Rugby!

Yes, I know that the World Cup’s been and gone (*coughs* Go England. *Coughs* 🙂 ) But can anyone here recommend me a decent rugby game for the PS2? I came close to buying EA’s Rugby 2004 today, but they were out of stock (despite having 20 empty boxes on the shelf.)

Is it worth buying this game, or should I try an earlier version? I’d be interested to hear.

*Goes back to practising the Jonny Wilkinson Drop-Goal posture.*

NO NO NO NO

What ever you do do not buy Rugby 2004 its completely and utterly balls!!!

Its so slow and you pass the ball to someone and like 4 seconds later it passes the ball!!

If i was you i’d definitly go for an older version

I bought Rugby 2004 and thought it the worst game I’d ever purchased on PS2. Admittedly, rugby is a complex game with many rules, set-pieces and a wide variety of plays. But still, I expected better.

Rugby 2004 is better, a lot better. Some of the most frustrating features of the previous incarnation have been removed, and it’s now possible to have more control over what happens, and to vary things a little more. However, it’s still not anywhere near the standard of, say, FIFA 2003 or Madden 2004 (could they have reused parts of this engine?). New annoying "features" have been introduced (some listed in other reviews) – the ones that irritate me the most are not being able to dive on the ball (for rucks and to touch down for a 22 drop-out), not knowing which way the wind is really blowing and how strong it is for kicking at goal (the commentary and the flags disagree), and not being able to figure out how to contest scrums properly.

In addition the graphics are not anywhere near the standard EA has set itself with other recent titles and the commentary (while considerably better than in the previous effort) is still stilted and I have now turned it off to stop John Inverdale repeatedly telling me that "the conversion [is] still to come". I’d also like to see the scrum meter and push/dig in controls from Rugby 2002 back.

Having said all that it has kept me busy for the last few days, and I’m looking forward to taking on friends in the four-player mode.

To sum up, if you’re a rugby nut, you probably will get some value from the game, at least for a few days. But then it’ll gather dust in the bottom of your games drawer while you go back to your previous favourite (until your mates come round, anyway). If you’re not into rugby, buy something else.

The only rugby game I ever owned was Rugby World Cup 95 by EA on the Mega Drive. It was great fun, but kind of old now.

I made a EA Rugby topic a billion years ago. No replies. 🙁

I didn’t buy it. I

Super Rugby for the SNES is awesome though. I was playing that on the DC the other day.

I don’t know about Rugby 2004 specifically, but I wouldn’t touch anything made by EA.