Read a review
Promising hopefully the AI is better. Most of the people that have played can't comment on the AI because they all played multiplayer
Here is someone's first impressions from Big Ant Forum
Hands On Impressions
Hey guys
Very sorry about the delay but optus decided to drop out right as I got home so I couldn't do much about it!
I have three videos uploading at the moment but like I said, they aren't the best in terms of showing a good amount of Gameplay but still should show you all a little something
Now to get started, RLL3 is a great game. I cannot really fault it much. I'm going to start with the bad stuff first then progress to the good aspects
Commentary is pretty much identical to all other previous rugby league games, so take that as you will. I personally don't really mind because I will have it on mute like I do most other sports games, but to others hoping for a major improvement in this area, you're gonna be disappointed.
The game seemed to have a few small bugs too that I picked up, such as players "gliding" upon occasion, your defender sometimes just moving out of the way of an attacker giving up easy metres or often a try, and a few other quirky things that don't have too much impact but ugly up what is a generally beautiful game.
Having said that, none of these are deal breakers and they can easily be fixed.
Also the goal kicking is a bit weird. As some of you know from the Fan hub, you need to get the ball in the green to have any chance of getting it in. However on veteran difficulty (the hardest or close to it I think), I would say that kicks went in about 70% of the time even if they were in the red zone.
Now, that's all I have to fault the game on.
The good stuff really is good. The graphics, as I said, are really pretty. The field looks awesome, the stadiums look real and the players slick. The improved replay system let's you truly appreciate the games beauty and highlights of the game show up like they would in a legitimate game broadcast.
Gameplay has improved a lot and this is something I thought RLL2 had bailed. But they've just made a good thing better.
As I'm sure some of you will be happy to hear, dummy halves are now a very important attacking weapon. They direct the play and dictate how your team attacks much better than any other league game I have played before. Sniping from the dummy half position is a really good way to catch your opponents off guard and get your team in the front foot. A welcome feature big ant have added they I didn't even think about, is the "hiding" of your intended pass from dummy half. It no longer shows the way your planning to pass but instead gives a single pulse around the hooker when you've made your passing selection. However, it now means you cant see which player is being assigned to which button, and more than once I passed to the wrong player
One aspect of RLL2 that I loved lives on in the attacking lines, and I'm glad to see them in this game
Passing is also much better. It's more of an art form and isn't as simple as tapping a button. Your player will overrun or be caught off guard when you throw a pass unexpectedly, and you will also be punished for being to cavalier with your passing. The ridiculous amount of interceptions are now gone however. There is just a lot more ball that goes to ground. One annoying thing I noticed though is you cannot "pre select" a pass when a defender rushes out of the line at you, but maybe I was just too slow..
Defence in itself has been overhauled and is a genuine challenge. Tackling a player is something you have to think about now and you have to consider whether there are any players steaming onto the ball for an offload, or whether the player is too strong to be arm pinned with a half back (Warea Hargreaves). An added feature BA have included that could be controversial to some people is the new "homing tackling" button, which some of you might pick up in the videos as the bars that fill up below the player when they approach for a tackle. Apparently if you hold either X or O (on playstation) your player automatically homes in on the attacker in a similar method to Fifa. It's something I don't think I'll use much but still might be a big deal to some
Kicking is also much better now and I absolutely love the new look of the punt kick. There is no more ridiculous bouncing of the ball and you are able to pin your opponent in their own in goal quite easily if you play smart
The contested catch system also looks really good and I very nearly scored a try that looked like Blake Austin's one in the trailer only to be tackled and held up.
I only got to look at a single half of AI Gameplay because there was a limited amount of TV's but it really impressed me. What struck me was that the opposition was smart. They run at where you are short of defenders, they kick where your fullback is not, and they look like a real challenge to play against
I unfortunately wasn't able to stray far from plain "kick off mode" so those of you hoping to hear more about online, career mode etc I unfortunately can't help you out. I did however play a game of Nines with another guy, and it was really fun. I don't know how else to describe it as just rugby league with less people, like real life. However one thing I noticed is that in the NRL squads for the nines, they only let you select players who were included in the real life tournament for there teams, which meant no Thurston for the cowboys. It's easy to fix, just make a new team, but just thought I would mention that from the start.
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now, but let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them.
