IT'S time to pull on the football boots as we take a look at two soccer games for the PlayStation.

The first is Gremlin's Acuta Soccer 3. The previous two releases both scored sales wise, so it is worth taking a look at the latest which is again endorsed by Mr A. Shearer.

As you would expect, the game is stuffed with teams, players and stadiums. You can pick from 450 club sides and 10,000 players - all of whom have been individually researched and rated for the Actua Sports range!

There are all types of competitions you can stage in whatever weather conditions you fancy in one of 30 delicious-looking grounds.

A big plus with Actua Soccer 3 is that all the players now have improved artificial intelligence - including goalkeepers - giving them a much better awareness of what is going on which should improve the flow of the game. Actua Soccer 3 is a quite good, looking and feeling right and provides bags of entertainment. But the world of PlayStation soccer is getting tougher all the time with loads of games from which to pick.

If I was going for a soccer game, I would carefully look at what is on offer before parting with my cash.

I would give the same advice regarding Libero Grande from Sony Computer Entertainment.

It is, in fact, a pretty good conversion of Namco's arcade hit so soccer nuts might know it already.

Libero Grande is the first football game that allows the player to become a "real" member of the team. Instead of taking control of the entire side, you are one of the players, seeing the game at pitch level.

Although it is definitely different, I found myself too slow at times and forever running up and down the pitch, chasing the ball without really getting anywhere. But at least you get some sense of achievement when you score or make a half decent pass. I JE

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.