Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   wizzard_of_ozz2004
   Games Master

   Today's game is called Slam Soccer 2006. SS2006 is a quirky little soccer game with cartoony characters. Gameplay is rather addicting once you get the hang of the controls. This is a keyboard only game, but you can use the mouse on menus. I lost my first game 1-0, but after picking a better team I won 2-0. In this aspect, the game stays true to the teams' attributes.

   The best thing I think about this game is that it offers a career mode. I'm not sure what the point of the career mode is (eg. years, build a better stadium, draft better players etc.) I can tell you that at the beginning of your career, you start with a stadium that consists of a muddy field with no seating or lights and has garbage cans as a goal. I haven't gotten too far into the career, because you have to play every game. I've been a bit too busy to play more than a few games of SS2006.

   The game also offers a tournament mode, World Cup. In this mode, you select your desired country and play through a simulated World Cup.

   The game does have a couple of flaws, but are easily over-looked. The first and most obvious flaw is that there are only a couple of character models. This doesn't hurt gameplay at all though, and I wouldn't even penalize the game for this. However, the announcer is the biggest flaw of the game. It gets a little old hearing the exact same phrases over and over again. It seems like they only used a few lines for the announcer, which gets boring fast. If I were the designers, I would have left this option out. Still, this doesn't take away from gameplay.

   On a side note, I really enjoy the main menu music. When the game first loads up, I get pumped.

   Overall, I give the game an 8/10. I think this game should be downloaded, if for nothing else than to waste some free time. Matches can be configured to be just a few minutes long, great for a quick break. The download is rather small for a game with this much content at 92mb. The download page offers French and German editions as an alternative for our French and German fans. The video features 5 free games, the very first one is today's game. You can get a basic idea of the gameplay for the first 3:15. The video is a little laggy, but still a good idea of the game.

   Screenshots:
   http://www.reloaded.org/screens.php?GameID=380

   Video:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqgsJirP8Y

   Download:
   http://www.reloaded.org/download/Slam-Soccer-2006/380/

   Posted 15 years ago #
2. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   I'm not really into soccer games and I never liked the actual game either despite living opposite what was then a top division football club - many many years ago; and only ever attended football matches when my home teams schoolboy team got to the schoolboys international cup finals in 1966 (they lost) but then only because I was a St Johns Ambulance Cadet so had to go; and then when my regiment, the 28(BR) Signal Regiment, won the BAOR (British Army over the Rhine) football cup final in 1977-8, which put them in the Army finals for the nth year running (Virtually the whole regiment were ferried in 4 ton wagons through bitterly cold German winter weather for hundreds of miles to a stadium where the final took place. Many of the team went on to play with British football teams when they were discharged from the army; (though I could run faster and longer than any of them (lol) as we used to let them train with the cross country team I was in, occasionally). My only claim to fame with respect to running was taking part in a race with Steve Ovett, but I won’t tell you where I came in the field, suffice it to say it was an abysmal day for me; however back to the point of today’s offering.

   It sounds like a really cool game. I like games where there's a developmental side to them so will be trying this out just as soon as I've posted this, and will return with my verdict.
   :)
   Thanks for posting it Wizzard.

   Regards

   WR

   Posted 15 years ago #
3. 

   albesir
   Member

   So far it seems pretty good to waste some time. I don't know that it'll go much further than that though. On the standard settings you can get through a match an a couple of minutes, and there's only 18 games in a season in career mode, so it isn't all that long to play through it. I got through the first season winning most of my matches pretty easily, especially once I started to get used to the controls, the teams that are about the same level or worse are no trouble. But, there doesn't seem to be any way for you to improve your team. Unless I'm just missing something obvious, I don't see any way to improve the teams at all, which seems like it could be a problem. I won the league in the first season and got bumped up, and the teams in the 2nd league are a lot better than my team, and very hard to beat. I'm somehow holding my own, but I don't think winning the league would be an easy task with the team I have. And if the teams at the next level are even better, I wont stand a chance. You can improve your stadium, but it takes a while to get the funding, since you get a little bit for your games, and a little bonus when you win, I still haven't been able to upgrade my stadium all that much, while the worst teams in the league, that I'm slaughtering when I play have fully upgraded stadiums already.

   I enjoy the game, but if there's no way to improve the team, it may not be worth it for me. It's hard enough trying to play against some of these 2nd level teams, I can't even imagine what it'll be like on the next level, and if it goes to levels beyond that.

   Thanks for the game, and if you find a way to upgrade your teams let me know, cause I could sure use a boost there.

   Posted 15 years ago #
4. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Hey, it's actually a reeally good game, especially for free.

   Albesir,

   I think the only way you can upgrade your players and stadia is to purchase the Gold Edition of this game, which will cost you 10Euro's.

   In my opinion it's well worth it as this game is much better than loads of commercial games I've bought over the past several years, especially arcade games.

   If you don't have any soccer games in your games library. My advice is to download this now. Thankfully it's open source and freeware, so is available 24/7 365 days a year.

   Posted 15 years ago #
5. 

   wizzard_of_ozz2004
   Games Master

   Yeah it tends to get a bit repetitive, but it is an excellent game to have if you want to kill some time. The gameplay is fun enough to kill maybe a half an hour with. I've yet to play it for longer stretches of time. It will probably take me awhile to really get much further in the game, but if I get some free time, I will try to find an answer albesir.

   Regards,
   AH

   Posted 15 years ago #
6. 

   pavid
   gamer extraordinaire & knowledgeable computer nerd who likes to argue, but is still a very nice guy

   Hey wizzard,

   Like Whiterabbit, I too am not in soccer games. Unlike him, I'm going to pass on today's game. Nonetheless, I wish to thank you for posting it.

   I do want to make a small suggestion though. If you wouldn't mind, please post a link to these giveaways in the Give Away of the Day comments. I find it quite difficult to find these posts using the forum search function. Many thanks.

   Posted 15 years ago #
7. 

   wizzard_of_ozz2004
   Games Master

   You're welcome pavid. I'm sorry about the GOTD comment, I thought they would be easy enough to find because they are usually on the main screen of the forums.

   Regards,
   AH

   Posted 15 years ago #
8. 

   albesir
   Member

   Whiterabbit, I am enjoying the game. You can upgrade your stadium in the career mode, but I still haven't found a way to upgrade players. I don't really have the money to buy any games, which is why I enjoy this series of free games you guys do so much. I love to play games, I just wish I had the money for some of them. I wish I had the money to buy the new baseball mogul game. But, since I don't I guess I'll have to wait and see if they let the 2007 version go to freeware. The 2006 game was a lot of fun, but apparently they made a big step between 2006 and 2007 versions. Anyway, with this soccer game, it is definitely enjoyable, but without being able to improve your team, it's a little hard to imagine going from a tiny little team to one of the best in the European leagues. Like I said, it looks like something good to waste some time on since on the default setting, the matches only last a couple of minutes, but without being able to draft new players or hire better talent or anything, I just don't see being able to get that into this game(I'm easily distracted though, it might be better for others).

   PS, Rise & Fall: Civilizations is probably going to be one of my favorites of all time. I love history and I love army building games, and I like the variety it gives you with the hero mode. As with most strategy/ army building games, it gets a little repetitive so having a way to just pause for a minute, and then command a super soldier that can slaughter a ton of troops is just great.

   Posted 15 years ago #

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