Actua Soccer series Actua Soccer (1995) The first title's biggest claim to fame was its full
3D graphics engine, used for the first time in a
home console football game (the first full-3D football game being
Sega arcade
Virtua Striker); although other
console games had used a 3D field, players were commonly still
2D sprites but in
Actua Soccer players were polygonal. The game was developed with close ties to a local football club
Sheffield Wednesday: their players provided hints to the programmers, and three players,
Chris Woods,
Graham Hyde and
Andy Sinton, also served as
motion capture models.
Actua Soccer featured only national teams, with squads of 22 players from each of 44 national sides, However a follow-up version with English
Premier League teams named
Actua Soccer: Club Edition was released in 1997 using 20 players from the 20
Premier League teams from
1996–97. The
Actua Soccer match
engine was also used to display matches in
Premier Manager 64. The first game was a bestseller in the UK, where it was backed by what journalists called "the most expensive advertising campaign ever mounted" for a console game. Tommy Glide of
GamePro, while criticising the game's lack of flashy special moves and mild sound effects, deemed it the most well-rounded PlayStation soccer game to date, saying it offered a good combination of
FIFA's deep strategy and
Goal Storms sharp visuals and accessibility.
Actua Soccer 2 (1997) Actua Soccer 2 (known as ''Fox Sports Soccer '99'' in North America), once again included national teams, but a more polished engine (optimised in the PC version for 3D
graphics cards), (in some versions) the full Italian
Serie A league, and a new "scenario" mode assured good sales and mostly positive reviews. It also included a team creator mode, which enabled the player to make up to 128 custom teams. Barry Davies was joined by
Trevor Brooking on the commentary, Trevor Brooking was replaced by
Martin O'Neill as Barry Davies' commentary partner.
"Let Me Entertain You" by
Robbie Williams was the only in-game soundtrack, while the classical operatic theme Cavalleria Rusticana (
Rustic Chivalry) by
Pietro Mascagni was played during the game's introduction video.
Actua Golf series Actua Golf (1996) Actua Golf (known as ''VR Golf '97'' in North America) is a
sports video game developed by
Gremlin Interactive for the
PlayStation and
Sega Saturn. It was released in 1996.
Actua Golf 2 (1997) Actua Golf 2 (known as ''Fox Sports Golf '99
in North America), also developed by Gremlin Interactive for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows, was released in 1998. Actua Golf 2
received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website GameRankings'' gave the PC version 70.50% and the PlayStation version 38.75%.
Actua Golf 3 (1998) Actua Golf 3 was developed by Gremlin Interactive and released on the PlayStation in October 1998. The game received an average score of 70.50% at
GameRankings, based on an aggregate of 2 reviews.
Actua Golf 4 (cancelled) In January 1999,
IGN reported that a fourth
Actua Golf title was in development. The title was planned on being the first to utilize the
PGA European Tour license and the first to appear on the
Nintendo 64. Gremlin Interactive was bought out by
Infogrames, who ditched the
Actua brand. Despite that, the game remained in development but was released under the name
PGA European Tour Golf for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 in late-1999 in Europe, while North America got the Nintendo 64 version the following year as
PGA European Tour.
Actua Ice Hockey series Actua Ice Hockey (1998) Actua Ice Hockey was developed by Gremlin Interactive for the PlayStation and Windows in 1998 and was the official video game for the
Nagano Winter Olympics 1998 ice hockey tournament.
Actua Ice Hockey 2 (1999) Actua Ice Hockey 2 was developed by Gremlin Interactive for the PlayStation and Windows in 1999. It was originally intended to be Fox Sports Hockey and was being developed by Gremlin for Fox Interactive, who had obtained an NHL license. Just over halfway through development, Fox pulled out taking the NHL license with it. Above the objections of some of the developers, development of the game continued. All references to NHL were changed to GHL (Gremlin Hockey League), all player names were modified by substituting vowels (Svoboda became Svaboda, for instance), player faces were randomized and a whole new front-end was developed.
Other Titles Actua Tennis (1998) Actua Tennis was released for the PlayStation in September 1998 and Windows in 1999. A Saturn version was also announced, but never released. The game featured players which were
motion captured from real tennis players and commentary by
Sue Barker and
Barry Davies.
Actua Pool (1999) Actua Pool was developed by Gremlin for PlayStation and Windows in 1999. The game was also released under the name
Pool Shark. A sequel was developed in Europe in 2004 for the
PlayStation 2 and Windows under the name
Pool Shark 2 by
Blade Interactive. It was not a part of the
Actua series as the series had ended years prior, and Gremlin had closed. In 2007, a port of
Actua Pool was released for the
Nintendo DS, named
Underground Pool in North America.
Actua Poker (cancelled) On 1 February 2013, Ian Stewart's new publisher Urbanscan announced plans to create
Actua Poker as a free
Facebook-based browser game that would intend to start a new revived lineup of
Actua Sports titles. The project was backed through
Kickstarter but two weeks following the initial announcement the project was withdrawn from the site, with the Actua Sports
Facebook page confirming that investors were interested in the project and had fully backed it up ready for its launch in the spring. Despite the release window, the title never saw any additional announcements and was never released. ==References==