Posted May 28, 2013
Sensible World of Soccer 96/97 is a good game, very addictive. In the past 2 weeks, it's my most played game. However i would like to point some negatives, mainly related to the career mode:
1. Cheating AI. I guess everybody that play this game at least once already noticed the AI is simply rubber band. The ball supposedly won't stick to your feet but this is not apply to the AI. They can perform whatever they want with inhuman reflex. It's like they're magnetized to the ball.
2. Low fund. You'll end up have to sell most of your prized asset in order to funds for new player or to keep your balance in check. It doesn't matter which club you choose, they'll always start with low fund.
3. Injuries. It happen too frequent. It almost like you'll averaging 1 injury per match. It almost impossible to field full strength squad even for 1/3 of the season.
4. No injury to the computer / AI. Surely you can injure their player in a match, but it won't have any lasting effect. They'll back to full strength by the next fixture.
5. The AI will never get sending off, or it's very rare. I played the game a lot, not even once their player given marching order for obvious foul while it happen to me from time to time.
6. AI isn't proactive. They'll never make any substitution, let alone changing their tactic and worse they will stick with the same line-up for the majority of the seasons. You can double check this, for example if you transferring to another club, you'll see your former club will retain the same last line-up which you used to deploy. If last time your GK was the striker, it will stay as that way for eternity (i guess).
7. And the biggest flaw, 3 minutes only match length. No way to change this unless if you're skillful enough to hack the hex. I still don't understand this decision considering you can change length for DIY and friendly mode up to 10 minutes. There's not much you can do under 1.5 minutes per half. There's minimal chance to stage a comeback if you down by 1 or 2 goals. 0-0, 1-0. 1-1 are common scorelines that you'll see in your entire career. However as always, this is not apply to the computer. You can see their result ending in more realistic scoreline such as 3-0, 4-1, 3-2 etc.
I'm still hopeful there will be kind soul out there that willing to dedicate his/her/their time to mod this game. I believe for a 17 year old title it aged well. However it bit disappointed the game main selling point, which is the career mode suffers from some strange decision by the developer and doesn't really aged well.
Summary: Your biggest enemy is time.
1. Cheating AI. I guess everybody that play this game at least once already noticed the AI is simply rubber band. The ball supposedly won't stick to your feet but this is not apply to the AI. They can perform whatever they want with inhuman reflex. It's like they're magnetized to the ball.
2. Low fund. You'll end up have to sell most of your prized asset in order to funds for new player or to keep your balance in check. It doesn't matter which club you choose, they'll always start with low fund.
3. Injuries. It happen too frequent. It almost like you'll averaging 1 injury per match. It almost impossible to field full strength squad even for 1/3 of the season.
4. No injury to the computer / AI. Surely you can injure their player in a match, but it won't have any lasting effect. They'll back to full strength by the next fixture.
5. The AI will never get sending off, or it's very rare. I played the game a lot, not even once their player given marching order for obvious foul while it happen to me from time to time.
6. AI isn't proactive. They'll never make any substitution, let alone changing their tactic and worse they will stick with the same line-up for the majority of the seasons. You can double check this, for example if you transferring to another club, you'll see your former club will retain the same last line-up which you used to deploy. If last time your GK was the striker, it will stay as that way for eternity (i guess).
7. And the biggest flaw, 3 minutes only match length. No way to change this unless if you're skillful enough to hack the hex. I still don't understand this decision considering you can change length for DIY and friendly mode up to 10 minutes. There's not much you can do under 1.5 minutes per half. There's minimal chance to stage a comeback if you down by 1 or 2 goals. 0-0, 1-0. 1-1 are common scorelines that you'll see in your entire career. However as always, this is not apply to the computer. You can see their result ending in more realistic scoreline such as 3-0, 4-1, 3-2 etc.
I'm still hopeful there will be kind soul out there that willing to dedicate his/her/their time to mod this game. I believe for a 17 year old title it aged well. However it bit disappointed the game main selling point, which is the career mode suffers from some strange decision by the developer and doesn't really aged well.
Summary: Your biggest enemy is time.
Post edited May 28, 2013 by wormholewizards