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With the 1990 World Cup almost upon us, it's fashionable at the moment to produce a game based on England's oldest sport (apart from bull-baiting, that is). And seeing as Grandslam and Ocean both have the Liverpool licence (work that one out if you can), Krisalis have opted for what is termed by many as Britain's richest club.

So practise that broad Scottish accent, pull out the wad and see if you can do a better job than poor old Alex Fergusson and his £13 million boys in a complete simulation of both sides of soccer - on-pitch action and off-pitch team management.

After the game has loaded, you are given the option of choosing the full game or the arcade football section only. Depending on what you pick, a number of icons are displayed. Progress gives an indication of how well/badly the team are doing, whether your head is on the block, whether Brian Robson is actually hit, etc, by way of the front page of The Daily Sport. Team Squad shows the statistics for each player in the team (complete with a brilliant digitised pic). If any of your players are unfit, they appear in the Players Injured menu (guess who'll be in there more often than not), while bad lads are shown in the Suspended box. You can add to or subtract from your squad in the Transfers menu, and get your team ready for the next skirmish by clicking on the Fitness icon.

Once the managerial side of things is sorted, it's time to choose the Play icon, select a team formation and get into the action. Players are graded as to their real-life abilities, and as well as the League title to go for, the FA and Littlewoods Cups also beckon - can you beat the real boss and collect all three?

Manchester United FX is a superb product. The sheer amount of features present in the game is unbelievable - pots of digitised graphics, from the crisp photos of the Man Utd team to the dozen or so action replays which are shown when a goal is scored (they're taken from real matches, the most appropriate one being shown for the goal scored), brilliantly animated selection screens such as the Fitness icon which shows a player hobbling off the field, assisted by two others, and oodles more besides - if I were to list them all, I'd need an extra page or six - and that's only the management side of the game.

The match section is a brilliant and incredibly playable football game in its own right. For instance, there's a referee on the pitch, running around doing what refs do (apart from being insulted by the fans). The strips change colour depending on whether the game is at home or away, and as far as I can see, all the team colours are faithful to their real-life counterparts.

Playing the game is true to life too, as each team is graded on past form, so you may beat a team like Shrewsbury 8-0 one week, but end up falling flat on your face against Liverpool the next.

Manchester United FC is an amazingly playable sports game, is highly realistic in a managerial sense, and is very, very addictive indeed. Don't miss it.