FIFA Soccer 2003

"Strengths vs. Weaknesses..."

Fifa has managed to create a much more authentic and better soccer/football game. New fakes, dummies, skill moves, and game winning goals. Total ball control with signature skill moves. Also, new set-pieces...
BUT, all these wonderful features come with a few weaknesses... Mostly, the lack of options.

Gameplay
Most of the biggest changes in Fifa 2003 are in the gameplay. Almost all of the changes are for the good. The ball being detached from the player makes the game more realistic. Also, the slide tackles and animations from people falling (or just regular player animations) look very real like. Fouls are called better in Fifa '03, giving yellow cards when deserved. Also, you can no longer dribble your way around the defense... you have to make smart passes, or good through balls for players to run onto. You can also send in crosses, which are much more difficult to head or win in the air. The new set-pieces also add to the gameplay.
Another great part about the game is, the scores never get too high. I've played plenty of games, and never won by more than 2, or scored more than 5 goals in a game... and it's not even on the hardest difficulty.

Graphics/Sound
The Graphics have improved even more. The top European Club players look great, and so do the stadiums. It's too bad all the other players don't look as great, but they do look somewhat similar to what the real players do. The stadiums look almost perfect. The crowd, well it looks good from a distance or while you're playing, but not as good close up.
The commentary is a slight improvement from Fifa 2002. Just with Ally McCoist... they also show a little bit more enthusiasm. The crowd gets a lot more into the match than last year too. They'll let the home team know how they're feeling about the score, and get excited at the right times. The chants are alright, but not too noticeable. You may or may not like the music... I don't have a problem with it, but other songs could be more fitting for a soccer/football game. No problem though.

Options
The menu is very simple and nice. Its not very fancy, could be a good thing. One big thing they got rid of was create/edit a team/player. The create a player not being in was disappointing, but you should at least be able to edit a player... there's a few players that may look African American, and aren't suppose to be, etc. Also, some stats are just awful. Lots of really good players are ranked low, and then some others are the opposite (I can mainly think of team USA and MLS stats)... but hey I guess it just makes it all the more fun to beat the real good teams with, or not. Other features left out could be penalty shoot-outs or instant replay saves (the instant replays in the game don't allow you to rotate the camera or zoom in, very disappointing)... but these things weren't in Fifa 2002, so you can't be too upset. But, there are lots of competitions and tournaments to satisfy you.
Another disappointment is the Team Management and strategies. It just seems that there was more in Fifa 2002, getting to choose different stuff... not too much more though.

Buy or Rent
If you're a Fifa fan, you should definitely buy it... as long as you can live with a few things missing. If you're a PES fan, and don't know... maybe you should just rent it and see.

Fifa 2003 has all sorts of new strengths, but it comes at a small price... I think that the strengths of the game outweigh the weaknesses, and Fifa has improved the more important stuff...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/02, Updated 11/10/02