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Pro Rugby Manager 2015 Review

I may not play many games, however, when I first heard about a new rugby management game which was apparently going to be rugby’s answer to the popular Football Manger series, I was rather excited. You can then imagine how much better it got when I was given early access to the game to review it.

Whilst waiting for the game to download (a few hours for those with slow broadband) I had a look through the reviews by those who had already tried it and unfortunately, only a small number of those reviews were positive. Despite this I prepared to start playing in the hope that I could defy everyone else and actually enjoy the game…

One advantage of Pro Rugby Manager is that unlike similar games, it has licences for the Pro12, Aviva Premiership and the top 2 divisions in France game whilst including unlicensed versions of Super 15 and the English Championship. With the Pro12 teams all there, I launched straight into a quick game of Edinburgh vs Glasgow – going as Glasgow of course, as I wanted to win.

After having to make a number of changes to my starting line-up (Sean Lamont at fullback?!) I was able to start the game and from the off was impressed by the format of the game and its presentation. In full manager mode you have the opportunity to simulate or even withdraw from matches, however, when playing in the 3rd graphic mode, you have the opportunity to choose what to do at set pieces as well as choosing different moves to use against the opposition. So far so good…

The main issue for me came in the 55th minute when I decided to sub off my whole front row as it turns out that their stamina level is not too high. However, when I attempted to make the substitution, I was simply told “This substitution is not valid”. I then tried to take off Duncan Weir, the same message appeared. In fact, for every substitution attempt for every game I played, I would be told that it would not be possible. Over time, this simply becomes frustrating as the opposition happily bring on all of their sub whilst you pray that Al Kellock can actually play for more than 65 minutes.

Despite the in-game issues, when using full manager mode, the game can go quite in depth. I soon found myself deciding who to promote from my U17 academy and then choosing which hospital John Welsh should have his foot surgery at. Due to a rather generous budget (£17 million for Glasgow, £21 million for Edinburgh) I was soon able to buy in some quality players to help build up my squad. It was quite confusing at the start working out exactly how to do this, however, I was soon able to work out exactly how to control the finances and after a while was really getting into the game. Then I reached April 2015 and the game reset itself…

We contacted the developer, 505 Games to ask them about these issues and if and when they would be sorted. Is it worth buying? Well if the bugs are sorted then yes, I would recommend it, however, for now, I would probably just wait until the update…

UPDATE: We’ve had this back from the developers agent (23/9/14):

“Pro Rugby Manager 2015 is currently suffering from a few bugs which Cyanide have addressed in a recent statement. Some of the more common issues are:
– Game resetting during April 2015 fixtures
– The allocation of points and bonuses when a game is won.
– Redirection to the player sheet of “Tom Crux” when scouting for new talents
– Incorrect Player Positions
 
We are now expecting a patch for the game to be available for download hopefully this week.”

Price: £22 (Available from Amazon)

SRBlog Rating: 5/10

Don’t forget, if you have a rugby-related product you would like us to try then just get in touch!

4 Responses

  1. This sounds good but is iot possible to create two new clubs- Borders Reivers and Fife? It would be be great to do thst even in a simulator and lets see how they get on against the rest.

  2. I have another option that would be good for the ganme- the option to sack the SRU and find out how much better the Scottish team do without them

  3. How about an option where you can run the SRU and we see how you get on Neil!!!!!

    Love the football versions but haven’t played it for a while would love to have a go at this rugby version once the gremlins have been sorted and put a Scottish team at the top of pro1 and champions of Europe!!

    1. I agree that would be a fantastic idea. I would run the SRU and the Scottish game and then we would have 5 teams all competing for top honours in Europe. Give it 5 years and would then have a chance of winning the world cut and we would NEVER be emabrassed by 51:0 scorelines ever again.
      By the way I’m now refering to the real game not a computer version.

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