FIFA 2001

"Soccer fans can unite over this EA title."

Intro

Fifa 2001 on the Playstation 2 is an excellent game by the people at EA Sports. EA Sports is well known for creating excellent games on all consoles and this game just
Justifies that claim.

In case you didn’t know, Fifa 2001 is about… you guessed it! Soccer. Otherwise known as “football” in certain countries. I thoroughly enjoy playing soccer in reality
and on the PS2, its even better. Its great for rainy days and those times friends come over uninvited. Its also good in the sense it does not require you to be physically fit
to play as the author of this review is kinda... “podgy”.

But as a note, this game is fun even for non-soccer fans but it is highly recommended that you get a rough idea of how to play the game before tackling Fifa.

Story

Fifa 2001 really does not have a story. Maybe one day some company will incorporate
the idea that there is a school kid who wants to try out to be a soccer superstar. But as
for EA Sports, their games are always professional and this game has all the stars.

Gameplay

Fifa 2001 really does the job quite well. It has full analogue control of all the buttons and the left stick. The analogue buttons helps boost the game alot in the sense that
you can time your shots and by slamming your finger onto the shoot, you can see the rising bar at the bottom to power your shot with the right strength and overall
accuracy. With the help of analogue buttons, pushing lightly on the shoot will slow down the rising bar.

When running accross the field, the new Run feature (on the Triangle key) will let your character run faster with the ball. It is the only way you’ll ever win but don’t forget, it causes tiredness and that brings me to my next point.

Tiredness. EA’s “Player energy bar” shows it all. When you play more, they lose energy, when they run, they lose energy and when they are knocked to the ground, that just pushes them off. The more tired and lack of energy someone has, the worst they perform on the field. It is quite smart the way this is done.

The IGMs are also excellent. You select team positions prior or during the game and you simply press select to change. You can put things like attacking, defence, pass methods, shooters and the lot. There are 3 slots, usually used for Attack, Defense and Midfield.

Graphics

Fifa 2001 has REAL graphics. As one of the launch titles, this title shows extreme power in the graphics. No slowdown either. The people look “so real” and the rain is so beautiful.

I can’t really express much but the facial expressions are so realistic, you could swear it was real. The uniforms are the best, changable for each one there is.

The only thing I disagree with is that the soccer ball (as Ign Ps2 said) does not move quite “naturally” as it should. It rotates but just in an “alien” way. This does not affect performance but it would be nice if it could look a tint more realistic in that area.

Sound

Music is another key feature of Fifa. The adrenaline gets you pumped for action with this excellent title. The crowd’s constant cheering for individual team players, gives you this sudden rush to win. They cheer with every goal and they boo with every penalty. It may sound like it will become repetitive but it isn’t. It truly is the best thing to feel the crowd push you on. Its amazing that no other companies incorporated this idea.

The clear sounding kicks of the ball also sound extremely well tainted.

Overall, all the sounds and music make this an ingenious title for the PS2.

Other/Overall Presentation

The menus are truly excellent and the introduction movie gets you into the great Soccer spirit. This definately beats the Saturday morning football rush.

A bit of slowdown here but its better here than in the game! There is very little load time when playing.

Replayability

You play it the moment you can. The crowd makes this game addictive.

I’ve played 40+ hours now and I still love it. The different difficulties that alter the amount the CPU controls your team is excellent and the goalies can get harder too. But not to the extent of that it is obviously
a computer controlling the goalie.

Rent or Buy

Just buy it already.

SCORES

Story – N/A
No story

Gameplay – 10
It doesn’t get much better than this

Graphics – 9
The graphics rock and the faces rule. Soccer fans must unite! Better ball design would be appreciated. As a note, perfect framerate with no slowdown.

Sounds – 9
The cheering crowd really edges you on. The music track does get that adrenaline pumpin’!

Other/Overall Presentation – 8
Menus are good but there is too much slowdown in the menus The lack of loadtime is great and can nearly compete with the N64’s 0 sec load times. At least they’ve got the controls for you to see during loads of the game.

Overall (not an average) – 9
Soccer fans can unite over this EA Title and don't forget to scream your hearts out if you just wanna site back and watch the CPU

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/10/01, Updated 06/14/01