| Gamebar |
New Star Soccer 3 |
| Vitals |
|
Developer: New Star Games Publisher: New Star Games Genre: Sports > General Released: Oct 21, 2005 Players: 1 |
| Related Articles |
Website
Download
PurchaseOf course I've come a
long ways. I initially started my career with Portugal's famed Benfica,
starting the first game as an attacker in their 4-4-2 set. I got lucky and
scored a goal in my first game, which we won. My rating of 8 for the
match was good enough to get me a look for the next game. Of course my
skills were still pretty weak coming in as an 17-year-old rookie and the match
didn't go so well. No goals, no assists, 1 pass and no tackles was a
pretty miserable performance. My rating was a 1 for the match and I
quickly found myself on the bench.
I spent my time working hard with the coaches, running drills where I learned
better how to place my shots, head the ball, kick one timers and hit my
targets with precision when passing. Still despite all my time practicing with the
coaches, I was young, unskilled, an inexperienced. I wasn't likely to
find more playing time soon and not playing was eating at me. Convinced that the best way to enjoy the
game was to play it I gave up my dream of playing for one of the best football
clubs in Europe and asked for a transfer.
My transfer opportunity quickly came and a number of teams were calling. I limited my choices to Portugal clubs, not wanting to move away from where I got my start and chose Beira-Mar, a team in the second tier Portuguese 'League of Honor.' They quickly inserted me into the line-up and we began a historic run that would move us up into the first-tier Portuguese 'Super League,' but then I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
In joining Beira-Mar I never stopped practicing and running drills with the
coaches. Between matches I would spend my time working on my skills,
learning better how to play the game and improving my abilities so that I
could help aid my team to victory.
Of
course I never practiced when Team USA had an upcoming match, preserving my
energy in case my homeland came calling. The only
thing better than taking a Portuguese team to the league championship would
have been taking my home country to the World Cup finals.
Beira-Mar for its part turned out to be a great home. The other striker on the team, Jacob Nicoles, and I lead the team to victory after victory. This was especially true in the The Portuguese Cup tournament, where our 'lowly' second-tier team advanced all the way to the final game, finishing as the runner-up after a 3-1 loss against FC Porto.
The press certainly took notice of my hard work awarding me 12 Man of the Match awards and the prestigious Young Player of the Year award. I tried to keep a careful balance with the press, passing on the praise to my team, coach and fans, to ensure that my relationships with each group stayed strong. As the year ended, Beira-Mar's record, second best in the League of Honor, was good enough to merit movement to the Super League. Finally, my chance to become a star was to be realized. I would be taking the pitch with the greatest players in all of Portugal, with my teammates who had battled with me at my side.
Unfortunately,
things got off to a rocky start with Beira-Mar against the other teams in the
'Super League.' We were losing about as
many games as we won, struggling really to win any, and were quickly knocked out of the Portuguese Cup in the
first round. Among all the finger-pointing the coach asked if I might
consider moving to defense as I was struggling to find the goal. Through
it all I practiced hard, working on my skills and spending extra time on my
set pieces and shooting and gradually the results were improving. Unfortunately,
my teammates and I just didn't seem to have the same chemistry as before, and
thinking that it might be best for me to move onto a stronger team in the
Super League instead of one that had just enough talent to move into the
league, and one where I wasn't as welcome as I had been in the past, I put in for a transfer.
Vitoria Setubal came calling and I took the opportunity. A mid-quality club with lots of potential, I quickly settled in and started doing what I did best, scoring and assisting goals. Moving to the top of the scoring ranks in the Super League gave me the call I'd long been waiting for. Team USA asked me to play with them. It's still early, but we are 2 and 0 when I've started. Unfortunately, I still have some work to do on my skills, in their eyes, before I will be a consistent starter for the club, but I'm encouraged by the chance and hope we will have a good shot at the next World Cup!
Though
I'm scoring a lot, and Vitoria Setubal is looking like a legitimate top 10
team in the league I'm still ponderous. We were out-played at nearly
every position by the top 3 teams over the last couple of months. Perhaps
we just don't have the talent to compete? The frontline at BoaVista are
marking up goals faster than should be humanly possible and we certainly
didn't slow them. Perhaps if I were
to join FC Porto we could create the strongest club in all of Europe? Or
should I work with the group of guys that I'm with, pushing ourselves until we
rise to the ranks of glory ourselves. As a star in the league there are
always plenty of rumors flying around, and I certainly could tip the press to
write a story that might make me a hot topic in the transfer market.
Though I think for right now I probably should just work on scoring a goal on
this penalty kick.
