The game hits stores on PS2 and PC on July 26th in Australia, and in anticipation of its release, EA has announced that Wallabies Captain - and one of the premier centres in world rugby - Stirling Mortlock will be featured on the cover. Mortlock joins an elite group around the world with England's Mark Cueto featured on the UK cover, Yannick Nyanga in France, Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara in Ireland, Bryan Habana, Schalk Burger and Francois Stevin in South Africa, brothers Mauro and Mirko Bergamasco in Italy and Richie McCaw in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
The Lead Producer of the game, Tristan Jackson, commented that "The 2007 Rugby World Cup unites rugby fans from around the world and our game, EA SPORTS Rugby 08, celebrates this passion by capturing all of the national rivalries in-game, enabling fans to play as their favourite teams from qualification right through to the championship final." The ultimate goal? To hold aloft the famous Webb Ellis Cup.
That's not all though; the game will also have a mode called World Cup Challenge, which recreates some of the biggest moments in World Cup history and challenges the player to re-write the results with today's teams. The wealth of content comes on the back of expanded play mechanics. Rugby 08 "enables you to emulate the style of your favourite team on offence and now on defence. Using new, authentic defensive formations, adjust your defence on-the-fly to keep momentum on your side or counter your opponent's attacking style by changing your defensive strategy based on score, field position and more."
The game also introduces a "layered pick-up-and-play control system for set pieces and drop kicks. Now you take full command over every scrum and maul with enhanced push and rotation controls. Make lineout throw-ins look easy with a simplified control scheme for the novice player and advanced mechanics for the pro. Master the new kicking meter to score those key penalties and conversions, while new truck and zoom camera angles zero in on all the breakdown and set piece action during the game's biggest moments."
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The Rugby 0X games were always good, but they always had two things in common; the graphics were always terrible alongside the likes of FIFA and Madden, and the commentators were nothing more than repetitive.
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