You know the drill. It's football.
And it's a game I can't stand to watch in real life but I do enjoy the odd
game or three on a console and have done since the days of Kick Off
and Sensible Soccer on the Atari ST.
The options available to you here are like any other footy game - the
Exhibition mode (one-off match), Cup and League matches,
as well as a Penalty Shoot-Out mode. Replays are also available.
Take your pick of 36 countries to play with, adjust the time length of the
match, the CPU skill level and the match rules which toggle whether to include
extra time, golden goal and penalties.
Choose one of six stadiums in which
to play, the kick-off time and the weather from perfectly fine to pissing down.
Decide who will take the kicks, the team formation, team tactics and defence,
the kit they'll wear and change their names since you want the real deal playing
for you, not "D.Seamen" or "D.Backham".
So where does it all go wrong? When you actually start playing the game itself.
Shown only from a side-on view, at three selectable distances, I was left
longing for a top-down version like the two 1980s games I referred to earlier.
The players are motion-captured but they just go in the direction you point
them in, like any other football game.
The sound of the crowd is repeated every few seconds and the far-from-impressive
commentary chat which is dropped in with terrible inserts such as:
My first match featured commentators Peter Parker and Steven Bailey, but when
I heard the introduction of the second as "...and me, Steven Bailey",
the "and me" part was in a completely different voice(!)
One of my favourite soccer games released in the last few years has been
Sega Worldwide Soccer 2000: Euro Edition
and ILS makes no attempt to steal its crown. The players run round like
robots in treacle and just won't get the ball when you need them to. Also,
it's not always as instant as you'd like when the ball nears any particular
player when it comes to allowing their control.
I could be sad and say that this game deserves relegation to the fourth
division, or I could cut straight to the quick and say that it's crap.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
So where does it all go wrong? When you actually start playing the game itself.
Shown only from a side-on view, at three selectable distances, I was left
longing for a top-down version like the two 1980s games I referred to earlier.
The players are motion-captured but they just go in the direction you point
them in, like any other football game.
One of my favourite soccer games released in the last few years has been
