Fifa Football 2004 – Review
by IceBlu
www.soccergaming.com
I popped in the CD, installation was normal. Loaded, and the game begins with the regular “EA Sports – It’s in the game.” We are then treated to a nice song – one of the many songs on the soundtrack and I have to say the entire soundtrack is awesome - Probably the best music till date.
Now to the actual game –
There is a menu with quite a few game modes which lets you choose the kind of matchup. I have to say, the interface of the menu is possibly the ugliest I have ever seen. Not only is it aesthetically ugly but it’s also “sticky” and nasty to use. It’s not responsive at all and this becomes a headache especially during multiplayer modes where time and internet speed is off the essence.
There is an added training mode which lets you choose one of the following training options – Free kicks (both direct and indirect), corners and actual practice games. These matches are played in training facilities and have a nice feel to it as you can listen to the traffic noises, instructions by the coach etc. The players on the field during training are in their team training jerseys which are a nice touch. All in all this is a really useful feature which should never have been taken off in the first place in Fifa 2003. Good thing they brought it back.
Now as I start a real game after a couple of matches, I check out team management and it has all the usual stuff. Team formations (all the usual ones and a few more than last year), substitutions, kick takers, team tactics etc. One thing that’s worth nothing is that they have included an “Offiside trap” option which is pretty self explanatory. I tried it in the game and it works well – perhaps a little too well.
Heres one thing that really annoys me – you can never see you starting 11 together in the menu while choosing the team. You see the first 9 and then you have to scroll down to see the other 2. Like I said, the menus are terrible. I’m not exaggerating.
Anyway, to the actual match – it lets you choose the team jerseys (home, away, 3rd). And then the game begins. The cinematics are the first thing that catches your eye - Players walking out of the tunnel to a packed stadium with the fans chants and other sounds. The ambience is very nice indeed. The players have a real feel to them as they stretch, pretend to talk to each other, pull their socks up etc. which adds to the solid feel of the game.
Kick off! The referee signals the start of the first half and off we go. The controls feel responsive compared to older editions of the game and passing has improved by leaps and bounds. Players actually seem involved in the game. The ground passes aren’t always predictable and get intercepted by the opponent on a regular basis which is a good thing. Same can be said of the aerial passes. They aren’t as accurate as the ground passes but if you get them right, they can be devastating. You can convert defense into attack with one good pass. The “through ball” has been added in this game which is basically what it is in real life. You can thread the needle with a good through ball and have your striker reach it leaving the defenders for dead. Crosses have improved a lot. It is pretty easy to get in a good cross from the flanks.
The “off the ball” technology works just as promised by EA. It’s easy to use and easy to get used to within a few games. It is vital that you take full advantage of this added feature as it can very useful especially while getting the ball forward on the flanks.
Another great feature is that you can change tactics during the game without having to pause and going into team management. This is fundamental during multiplayer match-ups especially.
Heading has improved a lot. Of course, in Fifa 2003, it was pretty much impossible to head the ball decently but here we have a nice heading system which works like it should. A good cross and a well timed header are lethal. There’s not much the opposition can do if the player gets a good header in. Headers are also useful in defense to clear the ball. Another thing worth mentioning is that sometimes players use their head to pass to ball too and don’t always chest the ball and play it with their feet, which is excellent.
Shooting the ball is better than before too. Again the main idea remains the same – more the power, lesser the accuracy, but scoring from a distance is pretty common – a little too common. In my very first game I managed to score 2 goals from 40 yards or more which wasn’t a good feeling. Although the goals looked good, you get the feeling that scoring from way out shouldn’t be this easy. You can add swerve to the ball and you can shoot both low and high. Players miss a lot of sitters if the direction and power aren’t used properly which is excellent. I tried chipping the keeper on a few occasions while being one on one but managed to score just once which was sheer luck rather than an actual chip.
Goalkeepers are responsive and pretty sharp at close range. But at the same time, it’s too easy to beat a keeper from a long range. The keeper seems sluggish all of a sudden when he can be pretty hard to beat at close range. EA need to work on this aspect. They let in soft goals way too often. It becomes a little repetitive and frustrating seeing the keeper being beaten from the same range when it reality, it seemed like he had the shot covered all along.
Feekicks are excellent in the game. It works on the principle of using the optimum power and adding curve to the ball. As long as you direct the shot to a part of the net that would seem logically tough for the keeper to reach and get your power to the correct degree, there is not much that can stop you from scoring. A well taken free kick is one of the more satisfying aspects of the game.
Corners have improved a lot too from earlier versions. You can choose from a few options that appear on the bottom corner of the screen which lets you choose the kind of corner you want to take. It can be an in-swinging cross to the far post, near post, middle or it can be driven straight into the box. You can control the player and make him get his head or foot to the cross but at the same time, the opposing defense mark you pretty well. This new way of taking corners is really nice and effective. It could use a little more fine tuning though one might feel after playing it a few times.
Penalties are normal. You select the power, direction and let fly and more often than not you will score. Too much power makes the ball hit the woodwork or sometimes even completely miss the target. The goalkeeper is alert and quick during penalties so you are not guaranteed a goal which is what it should be like.
Dribbling is excellent in the game. You can perform step overs, double step overs, backward dribbles etc. It feels really nice when you fool a defender by dribbling your way past him – mind you, its pretty hard to do.
Defenders are quick and accurate and don’t hesitate to make sliding tackles. It is hard to beat a defender one on one in Professional or World Class modes as you lose the ball in the blink of an eye.
A vast improvement can be seen in tackling too. It is fun to see a player muscled off the ball as he would in real life and it is important to time a challenge well. A well timed sliding tackle can be life saving but a poorly timed one can be disastrous.
Graphics:
Graphics are great as is the case with most EA games. The stadia, player models, the field, the animations etc all have a very professional feel to them. Most of the more well known players have life like faces and body structures. It is easy to recognize a Raul or Del Piero on the field.
The cinematics are brilliant. They add a whole new dimension to the game and the celebrations are great as well.
Patch makers will be licking their lips as the editable nature of the game seemingly unlimited possibilities as far as graphics are concerned.
Teams and tournaments:
There are a lot of clubs, leagues and national teams to choose from as you can image. It includes all of Europe’s top leagues and clubs from the lower divisions too. There are a few teams and leagues that have been left out for different reasons the most notable being – Romania, Holland, Chile, Yugoslavia, Partizan Belgrade and the whole Argentine League which will leave many fans disappointed. There are quite a few tournaments you can choose from including the European Cup and many other domestic cups. One major gripe is the lack of multiplayer support as far as tournaments are concerned. There is no multiplayer yet and I’m not sure that we will have it in the near future either.
The lack of direct IP and LAN Multiplayer support is almost unforgivable. It is hard to imagine why EA would leave out something this vital.
Replays are good but there is no way to save them which is a shocker! There is absolutely no reason why EA should leave out something like that. There is supposedly a patch EA are working on which will fix this issue along with few more niggles but for gamers with the Xbox or PS2, I’m afraid it is bad news.
Bottomline: A vast improvement over Fifa 2003 but has a fair bit of refining to go through to be the complete package. There is that incomplete feel to it at times but is still fun to play.
Music : 10/10
Graphics : 8/10
Gameplay : 6/10
Features : 5/10
Thank you for reading my review. For any questions or comments, email me at
[email protected] .
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