Diehard supporters will love it, but what about everyone else?

Assuming you support one of the featured teams, or can find a Continental club edition that doesn't grate against your domestic allegiances, the second season of Codemasters' Club Football continues to pack in plenty of club-specific content and a decent spread of game modes. And some okay football.

The best new addition this year is the Precision Trigger - a useful feature that makes your player keep the ball under close control in order to ghost past a marker or buy an extra yard. When it works it's the business. Well, better than just running straight into defenders and repeatedly losing the ball anyway. Basic passing and shooting controls are easy to pick up, with a second tier of more advanced passes worth learning for the full repertoire. You can also make a number of on-the-fly tactical calls. Passing is generally quite accurate, although receiving players occasionally refuse to move the two yards required in the event of an underweighted pass, allowing opposing players to nip in and steal the ball from considerably further away than that.

Domestic matches are played at an authentically quick English pace, so you need to think and move quickly when in possession. Fluent attacking football is encouraged and, occasionally, rewarded. Opposing teams are hard to break down though, even the supposedly lowly ones, and Xbox-controlled keepers are able to make formidable saves with morale-sapping regularity. Scoring isn't easy then. On the other hand, winning the ball back when you've lost it involves far too much shadow chasing. It doesn't look or feel like your players are getting properly stuck in when ordered to make a standing or block tackle. Since the refs remain pretty harsh, going to ground with a crunching slide tackle is a risky move - however tempting it might be. We found the most effective ball-winning method was to send in two players at once, although this tends to pull your team all out of shape after a while.

There are a couple more inconsistencies that knock the gloss off what is otherwise a fairly decent football game. The worst offender is when AI-controlled players on your side decide to make a late, rash tackle and incur the wrath of the ref - at times like this it's almost like the Xbox has decided to cheat. And when opposing players opt to skew the ball high or wide when stood in front of an empty goal it just looks plain daft.

There are over 250 teams across Europe to play and squads are all up to date with okay - but not startling - player likenesses. Stadiums are accurate enough, but the one-dimensional crowds look terrible. Be aware that when you enter a Domestic League or the Super Cup you'll have to play as the club edition you've bought, which is a bit limiting.

Thankfully, you can play as any team you wish in Exhibition mode. Players you make using the Create-A-Player tool can only be played in the colours of the Club Football edition you've bought; they can't play for other teams. Oh, and the new game engine doesn't yet support Xbox Live play, so you'll need another person in the room if you want to play against real opposition. Although a good game in its own right, Club Football is destined to appeal primarily to diehard supporters of clubs in the series, rather than everyday football fans.

1. Stacks of club-specific content, but it's a shame you can't play through either the Domestic League or the Super Cup as another team.
2. The Precision Trigger is a welcome addition that puts more skill into rounding defenders or freeing up space to get a cross in.
3. Fast, mostly fluid gameplay with plenty of tactical options.

1. AI inconsistencies occasionally spoil the samba football party.
2. Creating a player for your favourite team with Career Player is a nice touch, but nothing that hasn't been done before.
3. Players display some useful moves and clever footwork, but their likenesses are at best average.
4. Crowds look terrible.

Boasts some cool new tricks, modes and goodies for the fans, but it's not quite up there with the big boys yet.