Ubisoft Unveils Pure Futbol

Ubisoft…football…right, until very recently the 2 entities have had absolutely nothing to do with each other, save for the fact that the Ubisoft logo looks very much like a soccer-ball. On Thursday 4 March however, Ubisoft Vancouver announced that it was working on a game that it described as encompassing ‘ the raw sensations of  the soccer field’. The premise is essentially five-a-side street soccer with emphasis on flow and ‘feeling’ the action.

At this point you are probably thinking: ‘Hey, that sounds like FIFA Street’ and you’re mostly right on that regard. Let us compare the two -

Five-a-side soccer: check

Street-based gameplay: check

Heavy focus on skill: check

Right, so the games are essentially the same at their core but you may also remember that while FIFA Street 2 represented just about everything you could possibly want in a street-soccer game, its successor, FIFA Street 3, cut the list of skills in half, dropped a couple of teams and just made the whole experience so much less than what it once was. What sets Pure Futbol apart from its competition is that it is putting the focus on making you feel like you’re in the game with a sort of on-field 3rd-person over-the-shoulder view instead of the slightly detached sideline view you get in FIFA; this is enhanced by a lot of emphasis on body-play and the physical contact between players.

Early details are that the game will feature 17 international teams with 230 players as well as 17 legendary players from yesteryear. This may not seem like much but remember that the aim is not to have every possible team available with extreme realism, instead it is to just have the teams that most people would want to play with. Luckily, enough effort has been put in for official licensing so all team’s kits are accurate right down to the boots. Graphically it is difficult to call it since it’s still early days but it looks like a fair amount of effort has been put in to produce some pretty good graphics.

It must be stressed that Pure Futbol is not trying to rock the boat and teach FIFA & PES a thing or two. Instead it’s just doing its own thing and giving us something different that is intended to be fun and immersive. I must admit FIFA can get a bit tedious with all the managerial things you have to do so it would be nice to just have a game that you switch on and play, no red-tape.

I’ve added some screenshots in addition to the debut trailer at the end because it doesn’t really show off what teams are playable in the game.

Watch the Debut Trailer here and judge for yourself, also can anybody tell me why England’s kit is orange in this video? Pure Futbol is due in May for release on PS3, XBox & PC.

Video Games | Pure Futbol | Debut Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii