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Not sold on SR, thought I'd bung it here. Just in case you were thinking about buying it.
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Maybe, all on its own on another planet, at another time, on a different format FourFourTwo Touchline Passion, the game that aims to give you all the ups and downs of a football manager, would be something special. Unfortunately this is Earth, the year 2003, on the Personal Computer. And that isn’t a great place to be a footie management sim that isn’t called “Championship Manager”. This may be a review of what will be referred to from now on as FTP, but neglecting to mention the real big hitter in this genre would be criminal. Despite no serious challenger to its crown, Championship Manager consistently pushes forward, with each incarnation bringing the game closer to the real life of a gaffer/boss/coach. So, does FTP have what it takes to bring down the giant? The short answer, unfortunately for SCi Games, is a rather loud “no”.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s total rubbish. There are lots of neat ideas in FTP; it’s just that the basic groundwork hasn’t been laid out properly. Take the interface: very pretty to look at, bright, breezy with nice pictures in the background. The selection screen is actually better than Championship Manager’s – colour co-ordinated with positions, the formation adapting to where you click and drag the players and a nifty little screen where you assign your kick takers, captain, defensive general etc. but all this is crippled by the menu. Along the bottom there are two main buttons – mail and clubhouse. Mail takes you to your inbox where all the important information is sent, and clubhouse takes you to the main screen with your calendar and a whole host of options along the bottom (transfers, injuries etc). One wonders why they didn’t put that on the main page rather than wasting space with a loading bar. Then there’s the drop-down menu at the side which should give you quick and easy access, but takes up far too much of the screen and is, truth be told, quite cumbersome to control.
There are are many aspects covered in the game that Championship Manager hasn’t yet touched upon – a set-piece editor, and a full training module, for instance. Neither seem all that effective though, or, and this is more important, fun. The things crammed into FTP will be appreciated, but probably not enjoyed. Take the financial side; Championship Manager always elects to shun this, concentrating on the important bit, the glamorous bit, the football. There’s the choice to have finances handled by the computer, which I wholly suggest if you buy this game, but if you decide to go it alone then there’s loads for you to do. There are pretty rotating pictures of new add-ons for your stadium (which you can tour in glorious 3D), but it’s nothing more than an accounting sim in disguise. Then again, if MS Train Simulator can sell…
Then there’s the actual football. Like most games (that aren’t Championship Manager), you get three choices: watch the full match, watch a 2D top-down view with text commentary or skip to the result. Option 3 is fastest, but option 2 is probably the safest – you get complete control over subs and tactics, and can watch the excitement (and 3d action replays of goals). So what’s it like watching the game?
Again, it’s a case of hit and miss. The weather effects are great, the billboards have all the expected logos, and you can stalk the touchline with the directional arrows, watching your own subs warm up. But then you stop admiring the little things, and realize that the big thing isn’t all that special. The dugout view, no matter how authentic, is rubbish for watching the game. The graphics are grainy, the action jerky (and this is on a machine running at about 3 times the minimum specs) and the AI…well, terrible. The collision detection is above average, but it only exposes the horrible coding of the player’s brains when a shot bounces of a defender’s knee, and your striker poaches the goal because the keeper dived four miles to the left. There are the usual tactical instructions you can bark out (pass, clear, tackle, shoot, close-down and cross) which seem to work OK, but the speedy response time is soon undermined by the shoddy animation, or weird camera angle, or some other factor that should have been pointed out at some stage of testing.
It’s as if nobody wanted to upset SCi. It’s clear that a lot of time and effort has been spent on the game. There’s a darn good tutorial in there from Terry Venables, and a host of options ranging from Freeplay, to Career (work your way up from a Conference side to a top European club) to Classic (control a team from the 1981/82 season) to Challenge (take on a host of scenarios, from relegation scrap to tightening your belt to whatever), and you can play with up to four players all sat around the one PC. There’s a great likeness of Gabby Yorath that interviews you after the game, ITV Sport microphone in hand, and just as you start enjoying the game answering her probing questions, trying to keep everyone happy…you walk into the dressing room for instructions, and are confronted with a white Thierry Henry, a short haired David Seaman and what seems to be a Mexican Ashley Cole.
It’s a real mixed bag, is FTP. Neat footwork and stepovers are undone by gaping holes in the midfield and loose marking. You can hear the voice of the ticket-buyer with the fan polls, but you can’t click on a player to see his stats for the season when he gets into the Team of the Week. As much as I’d love to say otherwise, this game is less than average, even more so when you see Championship Manager 4 is being readied for release in about a month. Not even a worthy diversion. Steer clear.
