$11.92

Summary FIFA finally overtakes Pro Evolution Soccer

Description FIFA seems to have been around almost as long as gaming itself. Every year a new version is trundled out with updated players and teams and one new feature plastered on the box to convince gamers to that it is a must buy game. That makes this year's version all the more surprising in that EA has revamped the FIFA franchise to compete with Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven franchise. With most serious football gamers opting for Konami's more realistic gameplay approach EA hired an almost brand new team to try and improve FIFA in terms or realism. Gone are the fiddly off the ball controls and daft AI teammates that made previous FIFAs arcade in style. Your teammates now make intelligent runs by themselves looking for killer through balls. Midfielders now make runs into your opponent's penalty box to latch onto crosses or free balls. In contrast to previous years you'll find that goals will be spread throughout your team not just your two strikers. AI goalies are still a problem and seem to refuse to rush off their lines even when you're clean through. A great new feature is the ability to call strategies using the D-pad or analogue stick while playing. This way you can instruct your defenders to use a zonal defense system while trying to play the offside trap or that your team should counterattack when they gain possession of the ball. The AI deals admirably with your requests and 90% of the time your strategies will work. The manager mode is once again a great way of wasting time and will let you take the reins of your favorite team from 21 leagues for the next 15 years (in game time thankfully). The new team chemistry requires you to shift your players around on a regular basis to try and get both their morale and team experience up so that your team as a whole will play with a high degree of determination in must win games. With random events thrown in every few weeks and financial obligations to be met your first few games can get quite tight in trying to keep your fans, board and banker happy while still trying to grind out results. FIFA's graphics are great to behold. Sheets of rain move in front of stadium lighting and the stadiums themselves are brilliantly rendered. Players can sometimes look very similar but overall they are also done well. The only drawback to this all is that when there are a lot of players on-screen the action will slow noticeably but this happens infrequently and doesn't detract from the experience in any way. One area that FIFA has always come up trumps is in the sound department. This year there's a change of commentary team from John Motson and Ally McCoist to Clive Tyldsley and Andy Gray. They provide great commentary that's well used and is far superior to that of Pro Evolution Soccer. Team chants for the larger clubs add a great deal to the atmosphere of games and are well implemented. Ea has once again gotten nearly 40 tracks for a great soundtrack. The manager mode itself will give FIFA a great lifespan. Throw into that a wad of unlockables from season highlights and classic player bios to alternate kits and extra teams and FIFA 06 might become a lifelong obsession for dedicated footie fans. EA has built FIFA from the ground up and instead of trying to dazzle gamers with new but useless features they've built the most realistic FIFA yet. Die hard football fans should rather wait for Pro Evolution Soccer 5 but everyone else can be well pleased with EA's latest and greatest. Review Page Hits: 1 today (8 in the last 30 days) Create Your Own Review or