Club Football: Rangers

The principles, whichever team-branded version you opt for, are inherently the same. You take the club you've picked through a domestic season, with the clear intention of filling up some of the empty spaces in the trophy cabinet. In doing this, you can use the game's player generator to put yourself into the midst of this team, and then it's down to action.

And the action is good. Backed by strong in-game graphics, Club Football offers an enjoyable rendition of the beautiful game, which endears itself to a healthy, long term challenge. There are a couple of quibbles that temper things a little. The fluidity of the gameplay, for instance, is sometimes hampered by an over-insistence on a good animation instead of a quick pass for example, and there are other mild issues that slightly break up the flow of things.

Yet considering the healthy state of the competition, with both FIFA 2004 and Pro Evolution Soccer 3 putting in strong performances, it's to the credit of Club Football that it does enough to make it well worth considering. As it stands, it's not the best title of its ilk on the market, but it's a good, promising debut. --Simon Brew

The referees in this game are way over strict, its amazingly easy to get a red card in this game, in fact, I have never finished a game yet without having at least 2 players sent off and there is no way of turning off the referee and trust me, after 3 matches of this you will want to get shot of the referee. Another problem is that they have made the opposition goalkeepers exceptional, if you can beat them then throw a party as its extremely difficult. I have noticed that when the opposition make a tackle on your player, they win the ball almost everytime and your player falls over like he has just been shot - it just would not happen in real life. Also, as soon as a player is sent off and if the score is 0 - 0 then you have virtually no chance of winning the game, I have done it once and that was a massive fluke.

The idea of games is that they are supposed to be a challenge and fun - this game is certainly a challenge, sadly the fun is lacking and you find yourself getting more and more irritated with the poor gameplay. There is only so much losing you can cope with. After 10 games, I have won 2 (which were a struggle and probably a bit lucky) and lost 8, so I am bottom of the league, again this would not happen in real life.

Next time Codemasters, spend some time making it enjoyable for the player, we don`t expect it to be easy easy easy to score but making it near impossible is a bit off. If I had to decide whether to buy this game again or not, I would put it back on the shelf and leave the shop or empty my basket if I was online. Hopefully, there next effort will be better as the potential is there. The create your own player function is a brilliant idea, which I would imagine other football game makers will pick up on soon!

So overall, brilliant graphics and detail about the club and players but very poor gameplay with virtually no enjoyment. But if you enjoy getting irritated, then this is the game for you!