4/10
======= ======== =======
Maybe, all on its own on another planet, at another time, on a different format FourFourTwo Touchline Passion, the game that aims to give you all the ups and downs of a football manager, would be something special. Unfortunately this is Earth, the year 2003, on the Personal Computer. And that isn’t a great place to be a footie management sim that isn’t called “Championship Manager”. This may be a review of what will be referred to from now on as FTP, but neglecting to mention the real big hitter in this genre would be criminal. Despite no serious challenger to its crown, Championship Manager consistently pushes forward, with each incarnation bringing the game closer to the real life of a gaffer/boss/coach. So, does FTP have what it takes to bring down the giant? The short answer, unfortunately for SCi Games, is a rather loud “no”.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s total rubbish. There are lots of neat ideas in FTP; it’s just that the basic groundwork hasn’t been laid out properly. Take the interface: very pretty to look at, bright, breezy with nice pictures in the background. The selection screen is actually better than Championship Manager’s – colour co-ordinated with positions, the formation adapting to where you click and drag the players and a nifty little screen where you assign your kick takers, captain, defensive general etc. but all this is crippled by the menu. Along the bottom there are two main buttons – mail and clubhouse. Mail takes you to your inbox where all the important information is sent, and clubhouse takes you to the main screen with your calendar and a whole host of options along the bottom (transfers, injuries etc). One wonders why they didn’t put that on the main page rather than wasting space with a loading bar. Then there’s the drop-down menu at the side which should give you quick and easy access, but takes up far too much of the screen and is, truth be told, quite cumbersome to control.
There are are many aspects covered in the game that Championship Manager hasn’t yet touched upon – a set-piece editor, and a full training module, for instance. Neither seem all that effective though, or, and this is more important, fun. The things crammed into FTP will be appreciated, but probably not enjoyed. Take the financial side; Championship Manager always elects to shun this, concentrating on the important bit, the glamorous bit, the football. There’s the choice to have finances handled by the computer, which I wholly suggest if you buy this game, but if you decide to go it alone then there’s loads for you to do. There are pretty rotating pictures of new add-ons for your stadium (which you can tour in glorious 3D), but it’s nothing more than an accounting sim in disguise. Then again, if MS Train Simulator can sell…
Then there’s the actual football. Like most games (that aren’t Championship Manager), you get three choices: watch the full match, watch a 2D top-down view with text commentary or skip to the result. Option 3 is fastest, but option 2 is probably the safest – you get complete control over subs and tactics, and can watch the excitement (and 3d action replays of goals). So what’s it like watching the game?
Again, it’s a case of hit and miss. The weather effects are great, the billboards have all the expected logos, and you can stalk the touchline with the directional arrows, watching your own subs warm up. But then you stop admiring the little things, and realize that the big thing isn’t all that special. The dugout view, no matter how authentic, is rubbish for watching the game. The graphics are grainy, the action jerky (and this is on a machine running at about 3 times the minimum specs) and the AI…well, terrible. The collision detection is above average, but it only exposes the horrible coding of the player’s brains when a shot bounces of a defender’s knee, and your striker poaches the goal because the keeper dived four miles to the left. There are the usual tactical instructions you can bark out (pass, clear, tackle, shoot, close-down and cross) which seem to work OK, but the speedy response time is soon undermined by the shoddy animation, or weird camera angle, or some other factor that should have been pointed out at some stage of testing.
It’s as if nobody wanted to upset SCi. It’s clear that a lot of time and effort has been spent on the game. There’s a darn good tutorial in there from Terry Venables, and a host of options ranging from Freeplay, to Career (work your way up from a Conference side to a top European club) to Classic (control a team from the 1981/82 season) to Challenge (take on a host of scenarios, from relegation scrap to tightening your belt to whatever), and you can play with up to four players all sat around the one PC. There’s a great likeness of Gabby Yorath that interviews you after the game, ITV Sport microphone in hand, and just as you start enjoying the game answering her probing questions, trying to keep everyone happy…you walk into the dressing room for instructions, and are confronted with a white Thierry Henry, a short haired David Seaman and what seems to be a Mexican Ashley Cole.
It’s a real mixed bag, is FTP. Neat footwork and stepovers are undone by gaping holes in the midfield and loose marking. You can hear the voice of the ticket-buyer with the fan polls, but you can’t click on a player to see his stats for the season when he gets into the Team of the Week. As much as I’d love to say otherwise, this game is less than average, even more so when you see Championship Manager 4 is being readied for release in about a month. Not even a worthy diversion. Steer clear.
4/10
Booger me, they DO sell it. Never mind.
