2010 Fifa World Cup
South Africa
EA Sports
All consoles
If my rapidly declining memory serves me correctly, EA Sports tried its first World Cup tie-in during the 1998 World Cup (France won at home).
It was on the original PlayStation and it was almost as good as Michael Owen's goal against Argentina.
The 2002 World Cup (Brazil won in Asia) game - or at least the PS2 version - was clunkier than Emile Heskey.
Bizarrely, considering I am a collector of football games, I think I gave it away.
Happily, the 2006 World Cup (Italy won in Germany) game was a solid addition to the football gaming stable, though it still sort of felt like winning the League Cup - nice, but nothing to get too excited about.
Now we are just weeks away from the 2010 World Cup (Spain will win in South Africa) and it is time for a look at another game tie-in.
The official game leaves no stone unturned in its bid to be the most comprehensive accompaniment to the real thing.
Just 32 teams compete in South Africa but you get to choose from no fewer than 199 countries, which is a staggering achievement.
Italy and Germany and England are New Zealand are there, but so are Benin, Montserrat, Turkmenistan, the Cook Islands and Liechtenstein.
The mind boggles at how much work must have been done to get so many international teams even vaguely accurate.
And that's before you add the 10 stadiums that will be used in South Africa.
The World Cup mode is naturally the main feature of the game.
You have the option of jumping straight into the World Cup itself, or you can start from scratch and take a country through a qualifying campaign.
Because World Cup games tend to be limited in terms of dramatic gameplay advancements, the developers have to look at areas like atmosphere, graphics and the environment to have a play, and EA has pulled out all the stops.
It might seem shallow but there is genuine pleasure to be had from playing in a stadium with impeccably reproduced details, in front of a properly animated crowd, with your national anthem playing, while the actual television graphics that will be used next month scroll across your screen.
Officially, EA made "more than 100" gameplay tweaks in areas like physical contact and goal celebrations.
This allows the developers to promote the game as more than just an overpriced add-on to Fifa 10.
I'm not convinced some of the off-field changes were needed.
It seems the gameplay aims to be more fluid, but instead it gets frenetic at times.
The ball pops around like a pinball, and there seems to be an excess of moments where players simply fall off the ball.
Player switching has also taken a big backward step.
Defence gets very frustrating when you have to click a button three times to get the man you want.
Perhaps Fifa 10's gameplay was simply so extraordinary that any change seems like a backward step.
Other options in the game include Captain Your Country, effectively a repeat of the Be A Pro mode that allows you to control one player as he progresses from fringe international to mighty leader (you can import your stud from Fifa 10); and Story of Qualifying, a huge swag of challenges - most of which are impossibly difficult - from real game situations (including the Hand of Frog game).
But I suppose all you really want to know is how our mighty All Whites perform in the game.
I'm pleased to report there are no glaring errors in the roster - no strange bushy beards or completely inaccurate skin colours - and all the players you expect to be there are there.
Ryan Nelsen is the highest-ranked player at 78 (fair enough), Shane Smeltz is also in the 70s and the rest are in the low 60s or high 50s.
The New Zealand team plays in a generic stadium called "Akaaroa" (bleeugh), but everything else seems reasonably spot-on.
I haven't quite managed to take the All Whites to World Cup glory yet but it is going to be tricky, as you would expect.
Don't let my minor gripes with the game put you off.
Any football fan planning to lose a lot of sleep next month must have it.
