The beautiful game has spawned many videogames series, and one which has shown promise is the World Tour Soccer series. Our man Joel sat down with SCEE's Ben Fawcett to discuss the massive improvements in World Tour Soccer 2006.
Media We have a total of 8 screens for this game.
No problem, my name is Ben Fawcett and I am Game Director for the World Tour Soccer team.
So what are some of the new features that have been added to this year's game?
Well apart from the new features like our EyeToy: Cameo it's all about the game-play. We've spent a long time trying to make the game as responsive as possible. This involved tweaking the behavior of some of our existing animations, but also adding new animations where appropriate. So, for example, there are more stretching animations, short block animations, goalkeeper moves etc.
This year we had some massive developments in how we make our AI competitors. In most games you will have one AI opponent to play against who is dressed up in the different team kits. In World Tour Soccer 2006 we have created loads of different AI opponents who all have different characters and playing styles. So some teams will be more inclined to keep possession and keep the ball on the ground while others will be more direct and play more of a long-ball game. This makes for fantastic variety in the game play especially when you consider that World Tour Soccer 2006 features over 900 teams.
Eye Toy: Cameo seems like a pretty cool innovation. Can you eloborate on how it improves the game?
The World Tour Soccer franchise has always had massively customizable features, which have allowed you to create your own players and teams, but EyeToy: Cameo has taken this to a new level.
EyeToy: Cameo is the ultimate in terms of in-game player customization. Anyone playing World Tour Soccer 2006 can simply take two pictures of their head (a front and side image) using the EyeToy camera and then they are automatically turned into a 3D head model. It's very easy. This head model can then be assigned to any player in the game. So, for example, if you want to play up-front with Ronaldo, you can simply assign your head model to a Real Madrid player. Add this to other customization features, like player names, skills, clothing appearance etc. and it really does feel like you are inside the game. Why not assign you and all your mates to Manchester United?
We've even started doing simple drawings on pieces of paper or using stuffed toys, capturing them with the EyeToy camera and all of a sudden you have your own 3-D cartoon character in-game playing for whoever you want. The possibilities are endless.
I'm sure it'll be a hit with the fans. Can you tell us about the Career Mode? Have there been any changes from last year's game?
We have tried to make the most of our huge player database (over 19,000 players!) by extending the Transfer market further. It now includes things like more aggressive AI managers, bidding wars, and the ability to set the transfer status of your players. This means that when you want to sell a particular player you can set them to 'transfer-listed' and wait for the offers to come in.
How have the visuals in WTS 2006 been improved from the 2005 version?
Our artists are constantly working on keeping the players appearances up to date and nothing’s changed there. Every time a soccer player appears with a new haircut you hear a big groan from their end of the office!
We already had many different cut-scenes for crowd celebrations or player celebrations and one of the big improvements for this version was to increase the interaction between the characters. So, for example, we now have players jumping on top of each other after scoring a golden goal. We revisited all our head models to try to improve the overall quality. We also added more unique head models so that all the well-known footballers now have heads drawn specifically for them.
We also have a new more toned player model kitted out with a massive array of customizable boots, kit styles and facial features.
What was your favorite part of working on World Tour Soccer 2006?
Adding the EyeToy: Cameo feature was great and also deciding how different CPU teams should play different styles of football.
What do you think separates World Tour Soccer 2006 from other soccer games on the market today?
World Tour Soccer 2006 is a massive game giving you a huge amount of cups, leagues and careers to complete with pretty much every team you have ever heard of (and some you haven’t!). We do this because we are soccer fans ourselves and understand how important it for a supporter to play as their team.
EyeToy: Cameo is also a product of us wanting to appear with our favorite players. Every kid dreams of representing their country at the highest level of the game and in World Tour Soccer 2006 you can do just that.
If you had to choose one, what would do you think would be the biggest accomplishment the development team made with this game?
I think when you aim to provide both good game-play and good features it's not easy to deliver both within the typical development period. The fact that we have done that is fantastic and it's a bit like being able to sell two new games for the price of one!
