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FIFA 2004 seeks to improve on 2003's version to compete with many competitors' games. EA always has the edge on licensing (hundreds of teams and thousands of authentic players), but as always, the ultimate test is the gameplay.
Gameplay was a bit arcadey last year. This year EA completely changed the gameplay to make it a bit more realistic. Ball physics seem more authentic. Defenses are tougher to crack. Scoring is really tough, but when you do it is usually a thing of beauty.
However, I still have a problem with the controls. The right thumbstick is used for the "freestyle control" dribble moves, but they are still to slow to engage. In real soccer you control the ball and use dribble moves to react to the defender and keep the ball away from him. Unfortunately these "freestyle" moves take so long to engage that the defender has already taken the ball. The fatal flaw in the control is that you have to predict the defender instead of react.
Also on the subject of controls, they changed the buttons for forward runs for off the ball players. In last year's version you could push the left trigger and send a man on a run toward open space... simple. In so doing, you stretch the defense and find an opening for a pass or dribble. This year, the controls are so difficult they are almost impossible to use in a functional way. You have to press four buttons just to get a player to go on a run! The sequence is: Left trigger, white button, right thumbstick, lob button. By the time you've accomplished that, the defender has certainly taken the ball away from you.
All in all, controls alternate between feeling muddy/slow and twitchy/over-precise. The game expects you to be perfect when you're directing a pass or shot. If you hold the thumbstick just a hair off, your shot will go sailing away, posing more danger to the corner flag than the goal.
On the positive side, EA added a new sequence for corner kicks and set plays that are so unique and cool they act like a mini-game. You choose your target for the kick, and then you take control of the recipient as he jostles for position. It is simple to learn but tough to get the goal, so it is really satisfying when you score.
Also, I love the fact that EA is finally giving us a career mode for FIFA. It is a five-year coaching simulation where you have certain criteria to get contract renewals. There is a lot of depth with training and transfers of players.
It's kind of high maintenance though... your players get out of shape if you play them too much, so it's almost impossible to keep a consistent lineup. I'm not even talking about injuries, just guys playing one game a week. It seems pretty heavy handed to me. You have to rotate guys every single game, and the menus aren't the easiest to navigate, so it's going to seriously hurt the addiction factor that could keep you going. Nothing like navigating stupid menus to make you want to turn off the game, ya know?
The features within Career Mode are confusing too. Training individual players fills in green bars in their attributes, but the attributes never go up. General training of the whole team doesn't seem to do anything at all. The transfer market is confusing and expensive to learn through trial and error.
Another thing I miss is a player editor. Now I'm not saying I want to make a team full of 99-rated Ronaldos, but I want to be able to tweak attributes a little. I also want to change the appearance of some players on my favorite clubs because EA gave them blond hair when it should have been black hair.
But the game looks absolutely beautiful. Last year's game looked good, but now lighting is tons better, and mo-cap animations are totally sweet. The in-game cinematics (like when someone scores or someone else gets a yellow card) are really cool. Sometimes the ref will give a red card and about five guys from each team will start fighting and shoving. Goal celebrations are really well done and usually show at least three members of the scoring team.
So, in review...
+ Licensing tons of real teams and players
+ Cinematics and animations look tremendous
+ Some aspects of gameplay are better
+ Career Mode... finally!
Controls are complex and feel muddy
Menus are horrible to navigate
Career Mode is confusing
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How do they keep doing it? By that I mean, how do they keep making this game worse year after year?The game itself is beautiful when you get on the pitch. Again, like last year, it's almost like watching real tv when you're playing.
Team depth and selection are super. They've got three English divisions and two German divisions, two Italian divisions. This is great for the career mode where you can take a team from a lower division and try to get them moved up into the big leagues next year.
It's too bad all of this is ruined in the actual gameplay. FIFA used to be a ton of fun to play a few years ago. Each year though the gameplay seems to get worse. It seems like you have to learn a brand new game each year.
The controls are quite bad this year. I never feel in control of the ball. Shooting/scoring is difficult.
Breaking down defenses is difficult even in the default setting. Part of this is because sending guys on runs is downright impossible. They took it off of the left trigger and moved it into a complicated sequence of buttons. (So now the left trigger is used as the 'Walk' function ooooh I so needed that!!!!)
I found this year's version extremely frustrating as in throw-down-your-controller-and-turn-off-the-stupid-xbox-frustrating. It's so bad I'm to the point of not even wanting to try to get better at it yes, I think it's thaaaat bad.
EA, you've done a great job ruining a great franchise. Rent this one first if you can find it available to rent!
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This game is great!!!! I must warn you, Off-The-Ball will take some time to master. Once you learn how to use it, you'll be making Beckham-like pinpoint crosses when you're attacking. But over all, the game looks and feels more realistic. Especially when you see all the famous players.4.5/5 Stars. The only thing keeping this from a perfect game is the right analog stick again. It's highly useful for using Off-The-Ball control. But it still needs to be worked on for doing step-overs and stuff like that. They need to fix that for 2005.
Honest reviews on FIFA Soccer 2004
Being a 3rd generation Arsenal supporter I couldn't wait to get my hands on this game to have my own showdowns against Man Utd in my living room! The last of this series I played was FIFA 95 back in the 90's and though it was like Pac Man compared to this installment it was sooooo much fun.I'm not going to detail the specs of the game and the features because there are dozens of reviews which already cover that. I will however attest to the playability and the fun factor. Before buying this game I kept reading reviews with complaints about how the game franchise was going down and getting worse and that the controls were virtually unplayable. I nearly didn't buy this game but decided to buy it anyway and give it a try with the knowledge I could return it within 24 hrs if it was a bust.
Well I bought it yesterday and played it for nearly 8 hours straight! Without even reading the manual I just played a few practice games to get a hang of what the controls are doing and bingo it was game on! While I will agree that some of the controls are not as ergonomoically well placed, I actually recall the FIFA 95 controls being a bit strange as well, until you get used to them. It didn't take me long to figure out how to start playing and winning and while the goals are harder to come by, they are not impossible to score and it is a definate bonus that the game is made tougher and more realistic.
As somebody said before with the goals being harder to come by it brings a sense of realism to the experience whereby when you do score it's a real celebration! I haven't even begun to explore 1/10th of all the features of this game yet and I'm happy to give it 4 stars. I think a poor choice from EA was to ommit a World Cup Tournament!!
What you need to know is whether this game rocks or not and whether you should buy it?
Answer = YES!
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I thought this was definitely the best Fifa yet. The gameplay is awesome. All these people whining about how it is too hard either just really suck at video games or have no clue about the dynamics of soccer. After you play the game for a while you pick up on what works and what doesn't. The fact that they expanded the team selection by adding the lower divisions is freaking sweet. I love the career mode too because it is realistic. In the older Fifa games as long as you had enough money to buy a player then that was all she wrote. He was yours. Now you have to bid on players and risk losing points that could be spent elsewhere. I agree with other people say about the free kicks. It is almost impossible to score. You get one in every now and then. The "off the ball control" I think sucks too. I never use it. You don't have to use it to be successful but I don't even know why it is there. The left trigger for off the ball runs was much better. To wrap it up. The most realistic and best Fifa yet.
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