FIFA Soccer 2005 for Xbox Reviews by Gamers

The challenge for every sports game, especially from EA, is to introduce enough newness year after year to make said sports game worth the purchase. There was a time when simply getting the new roster update was enough. The arrival of FIFA Soccer 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube ends up being a bit of redemption for the franchise that had slipped a bit last time we saw it.

Despite the growing popularity of Konami's Winning Eleven series of soccer titles, FIFA is still one of the powerful trio of games that Electronic Arts relies on year after year to carry the company. But that doesn't mean the developers at EA Canada could've gotten away with another mediocre effort this fall. Because of this, FIFA '05 improves on its predecessor in every way, even if it still isn't quire the intuitive football experience it could be, especially in comparison to its competition.

All of the strengths we've come to expect from FIFA '05 are still there including the full FIFA license covering two dozen leagues, hundreds of teams and thousands of players. Real team uniforms, colors and even accurate sponsorships add a ton of authenticity for soccer fans who eat, breathe and sleep their favorite squads. But the biggest improvement from FIFA '04 to FIFA '05 has to be in the realm of gameplay. It just feels like a more accurate representation of the sport.

Gameplay

The biggest feature introduced in last year's game was Off the Ball Control (OTB), which was supposed to enable you to create your own runs with players of your choosing, yet still maintain control over the timing of passes. It's a nice idea that met with mixed results; not such a good start if that's the hottest new stuff.

For FIFA '05, OTB is back, but it's been overshadowed by the improved physics system of the game. For the first time, the soccer ball in FIFA '05 is its own entity subject to the laws of physics just like everything else in the game. Since the ball is not longer magically attached to the foot of the player in possession of the ball, passing and ball control take on a magnified role just like it's supposed to in a soccer game. The independent physics of the soccer ball allowed for new things like authentic deflections of passes and shots, unpredictable ricochets and intelligent play along the sidelines.

That's right, finally you don't have to worry about your player kicking the ball into the upper decks when you sprint him over to a slow-rolling ball near the sideline. They'll instinctively hook slide to keep balls from going out of bounds and will even get down on the turf to intercept passes in the same way. Now you still have the built in problem that all FIFA games have had with delayed button presses registering just when you don't want them to, but the improved physics of the ball enable you to better predict and react in tough situations.

It won't be uncommon to have a slow rolling ball near your own goal and you're gripping the controller tight trying to speed your defender over there to clear it. In the past this was a risky situation because even if your man had the lead on an opportunistic striker trying to sneak a quick shot there was a good chance your man would do something stupid like rocket the ball out for a goalkick or worse, dribble it out himself. Now, you can focus on getting your man there, lean your analog stick towards the opposing goal and press one of the pass buttons before even getting to the ball and know you'll be in good shape.

The physics system also enable the new First Touch system. Anybody who knows how the game is played understands that controlling the ball as you receive a pass so that you're immediately ready to make whatever play you want is a crucial element of the sport. It's analogous to the triple-threat position in basketball. Now in FIFA '05 you can flick the right analog stick just before a passed ball reaches your man so that you play the ball in that direction but only a few feet away. The point is you can read how a defender is playing your man and play the ball in a way that makes it difficult for the defense to take the ball from you without falling.

Typically the First Touch system will enable you some options when you pass the ball into a player who has his back to the goal. Because the control system is absolute you can flick up or down on the right analog stick to make him play the ball into space to his left or right. This works especially well when playing head to head against a buddy or online, since the assumption is you know where you're playing the ball and will be ready to whirl your play around to continue running at the goal with the ball.

The other benefit of both First Touch and the ball physics is that they tie directly into the freestyle control system for fancy moves. While you're running in space with the ball, flicks and quarter, half and full circles on the right analog stick will unleash intuitive special moves that are as effective as your players creativity, ball control and dribbling attributes. Because of the ball physics and the improved player physics and animation, it's possible play a passed ball using first touch in one direction, run up to it and flick the ball back where you just came from using the freestyle control system. This will truly perplex any defender, but the cost is you'll have to time the whole thing perfectly to be effective and you rarely get that much free space and time. However, when using a truly skilled player such as AS Roma's Francesco Totti or Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy, freestyle moves can be devastating spin moves or volleys to themselves that look especially nice when you finish them off with a goal. If you try a spin move with a low-rated ox then your chances of losing the ball increase exponentially.