Graphics:
Visually there isn't a lot to say about New Star Soccer 3. Yeah,
those are moving pixels. In fact, while looking at the screenshots will
certainly get you thinking you should be looking elsewhere for your
entertainment playing will give you a different idea entirely. This is
because the pixels allow you to do a lot of cool things on the field. 3D
models certainly help in sport games, but often they take your imagination out
of the game and limit your moves to all the pre-recorded model movements.
I don't know why I think it, but I definitely thought the pixelated graphics
that make everyone cringe when they see screenshots of this game actually work
to your advantage when you are actually playing the game.
Sound:
The sound of this game won't leave you writing home about it, but it does an
effective job of creating ambient atmosphere with the sound of the crowd as
well as the sound of the ball. Don't get me wrong, you won't mistake the
sound of kicking the ball in the game for the sound that you hear when you
*really* kick a ball, and you may miss having commentators jabbering away in
the background, but the sounds do serve their purpose well, with the crowd
growing more rowdy with the increasing action on the field. Off the
field the sounds meet their general purpose of advancing the game, if you want
music you'll need to bring your own.
Gameplay:
If everything else was done right and this area didn't work the game would not
be enjoyable at all. Instead this is probably the single best part of
the game. Playing the games is a joy. It takes skill, but you can
control the learning curve and the difficulty. If you want a more
complex game, this is it, offering a full experience. If you play the
harder difficulty levels you'll find that your teammates will ignore you on
the pitch if you aren't spending enough time hanging out with them off it or
are a bit self-focused on your own skills. Moving around the field is
easy as the controls are very responsive (though notably this is a game that
you MUST have a controller for, I would recommend a dual-analog stick).
You have a lot of ability to control the accuracy of your shots and passes
from the most minute angle to the distance and to some degree the height.
On the field the game shines like few other games. When people talk
about how the gameplay is more important than the graphics they are talking
about this game. Really. This game is the definition of gameplay
over graphics. If I spent the rest of the article talking about the
minute details of how perfect the gameplay is I still wouldn't be able to
fully explain it. It's intuitive and perfect on a number of levels
irregardless of, or perhaps because of the graphics.
Concept:
The first time I played the game I found my character wasn't getting into
games. I really didn't know why, so after spending an hour training and
increasing my skills to the point where I thought was pretty good...but STILL
didn't get into a game, I decided to take a trip to the casino. Slots
were alright, but the horse racing blew me away! I was making bets and
watching a horse race before my eyes. At some point (an hour later?) I
started thinking about the fact that I was supposed to be playing a soccer
game, but I was totally hooked on this gambling game thing. I took my
winnings, and then bought a nice car and an apartment. Another half hour
passed before I started heading back towards the 'soccer' part of the game.
The great thing is that all of the extras, from your relationship with your
girlfriend, to overcoming your gambling addiction are all extras in the game.
You can just play away and keep a decent balance, visit the family once in
awhile and go out with the guys from time to time (don't start too many rumors
with the press or become an alcoholic) and you'll not even realize how deep
and amazing the concept is behind the game. Even if this game wasn't the
deepest game of soccer I've ever seen with amazing depth and intricacies
off the field (which it is), it would still best game of soccer that I've
ever played on the field. The combination of the two in one game
is simply amazing.
Value:
Let's see, it's $20. I've played it for like 60 hours so far using two
different profiles (American and Portuguese) and what's more I've been going
back to it for 6 months now. I would call it one of the best
entertainment values I've ever experienced. If you are at all a soccer
or even a sports fan you'll find your money worth here over and over again.
Fun:
New Star Soccer 3 is a blast to play. Becoming a star is not always
easy, but the challenge is one that will always keep you coming back.
The only time I became REALLY frustrated was when I wasn't getting into any
games. The ball club I played for was selling shirts with my likeness on
them that said "There's only one." They were selling LOTS of these
shirts, but I never played! I finally came to realize that my confidence
was too low. To increase it I had to go out drinking!? Ok, that
was silly! Once I got past that part and actually played the game I found it
impossible to stop. TOO MUCH FUN!
Recommendation:
Players will find this game to be worth every penny. The only thing that
is keeping this game from being one of the best-selling sport games available
is people who are turned off at the screenshots. If you choose not to
check out the game due to the screenshots you frankly don't deserve to enjoy
all the goodness that is packed into the game. New Star Soccer 3 is a
star itself, a must have for every sports fan.
Posted: Saturday June 03, 2006
Action
Adventure
Arkanoid
Fighting
Platform
Puzzle & Casual
Hidden Object
RPG
Shooter
Simulation
Sports
Strategy
Download Games
