I have played a number of games of Big Ant's highly-anticipated Rugby League Live 3 now and it is definitely the best rugby league game to date, although the standard hasn't been set too high, and that includes Big Ant's two previous efforts.
Straight away I noticed the improvements in graphics and overall presentation. The thing that comes crashing down into the turf announcing the two teams is a nice touch and the menus are simplistic and easy to navigate.
I played a few drills to get the hang of the controls and was pleased that kicking had been drastically improved. No more getting tackled on the last for me because my idiot playmaker took an age to kick the ball. Naturally I got bored with the drills after a while and jumped into a season, playing as the St George Illawarra Dragons. Unfortunately you are restricted to the 2015 schedule, I would have liked to take part in a random season. In the pre-game menu you can adjust game length, weather, jerseys and team line up. Well sort of, and that brought me to a major oversight on Big Ant's part. At the beginning of a competition you select 17 players to use and are stuck with that same 17 all season long. What is the point of boasting about all the teams in the game when they are so poorly utilised? After about 12 games I quit the season and launched into a career as coach of the Dragons. It's quite in depth with the opportunity to purchase skill upgrades for upcoming games, judiciary news, as well as a full pre-season to take part in.
Enough whingeing, and into the gameplay.
It's a step up from 2013's Rugby League Live 2 World Cup Edition, but there are a number of things that haven't been addressed. I found that my players would stand still instead of running onto the ball, making momentum a tough assignment, and this also meant that my teammates were poorly positioned to receive passes. Aside from that, it generally plays quite well. The tackles are great, running and kicking is fluent and crowd noise is excellent. I was initially worried about the commentary, seeing as it was Andrew Voss and Phil 'Gus' Gould again, but it's OK. Not great, but OK.
A couple of times the ball randomly floated in the air and over the sideline and once I received a penalty for taking the ball over the dead ball line, but these glitches haven't occurred often enough to be annoying. The AI aren't the brightest either and their reaction times are slow. A couple of times when defending my own line, the opposition passes the ball and the receiver catches it about 1 metre out from the line. You are left powerless to stop a try, when in real-life it would be all hands on deck to stop the try.
Verdict
This isn't a game made by EA, and at times it shows, with poor player likenesses, glitches and bland commentary. However, on a limited budget, Big Ant have managed to produce a fun game. It's not going to win over non-rugby league fans, but fans of the 13-man code will love the big hits, diving tries and excitement that this great sport offers. It remains to be seen how Big Ant handles player movements, and I noticed that Dragons centre Charly Runciman is still in the Dragons list despite moving to the Super League mid-way through the year, same goes for Eels halfback Chris Sandow. An obvious solution would be to introduce a 2016 patch that reflects all player movements, new jerseys, etc for next season.
Team selection for a competition is so bad as you are restricted to just 17 players, pre-selected before the season starts. I'm unsure how the game deals with injuries, as in the 30 or so games I've played thus far, I am yet to encounter an injury, to my team or the opposition, despite injuries being set to realistic. A better system would be to have all the players from the NYC, NSW/QLD Cup and NRL squads at your disposal. I'm sure people have created such teams in the fan hub, but this should have been addressed by Big Ant, not the people who are paying $100 to play the game.
Overall, if you like rugby league, you will like the game. Gameplay has improved, presentation is excellent and there's a lot of fun to be had. It won't win over any new fans and there needs to be a timely update ahead of the 2016 season to breathe new life into the game.