Football Masters 98

Football Masters 98 is a video game in the simulation genre originally released in 1997. It is currently playable on Windows.

Football Masters 98 is a bad but very detailed soccer management simulator that is one of the disappointing 'missed opportunities'.

Games Domain says it all very critically in their review: 'Football Masters 98 is easily categorized as a labor of love. A descendant of 1990's Football Crazy, it has evidently been programmed by people who like to fantasize about soccer and football management. The fact that it is so rich and deep is no surprise; however, the fact that it is also totally unplayable is.

Almost every possible feature of a soccer manager is present in this title: fully accurate national and European cups (and team kits too), friendly matches (including invitations from computer-controlled teams, a very welcome addition), stadium upgrades, financial management right down to player bonuses, insurance and even vacations, sponsorship deals, training, contract negotiations, a detailed transfer market with scouts, youth teams, a fully customizable assistant, and a whole lot more.

The beauty of FM98 is how detailed some of these options can be. Your scout can search for players using any skill or trait you can think of, including, for example, their height. Stadium details include pitch size, which can have an effect on some tactics. The tactics screen is simply wonderful in its intricate simplicity (funny as that sounds), based on choosing two of the five possible tactical fields for each of defense, midfield and attack (such as Zonal and Offside for defense, so you can't choose Sweeper, Man-to-Man Marker or Attacking Sides). You also have four columns of 'preset tactics' that you can fill in beforehand and use as needed.

A player, as well as being rated on a scale of 1 to 10 on 7 basic skills, can be right-footed, left-footed or good with both feet, and can also be, say, composed but brave, or perhaps wonderful coming off the bench. Finance allows you to set ticket prices, reflects real life events such as interest changes on loans, and shows you how fragile your position is when a new chairman comes on the board.

Football Masters 98 really excels when it comes to details. Let's say you want, for example, to see the complete and actual history of games played between any two teams. Easy enough. Perhaps you're interested in a complete and historically accurate account of any team's record since 1871 (!), including, among other things, top scorers, best scores, and performance in various cups and leagues.

With such an appetizing start, one would expect me to go on to write a review that is nothing short of glowing. However, this is not going to happen. This review is going to end very prematurely. In fact, I have thought long and hard before allowing FM98 to escape the wrath of our Garbage Bear. The reason is also why this review is so short: FM98 is, for all intents and purposes, unplayable.

The match interface in this game is fucking awful. There are no numbers - at all - anywhere. What you have on the match screen are the squads on the sides, a static view of the field in the middle showing formations, and a score summary at the bottom. The only moving parts are the ball and the performance bars. The former simply jumps back and forth on the pitch view, moving, or rather jumping, between some 12 alternative positions, supposedly helping (again from the ESP website) to 'indicate the location of important actions during a match'. At best, it helps develop a headache, at least on a large monitor.

As for the other moving part of the match display screen, each player has a graphical performance bar, which changes during the match. Again, no numbers, just a constantly moving colored bar (and remember there are 22 of them to look out for). The name of the player in possession of the ball is highlighted at all times. These three visual data are the only way to measure your team's performance.

Even textual descriptions are absent: you only get them when something notable happens, like a goal is scored, someone gets a card, or someone gets injured.The whole idea is ridiculous. I found it impossible to manage my team during a match. With so little information, coaching is a matter of guesswork and analysis. I couldn't make any serious judgments about my team's performance, nor could I make any serious judgments about my team's performance.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.