Not sold on SR, thought I'd bung it here. Just in case you were thinking about buying it.
======= ======== =======
Maybe, all on its own on another planet, at another time, on a different format FourFourTwo Touchline Passion, the game that aims to give you all the ups and downs of a football manager, would be something special. Unfortunately this is Earth, the year 2003, on the Personal Computer. And that isn’t a great place to be a footie management sim that isn’t called “Championship Manager”. This may be a review of what will be referred to from now on as FTP, but neglecting to mention the real big hitter in this genre would be criminal. Despite no serious challenger to its crown, Championship Manager consistently pushes forward, with each incarnation bringing the game closer to the real life of a gaffer/boss/coach. So, does FTP have what it takes to bring down the giant? The short answer, unfortunately for SCi Games, is a rather loud “no”.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s total rubbish. There are lots of neat ideas in FTP; it’s just that the basic groundwork hasn’t been laid out properly. Take the interface: very pretty to look at, bright, breezy with nice pictures in the background. The selection screen is actually better than Championship Manager’s – colour co-ordinated with positions, the formation adapting to where you click and drag the players and a nifty little screen where you assign your kick takers, captain, defensive general etc. but all this is crippled by the menu. Along the bottom there are two main buttons – mail and clubhouse. Mail takes you to your inbox where all the important information is sent, and clubhouse takes you to the main screen with your calendar and a whole host of options along the bottom (transfers, injuries etc). One wonders why they didn’t put that on the main page rather than wasting space with a loading bar. Then there’s the drop-down menu at the side which should give you quick and easy access, but takes up far too much of the screen and is, truth be told, quite cumbersome to control.
There are are many aspects covered in the game that Championship Manager hasn’t yet touched upon – a set-piece editor, and a full training module, for instance. Neither seem all that effective though, or, and this is more important, fun. The things crammed into FTP will be appreciated, but probably not enjoyed. Take the financial side; Championship Manager always elects to shun this, concentrating on the important bit, the glamorous bit, the football. There’s the choice to have finances handled by the computer, which I wholly suggest if you buy this game, but if you decide to go it alone then there’s loads for you to do. There are pretty rotating pictures of new add-ons for your stadium (which you can tour in glorious 3D), but it’s nothing more than an accounting sim in disguise. Then again, if MS Train Simulator can sell…
Then there’s the actual football. Like most games (that aren’t Championship Manager), you get three choices: watch the full match, watch a 2D top-down view with text commentary or skip to the result. Option 3 is fastest, but option 2 is probably the safest – you get complete control over subs and tactics, and can watch the excitement (and 3d action replays of goals). So what’s it like watching the game?
Again, it’s a case of hit and miss. The weather effects are great, the billboards have all the expected logos, and you can stalk the touchline with the directional arrows, watching your own subs warm up. But then you stop admiring the little things, and realize that the big thing isn’t all that special. The dugout view, no matter how authentic, is rubbish for watching the game. The graphics are grainy, the action jerky (and this is on a machine running at about 3 times the minimum specs) and the AI…well, terrible. The collision detection is above average, but it only exposes the horrible coding of the player’s brains when a shot bounces of a defender’s knee, and your striker poaches the goal because the keeper dived four miles to the left. There are the usual tactical instructions you can bark out (pass, clear, tackle, shoot, close-down and cross) which seem to work OK, but the speedy response time is soon undermined by the shoddy animation, or weird camera angle, or some other factor that should have been pointed out at some stage of testing.
It’s as if nobody wanted to upset SCi. It’s clear that a lot of time and effort has been spent on the game. There’s a darn good tutorial in there from Terry Venables, and a host of options ranging from Freeplay, to Career (work your way up from a Conference side to a top European club) to Classic (control a team from the 1981/82 season) to Challenge (take on a host of scenarios, from relegation scrap to tightening your belt to whatever), and you can play with up to four players all sat around the one PC. There’s a great likeness of Gabby Yorath that interviews you after the game, ITV Sport microphone in hand, and just as you start enjoying the game answering her probing questions, trying to keep everyone happy…you walk into the dressing room for instructions, and are confronted with a white Thierry Henry, a short haired David Seaman and what seems to be a Mexican Ashley Cole.
It’s a real mixed bag, is FTP. Neat footwork and stepovers are undone by gaping holes in the midfield and loose marking. You can hear the voice of the ticket-buyer with the fan polls, but you can’t click on a player to see his stats for the season when he gets into the Team of the Week. As much as I’d love to say otherwise, this game is less than average, even more so when you see Championship Manager 4 is being readied for release in about a month. Not even a worthy diversion. Steer clear.
