World Championship Rugby - PS2

It was almost inevitable: England finally actually wins some kind of sporting achievement and the entire country is suddenly an avid fan. Previously, the majority of us as a nation couldn't give a monkey's about rugby, but as soon as we stumble our way through to winning the World Cup, it becomes the nation's number one sport, all the players are suddenly famous, and the general public begins to pretend that not only do they know what's actually going on out there on the pitch, but they actually like it. And, as is always the case, with epidemic popularity comes video games. Not since the age-old Jonah Lomu game on PlayStation has anyone really been bothered about a rugby sim, but now there seems to be loads of them. Well, funnily enough, this latest title from Acclaim is a kind of somewhat belated, pseudo sequel to that game, having been developed by the same team and featuring all the key elements that popularised it, but with the benefit of the sleeker visuals of the current crop of gaming hardware.

As far as rugby games go, World Championship Rugby takes the arcade approach, offering slick, free-flowing gameplay complemented by simple controls. The game doesn't pull any punches or carry any pretensions - there are 20 international teams to choose from, made up from a wide range of hard-hitting, larger-than-life characters. Each of the player models is highly detailed, featuring scale and weight, and benefits from over 400 motion-captured moves, which bring a fair amount of realism to the proceedings.

And apart from that, it's just a good old game of head-crunching, crotch-grabbing, ear-deforming rugby, geared towards being a more accessible virtual recreation of the sport and thus playable by everyone. If you're a true rugby fan then you'll certainly enjoy the game - if you're a nouveau fanatic, then you'll probably like it just as much. more