Being a rugby player myself I was really excited about this game...however it disapointed the player AND the gamer in me
User Rating: 3 | Rugby 2004 PC
Everyone please do not be fooled by this game, rugby IS an enjoyable sport. This software however isn't. Before anything else lets try to be positive, the game has some qualities: it's cheap and ...... oh how am I kidding! This game sucks on each and every aspects! The sound is flat and doesn't convey the hard hitting fun of the sport. The commentaries are repetitive to the point that its seems that the commentator himself wanted to get the heck out of this game. The game doesn't offer alot of diversity. Sure you have your standard exhibition, tournament and pseudo-franchise mode where you have so little control over your team (which for the purpose of this mode starts by default with a roster of "not yet developed" players) that you don't feel motivated to continue building your dynasty. Add to this a poorly constructed create a player option (which is nothing more than an EDIT a player option!) and there you go, this is rugby 2004. Graphically this is a throwback to the 3DO era! Sure the game looks better then its predecessor but the players still look like fossilized stick-matches. They do not (at all) reassemble their real life counter parts and other for the fact the first row players all look like King Kong Bundy the models are identical regardless of their position (since when are wingers bigger than flankers!) But all that could have been put aside if the gameplay was solid... and trust me it isn't. The game is slower than ever, the controls are COMPLETELY unresponsive: controlling a rock, a maul or a throw in is impossible which would be that bad if rugby wasn't a sport where you spend most of your time ACTUALLY ROCKING AND MAULING!!!(at least the scrum mechanism was improved) The AI serves a purpose of comic relief more than anything else, your teammates don't give a damn about your preselected strategies and your opponents don't seem to have understood what sport they are actually playing. Last time I check kicking for 3 points when you are down 5 on the last play of the match isn't an option, go for the try moron! But in the ends it all gets balanced out by the fact that if you try to do anything else but run in a straight line with the player you control you'll likely be involved in a pointless juke move that will lead your men to enter in a pointless animation reminiscent of a convulsion that will slow you down just enough for you to get tackled. No more, I lost enough of my precious time on this game, I'm going back to watching paint dry!
