FIFA Soccer 2004

"Good, strong Soccer game"

This is my first review in awhile, but when I played this game, I felt that I should share my feelings on it with the GameFAQS world. I’ll give you a little background on myself. I am a really big sports fan and love most sport games. However, my first sport is Baseball, and for that reason, I despise soccer. It is something with all baseball players, we just don’t like soccer. My best friend is a soccer player though, and loves the sport like I love baseball, so he being the soccer freak he is, introduced me to FIFA 2003, in which I loved. We played for hours. FIFA 2003 was not without its glitches and some things really peeved me, as I learned the rules of soccer and things that the game did not follow. So 2004 right around the corner, a new FIFA game is released, titled FIFA Soccer 2004. My best friend picked this one up, as expected, and I was as anxious as he to try this game out. I was happy with the much of what was done. To my review:

Game play: 8/10

The most important feature in any game is how it is played. A game could have an amazing story/idea to it, but if the game play is lacking, that game will fail with the masses. That being said, this game portrays soccer is a very good way. All the basic moves, along with some of the “special” moves are in the game. The controls are decent, however, because some buttons have multiple meaning to them. An example is the ‘A’ button. In this game and in games past, the ‘A’ button is used to pass, and most importantly, change your player so that you can get into the action. This year, they added a feature to the ‘A’ button in which it is sued as a header. This was a terrible idea because sometimes going up for a header and pressing ‘A’ changes your player and causes you to lose the header and possibly the possession of the ball. A way around this is to use the ‘B’ button and hold it to win the header, but this shoots the ball and could also lose you the possession. This is a very costly mistake in the games making. Everything else though, game play wise and controls wise, is great and easy to do. The slide tackles in this game has been “nerfed.” What nerfed means (if you play Diablo II, you may know what I mean, if not, this is why I am explaining :-) is that they took a move that is helpful and critical in success and made is less…powerful in a way. It is a lot harder to pull off a slide tackle in this game as opposed to FIFA 2003. I find this more to my liking, however, because it plays more like soccer. Slide tackles were extremely easy and turned the tide of the game in your favor every time, and the AI rarely used it in the old game. Now it is more realistic. Passing will get you ticked off quite a bit, as the ball won’t go where you always want it to and the players will do something stupid. Shooting could be frustrating because you have to be very quick with the shoot meter because the ball will fly away if you kick it too hard. Corners are now easier and more realistic. Goalies are a little better. The Difficulty is pretty intense. Even on the lowest level, it takes awhile to beat them. On World Class, be prepared for the biggest challenge of your life.

Graphics: 9/10

Not an important feature to me, but this game looks great, for the most part. The fields, stadiums, players, and the ball look fantastic. My only problem is the crowd. It looks horrendous to say the least. It’s a bunch of colors semi moving around. Sports games really need to work on their crowds a lot more because it takes away from the “real” aspect of the game. But this game does look beautiful.

Sounds/Commentary/Animations: 10/10

A very, very bright spot to the game, this is where FIFA 2004 separates itself from every other soccer game ever made. The sounds of the crowd are like no other. In soccer games, especially those in Europe, the fans are really into the game. They sing, chant, and scream. This game brings this part of soccer to life as everything I mentioned the crowd does is in this game. It makes you feel like you are playing the game yourself. When you are playing at home and score a goal, the stadium erupts into a frenzy. The commentary is the same two guys as the old one. I only remember the color commentary guy’s name…Alli McCoy or something to that affect. He played the game, goalkeeper, for a long time and is now a broadcaster. He and his partner have distinct accents that really add to this game. Now in sports games, usually the commentary stops at just game play. But in this game, there was something they added. During the game Alli and his partner talk about stories of the past and how things were back in the day. It is truly amazing, because it adds to the “real” aspect of the game because when watching a soccer game, they don’t just talk about the play in the game. The animations are incredible. When a player scores, they go wild with their team just like in real life. Also, when there is a foul on the play, teams will actually have little fights with each other, not fist fights like in hockey, but pushing and shoving and yelling. One other thing to add to this was that a game I was playing with my friend, a guy on the AI’s side had a breakaway and I ran behind him and tackled him to the ground, a sure card. Well they zoomed in and the ref was saying something, it looked like explaining, to my player that just committed the foul. Well my player was giving him an attitude and stormed away before the ref was done. The ref signaled for him to come back and gave him a Red Card, which means he is kicked out of the game. I thought that was really neat.

Features: 9/10

Career Mode is there, which is really cool. You are the General Manager of the team you choose and you have to succeed or you will be fired. You can practice with your team and even train them. All the basics are there, practice, single play, season. There is enough to keep you busy for a long time. So why am I giving it a 9? Well they are going to come up with something new and amazing next year to put in the game so it’s not the exact same game, so this isn’t the best they can do.

Buy or Rent

I would go with rent first. Try it out if you aren’t a soccer fan, I bet you’ll like it, because I love the game and I hate soccer. If you are a hardcore soccer fan like my best friend, go and buy this right now, you will be pleased.

Last Thoughts

I gave the game an 8 mainly on game play. All the other features in the game I consider “extras” so my score reflects game play. So that’s that, first review in a year, Hope it helps you out with this game. Bye

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/04