moyletra

I've waited for 5 years for a Rugby Union game on Xbox360. It has the developers who did the original EA titles, but not the $ in development. It lacks polish and the cutting edge of say EA's Madden or FIFA series - but they've gone through 20+ iterations from PS1 and early PC days to now. It's not a huge evolution on Rugby 2006 or 2008, but these guys need the opportunity to build on what they have. If anything given the limited content it should have been released at a lower price point (but maybe the RWC license costs are high). Rather than just the RWC tournament there should have been an opportunity to play a Road to the World Cup and attempt to qualify lower tier nations to the pool stages? Or perhaps included Sevens as well? maybe next time? Anyway I've had a great time playing with/against my 8 year old son, and it's teaching a lot about the rules and mechanics of the real game. The controls are pretty intuitive after a couple of matches. Like Rugby 2006/8 the players do tend to bunch but hey that's what mini rugby players do as well. I haven't played online as I don't have a Gold account. In summary it's a passable "simulation" of rugby union, graphics are OK, the atmosphere is good and the player mechanics/animations are passable. Developers - we need more rugby games.