La misère, ea. france pas de news, donc fo ammer sur les forums nz pour en avoir!!! Ca date de ce w.e..... à vous de juger!
Hi guys,
I had an opportunity to ´test´ Rugby 2004 at the Consumer Electronic Show in Sydney on Saturday. Here´s my rundown of the general stuff, the good and the downright bad and ugly.
General
Had a chat to the Sony rep. ( No EA staff there), and he mentioned it was around 70% complete. I did notice that the two versions had v0.79 and v0.90 when loading, but I don´t think this meant anything. We had a chat and he did say it was embarassing that the game was being shown, and it that it should have never have been released. This is almost definitely not the version shown to the media, because if it was, they would have probably left because the PS2 would need a reboot every 5 minutes.
I spent around 30 mins. playing, but only got about 10 minutes of action. The game was buggy as hell, and kept freezing up when the play stopped for penalties, scrums etc. This seems an easy fix, and should be resolved when the demo is released.
I am also almost positive that custom button configuration exists.
L1/R1- left/ right passes ( Not sure if you can control pass distance, I just passed along the line)
Sprint exists ( 95% sure on this one). I think I also saw juke but not sure.
Triangle, square and circle control grubbers, normal and bomb kicks ( I think this is the same as Rugby 2001). I have no idea what the controls are for defence.
I couldn´t hear much ( Very loud in there), but I did hear some commentary. Seemed OK, nothing to write home about.
The Good
Stadiums- Heaps of them. Stadiums were in obscure locations like San Francisco, Vancouver, Wollongong ( in NSW) and Launceston ( Tasmania). I assume the Australian stadiums are in there because of the World Cup. Stadiums looked good. One of the most impressive features was the giant TV screens in the stadiums, which shows the action ( primarily penalty kicks etc.) in real time. Seems like a waste of processing power, but it´s nice to see.
Ruck/Maul- A big improvement. Animations look good. Only problem is that the ruck/maul forming seems entirely CPU controlled. I frantically pressed buttons but didn´t see any changes. It seems that once a player is on the ground, the game goes onto auto pilot until the ball is released by passing it out. I did manage a turnover in one game.
Scrums- Scrums also look good. Looks like you can push the scrum and force the ball forward ( The CPU did it to me). This was in the middle of the ground so I don´t know if you can score from this strategy.
Strategies- Lots of strategies depending on the gameplay situation ( lineout´s, penalties etc.). Usually between 4-8 different strategies for each situation. This seems to have a lot of potential.
Penalties, Errors- I noticed forward passes, offsides ( I was running all over the place), ´killing the ball´ ( CPU infringement) and a scrum penalty ( can´t remember what it was, I think it was delaying the feed). I didn´t use the R3 ´cheat´ thingy.
Referees- They do seem to play a good advantage. They allow the play to continue until a clear stop in play, which in one instance, was around 30 seconds ( A text box pops up when the Ref plays advantage).
Tackling- Tackling animations look good, very natural. I think I layed off a pass after getting tackled. I think this is one of the better improvements. Animation transition between open running and getting tackled seems a bit off, you can defintely see the change.
Weather- You can change between sunny, cloudy, overcast and raining. I didn´t see a snow option. You can change the temperature as well ( ie cool, warm, hot etc.). I have no idea if this effects gameplay, stamina etc. You can also change wind strength.
The Bad and Ugly
Speed- Everything you´ve heard is correct. The players are sooooo sluggish. It looks like they´re running in mud. Probably the worst aspect, very average stuff. The animation speed and actual running speed are off, they don´t match ( This has been mentioned before).
Animations- A mixed bag. Scrums and mauls look good, running and passing are mediocre. The most noticeable problem was animation transitions, particularly between running and scoring tries, does not look good. You can see an obvious change/delay between running and making a try. I only saw one try animation, a dive ( Same one as the screenshots).
Graphics- All players look very generic. Only skin colour is different. All the players look like lego men, square heads and squarish bodies, the textures are very rough. I played Aust. vs Fiji, and half the Fijians looked white! I must say I was only standing 20cm from the TV, but the graphics still did look pretty rough.
AI- Not sure about this one. Fiji scored a try on me on the wing because the entire team seemed to follow the ball runner, leaving the right wing wide open ( Like about 30 metres from the sideline). A couple of passes to the wing and they were in. Perhaps there was a reason for this.
Ball physics- Didn´t see much bouncing of the ball, but what I saw didn´t particularly impress me. I did expect problems though, no-one has ever gotten this right, not even Madden. Much harder to implement than soccer ball physics.
General presentation- As the screenshots show, the scoreboard, player names etc. are very basic. The overall presentation of the game looks pretty mediocre. Lacking polish overall.
At this stage, the game seems very one dimensional. Seems very much focussed on running the ball and hoping for the best. The kicking game appears limited because of mediocre ball physics and the same kicking controls as Rugby 2001 ( I hate that stupid arched arrow thingy). Think FIFA 2002 with an oblong ball.
All in all I´d give it a 5/10, which is being generous ( I´m very tough!). Obviously this is only a beta and should be better when the demo is released. Let´s all hope so!
Feel free to ask questions, but I can´t guarantee I can answer them as the in game action was very limited.
