Play Rugby Challenge 3 Demo

EDIT

I still stand by what I said in my original review below, but I am extremely frustrated at the developers for what I can only call a complete lack of care and passion for their product.

Allow me to elaborate.

1. We are now 22 days into 2016 and this game (according to the description) is due for release in 2015. Now a few days is forgiveable, but three weeks. Fans deserve updates and there are none (trust me guys, I've looked.)

2. The last post on the offical rugby challenge website was in 2013, Their facebook profile hasn't a single update on this game's relase. It's just insulting to the fans who have had no explanation as to why this game is having a delayed release. If it is even being released at all.

3, The lack of advertising is frankly amateur. Now I know the developers can't hope to challenge EA and FIFA from a financial basis (that would be like challenging Legolas to an archery competition) but social media and word of mouth cost nothing, and I would argue is the best source of advertisement.

Ultimatley it all comes down to what I percieve as a lack of passion for this game. If I didn't have the coding knowledge of a particularly daft slug I would love to make a rugby game. And everyone I met would know every pain staking detail about it. I wouldn't sleep nights trying to get every tiny, minute detail perfect. It would be my dream. These developers have got exactly that chance but they haven't grabbed it. It's a shame. But don't get me wrong, every night before I go to bed, I pray for the end of hunger, world peace, and a phlippin' good rugby game.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

As with all new rugby games, I always look forward to it being the game I've been dreaming of for years.

What I know from demo.

As well as the All Blacks and Australia offical teams, we now have England and South Africa too (along with their official sevens counterparts) this is good, because smashing an unoffical Dylan Hartley to the floor never felt quite as satisfying.

No Pro 12, or French league teams, they have an unoffical Pro 12 league, so it's not gone altogether, but the Scarlets are called Llanelli, and the Dragons Newport, and so forth.

It looks like 7's mode might actually be a worthwhile feature and not just a silly gimmick, you have sevens specific positions when creating a player and officail sevens teams and strips, looking forward to that.

Graphics are hugely improved from previous two games.

Full licensing for Super 14, and English Premiership sides.

No extra stats from previous games, I would quite like to see a scrummaging stat, a handoff stat, a throwing stat, and others. the more stats you have the more options you have on the field, One issue I always found from the previous games is that the stats didn't always make that much difference, for example a player with a tackle skill of 20, would often nail someone who had a tackle break skill of 80, I hope the stats have been altered to have a more realistic effect on gameplay.

Just a picky thing, but I'd really like to see position specific stats to really vary gameplay, for example a prop might have a scrummaging stat, and a lifting at lineout stat. Quite often in the first two Rugby Challenges props would have all stats other than strength at embarassingly low levels, which made their overall rating very low, I'd love to see this changed.

No change in commentary from Rugby Challenge two... Which is fine, but they have to do a better job this time round.

I may be speaking only for myself here but I would like to see a little bit more structure in this game. So often in Rugby Challenge one and two, your fly half was in the ruck, your prop was standing at scrum half, and your No.8 was sitting in the pocket waiting to hoof it down field. This is great sometimes. I'd love it if after nine or ten phases of fast paced, broken play you started finding players in odd positions, but in first phase play I'd like my pretty backs to be standing in the line waiting to do some flash running and my forwards with their face in the dirt fighting for the ball. (ooh, I do like a muddy forward)

The AI in the first two rugby challenge games wasn't the best (sorry tru-blu). Mind you compared to Rugby 15 it's like the freaking matrix. Passing was the main issue for me, so often my lock forward would throw a herculean pass 25 yards out to the winger, and other times he would just throw it aimlessly backwards when there was a player 3 yards away from him.

I hope the kicking system stays the same, though I do think players should have more power in their kicks, you have no chance of banging one over from half way in the first two games. I understand that finding fun ways of managing competitive play at scrums, line-outs, rucks and mauls is quite tricky, but I'd like to see this accomplished, though I'm sorry, I have no idea what to suggest that might be.

It looks like this will be further refinment of the original rugby challenge rather than a revolutionary rugby game, the menu are all the same to the previous two games. I will be buying it, and I hope to the rugby Gods (Jeremy Guscott and Jonathan Davies) that it will be good.

WHEN IS THIS GAME BEING RELEASED?

Good news: Rugby Challenge is back with some new licences! This time not only will Sothern Rugby fans get their Super Rugby back, but also their country's top divions such as the ITM Cup, The NRC and the Currie Cup. Also, for the first time (that I know of), there is a Rugby 7s mode!
Bad news: No Pro12 or French League licencing (until the community makes a mod). As an Ospreys fan this is upsetting ;_; Looks like it's still with Challenge 2 for me (because ♥♥♥♥ that ♥♥♥♥♥♥ other game made by people that don't know what Rugby is. I refuse to speak it's name)

Although as of this review this is just a character creator. But hey it's a funtional one with the ability to share your team and players.

Console version released on Friday 22 April. When is the PC version going to be released on Steam??

Some news on this game would be great.

When is the full game being launched on Steam? I would purchase immediately. It is out and available for PS4, PS3, X-Box 1 and X-Box 360, but not for PC. I don't own a gaming console, and I don' want one. I love my rugby, though, and have played almost 700 hours of the original Rugby Challenge that I purchased on Steam, on my laptop. Surely there is a demand for a Steam launch?!

With Rugby Challenge 2 and 1 being removed from steam there hasn't been a good rugby game that includes international teams on steam. Even though this is only a player/team builder same as rugby league live 3, we might see new technology included that former Rugby Challenge games have failed to do.

If it's Rugby Challenge 2 with licenced Springboks and Currie Cup, it will be good. From the looks of the "fanhub", which is basically the Rugby Challenge 2 team editor in my opinion, the game will mostly be the same as before.

The "Be a Pro" mode should be interesting if done well, and hopefully the career has been improved or reworked (but I'm not holding my breath for that).

I could live with a re-skinned RC2, if the following is available:
- Fanhub allows you to easily modify/import things like jerseys;
- Fanhub allows you to easily modify the active roster and stats;
- Career mode is reworked or at least improved;
- Bugs from RC2 have been fixed (Bench substitution bug, I'm looking at you);

I will recommend based on RC2, since it was a great game kept alive by modders like bric6. Nothing HB studios or any other company is producing matches these titles so far.

So Glad that Rugby Challange is back!!, this fanhub is great, only thing i wish you could do is make your own kits like on the Rugby League Live 3 FanHub, but i guess its ok cause there are like 100+ custom kits, so allgood

Great character creation, now all we need is the rest of the game.