General Feedback

I agree with all of this. Performance is coming down to optimization. It's to be expected on release date (some may remember Gears of War 3 had horrific frame drops on release as did Mafia 3)

Good feedback thank you!

Agreed .

I have a few thoughts on about an hours worth of play also.

On the forwards play, at the very least when there is the option to send left or right and 3 runners line up to cart the ball we should be able to select which runner to pass to.

Defence:

id like to see the ability to drop the wingers back and bring the FB closer to the line or cycle through Deep/mid range/ shallow.

When you make a dominant tackle and have 2 men there trying to jackel the ball you should win the ball and not be penalised if a ruck is not formed.

sprint stamina needs to be more of a burst- at times AI defenders run along side the attacker when their could be tackled attempts.

* fwd passes need to be cleaned up/Ai intuition there are times where the 9 is at the base of the ruck and could send the ball to the fly half instead passes it to a man in the ruck.

Played half a dozen games so far and identified a few issues:

There still seems to be no advantage from a knock on. It's like it is a timed advantage as quite often I'll go through a couple of phases and be about to score to then get pulled back for no advantage!

I don't play with swing camera on, but on the opposition kick off it's on when they kick off, and then it swings round to my side. If it's off it should be off all the time. Quite annoying.

The camera angle for line outs is rubbish being behind the Hooker. The angle in RC3 was much better being overhead, and allowed you to better compete against the opposition by moving your players about.

The ref sounds like he's speaking through the stadium loud speaker, and there's still the issue of kit clashing between the ref and the teams.

The AI positioning of the Fullback in attack still needs worked on. They're still standing at the back doing nothing too many times.

Is there a way to turn the map off in game? Not really necessary.

Player creator is very slow. I'm on ps4 and it's taking over 5 seconds to load up tattoos, boots etc on to the player.

W

All of the in game power bars, eg kicking, scrummaging are very hazy looking and need sharpened up graphically

Some great comments here. A lot of my initial gripes have been stated already but here are the main points we've found after a handful of PvP games (to be honest, most of them were gripes from RC3 which we hoped would be fixed):

• The player sounds and referee voice sound like they are being broadcast over a loudspeaker.

• Game play is pretty laggy at times (sounds like this may be an "early access" issue only... I hope so!)

• Winning rucks from 1st phase ball or a short crash ball is nearly impossible. The supporting forwards just stand around for too long, by which time the opponent has contested and stolen the ball. Holding onto the ball, even for a second, while you wait for support, results in an instant penalty so isn't really a viable option.

• Conversions are way too easy. Even from the touchline, with strong wind there is no need to adjust the direction. If we scale up the difficulty to make kicks more challenging the lineouts become ridiculously hard. The problem is that scorelines end up pretty boring... all divisible by 7!

• As mentioned earlier, there is no real pick-and-go option.

• The addition of set plays is excellent and a real enhancement to attacking options. However, once the set play is selected there is a pause of a few seconds before anything happens, really slowing down the flow of the game... am I missing something here?

I will feedback some more when we've got some more games under our belts.

Game has lots of potential, offside is non existent, particularly from kicking, needs fixing would make it like real rugby , full back position needs sorting attack and defence , I like be a pro mode but I feel the way your team mates play could be improved, more kicking from own 22 under pressure, British lions tour option would be nice too but that a wish list dream

I'll echo the defensive Fullback positioning. I had a ruck in my own 5 metre line, went blind, simple 2 on 1 with the Winger and ran 90 metres for the try. Went on instant replay to track down the AI Fullback and he was standing in the defensive line in the 10 spot with half a dozen players outside him and no one covering.

Also the number 8 pick and go seems a little underpowered and slow. Probably 50% of the time I'm getting tackled by the 9 before I've even moved.

Agree with the comments on full back position. I’ve had a few occasions where the full back is in the defensive line With nobody covering back. This was not the case so much with RC3 where the full back AI was better.

I'd also like to chime in about the backfield positioning. I'm always caught with no one in the backfield to field a kick. It seems like my backfield defenders aren't back deep enough, and the fullback doesn't pursue the ball in mid-air until it's past him. I'm not sure if there's an adjustment we can make through the on-field controls or not.

To follow-up from my initial post, I've now owned the game for roughly 24 hours and have had the luxury of getting more game time under my belt.

• In my original post I mentioned that I loved the addition of the set plays. Whilst my original impression remains the same, I think some minor tweaking could further improve this element. At present the set plays seem to "scripted" in that you'll always complete your play. The only time my set play has not been completed is on the dummy set, when I have been intercepted by the opposing defender. Having the potential for more disruption, will in turn make it more rewarding when you make a break or score a try from a well executed play.

• I've seen a few comments about the tackling, and would like to touch base on this as well. I love the one-on-one tackling and the percentage of genuine broken tackles I see. I however don't understand why there continues to be a bounce animation, where defender after defender can continue to tackle you. This makes the game look and feel clunky.

• offloads, offloads and more offloads. Whilst this has been improved upon since RC3, I still find i'm frequently seeing to many offloads. (Please note I haven't adjusted sliders for this).

