Ultimate Football '95

Why are people running in fields, while they can run by pushing buttons? As a computer oriented person, I do not see much of a difference between the two; actually, I prefer running with my fingers! Ultimate Football'95 by Microprose is one of those games which tries to carry the excitement of the stadium to our PC screens.

Why would you want to play a game like this? Well, at the beginning I did not have the answer myself, but let's hear it from the professionals: Every year, millions of Americans spend their Sundays watching football. Everyone enjoys a good game of football, because it contains the right mix of pageantry, excitement, sport, and competition - and this just stratches the surface. Soon, though, many fans begin wondering just what is happening on the field. Football is a unique blend of pure entertainment, sheer, physical prowess, and intellectual finesse. That is why football is one of the most entertaining games on earth!

There is not much to say about the game, because it is exactly the same thing that you watch on TV. You pick your teams and start running! I have said that the game is exactly the same thing as you see on TV and this really is true. In Ultimate Football' 95, everything is under control. You can adjust options the way you want them to be, so you always have just the right environment to do whatever you wish.

First of all, you have the choice of selecting any team from the National Football League. Your task does not end after selecting the team. The players can be rearranged to obtain the best results. Each player has different levels of performance and a unique property.

There are many other finishing touches that you might want to consider. The quarter length can be set for five, ten or fifteen minutes. The stadium details can be set for outdoor grass, outdoor artificial, or domed. The game time can be changed as daytime, evening, or night time; according to your choice the color of the sky changes. You can have snow, rain or clear skies by playing with the weather. The temperatures that are available are: very hot, hot, warm, cool, cold, or frigid; the temperature settings weigh heavily upon the fatigue of the players. You can even play with the wind speed; the choices are: no wind, slight wind, moderate wind and gusting wind. Plus, you can mess around with the wind directions! These are the finishing touches that give you full control over the game.

Another unique thing about the game is the film saves; in reverse you can load games and then sit back to enjoy it. The game can be played between human and computer or human and human. In the case of human vs.human the game is played by modem. During the game you have offensive and defensive modes. In each of them you get a small screen on the field which explains what is going on.

The screen view is not limited to one set camera. You can watch the movie from many different angles by pressing function keys or you might want to set your own angle, that is also possible. The game can only be played with the mouse and the joystick. When using the mouse, you use both buttons and sometimes a combination to get something done.

The graphics are in VGA, but they look like EGA. They could have been made smoother. The sound is good, the only thing that I do not like about the sound is the noise made by the spectactors during the game play which is sometimes distracting. Except those two shortcomings that I have observed, the rest of the game is good.

Conclusion:

It is one of the sportive games in which you take your place in the field and do your best. The graphics and the sound for the spectators could have been better. The best thing about the game is that, you really have control over everything.

System Requirements:

386 DX-33 MHz or higher,
Min 4Mb memory,
MS-DOS 5.0 or later,
Hard drive required with 13Mb minimum,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
VGA video graphic card,
Microsoft mouse and 100% compatibles, joysticks supported.

Creative Labs Sound Blaster, Pro; Pro Audio Spectrum; Ad Lib; Roland MT32/CM-32L/LAPC-1; Covox; Sound Master II; General Midi sound cards supported.