UFL

It’s hard to recommend a game that I didn’t enjoy even though I was winning. The arcade approach of football video games from the early 00s has been gone for a reason.

UFL is a title still far from reaching its true potential-a work in progress that requires time to meet the high expectations of virtual football enthusiasts (or even just to deliver on the promises made at its announcement). Its more dynamic style, which places less emphasis on realism, does work, but there are still many limitations, both in terms of content and the overall quality of the gameplay experience. In short, the path ahead is steep, and it's far from being an easy goal into an empty net.

Modest content, problems with goalkeepers, single-scheme gameplay or balance issues.... UFL, at least currently, does not look like a game that can in any way threaten the competition. And that's a shame.

As far as free-to-play practices go, UFL never fully tried to convince me that it was necessary to spend additional money on it in order to fully enjoy it. In fact, I didn’t expect to play it as much as I did; it’s grindy as hell, but skill-based matchmaking and the fact you need to actually learn how to play the damn game in order to succeed made it a very fair and engrossing football experience, even if it’s lacking in modes and a bit of polish. There’s a lot that needs to be improved, but as it stands, I’m quite pleased with UFL.