Thoughts after 20 hours of gameplay

Some feedback on what has largely been a positive experience for an Early Release game. A lot has clearly gone into tweaking gameplay and love the fact there's more to get to grips with over time. Appreciate it's still developing but would love to see a more detailed guide developed within the game as this evolves. This is particularly relevant to slider settings because they massively impact on your overall experience. The default ones didn't suit me, but with tweaking I find it transforms the game to your preferences. I'd suggest really promoting this to first time users within the game, as you might be losing people just based on this.

Graphics / Framerate

A lot has been said on this but generally my experience on a fairly new Xbox One is that it runs worse than any RC on PS3. Very choppy with shadowing effects. Watching replays is currently where it's at its worst. For info, this is when playing in Far Behind view, trying to see as much as possible in terms of where players are etc.

Pitch adverts

Possibly compounded by the above, but would love to be able to toggle the pitch adverts off. Impacted also by choice of kits, the colour contrast can be horrendous at times and makes it hard to see what's going on if you're playing on an advert

Kick-offs

I've turned off all of the various cut-scenes, glory camera etc, but when kicking off, the camera is super zoomed in on the kick tacker, meaning you can't see options either side to prepare your runners. In Far Behind view it's a bit disorientating when the camera pans around fully and affects your ability to make a catch.

Goal kicks, lineout & scrum

I was really hoping these would have an overhaul as the existing system is a bit tired and relies too heavily on your ability to stop a moving cursor rather then being based on team / player stats and conditions etc. Trying to time the cursor correctly will no doubt be worse when online lag inevitably comes into play. More could be done perhaps with using the sticks to throw in or kick, but generally would like to see player and team stats come into play with this so you have to consider different aspects when picking your team i.e dominant scrum, good lineout technicians, strong kicker etc.

Set moves This shows some potential but really don't like it in its current guise. The AI does too much of the work and would personally prefer if it allowed you to simply position your player for a set move that you need to fully execute and master over time. there could be a big selection available and you have to match them to buttons in the settings (like PES, FIFA etc)

A more immediate request would be to turn the opposition running lines off when defending - I really don't want to see that my opposition is going to do a set move, especially as it's so easy to defend with the scrum half being able to float into the different channels (tip-toeing the offside line)

Referee commands - it sounds like he's announcing the scrum calls over a tannoy system! Maybe have some variation in there "keep the bind up" "don't push too early" just general chatter.

Commentary

It's a clear rehash of RC3 but ok if it means gameplay is getting the attention for this edition

Sending forwards left/right

Really like this and good that generally you get to retain the ball in resulting ruck now. However, it would be better if the forwards could take it running, rather than standing start as it seems less realistic.

Miss pass method

I kind of like this method but the overhead button indicator is so small on the Far Behind view that you struggle to see it. Even in this view, you can't see some of the available players and so it's a bit of a gamble as to where you're passing it as they're off-screen a lot of the time.

Line width / depth

Good to see the trusted line width and depth options are there, but would be great to be able to set your default preference once in settings as it's too easy to forget. Also do the same for the new ruck commitment, pod setup, full back alignment (which are a welcome edition by the way)

Online mode

Please, please make this good! For me I'm less interested in career modes and AI play, just want some good online battles which is where the fun really begins...

Appreciate the efforts guys, keep it going!