FIFA Soccer 2002

"EA scores...off the crossbar"

You've made it to the finals of the Premiership, and your team ties, forcing Extra Time. You dribble down the field, looking for an open man. You pass the ball to a teammate on the run. Beckham cuts off your pass and dodges a defender. You run down the field, trying to catch up with him but he fires a shot and squeezes it past the goalie, and you...slam down the controller!? That's right, you ain't in those boots, it's FIFA 2002.

Every year, EA Europe outdoes it's predecessor of the world famous FIFA Soccer series. Somehow they find a way to upgrade the game. Some sort of new gameplay feature, maybe a new game mode, more teams...but the past two years have been absolutely phenomenal. 2001 on ps2 brought the hella sweet graphics, but this year brings the goods. FIFA 2002 features hundreds of teams from countless leagues, and brings the most realistic gameplay of any soccer game to date to the next-gen systems. Now, the moment you've been waiting for...the review.

Features
FIFA 2002 has many features and game modes. There is the expected Exhibition, season, and tournament modes. New this year is ''Road to the World Cup'', where you lead your team through the World Cup Qualifiers.
FIFA also sports a create-a-player and team. If you create a team and want to use them in a season mode, you can make your own league and throw them in. Nothing like watching my Dedham Strikers take on the Manchester United for the championship. It is also fun to create a league with all of your friends teams, so you can have a long lasting season endure. Or, if you choose, you can make your own tourney. Completing modes and winning tourneys in FIFA 2002 unlocks even more tourneys. The create-a-player is very detailed, letting you adjust about everything except his, err, ''private area'', but guess what? Look closely at the player when you are creating him, and you see that an XXL size one comes default! Woohoo! :-p.

Graphics

When you fire up your 'Cube and watch the opening video, right away you'll realize the attention to details in this game. Uniform wrinkles, eerily realistic player faces, and an awesome looking crowd. When you play your first game, you realize that these touches ain't just in the opening video! Something i realized about the graphics is that during the replays you can see that the players foot always touches the ball when the ball moves, and that it never moves in an odd way, like the opposite direction of the foot. In the Madden series, you can sometimes tell that the ball isn't actually in the players hand, but is sorta floating over them, or the QB's hand moves one way and the ball leaves his hand oddly. I also give HUGE props to EA for the great looking crowd. If only Madden had a crowd like that (that's the last time i compare this to Madden, i swear!).
I only have two complaints. The player faces are (for the most part) great, but some people have odd looking noses...as if they were broken. Also, sometimes the slidetackle animations are off. For example, now and then you'll slide in front of someone, and they'll fall, but in the replay you didn't come close to touching them...hmm, hope they fix this in 2003.
However, these are minor complaints, and soccer don't look much more realistic than this. 9/10

Sound

FIFA 2002's graphics aren't the only great things about this game. The sound shares the same realism. The fans...well...sound like true fans, and the ''ooh'''s and cheers are heard at correct times (saves, etc.). The announcing crew is great as well, featuring John Motson and Andy Grey. Although there lines aren't nearly as annoying as in the Madden series (there i go again), they are still plagued by the same repeativeness of all sports games. They hardly ever repeat themselves during the same game, but by your second game you'll hear some of the same lines. All the sounds on the pitch sound great, from the slides to the (believe it or not) goalposts going ''BWONG''. Between the graphics and the sound, it's like watching TV. 8/10

Gameplay
Sure, FIFA's graphics and sounds rock...but what about the gameplay...you know, the stuff that really matters? Well don't worry, FIFA delivers, but it ain't perfect.
Offense
As a beginner, FIFA seems like the best thing since the invention of the horse (wait a minute...?). EA says they bring complete control over your passes and shots...and trust me, they mean complete. This year, you can actually aim your passes so they perfectly lead your teammate...or not, of course. You also have to set the power perfectly, but this isn't anything really new...it just means much more this year. You can do a regular pass, or you can lob the ball. Also, using the L and R triggers, you can put some spin on the ball, something you'll probably get so used to it will become second nature to you. By tilting the joystick in the direction of a nearby teammate and pressing Z, you can make him go on a run so you can plan for the next play. For example, you can make a teammate run so you can lead him in the corner so he can do a one-timer cross, setting up a header or volley. This brings me to another great improvement to FIFA this year...the goalie AI. In past versions, you could just cross the ball and head it in for the easiest goal besides the other team pulling the goalie upfield. But this year, the goalie will stop a good amount of these, or the defenders will do the job for him and head it out. Shooting in FIFA 2002 is easy as well. Like passing, you have complete control. Just aim your shot to any part of the net, charge up, and let go to fire the ball away. Another cool part of the offense is the special moves while dribbling. By double tapping the triggers you can perform moves. At first, i thought ''that's it? only two moves?''. But then i realized that there were button combos you could use that would perform many others. These work great, especially against friends. There are also button combos for special volleys, which will definitely impress your (girl?)friends :-p.
Defense
Defense in FIFA is extremely simple. You have the obvious tackle and slide tackle to take the ball from your opponent, but you can also use these in other ways. For example, if my friend was charging up a shot or lob, i would use the regular tackle to make my person kind of ''jump'' in front of the ball, blocking it. I also use the slide tackle to block passes. They weren't necessarily created to be used this way, but it sure as hell works.
Complaints
I do have some complaints about the gameplay, however. These have to do with the ways of scoring and the penalties. First, the scoring. Scores of games are unrealistically high, and this has to do with the fact that there are, for some unexplained reason, WAY to many breakaways! I can't seem to figure out why these happen, but against my friends, we play 10 minute halves with final scores of 8-7, 10-9, even 13-12! Of course, there isn't always a one score differential, but these are just examples. My problem with penalties is...odd. Sometimes, when you slide tackle a player with the ball and take him out, the ref will only blow the whistle if you go for the ball. If you take a man out and run the other way, no call...but keep in mind, this only happens in certain instances, but happens often enough for me to mention it.

Overall, FIFA 2002 is a great game with a couple of minor complaints. But fear not, it's worth more than $50, especially now that you can only find new copies of the World Cup edition that is greatly watered down on shelves. If only Madden was upgraded this much every year(but i do give EA props for this years 2003 version). Long live FIFA!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/02, Updated 09/01/02