New Star Soccer

New Star Soccer, also known as NSS, is a series of football video games published by New Star Games, which lets the player create and control a new football player as he moves through the ranks of the leagues and national teams. Its creator, Simon Read, was inspired by Sports Interactive's Championship Manager, and Gremlin Interactive's Footballer of the Year.

Gameplay

At the beginning the gamer is able to specify everything from their player's nationality, team and division, to selecting his strengths by assigning a fixed number of points across various skills (shooting, strength, flair etc.). Once this is done the game begins, with a full fixture list for each season, including continental and national team matches.

Starting out as a young footballer working way to the top, the gamer controls many aspects of a footballer's life including relationships with his team-mates, manager, fans, friends, and family; own money management and expenditure; training; club and sponsor contracts, gambling and substance use.

History

Early releases

In the first two versions of the game, NSS 1 (2003) and NSS 2 (2004), the action on the field was a running text commentary of key elements of the match, where certain situations required intervention to make a decision on how the player acts, like whether to pass, tackle or shoot, for example.Simon Read released NSS 1 as free to play on Kongregate [1] in 2012.

Since the third version of the game, NSS3, released in 2005, the gamer controls his player with the keyboard, joystick or gamepad. Matches are played out in 2D graphics giving full control of the player's actions. New Star Games also released Sensational Soccer in 2006. Sensational Soccer utilises the same 2D game engine as NSS 3, but the user plays as the entire team, without the personal aspects of the game.

New Star Soccer 4 (2008)

A fourth version of the game, NSS4 (Later re-released as NSS 2010), was released on November 7, 2008. Three public betas featuring the match engine only were released and 6 private career betas were released. The new game is a major change, because it consists of a single application controlling career and match gameplay, rather than two separate applications, as in New Star Soccer 3. It features an entirely new game engine with improved gameplay, including 360° control, more realistic dribbling and 3D graphics. NSS 4 was the first in the series to feature a Macintosh version of the game, and Linux support has also been discussed. Beta versions are also being made available to the general public in the official forum. The fourth installment also includes a database of over 30,000 players, 3000 teams and stadiums. It was the first to include different promotions and relegation rules. It is hoped in the future competitions like the Copa Libertadores can be included.

New Star Soccer 5 (2011)

The fifth version of New Star Soccer, NSS5, was released in August 2011. NSS5 returns to 2D gameplay, but with a completely new match engine. The game is a major departure from previous releases in that it is free-to-play and is integrated with an online account system. Free users are allowed to play up to 3 in-game matches a day, whereas in previous installments of the game a demo version with a 10-match limit was offered. Users wishing to play more often must purchase a premium account. Another change is the abandoning of the vast player database that shipped with previous versions. Si Read cited the massive effort required to create, maintain and implement such a database in making the decision to drop it.[2] Instead, the online database of registered users is used to populate teams, along with some randomly generated players. There are plans to include features such as press conferences, post match interviews and reports from coaching staff and physios in future updates. In May 2012 it was announced that New Star Soccer 5 would join New Star Games' Super Laser Racer on Steam.[3]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Kongregate."New Star Soccer".Kongregate.3rd March 2012.http://www.kongregate.com/games/siread/new-star-soccer
  2. ↑ New Star Soccer 5 FAQ from newstarsoccer.com
  3. ↑ New Star Games Newsletter 31st May 2012 from ymlp.com
  4. ↑ "2005 Top 10 Games of the Year" by Russell Carroll, GameTunnel, December 29, 2005.
  5. ↑ "PC Zone magazine's review of New Star Soccer 3", Pc Zone Issue 164, January 2006.
  6. ↑ GameTunnel Independent Sports Game of the Year 2008 from GameTunnel.com
  7. ↑ GameTunnel Top 10 Games 2008 from GameTunnel.com

External links