13-Nov-2001 Mark Hill votes for the footie sim's entry into Europe Mark Hill votes for the footie sim's entry into Europe
After a year of beta testing, the ZONE office's most played online football management sim is ready. It's not as impressive as the upcoming Sky Sports game and is likely to be obliterated by CM4 next year, but Soccersim has a charm all of its own.
It looks like a Commodore 64 game and has a stupid name, but Y-Soccersim does offer a whole European continent to play in, with hundreds of teams to choose from and a wealth of tactical options at your disposal. And, because the game is truly European n it was developed by Swedes and is being published by a French company n you'll come across an international selection of adversaries. You're just as likely to meet with German, Greek or Spanish managers as English ones, without having to worry about language barriers.
BROWSING AROUND This being a browser-based game, there are no downloads whatsoever. But because it only gets updated at certain times of the day you don't feel that you're missing out on anything when you're not there.
There are several universes running at any one time and you can hop into the one you like best (of course, the newer the game the more chances you have of managing the team you want). Different games are updated with varying frequency, so you can also choose your level of involvement. You can also choose between games with real players or fictionalised names, although we're not quite sure yet which is the least realistic proposition. You see, unless you manage a massive club like Man United or Real Madrid, full of well-known stars, the names of your players and their actual stats have little relation to the real world. There doesn't seem much point in having a real squad at your disposal if you're going to have to choose players you've never heard of because they happen to be better than the established team.
The real excitement comes in the anticipation: will you get selected over other applicants for the job you really want? Will the star midfielder you've just put an offer in on choose your club above others? Will that new formation bring you FA Cup glory? The biggest downside is that matches are reduced to a score and a load of text, and you never feel you have enough control (especially when you're used to making tactical changes on the fly in Champ Man). Y-Soccersim is still a lot of fun, and though it won't take up much of your time, you'll go back to it again and again.
Mark Hill
// Overview
Verdict
The perfect game to tide you over until CM4 arrives
Uppers
Cheap No downloads Hundreds of other managers Tactical depth
Downers
Dull to look at Rubbish stats for real players No real control over matches
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