by:	October 18, 2005

I don’t play soccer at all so for me to review this game was a challenge. I had offered it to other writers at Xbox Evolved, but none of them were interested in the game. It is of course, because as Americans, we aren’t really into soccer as a nation, so European and Canadian gamers you might want to add a point to the overall score of this review. With that note, FIFA 06 has come out a month earlier than usual so that Electronic Arts can get a jump on competition, namely Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer offering. This year you can definitely expect the roster changes, tweaks in gameplay, and so on with the title as well as some new modes. The game is harder from the previous versions, with AI keeping up with even the most expert players of FIFA. Since I had very little experience with the series, a few friends who were addicts of the game played along with me, and they definitely had a challenge at times. You will find however that going off to the side is the best course of action while playing the game, and it seems as if defense is constantly vulnerable there.

The strangest part about FIFA 06 is that it controls considerably well, except that when you are rushing to take the ball from someone that, when you are sprinting in the direction of their goal, when you want to make a sharp turn around it becomes difficult to do so while running so you have to slow it down and almost make an ugly and wide turn around. The AI in many ways seems like they have the advantage, as their maneuverability is far greater than that of your own. The best way to keep the ball from the person is to just run in front of them not pushing any buttons, hoping that your foot steps in between his and takes the ball from him. Otherwise any sort of tackling towards the opposing team will result in a yellow card and to many results in a red card and therefore taking that player out of the game. The control scheme of the game doesn’t help either if you are a beginner to the series as there are many variants of kicks, and each button on the face of the controller seems to control one of these variants. This is still a great chance for the more experienced players to really show what they are made of though.

The single player portion of the game has a very easy to navigate Manager Mode, which lets you create a manger, pick a team, and control is over the next few seasons of soccer. It is something reminiscent to the managing modes in EA’s other sports titles but this one has more of a prestigious feel to it. You have interesting decisions that will affect many attributes of your team. An example is, you have a team that has some really good players, but their overall teamwork isn’t all that great. Well depending on what you do and how you manage one or both of these things can be affected for the better or the worse. The game has other quirks such as a FIFA Retro, which lets you check out how the FIFA series has progressed. The strange part is that even though you see a retro console on the screen and everything else, you can’t play the retro versions to give you a taste of how far we have come over the past ten years.

Arguably the most exciting thing about this year’s version is the FIFA Soccer 06 Tournaments that will be happening online that actually awards players cash in contest. The Xbox Live option of the game and multiplayer all together adds a better sense of depth that otherwise would have been lost had their been less competition this year with the contest. The setup is similar to most of EA’s online sports titles and as such you will receive a lot of basic matchmaking options but robust statistical analysis.

Visually FIFA 06 is one of the best looking sports titles I have seen this year and it should have to be especially considering it’s international success. You have very professional and almost television broadcast like presentation, and overall the game is presented well. The glare of the stadiums when you are in them over the players and the lights gleaming down really set the atmosphere of the game. The characters, while most of the time is shown from far away overhead, still are animated incredibly well. The stadiums are also extremely well detailed. Despite most of the people in the audience being two-dimensional sprites, it is still incredibly realistic. The frame rate normally keeps up but sometimes depending on how many people are on the screen and can slowdown quite a bit. The shadows in the game can be a bit strange though, as while the players have good shadowing, the light posts shadows just look like black lights are static images on the field. The sound in the game is done efficiently with a soundtrack that someone would actually want to listen to—featuring mostly popular international stars. Even though the soundtrack is good, it is still a shame that you can’t actually use your own custom soundtracks, although you don’t necessarily hear music but for maybe twenty minutes of a three hour session with the game. The commentators are probably the worst part about the sound, as you can’t understand what the hell they are saying with their thick accents half of the time, but they also add a bit more of immersion with their voices. As for the player and field sounds they are done well and should be expected as such.

Share this:

7 7 7 7 7 7

FIFA 06 is definitely going to be addictive to those soccer fans out there. The game’s advantages definitely outweigh the game’s faults so if you are a soccer fan you definitely should get this game. Then again, if you are a soccer fan getting an Xbox 360 you might want to wait for the Xbox 360 version of the title, if you want an experience that is at least different in fluidity from a previous itineration.

Discuss this in the forums!