There’s been a talk for years of a Gaelic football game coming to one of the major games consoles, though it seemed pretty unlikely until now. GAA fans have always gotten the short end of the stick as internationally popular sports like soccer, basketball and rugby have been converted into game after game on every platform.

Well now the county armies across the country can rejoice as they take peil to the Playstation. Gaelic Games: Football is fully licensed by the GAA and developed by IR Gurus using their unique AFL Rules game engine, the framework which they built their Aussie Rules game on. All county teams are available (as well as London and New York) and there are 11 accurately replicated stadiums, including Croke Park, O'Moore Park, Paírc Uí Chaoimh, Casement Park and Pearse Stadium.

GAA fans will be disappointed however by the lack of real players’ names and likenesses, an enormous oversight by Sony. "There won't be any players or likenesses as we don't have an agreement with the GPA," said a Sony spokesperson in the run-up to the game’s release.

"People will be able to go into an edit function and name players with whatever name they wish but there won't be player likenesses, basically there will just be generic players." This is little consolation for Irish fans of competing games like EA’s FIFA series where you can see exact representations of Ronaldo’s face as he weaves past defenders and hear his name being called out by the commentator.

The EyeToy cameo option allows the gameplayer and his/her friends to put their own face in the game through a complicated (and effective) system involving the PS2 camera. However, the game’s distant camera shots (necessary for the big-distance kicks of Gaelic football) renders this pointless – one can never make out the player’s face anyway.

The impersonality of the players can be strangely frustrating, particularly for those who grew up on EA Games products. The Pro Evolution soccer series lacked players’ licenses too, but more than made up for it with the level of gameplay, graphics and sound.

You won’t have the same pleasure with this title, where Micheál O’Muircheartaigh’s commentary is severely limited by the lack of player’s names. By comparison to the FIFA series again, Micheál’s vocabulary and comments are very limited. The complete opposite to real-life so. There are no classics like “Colin Corkery on the 45 lets go with the right boot. Its over the bar. This man shouldn't be playing football. He's made an almost
Lazarus-like recovery from a heart condition. Lazarus was a great man but he couldn't kick points like Colin Corkery.” In fact there’s no Colin Corkery.
Uniquely though the manual and in game menus comes in both an Irish and English version which is a nice nod to the language, but the graphics level and gameplay on the disc are simply disappointing. The background of Croke Park may be accurately rendered, but its solid struts at the top flash and sputter as the camera revolves.

Unfortunately so does the gameplay. There’s something very dissatisfying about the gaming model. Inevitably the first game in a new series will have its bugs, but this one seems replete with them. The inability to replay a game after its finished is just irritating and slow loading times give the impression of laziness of the designers’ part. It’s to be expected I suppose. They’re probably banking on the fact that any GAA fan with a Playstation will be interested in buying this title, no matter what its quality. They’ve been so starved of games for the past decade that anything will do. You know what? They’re probably right…

Sony has announced that a gaelic football game is in development for its PlayStation 2 games console.

Players can win a virtual Sam Maguire cup

Soccer, rugby, golf and even fishing are lucrative franchises for video game companies, and this is the first time a games console has played host to a Gaelic Athletic Association title.

Developed by an Australian software company, IR Gurus, the title uses a game engine previously used on their AFL Rules titles.

As an Irish sport developed by Australians on a Japanese games console, Gaelic Football 2004 may not be a first-generation Irish product, but the GAA, which has officially licensed the product, does not seem to mind.

On Tuesday, president of the GAA Sean Kelly said: "I am delighted to launch this historic initiative. The official Gaelic Football PlayStation 2 game will have huge benefit for the GAA.

"This brings the GAA into a new technological and promotional era."

Given that there are more PlayStations per head of the population in Ireland than any other country outside of Japan, the development of such a game is hardly surprising.

'Huge opportunity'

Niall O' Hanrahan, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland, said: "Over the past seven years we have enjoyed a good working relationship with the GAA through sponsorship of the Leinster summer camps.

"Launching this game represents an extension of that relationship.

"We are projecting to have sold 480,000 PS2s in Ireland by March 2004 and this represents a huge opportunity for this title."

So, if you are an armchair GAA sports fan, no matter what county you hail from, you can bring home a virtual Sam Maguire cup when the game is released next year.