FIFA Soccer 2004

"Improved over the years........."

Well, this game has been kicking around for some time, I remember buying FIFA Football 1996, which sucked. But it is safe to say that the game has got better over the years. A lot better....

The graphics are absoloutly wonderful, when you are watching the replays of the goals it looks like you are watching TV the players look so real. The graphics that I see would be enough to award 9/10 for this area, however there are some glitches, such as when there is a close up of the player, such as a throw in or at half time, the players are incomplete and you see the base model of the player in some areas although this does not happen very often it is still enough to bring the score down.

The game itself has improved with the adding of a new practice mode with replica training kits and a new career mode which I will come onto later. The game has also been made generally harder, on previous FIFA's you could win a game 12-0 on easy difficulty, but this has been changed as it is now harder to score goals. There are no longer "Sweet Spots" to score from corners or freekicks you will have to practice in training mode.

The new career mode is where you play a full 5 seasons as the manager of your favourite team. You are laid out some things that you must do to keep your contract at the beginning of the season, however the terms are not to hard to fulfill. You can also buy players and train your squad. Although the tactical side is not to deep is still pretty fun.

Off the ball control is also something new to FIFA 2004 and it is quite a challenging skill the grasp. It does have its uses however such as running one player into the box so you can cross it in and score. I think this was something to extreme to put in this game, because in real life you can posess a player. The controls for this are also difficult to grasp.

The sound basically falls into 2 catergories, Commentary and Music. I will start with the music, on the whole it is quite good, with different songs coming from around the world, some are quite popular as well so you may know them. The commentary is quite entertaining at first but it starts to annoy you when the commentators keep on repeating the same thing over and over again, It also annoys me when they are saying the sentance and stop half way in.

Online Play is also something new to the game. You can hold tournaments online and play in normal matches, with a league that has been set up. However there is one downfall in this, if you do not play a ranked game when the other person quits if you are winning, they get the points for the win rather than you. You may also find it hard to connect to some games. The headset can be used online as well which is a plus and there is no need for holding any buttons so people can hear you.

Overall the game is quite good, but there are glitches in the player models and online play has not been thought out very well, along with the controls for the off the ball control. The career mode is a nice addition as it gives you something to play for, although it does get boring after a while, this game can virtually never be completed so the replay value is quite high.

THE FINAL SCORE = 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/04