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Liverpool. The word itself conjures up visions of a city in the north of England by a big river with lots of Scousers and vaguely amusing sitcom-folk. And football, too.

In this game you control the players as they move around the pitch after the errant ball. The sprites are bigger than most games of this sort, but there's a price to pay; the game isn't quite as fast as it should be.

Control is a problem, too. Keeping possession is fine until you try and nearly wrong-foot an opponent, whereupon the ball is delivered to him on a plate, and he rushes off. Of course, practising makes this less of a hassle, but it still doesn't feel quite right.

Each player's name pops up when they are on the ball, so at least you feel that Liverpool are playing, rather than just any other team who have chosen to wear red that afternoon. The pitch is viewed from an oblique up-the-pitch sort of angle, which is all fine and dandy until the ball goes behind one of the largish sprites in a crowded goal-mouth.

The action is pretty frenetic although it's not incredibly smooth, and the large players are interesting to look at since they do their utmost to be in the most awkward position possible, and try to thwart you at every turn.

There are plenty of on-pitch features which improve the game as well, such as red and yellow cards, headers and penalty shoot-outs, and you have the chance to play in a full season as well as go for the FA Cup. Unfortunately no European matches are included, but perhaps this would have been asking a bit much.

Liverpool just doesn't compare with the likes of Kick Off, Sensible Soccer or Striker, but it's not bad and has a grip on reality, owing to the fact that you're using real players. It's tough, too. You do have to persevere with the practice matches to get a feel for the game (you could just leap in, but you get completely slaughtered for the first few games).

So it's not bad. Trouble is, if you're not especially keen on Liverpool, you'd be better off with any of the other football games, which do play better.