• Defensive shifts / fullback positioning. Most of you have already made comments in regards to this and I want to further echo this! I think the manual shifts that you can make, could be made so much easier if it was just a simple selection using the d-pad like in RLL4, this would then allow for a simpler process to position the fullback. There are more times than not, where I find that my FB has been placed in the line on defense or is not deep enough for opposing kicks which then allows zero time to kick the ball for territory or to perhaps exploit an opportunity for counter attack.

• To further reiterate my gripe around the battle for territory, I think a simple adjustment in gameplay mechanics that allow you to drop your fly-half / place kicker back in to position to kick would be a crucial element to fixing this from the users end. I often find that I have no time to place a kick, and this will result in me playing sideline to sideline until i can expose an AI error on defence.

• Lastly, I want to touch base on placing box kicks. The animation is often far to long and will result in a would-be defender making the tackle before you can get the kick away.

I'd like to note,that most of these issues shouldn't require a complete overhaul to the game play engine that's in place. However these small and subtle changes will help make this feel like the chess battle that rugby can often become.

I look forward to playing the game more and reading through the comments to see everyone's feedback as the days go by.

Some great discussions going on here and useful feedback. Thanks again!

a bit more feedback, hoping my offside on kick chase comment might be picked up , also there seems to be a bug when playing advantage for a knock on , you never see to be able to play more than a couple of phases before ref blows for scrum , would be nice if you could edit be a pro appearance in main menu screen , can we get details of what each slider does , enjoying the game :)

I will give more detailed feedback soon, but one omission from this which was in the other RC games is the ability to drop the 10 into the pocket.

and also again when it gets to the last few minutes of a match on hard&Moro it is impossible to get the ball again, just becomes and offload fest which was an issue on RC1 9 years ago.......

One thing in the fanhub, could the colour of the letters of the players names that are listed be changed from that light blue colour to something easier to see, can't just be me that struggles to read it against the green background of the grass at the bottom of the screen.

Some thoughts on the Line out. A lot of people are raising concerns around the “ridiculous speed” at which you have to time your throw. I’d prefer this mini game to be focused around deception rather than timing your throw you beat the other team on the ground before throwing with an emphasis on timing the catch like we do when contesting the current line out. And adding some moves eg a willie away where a prop can link with the back jumper to then feed the 10 for a fluid movement from stoppage to general play . Cheers RC4 Team

All great points. I think the last rugby video game that did territory well was RWC 2011, the last HB studios game that was built off the 08 engine. Had great rucking, forward runner and kicking mechanics. You'd play games and feel really under pressure in your half and need to relieve. Having a good kicking 10 was essential. Simple, simple stuff that makes the game feel more authentic.

Played a few matches lastnight. Enjoyed it overall but there is opportunity to make this game a classic for the years to come. Love the set plays, great start in that direction.

A few new animations that were great, need to add abit more if possible in terms of goose stepping evasions, the old one is just overused now. And just some contact area bump offs. Ranging from full on bulldozing runs to just simple bumps that dont evade the player but allow for an offload or pass.

And on attack if we are the wing can we draw in defenders when running back towards play and the inside player automatically does a scissors round the back for a pass like Pio Tuwai does in this clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW2Sci8ZvEM

And we need to add hitchkick evasion move like so

it slows the player with ball in hand by skipping or a half leap but gives time for the supporting player to wrap/ shift out wide forcing the defense to go for the tackle or play catch up with the man out wide...result is a beauty. when combining the hitchkick with a step on a rushing defense it goes relly well, as it forces the defence to slow down and reanalyze where play might go and help creat gaps in the defence and make space. will come in handy when you need to 1 on 1 with the fullback and you need stall long enough for support to get there in time for a pass.

Will really help 7s be more fluid and fun... shorter players would have a faster hitchkick or if you held R2 for speed its like kick start in to running and when combined with steps it gets really creative.

and a Kolbe skip step that would be good when one on one with the defenders like so. So when he leaps the user decides to step left or right with a follow up input and the tackler also has the chance to guess, if the tackler gets it right, ball carrier is smashed but if the ball carrier pulls it off it shoud look like so. This step will also help change direction and still maintain speed.

As the new camera really makes it exciting to beat the last defender (needs to abit of getting used to, but adds that extra feel to it)

and if by any chance possible please add this killer of a step. Probably a step modifier button where we hold L2 or something and different inputs relate to different types of steps that are need for various situations.

Passing has improved, just wondering it there is a difference between doing fast/ flat passes, as opposed to slower/high passes?

pods need to move back a few steps to get a run on for more momentum when triggered. And the rucking urgency of the attacking team needs improvement. As well as the full back defensive AI.

And why do most rucks have to wait for the no.9 even if he is on the other side of the field?

Can R3 be like a trucking action when heading in to contact with speed for big bump offs? instead of just being the fend animation with the joystick for breaking tackles. and likewise for big hits that force knock ons.

Vinaka and thank you!