Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3208 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2007-07-25
• Platform: PlayStation2

Manufacturer's Description
Rugby 08 captures all the emotion and passion of the world’s fiercest national rivalries. Experience all the excitement of the Rugby World Cup 2007 as you challenge the best teams and players ever assembled for global supremacy. A nation’s destiny is in your hands when you take control of one of the officially licensed national teams and power your way through a grueling six-week campaign for the sport’s ultimate prize: the Webb Ellis Cup.

Play as your home nation and control your favourite players as you battle from qualification right through to a virtual re-creation of the championship final.

Take complete control of your favourite squad, emulating its style on offencand, for the first time ever on defence, using new authentic formations. Adjust your defence on the fly to keep momentum on your side or counter your opponent’s attacking style by changing your defensive strategy based on score, field position, and more.

Rugby 08 also introduces the Rugby World Cup Challenge mode which will test even the most hardcore gamer. Recreate 30 classic moments in Rugby World Cup history using modern teams, and unlock exclusive Rugby World Cup highlight videos. Compare your results with history, and measure yourself against the world’s best.

Rugby 08 also introduces a layered pick-up-and-play control system for set pieces and drop kicks. Take full command over every scrum and maul with enhcnaced push and rotation controls, make lineout throw-ins look easy with a simplified control scheme, and master the new kicking meter to score those key penalties and converts. New truck and zoom camera angles zero in on all the key action on the field during the game’s biggest moments.

Customer Reviews

Better than 06
08 is better than 06 because of better gameplay.
The fluidity of the game has improved and come closer to real rugby.
The flaws pointed out by reviewers are there but I find that 08 is a good evolution from 06 (clearly not a revolution)
What has not been fixed is the management of tackles and rucks which is still mainly a random process.
For me the next version of the game (09 or 10) has to concentrate on this.
For rugby lover I recommend buying the game as there is no competition any longer in terms of rugby game (Rugby challenge was a flop and it does not seem that new versions will be launched)

A very good rugby game
I am also baffled about the bad reviews this game is getting by the customers at amazon. Firstly, the professionals really like this game. ign.com gave Rugby 08 8.2/10 and Gamespot.com gave the game a solid 7.0/10. I strongly agree with them because this game plays well.

The negatives of the game are very frustrating if you want a rugby game which is up to the standards of Fifa in the case of licensing and getting the players' stats right. For example, Chabal has a higher goal kicking rating than David Skrela of France! Nick easter has a poor rating of 51 and Dan hipkiss also has a poor rating and is listed as a New Zealander. Olly Barkley and Nick Abendanon aren't in the Bath side. National sides like Fiji do not have the players licenced and this is true for the French reserves with Michalak's name being spelt Mallack. Other negatives involve the animation of rucks, where sometimes players don't even go into the ruck even when you "bind" them. There are sometimes glitches and the Lions tour has been removed. Tournements also take up quite a bit of space on the memory card. You really have to fiddle with the starting 15 for England as its obviously been put together way before the world cup. Gomarsall isn't in the team nor Ben Kay.

Despite all this, it is actually a very good rugby game. The rugby gameplay is very fun especially the set plays such as a crosskick, a dummy switch to break the defensive line, or a "pocket" for a drop goal with Wilkinson. Many players look like they do in real life and the commentary is also good. The new kits for the national teams look stylish and modern adding a realistic feel to the game. The Rugby world cup, 6 nations, guiness premiership, super 14, tri-nations, European trophy, and world league are all here. There is a challenge mode to re in act moments of past world cups although you have to use current teams in the 1987-2003 world cups.

Overall, If you are a rugby fan or a new rugby fan this is a great game to get because its fun, mostly realistic with good graphics, giving you the oppurtunity to play with your favourite players. The best moment of the game so far has to be an offload to Paul Sackey breaking a tackle, then scoring a try in the world cup final.

They are sooooo lazy!!!!! Two years and they come up with this!?!?
Summary: There are hardly any changes to rugby 06. This game was rushed out with the world cup pending. It doesn't work on the PS3 which is very frustrating - it crashes whilst loading the training mode. There are just too many inaccuracies in the uneditable player database.

Pros:

-Unfortunately still the best rugby game out.

-Teams commit random penalties and offences now, whereas this didn't happen much at all in rugby 06.

-Kicking - slight improvement on rugby 06 with better use of camera angles to kick from penalties

Cons:
-Defence is still very difficult - you largely need to leave tackling to the computer as lining players up yourself is infuriating.

-Attacking is not accurate - sling it out wide with a better team and it's very easy to run around your man. Also the same old gaps appear as in the rugby 06 game - the intelligence of the teams hasn't changed (lazy again).

-Line outs - why have they made these easier than last time? there's no no skill involved in a line out - just press a button and the ball is thrown and the player jumps

-Scrums - slight improvement but still very little skill involved

-Lions tour has been dropped - why?!

-Very cumbersome to pick your team from the player database - no shortcuts or ability to, for example, only view the centres. You need to scroll through all forwards first.

-Turnovers at rucks still occur randomly - even with the new meters in place, my meter was all my colour and the opposition still managed to turn the ball over on random occasions.

-Players stats haven't been updated at all - lots of the new up and coming decent players have very low ratings which is sooooo lazy especially with the world cup so close (strettle rated 66). You're stuck having to pick the same team as rugby 06. And some players are even missing (where's lewis moody?!). Others are duplicated with identical stats but a slightly differently spelt name (van gisbergen & van gisbirgen?!)


If you already have rugby 06, do not bother buying this game. It really just isn't worth it. If you love rugby and want a good game with friends on the PS2 then you don't have much other choice than buying this game.