GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Well, seeing as the main of PRM2 is lots and lots of 2D stats screens, you can’t really say a lot about them. To be honest, though there is a simply enormous amount of data to wade through, it’s all laid out clearly and concisely so you never feel overwhelmed. Each screen is intuitive in what it does and how to do what you want, so with very little reading of the manual, you’ll be up and playing in no time. It’s obvious that a lot of work has gone into making the screens easy to read and use as well as being easy to navigate between and that is to be applauded.
So the real crux of the game is how the 3D mode works. Well, its a bit up and under, to be honest. Certainly, the Martin Johnson character looked like him, as did all the other more notable players, though it has to be said that the level of modelling here falls short of FIFA standards by quite a way. But you can make allowances for that seeing as this is supposed to be a management game and not a playable game of rugby, if you see what I mean. Sadly though, the 3D mode suffers from some rotten slow down as the game engine figures out how play should go according to the player and team stats. Watching a ball curve gracefully through the air to then pause for a second is annoying, but zoom in on the action and you’re greeted by blocky characters with a jerkiness to there movements that is a tad disappointing after the wonderfully easy management side of the game. I was also suffering some odd texture corruption that made the players look like they were wearing surgeons masks at some points, even though I tried three different versions of Cats.
Sonically, PRM2 has got it just about right with great in-game music to listen to as you peruse all the different management screens. Cyanide have even thoughtfully included an MP3 player so you can have your own choons bangin’ out while you negotiate the finer points of a young players contract. In the match modes the crowd sounds are convincing, reacting to events on the pitch with appropriate sounding gusto but there is one annoying feature of the sound that I feel is worth a mention. In pretty much every game I’ve played that features commentary, I’ve had the same gripe…. PRM2 has fallen into the same trap of repetitive comments from commentators, but they also suffer from the lag of cut and paste sound clips to make up sentences. As I said before, this is a management sim in the main, so slightly dodgy sound isn’t a huge issue.