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AFL Premiership 2006
The AFL series for me
has always been a tough one to review. As a fan of the game you are
expecting so much from it and the first time it was released by IR Gurus
it really looked as though it had hit the spot.
Impulsegamer actually visited Acclaim (the publisher)
and IR Gurus in Melbourne to play a “Gold” code version for the XBox and
it was amazing, as a result I scored the game as amazing only to find
the final released to the public code to be a damn sight less impressive
than the code we played in house on an XBox debugger.
So it was with trepidation and a fear of the past
rising from the ashes to bite my arse again that I undertook reviewing
this title for Sony.
First things first, the graphics have improved
slightly for the title with both players and stadiums being given a
slight facelift. I must admit though that really it might be time to
take a good look at some of the sports titles from America and the
Electronic Arts group of titles and have a think about where we are
going wrong.
Why is it that the AFL games look graphically as
though they are about a year to two years behind these other games?
Possibly we need to team up IR Gurus with one of the EA development
teams to produce something a bit more modern looking. Don’t get me
wrong, the game does look better than it has but still is not up to
speed with other sporting titles in the market. Just look at the screen
shots and tell me that I am wrong.
There is a fair bit of speed involved in the title
and it would make for a great game if there wasn’t collision problems
with the game and some hokey umpiring. The general feeling of playing
footy is there but it doesn’t get all the way into your skin in the way
that you would hope.
I think this game is best suited to those who just
want to play footy as there is not really a tactical element to the
game. If you can win the ruck and belt the ball down the ground you have
got it made. It’s still fun, but I would like to be able to actual set
up a defence and offence in the game to give the feeling of really
battling it out on the field.
The commentary has not really taken a giant leap
forward in this version either and at times sounds disjointed. Crowd
sounds are pretty good as are other sort of ingame sounds, so there is a
feeling of general ambience there.
All things said and done, this is a title that footy
fanatics who just want to play the game are going to buy regardless of
what I say. If you are a bit fussy though, you might want to rent this
out before spending your dollars on it. It is fun, remember that, but
might disappoint gamers with the lack of true innovation in this latest
version.
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