Why do you always feel hard done by after buying a Drea,cast football game. The SWWS range were "lacking" in every respect but weren't bad to play. The same goes for UEFA Dream Soccer. Lousey commentry but not the worst around. Dodgy gameplay and bad graphics. At least there were a lot of modes thoughThen there's Virtua Striker. Pretty to look at but hard and you won't enjoy it unless you practice a fair bit. Still there's not much there to be had (subs?).
Finally I try this game. Bang it in the drive and boot up. The usual dodgy intro and into the menu. I look at it, a fair few modes but what counts is playing right? Start an exibition match with Man U Vs Liverpool - Go UTD. Check the tactics - Yorke playing - no ruud etc. Ah well there's an editor I'll sort that later. Then I notice the tactics. Smile.
There is a lot of depth in the tactics and Champ Manager fans won't be upset by this. You even assign certain "moves" to your D-Pad.
Finally I start the game. It's slow. The graphics weren't exactly good (no where near VS) but they'll do I suppose. The gameplay, as I mentioned was slow though, very. As I was about to quit I noticed the option for speed. More like it. Crank it up and now we've got a great game. This plays well. Passing can be a bit funny, tackling is horrible but it's good to play, maybe a bit easy though.
As for the player. The stats are good but the models aren't. Since when has scholes had blonde hair, G Neville grey, P Neville blonde and Nigel Martyn been black. Slight mistake.
Now for the other parts of the game. You've got quite a lot of teams at your disposal (most with proper names) but where are Celtic & Glasgow as well as PSV and Ajax. Admittedly there are some Brazilian sides which is nice. There are loads of modes (cups, leagues, make UR own etc).
The editor is poor though. To make someone you have to scroll through 350ish heads to find one that is close enough. You can't make your own team name. U have to pick from various cities and then AC/FC as you desire. Also the editing for existing teams is poor. You can't change appearences, stats and with the absence of some big sides (some mentioned earlier) a lot of your favourite transfers can't be done. Another thing - the transfers involve swapping players from club to club. That means If I want Ferdinand in my UTD line-up, Leeds have to take one of my players (May?).
Anyway - This ain't a bad game despite the grudges. If you like football but dislike Virtua Striker then get this. It's much better than UEFA Dream Soccer. I think 3.5 stars is more reasonable but I can't do that so it gets ***.