One of the top ten most influential games of all time
Last week I spent some time at Codemaster's HQ in Warwickshire, where I had the chance to see three of the companies' upcoming titles in action. I'll be letting you know my impressions on Colin McRae: Dirt and Overlord shortly, but first off we're going to take a look at the Xbox live arcade game, Sensible World of Soccer, a game that is apparently rated as one of the top ten most influential games of all time.
I spoke with the marketing/product manager, Tim Hodges to find out what we can look forward to:
HEXUS:
What enhancements have been made to the Xbox live version of SWOS?
Tim:It's essentially Sensible World of Soccer 96-97, the original PC/Amiga version. Basically what we've done is gone down the traditional Xbox live arcade retro route. We're using the core code, we've updated the graphics, so you can now play with either the classic version or the updated version with a few new features, such as characters that blink and multiplayer over Xbox live, and we're also looking at LAN options.
Some of the enhancements include updated stadiums and pitches, pitches that scuff up when you get involved in sliding tackles. You'll also be able to toggle half way through the game between classic or enhanced mode, even during an Xbox live game. We're also looking at a quick match option. The original code was a great game everyone loved so we didn't want to change it too much.
HEXUS: Will we still have the option of customising our teams, so our mates can feature in the line-ups?
Tim:Yes, you've got your original custom teams in there, but you can change the team and player names. We also ran a community competition where members were able to submit their own custom team, so we've taken a bunch of those and we're working them into the game. We had some really cool suggestions and funny suggestions that our legal team said 'no' to, but we're happy with the ones we've got and we think it's a nice touch getting the community involved.
