It’s 15 years since we had a decent rugby video game, I’m talking of course about EA Sports Rugby 08.
Having EA Sports pick up a rugby game again is an unlikely dream, so in the absence of that happening, the rugby community is keeping their old classic up to date.
Similar to how Championship Manager 01/02 is continually updated to the present day, there are gamers and creators tirelessly working on patching Rugby 08 to the present day.
YouTuber Bears Gamer shared recently a few videos of him playing a 2023 Six Nations Championship on the game, featuring the updated rosters and kits.
Why was Rugby 08 so good?
One of the big things for me in rugby games is the responsiveness of the passing. Rugby 08 had this completely nailed. As soon as you pressed the button, the pass came out.
Place kicking was solid, rucks and scrums were well organised, and it was just a really polished game.
We’re so familiar with it now that you do identify some flaws – such as the certain angle of run you can find to make a gap, which perhaps a little too frequently and a bit too easy.
Rugby games also struggle in my opinion to provide realistic scorelines and battles, which is partly down to the shortness of the game in real time when playing in video game format.
How to update Rugby 08
Follow Bears Gamers excellent YouTube run through below:
The important links you need:
