Rugby 2004 review

I must admit to never having been a fan of ‘egg-chasing’ at school and I became even more averse to it after observing the oh-so-witty behaviour of the various rugby clubs at University that invariably involved excessive consumption of alcohol, raucous behaviour, male nudity and the odd ‘buttflushing’ session. (Don’t ask!)

However, with the Rugby World Cup in full swing and the strong possibility that favourites England might beat those arrogant Aussies on their own turf, I was looking forward to tackling EA Sports’ new and imaginatively titled Rugby 2004.

Funny shaped balls

Sadly none of the Rugby club shenanigans described above were likely to be included in the game, but EA Sports’ reputation for producing attractive and playable sports simulations really whet my appetite. It was difficult to imagine how well they would be able to render such a complex and fast flowing game as rugby union, but, the company that has brought us the excellent ‘Madden’ series of American Football games would surely be able to produce something at least half decent…

Perhaps Rugby 2004 is half decent, but, it is certainly no more then that and the game is so disappointing that quite frankly it is a surprise that EA Sports have allowed themselves to be associated with it.

The not-so beautiful game

It is really frustrating because at the core of Rugby 2004 there are the makings of a pretty good rugby game. The game contains twenty international teams as well as the southern hemisphere’s Super Twelve and European domestic teams adding up to an impressive sixty plus teams with over 1,500 actual players in total. The game features over sixty-five stadiums from around the world and veteran commentators John Inverdale and Gordon Bray provide commentary.

The most disappointing aspects of Rugby 2004 are the poor graphics and animations. The stadiums are attractive enough and there are a number of fairly accurate settings for weather conditions. However, for the player models, Developers HB Studios have produced graphics that are so blocky that you may think you are playing a PS one game and, unlike with EA Sports’ FIFA football titles, no real attempt seems to have been made to recreate the actual player features. OK, so Johnny Wilkinson is blonde, but his features are roughly identical to all other players in the game. The number of animations is limited and this becomes noticeable when you are watching the transition from one move to another, as they will stutter. The players and their uniforms become muddier as the game progresses but, playing against Samoa I got the impression that these mud stains were Polynesian tattoos, which gives you an idea of how accurate this looks.

Do or do not, there is not try

Aurally Rugby 2004 is OK. The game has its own original music soundtrack including a track by INXS. The crunching tackles, grunts and crowd noises are pretty good and the commentary is adequate if a little repetitive.

With regard to general gameplay, make sure that you are well acquainted with the general rules of Rugby before playing this game, as the in-game tutorial is woefully inadequate. If you are not too familiar with the rules you may find yourself giving away lots of penalties that could cost you dearly against decent opposition. The game includes scrums, kicks and lineouts. Kicks from a standing position are fairly easy to master, however kicking from open play is difficult to execute and can be quite satisfying when you pull it off. The scrums are easy enough to master if you know what you are doing as are the lineouts and set plays, which offer a wealth of strategy options, which may be of interest to the rugby enthusiast.

Swing low sweet chariot

One of the problems with the game is that I found it far too easy playing as England. The AI doesn’t seem particularly well developed and it doesn’t take too long to work out how best to score a try. Playing as a weaker team can be very frustrating. To be fair you can derive some satisfaction from playing the game and being successful, particularly if you choose a weaker side and are playing on the harder difficulty setting.

Overall in Rugby 2004, HB Studios have provided the makings of a decent rugby game which is let down by dreadful graphics and weak AI. Perhaps if EA Sports invested as much in this title as they do in some of their others we would end up with a great little game for rugby fans. Sadly, as the market for rugby is relatively small, this looks unlikely to happen.