''Rugby 06'' is the 2006 release in the

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

series by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

. The game allows players to play as many Rugby nations, both major and minor, and includes many tournaments, such as the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

, the Tri Nations, the Six Nations, and the Super 14.

Features

This game has several new features. Some of the features are for graphical purposes (e.g. new weather effects), and others are for gameplay (e.g. new tackle options and off-load passing options). Some of the features are:

Playable modes

6 Nations, Tri-Nations (with the Bledisloe Cup), Ten Nations, Lions Tour (SA, NZ, Australia), Super 14, Guinness Premiership, World League, World Championship, European Trophy, manager mode

Increased tactical plays

25+ new tactical plays can be chosen by the player.

Off-load passing

When the player's character draws a defender to him, he is able to quickly off-load the ball to a teammate before the defender actually tackles him. This can cause a gap in the defensive line, which can be exploited by the player.

Comprehensive commentary

Ian Robertson returns for this game, next to former

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

great

Grant Fox Grant James Fox (born 16 June 1962) is a former rugby union player from New Zealand. He was a member of the All Blacks team that won the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. He is also the father of professional golfer, Ryan Fox. Fox holds the w ...

, as well as comments from Murray Mexted.

Impact Players

Impact/Star player, are players that could potentially turn a match in the player's favour. These player are the best in-game in their specialised area. Impact players are highlighted in game with a star above their heads.

Enhanced players and stadium conditions

The game features new stadium animations, such as banner rotations, 3D grass, and team relevant flags. Also the weather conditions are improved, and new conditions are added. The player can now play in snow and fog, and even see the characters' breath in cold weather.

Quick penalties

The game also includes the option of taking a quick penalty, which can help to score a sneaky try or just to gain some metres.

Reception

The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions received "generally favorable reviews", while the PC version received "average" reviews, according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave the PS2 version a score of one seven, one five, one seven, and one six, for a total of 25 out of 40. ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' gave the PS2 version a score of four stars out of five and stated, "Scoring a drop goal can be the trickiest move in the game, simply because the camera angle makes it difficult to line up. Whilst the game tends to be annoyingly accurate on higher settings, just persuade a friend to play to even up the challenge." ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' also gave the game a score of four stars out of five and said that "Rugby, with its elaborate set-pieces and impenetrable laws, is a hard game to render on computer, but this is an extremely good try." ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' gave the PS2 and Xbox versions a B, saying that the game "isn't as pretty as the bigger EA Sports games, but it isn't as larded down with excess crap, either; just lots of teams, lots of tournaments, and what we'll assume are famous players in a good tough sport."

References

External links

* {{Rugby Union video games 2006 video games EA Sports games HB Studios games PlayStation 2 games Rugby union video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Canada Video games set in Argentina Video games set in Australia Video games set in France Video games set in Ireland Video games set in New Zealand Video games set in South Africa Video games set in the United Kingdom Windows games Xbox games