NRL Rugby League 2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rugby League 2 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Sidhe Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Home Entertainment Suppliers |
| Designer(s) | Alan Bell, Rob Curry, Tyrone McAuley, Nathan Rattray |
| Release date(s) | December 9, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Not Rated (NR) CERO: All ages PEGI: 3+ |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC |
| Media | DVD (PS2), CDROM (PC) |
| System requirements | PIII 500 Mhz
128MB RAM |
NRL Rugby League 2, sequel to the 2002 smash hit NRL Rugby League (Australian tile - also known as Stacey Jones Rugby League in New Zealand and Super League Rugby League in the United Kingdom), was released in December 2005 for PlayStation 2 and PC, and in June 2006 for Xbox. Based on the sport of rugby league.
The title was developed by Sidhe Interactive and published in Australasia by Home Entertainment Suppliers and in Europe by Alternative Software.
Contents |
[edit] Features
Key improvements over the original NRL Rugby League include:
- Online multiplayer, allowing two players to play against each other in either a friendly match or a competitive "ranked" mode
- More teams and players than ever before, with updated statistics and team strips
- 40 Stadiums, including revamped versions of those from NRL Rugby League
- Brand new gameplay features, including ball-stripping and pass-to-playmaker controls
- Multi-year franchise mode, putting the player in the manager's shoes - hire and fire players, manage team finances and stake out a multi-year plan as you strive for glory
- Massively upgraded graphics engine, allowing for remarkable star likenesses for more than 500 players
- Motion-captured animation from Weta Digital, the vfx-wizards behind The Lord of the Rings movies
- Highly customizable gameplay experience, with sliders and content editors that allow for considerable adjustment
In addition, the Xbox version of the game includes the following enhancements:
- Multiple save-slots available in Franchise and Competition modes
- Shoulder-barge, fend and sidestep controls additionally on right thumbstick
- Pause function disabled during ranked matches to prevent player exploiting this feature
- Autosave available in Competition and Franchise modes
- Graphical tweaks to improve the overall look and realism of the game
- Improvements to management of custom and customized players and teams
[edit] Gameplay Modes
- Instant Action
Jump straight into a random matchup, pausing only to decide which team you want to play - Single Game
Set all the details (such as teams, weather, stadium - etc) before jumping into a one-off friendly match - Competition
Take part in a full season of a popular competition or make up your own - includes multiplayer support, with the ability to play as 1 to all of the teams in the contest - Franchise Mode
Ten years back-to-back, with off-field management, player trading and representative competition spicing up the action - Online
Both friendly (no consequence) and ranked modes, allowing head-to-head multiplayer over the internet
[edit] Background
Announced in February 2005, Rugby League 2 became known to the world with the launch of an associated website and, importantly, a forum / bulletin board system hosted by Sidhe Interactive. For the first time fans were able to gather together in one location, discussing the title amongst themselves and also directly with the developer.
The online functionality in particular received a lot of attention, being the first (and still only) Rugby-variant sport to go online. Many thousands of online games have been completed since release, with the top players on both the PC and PS2 charts having completed more than 350 games each.
Having been available for nearly six months, Rugby League 2 has proven to be quite the catalyst when it comes to fans dreaming of new features and improvements for a later version of the game. Thousands of ideas have been submitted thus far (a thread on the official forums at http://forums.sidheinteractive.com/ collates the best of these), which the developers have promised to consider should another version be developed.
If another version is eventually green-lit, an announcement will be made on the official forums.
