FIFA Soccer 2003

"The EA Sports tradition is to release an updated version of their games every year. This year it's the same story."

In each year EA Sports released an “updated” game of the Fifa series (like it does with NHL, NBA Live etc). The most appreciated game in the whole series is Fifa 1999 even though it had an important number of bugs, from which some pretty big ones, but the game was loved especially because it was fun to play it. In 2000 EA Sports have produced what might be the weakest game in the series. From there on they have improved with each year but none has managed to beat Fifa 99. The difference between Fifa 2001 and Fifa 2002 was very big because of the gameplay. Perhaps the difference is a tad smaller between Fifa 2002 and Fifa 2003 but only perhaps.

The gameplay has suffered a big improvement (in my opinion). It brings the game much more closer to the real thing then any of it’s predecessors. Goals from the middle of the field have been removed (or at least they aren’t that easy to score), running around with a single player from one end of the field to the other has been also partially removed due the fact that:
A. Players get tired (they have a stamina bar)
B. Because of the game engine the possibility of having a run through the whole field has been reduced.
But it is not impossible, just that it’s not as likely to have a successful run as in Fifa 2002. The “run style” of the player (when you press the run button) has been changed also making it more closer to reality. You can trick an enemy player very easily if you can think quickly what is the best way to move around but as easy as you can trick a player you can also be tricked by yourself.
The free-kicks are an area where I am still confused. Even if you can add effect to the ball and change the target where you want the ball to end it seems to me it’s more or less a random success rate. Sometimes you hit the net sometimes you don’t. Same goes for shooting while being in action. It happened to me to score goals outside the penalty box with 65% of the shot power loaded but I never scored a goal with the 100% shot power loaded (note that if you go in the red area then for me it’s over 100% power). One thing is for sure though, if the keeper starts running at you, you must simply press and hold the shot button for a very short while and it’s a goal. The wing attacks (which were almost useless in Fifa 2002) are now again useful for something. If you can break free with the player that has the ball and you spot someone that is unmarked in the penalty box you can cross the ball to him and if you hit the right cross power then the player automatically scores (I have EA assistant off so I don’t think you can cancel this “feature”).
So what is new to this gameplay is the fact that it wanted to give you a feeling of freedom, like you can pass everywhere you want and the players move in freedom and intercepting the ball whenever possible. In most of the cases it is like this but some glitches appear here and there that make you think twice about the “freedom” that the game wants to produce. Sometimes when you pass no one tries to intercept the ball even though it goes right next to him, everyone just sits and watches as the ball barely rolls to the player you wanted to give the pass to.
At goalkeeper kicks the game doesn’t let you make a move for the first 1-2sec after the keeper shoots the ball back in play, now I am sorry but that is stupid and the “freedom” feeling only has to suffer from it.

The AI has been improved and now it’s actually beatable in World Class difficulty. The AI fouls you now (no matter of that difficulty setting) and it let’s you pass and it let’s you make a “one man mission” but you need to know how to make a good use of the “run” button together with some of the tricks.
The goalkeepers have been improved overall. They can save lots of shots now but sometimes after the keeper manages to keep the ball in his hands he simply falls with it beyond the line giving a corner for the other team. ß STUPID

The camera position is the one of the things I hate in this version. I just cannot find a good one to keep me satisfied. Each one of them has something that really bugs the creeps out of me. In the replay mode they have removed the “free camera”. Don’t see the point to this though.

The commentators have been changed. Actually one of them, Andy Gray has been removed and a replacement has been brought in. A former European golden boot winner from UK but I don’t recall his name. Perhaps the lines aren’t as repetitive as in previous versions but after a while you do get tired of them. What I welcome is the fact that the occasions when the commentator repeated the “and” word for 7 times in 10 seconds has been removed. Thank God!!!
The game soundtrack features songs from Avril Lavigne (it’s a remix of “Complicated”), Ms. Dynamite (Dy-Na-Mi-Tee) and a few others (also that song “Hide You” is in the game). Overall the music is great but that’s not something that I find surprising due the fact that almost every version of the game had great soundtrack (at least that’s an area where they don’t lack).
When I read about the sounds that the crowd will make I thought I will see something very close to the real thing (like the ones in NHL2002). It wasn’t meant to be I guess but it still is big improvement over previous versions. Now at the start of the match and sometimes during the match the crowd sings, if the home side scores a goal they burst into applauds and loud noises, if the home side manages to get out of a bad situation they applaud and they make sad noises when you miss a great chance. They also react to cards. When the referee gives a yellow/red card to a home side player they “boo” the referee but when its’ for the opponent then they burst again into happiness. Perhaps the biggest “burst into happiness” is when the home side receives a penalty, boy what a sound the crowd can make. If the opponents score the crowd is silenced.

And of course due to the fact that technology improves by each year the graphics is also better then Fifa 2002 (which had sucky graphics btw). Some of the player’s faces really do look very similar to their “real life counterparts” and the ball is actually round. What sometimes looks strange is the fact that the players seem to be too small for the field and the keeper seems to be to big for the net.

So in the end how does this compare to Fifa ’99? I cannot answer that as the games are actually very different. Perhaps this version will have success who knows, what I do know is that this is the best version since Fifa ’99.

This time around they have finally understood that if a game is to have success in the long run it also needs 3rd party created stuff. Not that the Fifa series didn’t had it but it needed all sorts of stuff. Now finally you can download from EA the “Creation Centre” which will let you customize almost everything there is. Perhaps with this stuff even more people will try their best to create cool stuff in order for the game to become more interesting.

Graphics – 8
In some areas there are alignment problems. What it seems to me is that the shadows of the stadium is actually a darkened texture. Anyway it looks bad. This is the reason I didn’t gave a 9.

Sound – 9

Gameplay – 8
Due to the glitches that appear from time to time it actually makes you think if they have redesigned the game engine as they said or if they only made a drastic change to the Fifa 2002 one.

Overall – 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/02, Updated 11/07/02