Looking back at my school days, I recall many conversations with my friends whilst waiting for games to load from a humble cassette tape on the Commodore 64. One of those conversations stuck with me, when my friend announced that in the future there will be a gaming utopia where we will be able to play against people from all over the world, without ever leaving our computer screens.

Of course I scoffed at my friend, Dave, back then in the eighties. This was a time without mobile phones, never mind the internet as we know it. Thankfully I was wrong and he was a visionary, ahead of his time and that dream obviously became a reality. Here in 2011, people of all ages now play games together on a variety of consoles and computers, but there are still a few issues that frustrate all gamers in the online world.

Although the games from US Gold are nothing but a distant memory, each year, yet another set of sporting sequels will hit the shelves from the current champion of sporting games; EA Sports. We all know that certain aspects may have been tweaked, but it usually takes around two weeks for you to notice that, yet again, you have brought the same game as the year before. Complete with the same annoying problems still present, solely there to torment you for your stupidity.

When playing sport titles that offer a huge choice in teams or players to assume the identity of, it seems the majority of online gamers are almost zombie like in their character selections. For example when entering an online ranked match of FIFA, despite you selecting a championship or Div 2 side, your opponent will insist on playing with Barcelona or Man Utd.

Although I appreciate that it nice to play as the greatest teams in the world, the online gaming world quickly becomes quite boring when every game you seem to play includes the same two teams, especially considering the game itself takes great delight in boasting that it features 31 licensed leagues from 24 countries, as well as 39 national teams.