FIFA 07 Soccer

"Yet again, EA makes only marginal improvements/additions on a horrendous game and suckers keep buying it every year (myself included)"

Let me start off my saying that I'm not a lifelong FIFA fan. I'm also not a lifelong PES fan. I'm a gaming fan, and I'll pretty much play anything that's enjoyable. This game is not. When I first started playing FIFA, I was so excited to be playing as Club America that it didn't even bother me that the entire Mexican league wasn't represented (this was back in 04). Ever since FIFA 2004, I've played and "enjoyed" every game since. I say enjoyed in quotations because I was fooling myself into thinking this game was fun. After the shock of realizing I could undertake 10 seasons with my favorite team (this was 2005, when the Mexican League was first introduced), I started realizing that this game wasn't very fun. Still, I decided I should buy the next installment: FIFA 06. I didn't buy it right away, but I did rent it. Like before, the sheer number of teams and leagues was staggering. I liked it more than I should've. This is around the time I started noticing little things, like hair glitches and other aesthetic features, that annoyed the crap out of me. When FIFA 07 was announced and the first videos made their way into IGN, I nearly crapped myself. I went so far as to preorder the game. The week it came out I was so anxious to get it I called GameStop 3 days before its release to see if they had a shipment yet. I finally got it, and thoroughly "enjoyed" it. The first thing I did was start a Manager season, and surprise surprise, the same problems that had plagued the series since I started playing it were yet again present. I ignored them. It's been two months, and I can ignore no more. Now that that's out of the way, I can get to the review.

Graphics

The graphics for this game are a mixed bag. The non-moving part of the graphics package, like stadiums and pitches, are excellent. Crowds are a different story. Picture a fully-rendered 3D model of a player superimposed on a bunch of blurry, pixelized fans that have 3 frames to their animations, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Crowds have never been the best part of any game in which they are present, but I've never seen them look this awful. Player models aren't that great either. Facial expressions in the game are laughable. Players constantly look like they're squinting, and when they celebrate, their mouths form this awkward and creepy yawn that is supposed to evoke the emotion present after scoring a goal. Instead players seem to lack teeth sometimes.

Animations in this game are also a mixed bag. Players' running animations are fantastically bad. They run, jump, fall, dive, and kick so stiffly you'll swear they were robots. They also seem to have superhuman foot speed, as a player in mid sprint with his foot about to make contact with the ball in order for ir to move forward will suddenly move it back and start a kick. Even in slow motion, it's hard to believe someone's leg moving that fast. Players also have the ability to make instantaneous leaps into mid air the same way I just described their leg-moving ability. From the ground to the air in an instant, you'll swear they have springs in their feet.

EA seems to be the laziest game developer around. Only the most famous of players get their own custom face. Everyone else gets a generic one that can belong to anyone else not famous enough, essentially robbing the player of an identity and personality. These generic player faces look nothing like their supposed real-life counterparts, so why even bother. Seriously, how long does it take to model a player face? I've seen other games do it, so why can't FIFA? The fact that the game has lots of players shouldn't be an excuse. The only possible excuse for not giving every player a custom face would be that the game is constantly creating new players when old ones retire to keep the game roster up in numbers, but that - I'd imagine - could be solved with a random player face generator of some kind.

Scoring goals that look like they could be scored in real life is one of the most rare things in this game. Players are constantly glitching and disappearing into one another, leading to some truly awkward goals. I once had the ball go through my player's chest - from back to front - before I kicked it into the goal. My player's foot went right through another player's torso as he kicked the ball, too. It's absurd. There isn't a single thing that is solid in this game. If it's on the field, your player can glitch into or through it. The goal net also behaves awkwardly sometimes.

Sound

Yet another mixed bag. Crowd sounds - powered by the so-called "emotion engine" which includes amazing new additions such as individuals in the crowd saying something in their native language - are at times pretty lame. Scoring a goal in front of a home crowd will get you about 3 variations of the same cheer: a low cheer, a loud cheer, and a really loud cheer. I know for a fact that crowds will chant more than 2 chants for a team. These chants are also pretty standard like Arsenal fans chanting "Arsenal! Arsenal!" for 90 minutes instead of actually having some variation. I would've liked them singing that lovely "Stand up if you hate Tottenham" song, since you know, hate is one of the strongest emotions, and emotion is supposedly being emphasized this year. All in all, the crowd is nothing at all spectacular.

Commentary for this game is the worst. It's almost funny hearing Andy Gray and Clive Tyldesley act like they're interested in the game. They'll say things like "if that had gone in, they would've had an even bigger lead!"

...

I don't even know what to say. Also, like the player face elitism I mentioned, the commentators will only state names of really famous players and teams. I know for a fact that there is software that can recreate anyone's voice very well, so having lots of players in the game is, again, no excuse to exclude everyone not famous enough.

