

Graphics 2/10
The graphics in this game are horrible. There are around 4 different player faces that are meant to look like Johnny Wilkinson, Martin Johnson, Tana Umaga and George Gregan and these are used for all the players in the game. There are around 5 body types that are used for every player in the game. These are short, tall and lanky, tall and well built, medium height and skinny and medium height and fat, now then in real life, I can't really see how everybody can be put in to categories in terms of their height and build, even though this game is not real life, it is meant to be realistic. The stadiums are very simplistic with little detail and the crowd are like pixellated stick-men.

Overall 6/30
Well from these ratings I am sure it shows you that you should not get this game, unless somebody gives it to you, this means that you can sell it on later!!! I think this game undermines rugby as a sport, and you have to tell yourself that real-life rugby has to be better than this game after you have played it. As I have said, I managed to get this game for £7 off eBay which wasn't really worth the money or the hassle. It is on amazon.co.uk for £15.99, over double the price that I got it for on eBay.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/06