No more false dawns, no more disappointments, no more broken promises, this time its for real, the beautiful game is back.

Firstly, let me get a bit of a rant out of the way...

Theres been an awful lot of "politics" surrounding the up coming release of SWOS on Xbox live arcade. Not everyone believes it's the right way to resurrect the fortunes of the recently maligned franchise and brand that is "Sensible Soccer". Some might argue, it's not the way to get it back to the masses - by restricting it to Xbox 360 and Vista users. Whilst we all have our points of view on this, theres one thing we all must remember, and that is, that, as much as we love the game, it's not ours. SWOS belongs to Codemasters. They bought it and the rights to do whatever the hell they want with it when they bought Sensible Software.

For me, SWOS fans should now be greatful that they are doing anything at all with the game, and getting behind what they are trying to do, instead of picking fault and moaning. They should be even happier now that, it seems, Codies have finally taken note of the popular consensus of SWOS fans that clamoured for SWOS to return in it's purest form - a simple 2d game with the same gameplay that graced the Sensi's of the 90's, and arguably, is still yet to beaten by any modern day football title.

By bringing SWOS to the Xbox live market, they open it up to a world of new possibilities. Of course, theres the good chunk of the old faithful Sensi fans who will jump onboard, but by providing the game in this format, at such a low price, theres a massive potential for casual players who have distant but fond memories of the title, to get back involved, and of course, it opens it up to a world of potential new players.

Ok, enough of the ranting, and on to the game itself.

SWOS on Xbox live arcade is a straight port of the Amiga version from 96/97. This means two things.

One, it plays just like the greatest football game that ever was.... on an Xbox.
Two, it's still SWOS 96/97. So, if it wasn't in SWOS 96/97 on the Amiga, then it's 99% not going to be in SWOS on Xbox Live Arcade. Yes, even the data is the same (custom teams apart). The squads are the same, the leagues are the same, it's all the same. At first, this may seem a little disappointment, but, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, as soon as you pick it up and start playing, suddenly, all these negativitys become irrelevant.

This truly is one of the most faithful conversions I have ever known. The guys at Kuju, who took so much stick (unrightfully so) for the last version of Sensi (if only they had had time to finish it...) have done a fine job indeed in making SWOS happen on an Xbox.

The first thing that will strike you, before you kick a ball are the tarted up graphics. The words "new graphics" are probably enough to send Sensi fans delirious with panic, but fear not, the changes are merely tweaks, and tidy ups. Taking those little sensi guys, and giving them little facelifts to suit Xboxes crisp shiny HD graphics capability. Even the front end menus are all the same, bar some nice cell shading to bring them up to date.

The stadiums have been spruced up too - with a few different variations from run-down stadiums with burger vans and trains running through them (behind the stands, not on the pitch!) to spruced up super stadiums with shiny roofs and er things! Like I say, it's all tweaks really, but they make a big difference.

There are some new pitch designs too, including some wacky "wavy" pitches (was the groundsman pissed?!). Another neat feature is the way that the pitches also "cut up" as the game progresses. Do a big slide tackle, and you'll see you leave a trail of mud behind you!

The new graphics are packed with nice little touches like this. Another example, is the way your players remorse is made obvious when they are booked, by their eyes being made all big and sad!

I've concentrated a lot on the graphics here, but well, that's pretty much all thats changed. Other than that, this really is SWOS in it's purest form. Put simply, it's the best version of Sensible Soccer to date. And it's on the Xbox.

Here's a cool new feature that's been added - in the preview version we were playing, one of the thumbsticks on the Xbox controller allowed you to zoom the view in and out. You could actually play with the whole pitch on screen at once (almost anyway) Don't get too excited about this one though SWOS fans as rumours are, this might not make the final cut...
Get on the Codies forum, and harass them to make sure it's left in!!

But then comes the biggy.... Remember the platform this is being release on.... Xbox Live Arcade?. Well, coming with that is the ability to play two player games online with anyone, aywhere in the world, without the need for complicated emulaters and so on (I don't care what anyone says, to the average Joe on the street, they are complicated). How well this will work with the fast paced nature of the game, obviously, is yet to be seen, however, it is claimed that on a decent line, with no lag, it should be just like playing someone in the same room!
Any competition that can be played in multiplayer, can be played online in multiplayer - friendlies, DIY tournaments, the possibilities are endless.

It wasn't all entirely good, there were a few minor bugs, but they aren't really worth mentioning at this point. We weren't playing on finalised code, so I would hope that these have been eradicated in the final code.

So, yes SWOS fans, it's time to get excited. Don't be a fool and get hung up on the faults, and the whys and wherefores regarding why the data hasn't been updated, and why theres no licensing, and why hasn't this and that been added and why are the player names funny, just get this downloaded to your Xboxes for a miserly £6.80, tell your mates to do the same, and lets make this a huge success so that the boys at Codemasters HQ have no option but to get back on it and make SWOS 2008/09 with all those tweaks and improvements we are begging for, and, of course, up to date team data!