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I had the exclusive chance to play Rugby League 26 today ahead of launch tomorrow, and also have the pleasure of showing you what gameplay footage looks like for the first time (with the day one patch).
I played 3-4 matches across both amateur and pro difficulties as admittedly I was a little rusty having not played Rugby League Live 4 in a good little while.
Whilst a lot of the base gameplay will feel familiar to those that did play RLL4, obviously the game is running in a new engine, including much improved graphics, one for one player likeness, new commentary from Andrew Voss and Cameron Smith and overall the gameplay is just a lot smoother.
The visuals alone in my opinion make the game a lot more realistic and are easily the best part of the game. The players obviously look like the players, and they bring a lot more weight to each try scored, or each goal kicked, so it’s great to see them finally updated in-line with the current roster.
Obviously, there’s been loads of rule changes since the last game as well. 6 agains are a totally new addition, the seven tackle set has been introduced and there’s loads of other little rules which have all been included in the game.
Is it a totally different game? Well, no, and it has many of the quirks of League Live 4, but it is absolutely a game fit for 2025, and I’m really keen to check out the new modes such as Pro Team (think Ultimate Team) to see how they’ve shaped up, and just generally play some good old Rugbah Leaeg on the big screen without having to boot into the PS4 version.
It’s coming to PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series X tomorrow and it’s also coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in the future as well. You can grab it HERE.
I’ll have a review for you in the next week or so, and look forward to seeing you all online, but for now, go the Mighty Melbourne Storm (and how glorious does Papi’s mullet look).