WHEN the worlds of rugby league and gaming have combined in the past, mixed results have often ensued.

Billing itself as the ‘best rugby league game to date’, Rugby League Live 4 is something of a departure from its predecessors in that matches are very tight and close rather than a celebration of chucking the ball around with reckless abandon like the Harlem Globetrotters.

Champagne rugby is firmly on ice, as it often feels as though the ball is a balloon that floats off into the ether, ready to be picked off by the opposition or drifting forward in a physics-defying manner if you attempt to string a few passes together.

One of the game’s real strengths is the Fan Hub.

Where content is missing or inaccurate, this mode allows you to dive online to find players, teams and even referees created by the gamers themselves.

Rugby League Live 4 adds a stadium creator into the mix, and I spend far longer than I should reconstructing my own virtual Wilderspool.

Many of the player likenesses are fantastic, but unfortunately only NRL teams have had their stars’ faces scanned for the game.

Super League players are instead cobbled together, leaving Matty Russell interchangeable for Ashton Sims while the newly-imported Peta Hiku stands out a mile in a squad of otherwise bland faces.

Once again the commentary is ear-gratingly repetitive, with a cyborg version of Andrew Voss now bizarrely paired up with an equally robotic Eddie Hemmings.

The game’s assault on your lugholes doesn’t end there though, with a soundtrack that it will have you reaching for the mute button almost instantly.

What really defines the game is a barrage of bugs and glitches, which seemingly strike every other minute.

Rugby League Live 4 is in desperate need of a patch to fix its countless issues, which verge on making it unplayable.

It begs the question of why the developers weren’t allowed to take a bit of extra time to iron out its problems and release in time for the beginning of the 2018 season.

Ultimately, Rugby League Live 4 takes two side steps forward before being shoulder charged into touch by its glitches and small annoyances.

Sadly, rugby league gamers are left disappointed at the final hooter.

6/10