So, good old FIFA is finally out on the 360... what's it like then?
Right, so what it's like then? As usual with FIFA, on any format, you appreciate the slickness and presentation of the game right from the start, and there's a decent soundtrack featuring a whole host of bands from around the world. I particularly like the addition of the Arena mode where you get to knock the ball about one-on-one with the keeper whilst you're not otherwise doing anything.
Mode-wise, you've got the usual Kick-Off/Exhibition mode to quickly pit two teams against each other, nothing unusual there. There's then the more involved Manager mode where you set out on a FIVE year managerial career with a team of your choice. There's no option, as far as I've found, to just play through one complete season (not in Manager mode) with a team from any of the leagues. Not a great shame for me personally, but I can see others might be put off by this.
Manager mode in itself is reasonably involved, you're responsible for various aspects of the club, finances, scouting, transfers, player development, etc. Its nowhere near as deep as a specific football management sim, but then its not meant to be, its just meant to add a bit more interest when you're not actually playing games.
Now onto the leagues... anyone reading this will likely have spent some time browsing other people's reviews or this site's own FIFA 07 forum so may be well aware of this already... Unfortunately, there are only six leagues in the game, which are the top leagues from England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy (plus Juventus in a "World" League) and, oddly, Mexico (I guess FIFA must be as popular a title in Mexico as it is in Europe...). Naturally this was disappointing for me as I'm a Southampton fan and DO like to play as "my" team throughout the Manager mode, but now can't because there's no lower league clubs in the game... I haven't got this far yet, but it would be interesting to see how things like the English cup competitions are dealt with if there's no-one but the Premiership teams in the game, and also what happens if you finish in the bottom three and end up getting relegated...
In addition to this you've got pretty much all the International teams from this year's World Cup Finals although some, Holland and Czech Republic I've so far noticed, don't feature properly licensed player names. :-( What makes this even more odd though is that certain players from those teams are otherwise properly licensed when playing for their respective club teams, Ruud Van Nisteldiver or Milan Baros for instance... For me, both of these points are a bit of step backwards, although it doesn't effect the overall gaming experience too much.
Gameplay wise, its pretty much the usual FIFA experience with a few tweaks here and there. When played on Amateur or Semi Pro modes its unrealistically easy. You can still score 5 or more goals against apparently difficult opposition, and the computer-controlled defenders/keepers are really useless too. However, ramp the difficulty up to Professional level and the game is transformed. It now becomes a much more involved and rewarding affair, on a par with any game of Pro Evo, and scoring a good goal feels or the more satisfying. In addition to this your computer controlled players now seem to be a bit more proactive when challenging opposing players, which is nice. I haven't tried it in World Class yet but I'm sure it'll be a sufficient challenge for anyone. Some of the controls have changed too. There are now two switchable options for the primary game controls, the Classic mode which is old-school FIFA controls for shooting and crossing, or the New mode which is basically the Pro Evo controls. However, the switch player button is now the Left Trigger as opposed to the A button and you can't reassign it. This took me all of about 10 minutes to get used to, I can't see why others are complaining... I find it actually works better too, when defending the ball, the button used to switch between players no longer passes the ball as well, so if you inadvertently get possession of the ball (i.e a random interception) you don't just end up knocking it straight away again like you used to as you're still trying to select another player. Bonus!
Also missing is the stupid skill stick, Thank The Lord! I always used to hate this option when playing against smart-arse players who'd just used to spin, twist and turn around all your defenders before going on to score. Don't get me wrong, tricks have their place and ARE still in the game, its just it now requires a Tekken-style sequence of button presses to activate tricks, rather than just tapping the right stick. The right stick is still used in the game, but now it just knocks the ball on when sprinting, and is also used to execute quick changes of directions. For me it results in a much more natural, realistic game of football. As a quick note you'll also find you can no longer play the entire game with the sprint button held down (another bonus) as players become fatigued a lot more quickly and choosing the right subs becomes all the more important.
Graphically, particularly on a decent High-Def TV, this game looks unreal, and you'd almost struggle at times to spot the difference between watching a game of FIFA and watching a real game on TV. Interestingly, the animations during cut-scenes aren't so good, but its not the end of the world as the rest of it looks so great. Sound-wise the game is also good, the commentary lives up to its usual high standards, with Messrs Tyldesley and Gray providing analysis as usual. There are a lot more club and player-specific commentary too, although these do become a bit repetitive the more games you play, pretty much every time I've played as England or Chelsea I've heard the same point about Ashley Cole now being a much better winger than he was when joined the club... There's also enhanced crowd and general stadium noise too, I particularly like it when you score a goal and the stadium announcer calls out the name of the scorer and you get a huge cheer. Other announcements about things like missing train tickets are also quite amusing too.
Just a final brief note on the Multiplayer/Live experience too. The Lounge mode has been introduced to the 360 for offline multiplayer games and, although it does have the various power-ups, its lost some of the functionality that other versions have had e.g. I can't seem to find a way to change the team you're playing as without quitting the whole session and restarting another (therefore losing all the previous stats). I've only played a handful of games on Live so far, but it seems easy enough to find opponents to play a ranked match with and I've only had one muppet drop out because I was beating him... there is also no lag whatsoever when playing online (with 2 players at least), which is very welcome indeed. There are no apparent Interactive Leagues though, maybe I've not seen it as its buried within half a dozen sub menus, but I can't imagine for a minute that EA Sports would make it so difficult to find given the potential that such a feature has. Maybe its something that'll be dealt with via a forthcoming patch over Live, who knows?
So, that's pretty much it. Going back to the age-old FIFA/Pro Evo debate, this game WILL appeal to fans of previous FIFAs so rest assured there, and given some of the criticism I've heard of Pro Evo 6 not delivering a proper next-gen experience, it may even tempt some die-hard Pro Evo fans over to the dark side! Ultimately though, it is still the same old FIFA and doesn't offer much in the way of any substantially new features, but then isn't it the same with FIFA every year?
Ok, its still compromised in some areas (I guess as a result of the game having to be rushed to market in order to coincide with the release of Pro Evo) but as a whole I think its a decent effort, and a good platform from which EA can build a decent in-depth 360 football game with FIFA 08!