{"id":18809,"date":"2025-05-14T09:38:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T07:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/14\/despelote-review-a-beautiful-utterly-transportive-game-of-football-fandom\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T09:38:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T07:38:21","slug":"despelote-review-a-beautiful-utterly-transportive-game-of-football-fandom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/14\/despelote-review-a-beautiful-utterly-transportive-game-of-football-fandom\/","title":{"rendered":"Despelote review \u2013 a beautiful, utterly transportive game of football fandom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panic; PC, PS4\/5, Xbox
<\/strong>Set during Ecuador\u2019s 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, this fascinating, semi-autobiographical game gives you control of the life of a soccer-mad eight-year-old<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Video games have been simulating football since the 1970s, but they have rarely ever thought about simulating fandom. You can play a whole international tournament in the Fifa titles, but what they never show is the way the competition seeps into the everyday lives of supporters, how whole towns are overtaken, how a World Cup can become a national obsession. The way most of us experience the really big matches is through stolen moments of vicarious glory on televisions and giant pub screens, surrounded by friends and family and the sounds and images of real life.<\/p>\n

This is the territory of Despelote, a beautiful, utterly transportive game about childhood and memory, set during Ecuador\u2019s historic 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign. Football-mad eight-year-old Juli\u00e1n \u2013 a semi-autobiographical version of the game\u2019s co-designer Juli\u00e1n Cordero \u2013 has just watched the team beat Peru, but now four more matches stand between Ecuador and the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea. Structured as a series of short, immersive tableaux, Despelote gives us control of Juli\u00e1n as he goes about his life, buffeted by his parents and teachers between shopping trips, car journeys and school lessons.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nPanic; PC, PS4\/5, XboxSet during Ecuador\u2019s 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, this fascinating, semi-autobiographical game gives you control of the life of a soccer-mad eight-year-old<\/p>\n

Video games have been simulating football since the 1970s, but they have rarely ever thought about simulating fandom. You can play a whole international tournament in the Fifa titles, but what they never show is the way the competition seeps into the everyday lives of supporters, how whole towns are overtaken, how a World Cup can become a national obsession. The way most of us experience the really big matches is through stolen moments of vicarious glory on televisions and giant pub screens, surrounded by friends and family and the sounds and images of real life.
\nThis is the territory of Despelote, a beautiful, utterly transportive game about childhood and memory, set during Ecuador\u2019s historic 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign. Football-mad eight-year-old Juli\u00e1n \u2013 a semi-autobiographical version of the game\u2019s co-designer Juli\u00e1n Cordero \u2013 has just watched the team beat Peru, but now four more matches stand between Ecuador and the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea. Structured as a series of short, immersive tableaux, Despelote gives us control of Juli\u00e1n as he goes about his life, buffeted by his parents and teachers between shopping trips, car journeys and school lessons. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panic; PC, PS4\/5, XboxSet during Ecuador\u2019s 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, this fascinating, semi-autobiographical game gives you control of the life of a soccer-mad eight-year-old Video games have been simulating football since the 1970s, but they have rarely ever thought about simulating fandom. You can play a whole international tournament in the Fifa titles, but …<\/p>\n

Despelote review \u2013 a beautiful, utterly transportive game of football fandom<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18809"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}