Yup! Yeah! Right. I'm still here; The site's not dead ... and, yes, I know I haven't updated it in a looooong time, but, seriously, haven't had the time. Really! I feel bad, surely, but just keep 'em coming and I'll get them done, ahem, sooner or later that is .. patience please :-)

Si Read kindly got me his next installment in the NSS series and we're up to v3 (07 at time of writing). Post v2 reactions on his board delivered a lot of comments and ideas and I'm glad to see that much of this has been implemented in this very much extended v3; The Spend screen is actually quite amazing and you can buy a wide variety of things and stuff .. and I doubt I'll (if any!) ever get to own everything (if anything at all - so far I'm not much more than an knickers and jeans guy) and the Casino and Horse racing could really be stand-alone games (alas: My in-game Gambling addiction is way up =) .. but this is the mere fun no-brainer activities of the game; A game which is very much connected, thought-through (as with all of Simons games) and where the ends meet and you'll have to think about what you do (for example, you shouldn't play when you're drunk .. *grin* .. could name a few) and it's pretty hard to keep everyone happy. All of this in a very light and easy packaging.

The match itself has been totally redone and is completely different from the previous versions, so ... if you like stuff like Sensible Soccer, Championship Soccer, Total Soccer and alike - you're sure to become much attached to NSS3. And it's much more challenging too. You're not in control of the game. You only represent yourself and have to do well to just have the ball passed to you. If you suck at your game (well, I do), you'll get off the team, even off the bench .. so go get drunk to get your confidence up, buy some stuff - get a girlfriend, meet some friend, do some drugs (this isn't political correct is it, Simon?) (ok, they're performance enhancers) .. and did someone say: The Sims - Football Star? That'll probably make me buy a Sims game ... Anyway; The match is great, although I find it very hard, but practice makes perfect (and practice your game you can, Yoda says). One could argue that the v2 match was a bit cuter and had more uniqueness, but the v3 is probably the right future for the game. The AI could do with a bit more intelligence, however, as it is totally shite when your teammates passes are well off, they kick the ball into the crowd or wastes good opportunities; Too much of that and it ruin an otherwise great game ...
.. thinking …
playing ..
.. thinking …
.. and at last; In my humble opinion the match may distract the gamer from the rest of the game .. and that's a d*mn shame. But! Praise granted. It still is a neat game and I recall a lot of requests for a match module as this after the v2 launch. If I were to code the game, my initial approach at a match engine would be giving the events in v2 some nice graphics, making it more little scenarios you'd have to succeed in to get better - score or pass or whatever - shown in a small screen like the horse-race one, ah-well, a wee-bit larger perhaps.
At first sight I thought the colors of the game made it look shamelessly amateurish; Clumsy and messy, but you can load up whatever color-preference you have, so it really doesn't matter. By default it does a lot of preparing and saving (which can be turned off in the preferences). It shouldn't popup the graphical screen, when you're injured or not on the bench or resting, just to ask if you'd want to view the match .. why not do this before all the unnecessary loading and time wasting?

Otherwise not much to write, in the end, yet another quality game from Si Read.