If looking for something that combines the confusion of psychedelic drug use with the violence of football, look no further than EA Sports Rugby 2004.
Coming from a person who once actually played the game of rugby, this game is about as easy to pick up as a Calc II.
For the first hour of playing this game the message "and the referee is playing advantage" in proper English will probably come up on nearly every single play. It will take some patience not to throw the joystick at the television in a fit of European rage.
Unlike most sports games where one can learn the options of the game in about five minutes, it is actually highly recommended that the manual be read before attempting to play this game.
EA Sports Rugby 2004
Platform: PC, Playstation 2
Developer: HB Studios
Publisher: EA Sports
Getting past the idea that reading is required in order to be good at the game can be a little challenging at first.
Once the rules of the game are learned, however, this game is as fun as any out there. One of the options highly recommended for playing this game is the training pitch mode.
Here the announcer, in his proper English accent, gives clues on how to do things such as line-outs, scrums, and kicks. Without this feature, ignorant people from America would be screwed, because as much as rugby looks like football, there are incredibly few similarities.
The announcing in the game can be a little annoying after awhile. After about two games the pair of Englishman have about said all there is to say. Nearly every play is "magnificent" or "brilliant" and all of the names are paused in between comments, especially "Co-hen!" on the English team.
Another strange part of the game is that all of the players are listed in meters and kilograms for their height and weight (Oops, I mean mass).
There are several options to this game to choose from including the TriNations Cup, the World Cup and the Super 12.
Unless Fox Sports World is on your cable package, there's no way of knowing what any of these actually are, except that eventually there's a trophy to be won.
In the Super 12 for example, there teams called the Brumbies and Wartahs. Leave it to the imagination to decide what one of those actually is. But it does provide further proof that when you make a country out of a penal colony the vocabulary
In World Cup mode choose from national powers such as Tonga, Samda, and Georgia (the country not the state), all of whom are rated higher than the United States.
Once play begins its easy to notice that all of the players have C cups. I'm not sure what the developers were going for with that, but it has to be troubling for the youth of New Zealand. The players do move very fluidly in action, however.
One thing is for certain, after playing the game for a week, I'm certain that I only know about 20% of the game, which means this game has great replay value. If for just curiosity about how the sport is played or for a game that is about as addicting as crack, not that I would know, this game is definitely worth the buy.
Reach the reporter at matthew.schubert@asu.edu.
