The game sees you assume the role of a single player, who must help your team of five human or computer-controlled players (or a mixture) defeat the opposition. The game controls are something of a breath of fresh air compared to the fiddly keyboard command systems employed by some of the bigger games like FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer. Instead, United Football adopts a method similar to first person shooters, whereby you use the mouse to direct the player, pass and shoot and just rely on four keyboard buttons for moving forwards and backwards and strafing left and right.

Once you've mastered this fluid control mechanism using the helpful in-game tutorial it's time to battle it out against your pals, or friends from across the World. United Football is solely an online game, but it's fast enough to be as enjoyable as any offline soccer sim. You can choose to join a game, create your own, or text chat with the rest of the community to arrange your own matches. Unfortunately, the United Football community is still a little small so you'll struggle to find a game where both teams will feature just human players.

Graphically, United Football adopts a cartoony approach rather than going for realism. This works well though, the animation is smooth and the customizable characters look great.

If you're fed up with the clumsy controls and graphic-intensive demands of the big name PC soccer sims, then Ultimate Football makes for an immensely playable alternative.

Download United Football 3.83 in Softonic

I'm not particularly fond of football but I must admit I had some fun while testing Football Challenge, a simple 3D online football simulator that you can play for free.

Be aware that this is no FIFA or PES. In fact football sim junkies may feel a bit disappointed at the game's simplicity in graphics and controls. Here you won't get the official player names or uniforms – in fact you can customize the team's shirt any way you want. What's more, there are no special moves or button combinations: the arrow keys and two action buttons (kick and pass) is all you need to play. On the other hand, this easy gameplay is what makes the game attractive even for people like me who don't know what an offside is.

Football Challenge includes both offline and online gaming modes. You can play against the computer and also enroll in online tournaments just by filling in a simple form and creating your team right away. The game will automatically find a match partner for you to start playing. Obviously, the more games you win, the higher you'll reach in the player ranking.

Football Challenge is a simple football simulator with support for online games, great for some easy fun but definitely not aimed at hardcore football fans.

Download Football Challenge 2009 in Softonic

The answer, in short is: a little. The graphics in FIFA 09 have been refined, with more photo-realistic captures of the superstars of soccer, and some great new animations both on and off the ball. The presentation of the game is as exquisite as ever, with new match intro sequences featuring the players warming up in the tunnel, crowd chants specific to each club, not to mention the cool new 'widgets' system on the menu pages, where various online and offline stats are displayed at all times. Unfortunately, it was impossible to test the commentary in FIFA 09, as it's not included in this demo version.

In terms of its gameplay, FIFA 09 offers a smooth ride, although there are few changes to the way the game handles other than a few new tricks and the addition of more realistic collisions. I could've done without these clashes, as sometimes it takes your player a long time to get up after a heavy hit. In fact, one of the new gameplay enhancements in FIFA 09 is the physical presence of some players, which means large defenders are more likely to bundle you off the ball, requiring more cunning to get past them.

While this demo of FIFA 09 is limited to four-minute demo matches between a choice of six clubs, the full release looks set to really raise the bar in terms of its online modes. I'm particularly excited by the new Adidas Live Season mode in FIFA 09, where player information is updated dynamically depending on performances in real life.

FIFA 09 is undoubtedly a great soccer simulator, although unless you're particularly interested in the online aspect of the game, you may not see a great deal of benefit in upgrading from FIFA 08 (other than, of course, the updated transfers).

Whether it'll prove better than Pro Evolution 2009 is a matter of extensive debate, but FIFA 09 is definitely the best version in the EA series to date.

Download FIFA 09 in Softonic