The artificial intelligence is much improved over FIFA '04. This is a relative comparison so your teammates will still frustrate you while the opposing CPU players will seem to be reading your mind at times. When attacking, the CPU knows when you're drifting a defender to cut off a passing lane, and it will switch on the fly to find the open player even if it means passing backward 40 yards. They'll execute the offsides trap with surprising efficiency and pulling off an amazing Maradona-style coast-to-coast goal is very unlikely since they'll quickly rush four defenders at any player running ahead with the ball with visions of grandeur in their heads. We're not saying we haven't done it, but it's just unlikely unless you have exceptional skills.

The CPU level of aggression increases with the difficulty level you're playing on. At lower difficulties, you only have to worry about the truly powerful teams and their star players, whereas World Class difficulty makes every team dangerous. When playing against Real Madrid for example, they're likely to score on most opportunities because any foot or head Ronaldo or Raul gets to the ball is going to go rocketing towards goal at least twice as fast as the average player and it'll be on target. The rebound is the danger in that situation. The world class teams don't necessarily pass any better to create more opportunities but their shooting ability and speed (like we see in so many other sports games) affords them a larger margin of error when they do get an obvious chance.

Franchise

The Franchise mode is much improved over the one found in FIFA '04. Beginning with little things like an intuitive color-coded roster screen that enables you to see where all of your players are lining up in formation and a Franchise HQ screen that gives you all gives you information like your next opponent, your budget, your job security (more on that later) at a glance, Franchise mode in FIFA '05 feels a million times better than the cumbersome screens and unintuitive feel of the old game.

Before we get into how you running your team it's important to understand how you get your team to begin with. You select one of the five regions in the world to begin your career, each packed with a handful of local leagues. Within each region you'll see what jobs are available to a manager of your caliber which is a nice way to say you'll be picking from the crappy teams of say the UK region, which include the FA Premiership, the Scottish Premiership, Football Championship, and Football League One and Two. All you'll know about your potential employers is their relative Attack, Midfield and Defensive strength. Once you pick, that's your team for better or worse and you have to build it into a winner to both keep your job and to boost your own prestige. If you want to run one of the world's premier clubs such as Arsenal, you'll have to pay your dues in the backwoods for a few years.

You're given a team upgrade budget that enables you to spend points in one of eight areas. You have four on-the-field coaches that handle your strikers, midfield, defense and goalkeepers. And you have four administrators to handle your fitness, medical facilities, scouting and finances. It's just a screen with pictures and bars but it's very important because with every tournament win, victory against a rival or win streak you'll be getting points to spend here and these points stay with you throughout your career. More importantly victories and defeats will register on your job security meter after each game. If it falls too low, you may be in the unemployment line. Keep it above 80% and you're all good. Winning cups, leagues and derbies (rivalry games) provide the biggest boosts just like losing them will cause the most damage to your job security. This pressure keeps the tension up.

Setting your team's formation is snap since you have a color-coded roster screen so you instantly know who're your forwards, midfielders, defenders and keepers. Each player has a fitness, morale and form rating that you have to monitor if you want to be successful. Playing time, losing streaks and bad chemistry can all lower morale, while playing an unorthodox formation without proper substitution can real drain a player's fitness. Form is the stat you have the most control over since it indicates how you've actually been playing with that player in your games. Think of form as a "hot or not" rating in baseball and you get the idea. The one thing that cures all ills of course is winning. In fact win streaks can boost the morale and form of individual players to the point that they're overall ratings increase when they're on the field. A happy player who's naturally a 78 can be playing like an 84 if his morale is high and you've been using him effectively. This system is very satisfying since it rewards you for making superstars out of mediocre players. And this brings us to the irony of the Franchise mode.

