It's safe to say that EA Sports has spoiled us over the years when it comes to the overall look of any of its sports franchises. That said, I was completely let down with Rugby 2004's appearance. After successful and renowned graphics with almost all of EA Sports' games, I failed to see any similarities with the graphic presentation of this sim. The animations weren't too bad, but the character models were uncharacteristically blocky. During a throw-in, I actually saw one of my men turn his head to follow the ball, only to have his head spin completely around, just like in the movie The Exorcist.

Since Rugby is somewhat like the game of football, I was hoping for some vicious tackles, like in NCAA Football and Madden. Instead, the animations were bland and didn't get me excited about playing. The stadiums were just as uninspired, since the crowds really didn't have any action or movement to them. Had the graphics been better, Rugby wouldn't be as bad. The thing is a lot of people don't know too much about the sport, which is why the visual element should have been number one on the developer's to-do list.

I was pleased with the commentary and the rest of the audio. Rugby 2004 features two commentators, who seem to follow the match fairly well. One of them did sound a little bit like a automated telemarketer when saying the score: After the first half, it's (pause) the United States (pause) one, New Zealand (pause) zero. Although I didn't see it, the crowd was keeping up with the match with its cheers. I was hoping for a few more sound effects, like grunts or tackling sounds.

Once you get past the graphic letdown, Rugby 2004 plays like the actual sport. For those who haven't caught a match on TV at three in the morning, rugby is like a combination of soccer and football. Players are constantly tackled, without wearing any pads, and like soccer, rugby is a game of passing.

Moving on to what Rugby offers within the game is some leagues and tournaments. You can take part in an exhibition match called Play Now, or go through several different Tournaments. Here you can play for the World Cup, Six Nations, Tri Nations, Tour, Super 12, or European Trophy. Finally, the World League is kind of like the Franchise mode, where you take one team from mediocrity to greatness within the time span of three years. With this mode, you can recruit other players during the season and offseason. Other features for Rugby 2004 include a Player Creation mode and a Hall of Fame section, which keeps track of your best performances, how many Tournament victories you have and any trophies you may have picked up along the way.

The difficulty seemed to be a drastic change between the latter two of Easy, Normal, and Hard. On the Normal level, you can basically take one guy and run nearly the entire field for a score, which is great if you like blowouts. However, should you try the Hard level, it's an actual Rugby match; as in no one is going anywhere to score. This level is where you really need to learn to pass. The Training Pitch mode allows you to hone your skills like the scrum and throw-in. However, the lack of a tutorial showing what buttons to press, and when, delayed my knowledge of how to play the game.

The key to being successful right away depends solely on your understanding of the controller. As soon as you can learn what button does what, playing through matches will be enjoyable. Keep in mind, almost every button has a function, so the Training mode might be a good place to learn the game. The loading time really isn't much of a factor, although around an eighth of your memory card could be used for saving games in Rugby 2004.

As I mentioned earlier, this isn't a bad replica of the Rugby sport... it just looks that way. If the people at EA Sports can find a way to clean up the graphics next time around, Rugby will be a household name in no time.