4/10
======= ======== =======
Maybe, all on its own on another planet, at another time, on a different format FourFourTwo Touchline Passion, the game that aims to give you all the ups and downs of a football manager, would be something special. Unfortunately this is Earth, the year 2003, on the Personal Computer. And that isn’t a great place to be a footie management sim that isn’t called “Championship Manager”. This may be a review of what will be referred to from now on as FTP, but neglecting to mention the real big hitter in this genre would be criminal. Despite no serious challenger to its crown, Championship Manager consistently pushes forward, with each incarnation bringing the game closer to the real life of a gaffer/boss/coach. So, does FTP have what it takes to bring down the giant? The short answer, unfortunately for SCi Games, is a rather loud “no”.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s total rubbish. There are lots of neat ideas in FTP; it’s just that the basic groundwork hasn’t been laid out properly. Take the interface: very pretty to look at, bright, breezy with nice pictures in the background. The selection screen is actually better than Championship Manager’s – colour co-ordinated with positions, the formation adapting to where you click and drag the players and a nifty little screen where you assign your kick takers, captain, defensive general etc. but all this is crippled by the menu. Along the bottom there are two main buttons – mail and clubhouse. Mail takes you to your inbox where all the important information is sent, and clubhouse takes you to the main screen with your calendar and a whole host of options along the bottom (transfers, injuries etc). One wonders why they didn’t put that on the main page rather than wasting space with a loading bar. Then there’s the drop-down menu at the side which should give you quick and easy access, but takes up far too much of the screen and is, truth be told, quite cumbersome to control.
There are are many aspects covered in the game that Championship Manager hasn’t yet touched upon – a set-piece editor, and a full training module, for instance. Neither seem all that effective though, or, and this is more important, fun. The things crammed into FTP will be appreciated, but probably not enjoyed. Take the financial side; Championship Manager always elects to shun this, concentrating on the important bit, the glamorous bit, the football. There’s the choice to have finances handled by the computer, which I wholly suggest if you buy this game, but if you decide to go it alone then there’s loads for you to do. There are pretty rotating pictures of new add-ons for your stadium (which you can tour in glorious 3D), but it’s nothing more than an accounting sim in disguise. Then again, if MS Train Simulator can sell…
Then there’s the actual football. Like most games (that aren’t Championship Manager), you get three choices: watch the full match, watch a 2D top-down view with text commentary or skip to the result. Option 3 is fastest, but option 2 is probably the safest – you get complete control over subs and tactics, and can watch the excitement (and 3d action replays of goals). So what’s it like watching the game?
Again, it’s a case of hit and miss. The weather effects are great, the billboards have all the expected logos, and you can stalk the touchline with the directional arrows, watching your own subs warm up. But then you stop admiring the little things, and realize that the big thing isn’t all that special. The dugout view, no matter how authentic, is rubbish for watching the game. The graphics are grainy, the action jerky (and this is on a machine running at about 3 times the minimum specs) and the AI…well, terrible. The collision detection is above average, but it only exposes the horrible coding of the player’s brains when a shot bounces of a defender’s knee, and your striker poaches the goal because the keeper dived four miles to the left. There are the usual tactical instructions you can bark out (pass, clear, tackle, shoot, close-down and cross) which seem to work OK, but the speedy response time is soon undermined by the shoddy animation, or weird camera angle, or some other factor that should have been pointed out at some stage of testing.
It’s as if nobody wanted to upset SCi. It’s clear that a lot of time and effort has been spent on the game. There’s a darn good tutorial in there from Terry Venables, and a host of options ranging from Freeplay, to Career (work your way up from a Conference side to a top European club) to Classic (control a team from the 1981/82 season) to Challenge (take on a host of scenarios, from relegation scrap to tightening your belt to whatever), and you can play with up to four players all sat around the one PC. There’s a great likeness of Gabby Yorath that interviews you after the game, ITV Sport microphone in hand, and just as you start enjoying the game answering her probing questions, trying to keep everyone happy…you walk into the dressing room for instructions, and are confronted with a white Thierry Henry, a short haired David Seaman and what seems to be a Mexican Ashley Cole.
It’s a real mixed bag, is FTP. Neat footwork and stepovers are undone by gaping holes in the midfield and loose marking. You can hear the voice of the ticket-buyer with the fan polls, but you can’t click on a player to see his stats for the season when he gets into the Team of the Week. As much as I’d love to say otherwise, this game is less than average, even more so when you see Championship Manager 4 is being readied for release in about a month. Not even a worthy diversion. Steer clear.
4/10