To get out of the backwoods and into the spotlight with a major team you have to build up your squad into a powerhouse by buying players or simply playing them into greatness. Either way, when a bigger club comes calling, you'll have to leave your team behind and assume the new club has enough tools for you to work with.

In our four years of franchise play we couldn't get into any of the premier European leagues like the Serie A or Bundesliga. So we built Scottish powerhouse Glasgow Rangers into a European power by bringing in plenty of talent from Brazil. After a year, the job offers were no better than they were when we first started. But after our second year, a league championship, a Scottish Cup and a FIFA '05's version of the EUFA Cup opened up some new options for us. Some mid- to second-level Premiership and Serie A league teams were willing to give us a go. A year at Bolton Wanderers, an FA Premiership championship and we figured a job at Manchester United or Bayern Munich was just around the corner. Instead we had a rundown of great but not outstanding teams like AS Roma, Ajax and Valencia interested. In all we took seven trophies into our fourth year of Franchise mode and still only had two stars (out of five) of prestige to show for it. The mode is designed to go for 15 years but let's face it, those prestige stars are extremely difficult to earn.

Still, the franchise mode is marvelous and very comprehensive overall. You have to submit points to your scouting department in order to read the ratings of players you're interested in buying for your team, otherwise you'll only know how much stamina and dribbling ability they have. As your team becomes more successful you'll be invited to play more games in more tournaments so you'll have to keep an eye on your squad's overall fatigue levels during those weeks with three games. Basically you're given all of the things a real life manager would have to worry about with the mix of pressure to win, pressure to improve your team and pressure to build your career and make your name in the international scene.

Graphics

The most important improvement is in the animation of the players in FIFA 2005. They move fluidly and react to each other and the ball in way that's very realistic and believable. Most importantly you can tell exactly what's going on at all times in the game. Given that the wide-angle default perspective in this soccer game is more or less what it's been for the last 10 years, that's saying something. When players execute freestyle moves you can tell what's happening or at least what's about to happen so you can anticipate what you're going to do next. The spin move remains our favorite both because of its effectiveness and because it looks so damn cool; just like the one Thierry Henry unleashed for Arsenal a while back where he shielded himself and the ball from an oncoming goalkeeper.

The level of detail on the players and uniforms themselves is outstanding. While there's certainly a focus on the superstar players and leagues of Europe, even the "anonymous" players look pretty good. Players like David Beckham and David Trezeguet are easily recognizable with specialized facemaps, but team rosters quickly get generic with the faces after that. There are only a handful of body types and accessories you'll see throughout the game. So while Becks will come with his earring, Ronaldo will have his off-colored shoes and Henry will have tape on his finger, the vast majority of players are composed of a limited palette of skin colors, hairstyles and body types. But those details do look good.

Team logos and crests are all there as well as the uniform manufacturer's logos. Sponsorships logos are all there for the most part but things get a little blurry when you get to the massive sponsorship labels on uniforms from the Mexican and Brazilian leagues. The generic Argentina uniform and the omission of the Dutch national team altogether were the most glaring inaccuracies we could come up with.

Sound

The commentary is better than average but still runs into the problems of repetition that any sports game is going to have. Ally McCoist and John Motson interact with each other wonderfully, and don't get us wrong, but as you plow through the game you will hear them dropping the same lines over and over. In fact, the rather long-winded tales McCoist goes on about his glory days in the sport are a joy and what's even more impressive is that play-by-play man Motson will cut him off if there's an exciting play in the game that needs attention.

While McCoist speaks in relevant generalities about the game at hand, Motson will call out players by name and refers to specific teams. Motson will get especially excited when a superstar gets the ball with lines like "..and this is David Beckham" or simply shouting "Totti!" when the Italian star gets the ball. Other players will have their names called since the game will recognize basic ones, so Sullivans and Fabianos were get their calls to.

The soundtrack is gigantic and welcomes music from around the world so you really feel like a citizen of the world just a few hours into the game. Mixes of reggae, folk songs, rock and roll and what they call "world music" characterize this impressive mix of songs. In fact you can even unlock a couple of tunes in My FIFA store including a remix of an INXS classic.

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