When you think of it this way, World Cup-related video games are no different. They’re not for the hard-core sports game fans, who undoubtedly buy all the yearly rehashes without question. World Cup games are generally for the casuals, who become fans of the sport for six weeks (or however long their team is in the tournament) because it’s a big event. So when creating a merchandise game for such events, these people should be considered the primary audience before the core fans.

It’s on this understanding that sports game fans avoid the World Cup games every four years, and instead play the yearly releases. These games often enjoy a much larger development budget, yearly improvements to the mechanics (bringing the game ever closer to real life), and a vast array of clubs and international sides which should last any anyone until next year’s mechanic and roster update shakes things up again.

However, rugby hasn’t enjoyed yearly game releases like other sports, so fans who’ve long wished for a game to play have been left in the lurch. In fact, there hasn’t been a rugby game since 2007 (EA’s Rugby 08), and even that game was only released on PC and PlayStation 2, the latter of which had already been made obsolete by its successor. So Rugby World Cup 2011, developed by HB Studios, is the first rugby game ever released in this console generation, and as a result walks a fine line between appeasing the hard-core rugby fans who will be expecting to play it for many months to come, and the casual gamers who only have a passing interest in the sport.

Unfortunately, it’s not very successful on either front.

For starters, the game is hard. Really hard. And I don’t necessarily mean in a challenging and rewarding sense (though persistence does make this game more enjoyable), but in the way that the game simply throws you into a match and expects you to know all the controls, having obviously read the instruction booklet from cover to cover, and remembered the six or seven different (and largely incoherent) control schemes for different states of play.

The fact that there’s no training mode to learn these controls — an essential feature in every sports game, especially one that hasn’t had a release in four years — is downright shameful, and players with little patience will put the game down before they’ve even finished their first match. Having a mode which eases players into the controls and how the game plays is essential, and is sorely missed from Rugby World Cup 2011.

That said, the game is rewarding once you’ve learned the controls, and is scalable depending on how much of a challenge you want. In the normal and hard difficulty, turning over the ball is as difficult as it seems in real life, your CPU opponents are good at attack and defence, and the strategic options, whilst limited to four per match (out of a selection of eight in the whole game), bring some challenge in the harder difficulties.

The easy mode, in contrast, is good for those who just want to win without too much difficulty, which is great for younger players and casuals. Though they’ll still need to learn the controls before they see success.

As for the actual game content, the success of the online mode will determine how long you’ll be playing the game. I can’t stress enough how important online play is to this game’s longevity, and whilst I’ve hardly been able to play online due to the fact that barely any other games journalists were around in the pre-release stage, I’ve managed to play two full online matches with someone who got the game early, and it was by far the most challenging, fair and rewarding part of the game. Dare I say it, but I might return to play more matches in the near future, should anyone be there.

As for offline, I’d normally say that mode would be enough to keep most players happy, but within two and a half hours I’d already given every mode a try, and within four or five I’d gained a comprehensive understanding of every mode the game had to offer: a warm-up tour (consisting of a few short tours of both the southern and northern hemisphere sides with the team of your choice), international tests (a one-off match between two sides), a place-kick shootout (as described — really, it’s just a tacked on feature that no-one’s ever going to play) and, of course, the World Cup tournament itself. Quite frankly, it’s simply not enough for a £45 game, and unless you take it online you won’t be getting your money’s worth.

Outside of the matches, Rugby World Cup 2011 gives you a selection of options expected from any modern sports game. Rules can be adjusted to suit the player’s tastes, and various visual cues (such as a yellow line indicating the offside position) can be toggled on or off too. Added to this, players can also be renamed, which is a godsend considering the dire state of team licensing in this game.

Of the twenty nations competing in the tournament, only ten actually have licensed kits and real player names. Sides like the All Blacks and the Wallabies as we know them are missing from the game, replaced with generic New Zealand and Australia, whilst their squads consist of randomly named players. For people who will be putting a lot of time into the game, going through the effort of renaming each and every unlicensed team’s line-up shouldn’t be too bothersome, but would be heart-breaking for the casual out to seek glory as their national team.

Lastly, the other major complaint is the graphics. The game looks like something from 2006, back when the Xbox 360 was barely a year old and the PlayStation 3 hadn’t even been released. Player faces look a little cartoony, whilst the rest of their model looks more like geometry than an actual person. Meanwhile, the stadia look like they were ported straight from the sub-HD PS2 game Rugby 08, complete with low-res blurry crowd and all. A few years ago, this would’ve been acceptable, but this is 2011 — we’re coming up to the end of the console generation — and it’s really underwhelming.

All told, Rugby World Cup 2011 is a mixed bag for both its audiences. The thrill-seeking casuals will be baffled by the game’s controls, quickly lose patience with the amateurish presentation, and won’t really get the experience they’re after. Those who’ve been yearning for a rugby game for a long time will get more out of the game, since they’ll have the patience to learn the controls and insert the proper roster for their national team, should it not already be there. However, even they’ll feel a little short changed by this game; the lack of modes gives you three to six hours of gameplay at most before you’re simply going through the motions, whilst the only truly engaging mode relies entirely on how many people will actually bother playing online.

Whilst there’s been a substantial number of people asking for a new rugby game these last four years, Rugby World Cup 2011 is not the game they were asking for. It’s decidedly mediocre, and with this in mind, I find it hard to recommend the game to all but the most hard-core rugby fans. But even they should download the demo from Xbox LIVE or PlayStation Network first, just to be sure that this is the right game for them.

