Rugby League Live Ps3
Adah
As a proud New South Welshman I have gained a high tolerance for disappointment over the last 12 years. The feeling of being so near yet so far so many times is great preparation for being a fan of digital rugby league, for once again Big Ant Studios has produced a performance better than its last but one that is unlikely to draw any new fans to the grounds if they were unimpressed with previous efforts.
This results in you always attacking a set defensive line, leading to most breaks coming from beating a defender one on one. There are plenty of ways to do this, the sidestep animations have improved but still infuriatingly take control away from your defender if you fail the die roll and the game judges you to be sidestepped. A hit-up throws a shoulder into the defender and is a great way to gain extra metres and the fend is brutally effective from the right players, trying to stop Jason Taumalolo or Sam Burgess close to the line is an exercise in frustration.
Kicking has seen some progress and some regression. The baffling decision has been made to remove the slow motion kicking controls of the last 15 years of rugby league games, naturally returning us to the dark ages of kicking straight into the charging defenders should you have the gall to want to direct or add more power to your kick. If your halfback decides to take the ball on the fourth or fifth on the run, forget about getting your kick away. There are set plays you can use to give your kicker more room, but too often you will put in unconvincing clearing kicks or inaccurate bombs that start your defensive set on the back foot.
But back to those bugs. Rugby League Live 4 has gone all-in on the simulation route. It is a more restrained game than its predecessors, emphasising winning the ruck and playing for field position to create scoring opportunities, just like the real thing. At its best it succeeds; many of these elements could use some fine tuning but for large parts of my time with Rugby League Live 4 I was having fun, I was engaged in the battle of the ruck and I felt a sense of satisfaction as I gained ascendancy through the middle of the park.
From Amiga to Xbox One, Doom to Destiny, Megazone to Stevivor, I've been gaming through it all and have the (mental) scars to prove it. I love local multiplayer, collecting ridiculous Dreamcast peripherals, and Rocket League.
Stevivor was named as Highly Commended in the category of Best Independent Media Outlet at the Australian IT Journalism Awards in 2016 and in 2019. In 2018, Stevivor won Best Esports Coverage at the Esports Pro Oceania Awards.
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There are five difficulty levels in total, and those searching for an arcade experience will find the best match is the lowest one. This mode is laughably easy, as the game takes care of defensive manoeuvres, with perfectly timed automated side-steps, goosesteps and fends. It also dumbs down the opposing AI to the point that it makes you feel like a conscience-less A-grade player smashing through an Under 12s match.
From this difficulty level onwards, learning to master the right stick to avoid tacklers is essential. It becomes trickier when cycling through the many camera perspectives, as the left-stick movement controls and left/right-bumper passing shift relative to the new perspective (as they should), but the right stick functions do not. For me, this meant rewiring a natural instinct that would have preferred both sticks to be harmonious in relation to the new camera perspective.
That being said, scoring a try is exactly the kind of edge-of-your-seat experience that it should be in this type of game. Individual players have meaningful personalised attributes, particularly as it relates to speed and weight, both of which are taken into account when they collide with defenders. A heavier player has a better chance of smashing through a lighter defender or, when tackling, can use that weight advantage to force a player over the sideline. Faster players come onto the ball quicker, which is perfect for sneaky passes, and these quicker footballers are your best bet at breaking through a small defensive gap before the opposing team can react.
This becomes even more apparent when playing online, as both offensive and defensive AI seem to be set quite low. Defenders will often mill around and watch a human opponent fly by them, jogging backwards instead of turning to chase. When attacking, too small a gap on the blind side means a winger will flank around to the open side, which can embarrassingly result in a pass over the side line where there was a player a second before.
When developer Big Ant Studios makes a sports simulator, it really takes the term \u2018simulator\u2019 seriously. Anyone familiar with Big Ant\u2019s most recent sports simulator, Don Bradman Cricket, will know the developer prides itself on digitising as many facets of the real-life sport as possible. Rugby League Live 3 is certainly no exception to this.
That\u2019s also one of the initial hurdles to overcome. Like Don Bradman Cricket, Big Ant has little interest in holding the player\u2019s hand. While there is some assisted training in Rugby League Live 3 by way of drills, these are limited to goal kicking, passing, tackling, and play-making. These drills are gamified to the point where they\u2019re more enticing for seasoned (or returning) players, rather than those learning the game mechanics for the first time.
If you\u2019re unfamiliar with the specific rules of rugby league, Rugby League Live 3 won\u2019t teach you. Early on, most of my training came from tabbing through the loading screen tips. There is a so-called training mode within the drills that can be toggled on or off, but the on-screen prompts are unfittingly matched with a slow-motion system that encourages bad habits more than it helps to perfect timing. Make no mistake: timing is one of the most crucial components of Rugby League Live 3.
It took me a few hours to discover the best training was hidden in the help menu, albeit in static form. Clicking through dozens of screens helped me wrap my head around new tactics and possibilities that weren\u2019t covered anywhere else. Before stumbling on these tips, I was struggling to hold my own on the second-lowest difficulty level.
It\u2019s probably the best difficulty to learn the controls, mechanics, and timing, however, creating the gameplay foundation for the offensive and defensive strategies that are essential on higher difficulties. Jump the challenge up a notch to the inaptly named Amateur level, and a lot of that handholding is out the window.
There are also a couple of other controller fumbles. Stealing the ball is one of two buttons, depending on whether you\u2019re looking at the help menu or the control screen. In the same breath, it\u2019s frustrating that a right-hand repositioning is sometimes required on a default controller grip, given that the right trigger controls sprinting, while right bumper handles passing to the right of your player. Worse still, the controller sporadically drops out during matches: online, it\u2019s less of an issue because you can instantly reconnect, but for solo play, it nullifies any match contributions to XP-rewarding challenges as soon as you reconnect to the game.
Hit-ups, side-steps, goosesteps and fends have specific situations when they are more effective, but they also have the downside of slowing down forward momentum. Even if you make a break, there\u2019s no radar to indicate what defenders might be ahead of you, so sound knowledge of field positions and fast reactions are recommended to turn a break into a try. On top of this, every camera angle seems to have a distinct downside, with no one camera angle that worked effectively for spotting offensive opportunities or tracking defensive weaknesses.
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