Actua Soccer 3 1998

Description
Developer Gremlin Interactive
Publisher Gremlin Interactive
Platform PlayStation

The first title's biggest claim to fame was its full 3D graphics engine, used for the first time in a home console football game; although other console games had used a 3D field, players were commonly still 2D sprites but in Actua Soccer players were polygonal. The game was developed with close ties to a local football club Sheffield Wednesday: their players provided hints to the programmers, and three players, Chris Woods, Graham Hyde and Andy Sinton, also served as motion capture models. Actua Soccer featured only national teams, with squads of 22 players from each of 44 national sides, However a follow up version with English Premier League teams named Actua Soccer Club Edition was released in 1997 using 20 players from the 20 Premier League teams from 1996/97. The Actua Soccer match engine was also used to display matches in Premier Manager 64. The first game was a bestseller in the UK,where it was backed by what journalists called "the most expensive advertising campaign ever mounted for a console game." Tommy Glide of GamePro, while criticising the game's lack of flashy special moves and mild sound effects, deemed it the most well-rounded PlayStation soccer game to date, saying it offered a good combination of FIFA's deep strategy and Goal Storm's sharp visuals and accessibility.