Pros

- Rewarding once you learn the controls and crank up the difficulty.

- A decent approximation of the sport in video game form.

- Squad editing is welcome, due to the lack of licensed content.

- At least there’s an online mode which has the potential to flesh this game out.

Cons

- Not having all the official teams and kits is really disappointing.

- A chronic lack of content is not worth the £45 price tag.

- Pretty rubbish graphics for a 2011 game.

- Lack of training mode is this game’s biggest sin. Without it, many players will give up before they’ve even had a chance to complain about the rest of it.

Score: 5/10

Publisher provided a copy of the game for reviewing purposes. Rugby World Cup 2011 will be available from August 26th 2011 with the RRP of £44.99 on PlayStation 3 (version tested) and Xbox 360.

England and Worcester back Danielle Waterman said:“I’m really pleased with the game. I came off the bench, but the girls started well and we all carried that on. I have to give all credit to Kazakhstan. They hit us hard, they disrupted our ball and they played to the end. It was a great result for England and now I’m just looking forward to the next pool game against USA.

“Playing at scrum half brought back a few memories from way back when, when I started playing rugby! It was good fun to play there this evening and it was a great experience with LaToya at ten and Amy Turner at 12. Having three nines on the pitch was awesome!”

England and Worcester winger Katherine Merchant said: “I really enjoyed the game. It was great to get another win. Unfortunately as Michaela got injured I got more time than I expected on the pitch.I got one touch and scored from that first touch so the girls will give me banter for that. I also made a big tackle which I don’t usually do on the wing! So I’ll probably get a bit of banter for that too!

“At the breakdown Kazakhstan were really physical. They just kept piling people in and we did well to deal with it as they’re big girls and they’re powerful.”

England and Richmond hooker Emma Croker said: “It was a fantastic game. It was a really great opportunity to start in an England shirt and to show what we can do. It was tough as they were very good upfront and they made a really physical impact on the game so we had to work hard to move them wide and give our backs space to move in.”

“They committed well to the break down. They made it hard for us. They turned over a few break down situations which we’ll need to work on, but once we moved it wide they struggled to keep up with the pace of our backs.”

England and Lichfield flanker Sarah Hunter said: “It was tough to get out there and start in an England shirt, but it was a great game for us. There was obviously a really high scoreline but Kazakhstan were really tough opponents. They didn’t give in right until the very end. We worked for every single point we could get.

“I am feeling a bit sore now. They were a really physical side and took it to us all the way. We had to work for the full 80 minutes so I’m definitely feeling it now!

“For USA we will obviously look at the video of the Kazakhstan match tomorrow and see what we can improve on, then take that in and use it against the USA and hopefully earn another victory when we play them on Saturday. They’re a very strong physical side with great pace in their backs so they’re going to be a really tough opposition for us so bring on Saturday!”

England Captain and Darlington Mowden Park Sharks fly half Katy McLean said: “It was a really good game. Obviously going into it was nerve-wrecking as I was captaining the team but the girls had an amazing game and there were some really good individual performances so I’m really pleased that we won.

“I’m definitely happy with the win. We knew we had to go and perform in that game and not worry about points. For us it was more about the performance and there were some really pleasing bits of that game from the whole squad. Obviously there’ll still be stuff to work on but overall I’m hoping the coaches will be pleased.”

England and Wasps scrum half LaToya Mason said: “It was a really good game. They were really physical and hit us back a lot but it was great to get out there and play a match and put some stuff together as a team.

“Moving from nine to ten was awesome. It was my first time at ten for England and being able to play in two different positions and keep calm was great.

“I’m pleased with my kicking. I got four out of five conversions. I practised a lot during the week so it all paid off.”

England Player of the Match and Richmond winger Fiona Pocock said:“I’m feeling quite overwhelmed. The match happened in the blink of an eye. I don’t really remember any of it! But I know that it was a really tough match. We had to stay fighting for 80 minutes as Kazakhstan defended their hearts out. It was really tough to get past them.

“I’m pleased with my performance and getting a hat trick, but it was a good team effort from the whole team. I just finished off their good work so I was happy to do that for them.

“We definitely revised our structure after the Ireland game and we tried to maintain that throughout the 80 minutes. We lost it a few times but that was because Kazakhstan were so spontaneous in the way they played which is a testament to them really as they surprised us in every way. But we’ve just got to keep our eye on the prize and we look forward to the next match.

England and Darlington Mowden Park Sharks second row Tamara Taylor said:“I feel good about that game. I’m really tired as they were very physical so we’ve got a few aching bodies but it was a really good game.

“I felt like I did a lot of rucking. The breakdowns were very hard as they put a lot of numbers in so we had to be pretty physical ourselves and I felt like I was going from ruck to ruck to ruck so it was hard work!

“I think we controlled our set piece well. They changed their numbers in the line out which was really hard to defend against so they did well there. Our line-out worked pretty well and I felt comfortable with it. I think our scrums were pretty dominant. It’s an area we’ve been working on so that was good for us.

“I’m looking forward to USA. It was a very close game between them and Ireland today, (22-12) and they’ll obviously be looking to try and get a win for the last match of the pool. I’m hoping everyone recuperates well so we can go again.”

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