The one good thing I have to say redeems this game's audio is the soundtrack, which is outstanding. It's all very easy to listen to, and appeals to pretty much anyone's tastes. Also, thanks to EA's deathly fright of getting a T rating for "mild lyrics," the songs in the game are sometimes edited to exclude certain words, so even your kids can listen to this music (but don't let them download the songs off the internet, as some do contain a mild case of pottymouth).

Gameplay

Ah, at last. FIFA 07 has received a near-complete overhaul of everything you could think of. Ball physics have "improved," keeper AI has "improved," shooting has "improved," and tricks have been added and "improved." Oh yeah, they added ONE MORE LEAGUE!

Ball physics are more akin to PES's. However they didn't exactly copy PES. Instead they decided to find some horrible middle ground between EA's "ball-tied-to-foot" physics and PES's accurate physics, resulting in some awkward hybrid that is neither good nor bad. Goal posts are again made of foam this time, meaning the ball will only go as far as the edge of the penalty box even though it came flying off Adriano's angry foot. Players are also made of an impact-absorbing fiber unknown to man, apparently. I once took a shot from medium distance and the defender simply jumped up, threw out his chest, and brought down my rocket without the slightest hesitation or hint of a rebound. Up and downspin has also been introduced, although putting either on the ball when not in a "dead ball" situation happens randomly. I'm not kidding. What good are these fancy spins if you can't use them at will?

Keeper AI is the most frustrating new "improvement" this year. It actually feels like it's gotten worse. The "improvement" is that EA added about 10 new diving and other saving animations and called it a day. Keepers will constantly make stupid decisions that often let in really weak shots or leave them in awful positions for oncoming shots. I can't tell you many times I've had a keeper stare down a slow roller as it comes at him, only to have him dramatically dive at it and miss it completely. Oh yeah, crappy keeper AI is restricted only to YOU. The computer will have an awesome keeper no matter what the team.

Shooting this year has actually gotten a little better. You can old down one button to take a "finesse" shot that (usually) carries with it a nasty curl that will beat most keepers, but this type of shot usually requires space, and a clear view of the goal, which are rare as dodos by themselves. You can also take a regular "Laces" (power) shot that can curl, but won't be as nasty as with a "finesse shot." As you can guess, this shot is more powerful, but is more likely to miss. Lastly you have a chip shot, which you can use to punish foolhardy goalkeepers that come off their line way too early. However they've removed the "sweet spot" indicator so now you're oblivious as to how much power to put on the ball. Thus, shooting feels random, as you will frequently miss shots with only 50% power and will make shots with 100% power, the latter of which are pretty much unstoppable thanks to their speed.

Tricks were prominently displayed on the internet before the game's release. They looked so easy to pull off. If only you could see the guy with the controller. In reality, that guy must've developed Carpel Tunnel Syndrome after he finished the video, as those tricks require an impractical amount of joystick swinging and flapping in various directions. Signature moves, like Ronaldinho's elastico, can all be pulled off with the same joystick motion. Sadly, this motion is a tad too long, and I've yet to find a situation in which to use signature moves. After you get over the fact that your players can spin the ball around in wild ways, you will realize that situations in which tricks would be useful are few and far between, making the tricks system irrelevant and pointless.

The number of leagues in this monster is staggering. Too bad most of the players don't even remotely resemble their real-life counterparts! You might as well be playing with stick figures in your team's kit.

Actually playing the game and getting good at it is hard. Really hard. You will never be as good as the computer. If you ever give away a free kick to the computer within reasonable range of the goal, you can pretty much count on getting scored on. The computer is also excellent at crossing, which has been horribly mutilated since last year. Finally, playing against computer-controller players is like playing against tree trunks. They are experts at robbing you of possession and tackling. If you ever try to mark them in hopes that they will make a mistake and give away the ball, they will just move about in random directions that will easily confuse you and shake you from their tail, usually with a clear pass/run/goal path in front of them. If you ever call upon another team mate to help with marking, that team mate will almost always be hopelessly out of range to help, and by the time your mate comes to your aid the ball will be long gone. In summary, you will never be as good at the aforementioned tasks as the computer is. Period.

Okay, that's pretty much my review. The only reason I give this game a 3 and not a 1 is because of its excellent soundtrack. In closing:

Pros

1) Soundtrack
2) Somewhat improved shooting system

Cons

1) Everything else not listed in Pros

In short, don't buy this game. EA releases a new FIFA every year with marginal improvements, and we suckers keep buying them. It's time we wise up. Every installment is pretty much just a vessel for their soundtracks, which have been excellent since I've started playing FIFA. Instead of forking over 50 big ones to aid EA in their quest for total football game domination, go outside and play football for real. You run the risk of injury, but trust me, it will be a more enjoyable experience than playing FIFA 07.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/06