Worldwide Soccer Manager 2006

"The best football management sim available!"

Introduction

For those of you who don't know, Worldwide Soccer Manager 2006 ( Known as Football Manager 2006 outside of the USA) is a football management sim. A football management sim is different from your FIFA's and your Pro Evolution's in the fact that you don't actually control your players. You manage them. This involves buying players, deciding tactics, creating training schedules for your players and much more.

Gameplay - 10/10

Ah, the most important of any game, gameplay. Sports Interactive had to somehow improve upon WWSM 2005's brilliant, addictive gameplay nature. And they've done it here. The match engine has been re-coded and is much more intelligent than ever before. No longer will your players suffer from amnesia as they pass the ball back to the 'keeper when through on goal. No longer will your players take a throw-in and pass it to the opposing team. The match engine is capable of much more intricate and responsive attacks, the type of delicacies that didn't exist on WWSM 2005.

There's more to the game than the match engine, of course. The training section of the game has been completely overhauled, with the information now being being displayed on two easy-to-read screens. No longer do you select the activities you want your players to participate in whilst training, you only select the key areas in which you want your players to improve. This new system makes creating training schedules all the more easier and rewarding. However, the new system does allow the user to create brilliant schedules without too much thought and application, which is slightly disappointing.

Obviously, all the other key areas of football management are included in the game. The database of players and clubs is truly awe-inspiring, with literally hundreds-of-thousands of players available to interact with. In no other football management game would you be able to choose from such a vast array of talents.

The final, and probably most disappointing aspect that I will be covering is the media. If you've played previous WWSM/FM games, the news items will be all to familiar to you, and will quickly become repetitive and meaningless. That said, Sports Interactive ( the developers of the game) have introduced new items that will regularly appear in your in-box. These however, will be repeated often enough that they will become second nature to you.

Two other useful tools are the search tool and the tutorials. Each can be accessed through the menu-bar.

All in all, the gameplay is supreme with only one or two minor flaws.

Story - 3/10

Not much of a story here, you're the new manager of a club, try and take them to glory.

Graphics - 9/10

If you bought this game for the latest state-of-art graphics, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. That's not to say that the graphics are bad in anyway, just that they are not groundbreaking.

The match engine is basically displayed on a 2d pitch with moving, coloured dots to represent your players and officials. Although this may sound basic and unambitious, it works very well, complementing the games retro feel. 3d graphics certainly wouldn't be welcome on lower-end machines so this is of great benefit to those still using old/outdated computers. The game provides good visual indicators when a major event occurs, such as a goal, or a red card.

Outside of the match engine, the game presents information in a clean and precise way. Player data is organised into invisible columns that make it easy to scan through a player's details to find out if he's worth buying. The main options you'll be using in the game are presented at the top of the screen on a menu-bar. Each button on the menu-bar contains drop-down menu's with further options to choose from. There are also two other tools to help you to navigate around the game. At the bottom of the screen is a breadcrumbs bar. This basically tells the user whereabouts in the games database they are located, and how they reached that point. This can be very helpful when trying to locate particular items. The other tool is an actions bar on the left side of the screen which is responsive to the particular screen that the user is on.

Sound - 5/10

The only sounds in this game are the generic "oooooohs" and "aaahhs" of the in-game crowd, which does it's job to satisfaction.

There is no in-game music, which is fine, considering you'll be spending a lot of game time outside of the match engine.

Replay Value - 10/10

This is probably the single-most outstanding part of this game. The sheer depth of the game database allows to manage various teams from 32 different countries. The opportunities are endless and you'll never have the same experience, no matter how many times you play the game. And that is the simple joy of this game!

Final Recommendation

If you're a fan of football management sims, buy this now! You won't regret it. If, however, you've never tried this genre before, I'd recommend that you rent first, to avoid any disappointment.

Final Score - 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/12/06