The AI in general has been improved, being much more inventive and less predictable that before, which adds volumes to the longevity of the game. The improvements in AI aren't limited to defence close to the line and reacting to your defensive patterns. This requires you to be a little more creative in how you score in the "red zone". You can't always just pick up at the back of a ruck and drive over from close quarters for a try any more as the CPU smashes you backwards. Whilst on the topic of defence, the CPU defensive AI noticeably lifts when you're close to scoring against it. For example, if you defend across the width of the field the CPU is likely to attack you close in to the ruck. What is more noticeable this season is that when playing against the CPU it tends to attack based on the defensive pattern you've employed. Unfortunately there is no rush defence option, which is used now by a few of the top international teams, particularly South Africa. There's a minor difference in that the defensive pattern doesn't need to be reset each ruck like it did in the 2006 instalment, but that's all we could see. EA trumpet "Authentic Defensive Formations" in Rugby 2008, however we aren't quite sure how these differ from Rugby 20's defensive patterns. If you just pick the same team for each game and then suffer an injury to a key player, the replacement is going to let the team down. Trying to increase the squad's morale is also tricky - unfortunately there's no option to take the boys out to the Moulin Rouge in Paris for a bonding session! By the time of the quarter finals the trick is to have a squad of thirty players who are all in form with high morale. Managing the selections for the starting team for each game was quite the challenge, as players' form drops if they don't get game time. Given that Rugby World Cup 2007 starts in early September we started to manage and play our own way through the tournament as the Wallabies. The scrums are a big improvement over 2006, with enhanced push and rotation controls, enabling you to wheel your scrum to your advantage or to counter an opposition's wheel or drive.
#RUGBY 08 PC REVIEW HOW TO#
However on the advanced lineout setting we just couldn't work out how to make our lineouts work - having said that, we didn't have an instruction manual supplied to us with the review copy of the game, so hopefully it's explained in there. In novice mode, lineouts are a simple single button push, helping you restart play and get moving again. One of the biggest issues we had with the last version of Rugby was the difficulty in controlling scrums and lineouts, particularly when we were learning how to play the game. The interactive tutorial is informative and useful, however it would have been even better if had taught us how to use the advanced lineout settings. With advanced difficulty settings and new advanced lineout and simulation offload settings there is still plenty challenge for the experienced scrummer once you've mastered the basics. Yet EA has managed to make some of the more complicated idiosyncrasies of rugby, like lineouts and scrums, a much more intuitive process. Rugby can be a mind-bogglingly confusing sport. With the official Rugby World Cup 2007 license, all major international, provincial and club tournaments and the new World Cup challenge mode, this game has everything the sports gamer is looking for irrespective of whether you are a rugby fan or not. EA has managed to find the fine balance between ease of play for the novice, yet it retains enough challenge for the expert.
#RUGBY 08 PC REVIEW SERIES#
Rugby 08 isn't a total overhaul of the series - instead it's a solid refinement and polish job of 06, with improvements in critical areas, some new features and the inclusion of the exclusive Rugby World Cup 2007 license. When the disk arrived, the silence was filled with the thumping slap of man-flesh on man-flesh… and then we started playing the game. As big fans of EA's rugby franchise, EA's best rugby effort since relaunching the franchise in 2000, there was a silent air of anticipation in the IGN offices ahead of the arrival of Rugby 08. There's nothing like a bunch of men in mini-shorts smashing into each other at high velocity to get the heart rate pulsing.
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