FIFA Soccer 2004

"Great game but with alot of graphical bugs!"

~ Introduction ~

Fifa 2004 is the newest game in the Fifa series (Fifa 2005 will come in a few months). Like always EA Sports tries to polish the graphics and fix the bugs...BUT there are a lot of bugs unfixed!

~ Game Play 8/10 ~

Like in every soccer game you have to put the football in the goal. That's it. There are different kind of modes like the "Play Now" Mode where you can play instantly against CPU or a friend (also CPU vs CPU) if you think you're not good enough you can always train your skills in the practice mode, you can train on free kicks corners, ... A new thing is the career mode, a 5 year quest where you need to bring a little team to the greatest by training them, transferring, dealing with suspensions and injuries. Also new is the ability of playing "live" online with all people over the world. You can choose between a lot of teams (around 350 I think) Strange is they skipped the Dutch national team.

~ Story */10 ~

Nope not in this game unless you call the career mode a story :)
Well actually the carreer mode IS the story. Begin with a loser team and end up winning a match from Real Madrid!

~ Controls 7/10 ~

The controls are fine, you steer your player with the digital pad or analog stick, do tricks with the right analog stick and pass, switch players, tackle, shoot, ... with the other 4 buttons. You can always let your keeper do the work by holding triangle when you're not on the ball. Speaking of on the ball, there's a new function that's called "Off The Ball" with this new mode it's easy to set up an attack and make a goal because you can tell another player that's around you to run into the box or help you when you're stuck.

~ Multi Player 7.5/10 ~

It's cool when you can test your skills against other people like friends or others around the world. You can play with up to 8 friends. If you don't have access to the internet on your Xbox with Xbox live you can always play with some friends offline. Although I think you against another friend (One on One) is the best way to enjoy the game.

~ Graphics 5/10 ~

I give these a five because of the bugs. The most popular players are easy to recognize and some other too. Some movements are way too unrealistic.
Here's a list of bugs :
- When you score a goal or when it gives a replay of the shot on the goal you see the wrong goal.
- Sometimes the shorts and shirts disappear
- When you tackle someone you hardly tough him or another player walks through you.
- After a bad tackle on a player when you get a card you see him laying on the ground but before that scene he just walks away.
- And a lot more.

Any other GOOD things is when a player scores you'll see him doing his moves what he does in real life all the time when he scores. Sometimes you can see the crowd jump and cheer. In some replays you'll see arrows and other new stuff where the ball went.

~ Music & Sound 8/10 ~

There are some good songs in this game like Rain on me or the one from Caesar's Palace, Paul van Dyck and so on. The comment from Ally and James is good but if you played like 20 matches you heard everything what they said and it gets very annoying after some time.

~ Unlockables 3/10 ~

You can unlock some shirts, that's all. I hope you'll be able to unlock a lot more in the next versions.

~ Competitions & Cups 7.5/10 ~

All competitions are in the game even some from the second division, in the international section only the Netherlands are missing. There are NO cups like Champions League or Uefa Cup, World Championship, European Championship and all those other tournaments.

~ Overall 7.5/10 ~

It's not too good but it's not bad, hopefully Fifa 2005 will have less bugs, more unlockables, cups and more speech.

Rent or Buy? If you really like soccer games you should buy this one else you should buy Pro Evolution Soccer.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/04