Arising from the ashes of Football Manager Live (or FML as it was colloquially known), a massivley multiplayer online football management sim from the same creators as the highly acclaimed Football Manager series, is Ultimate Football Live (or UFL). However, whilst FML was created by Sports Interactive and published by Sega, UFL has much more humble beginnings. Netsports Software Ltd are an open conglomerate of former FML fans who are working together to attempt to recreate and improve upon a game genre that many feel Sports Interactive did not do justice to, following its conclusion in May this year.
From a quick browse of the UFL forums (https://uflive.com/forum/) it becomes apparent that Netsports are keen to learn from the mistakes of FML whilst also take advantage of the great enthusiasm that surrounded it. The concepts behind the core modules of the game inevitably follow closely on from what many fans of Football Management games are accustomed to. However, that is not to say that UFL is merely a carbon copy of a failed brand. The gameplay guides, as well as numerous other threads with contributions from Joe Bloggs, show that additional functionality is high on the cards to create a better gaming environment. This level of ambition to not only replicate a game that many loved but also develop further has led to many former FML fans jumping on the band wagon with great expectations for the future.
As it stands the game is still in its pre-alpha stage, despite alpha initially being pencilled in for the end of Q3 which has since passed. The underlying concepts look strong on paper but until we know for certain which features are coded and which are still waiting to be added. In addition, the lack of any sort of announcement regarding the match engine is somewhat alarming. The much maligned Football Manager Live match engine, or FM [insert year] developmental test engine as some referred to it, was substantially better than anything rival companies such as EA or BGS/Eidos have put together. So despite the underlying optimism that surrounds the project, especially amongst the games loyal forum members, there are enough hurdles to keep the hype from spiralling out of control.
The purpose of this blog is to discuss the various facets of the game as it develops over time. The frequency of posts will depend upon the feed of information coming from the Netsports website.
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