It seems FIFA games come out more frequently than your team plays in their league. Is it really worth shelling out £40 every time a new edition hits shelves, with near identical gameplay and a few new shirts and a transfer update? You've played one FIFA game you've played them all, right? Not this time.
FIFA 07 is changing the game. It's not simply going to recycle the same old gameplay and dump on loads more excessive features that you don't need. This time EA has picked through its past work, wiped out the crap and has given the whole thing a complete overhaul.
We like new FIFA producer Joe Booth's way of thinking: "We didn't want to come out and say we're just adding one or two new features. We wanted to say we're just being passionate about football and really taking the whole experience up. You can't just improve one area without addressing everything else."
And that's exactly what EA has done. We were among the first people outside EA to get our hands on the controls with FIFA 07, and can tell you that EA has gone a long way to try and make this the most realistic, most believable football game you've ever played. But before we get into the intricacies of the on-field gameplay, we first want to tell you about FIFA 07's most exciting new feature - the Interactive League.
This is a new online gameplay mode that ties the game in with real life league fixtures. Fixtures in the game open up a few days before real life. You enter Xbox Live as a fan of your team and the game will place you in a match against a fan of the opposing team. You play as many games as you like until the fixture closes at the end of the real life match. All the wins and losses from everyone playing the game around the world are collated, and the team that got the most wins will get three points in the online Interactive League. This means that all the fans of a team are working together to get the most wins for their team so that it gets the three points at the end of the fixture.
Joe Booth explained that his aim was to link the game in with real life football as much as possible. "We were brainstorming everyday about how we can create an experience that ties you into your club," he said. "This is a taste of where football games are going to go in the future."
And what a fantastic feature this seems. The communal aspects of this system are awesome. Imagine it - you'll be able to log onto Xbox Live everyday to see how your team is doing in the Interactive League compared to how it is in real life. The only difference here is that if your team is getting humped in the standings, you don't have to cry about it (or turn your TV upside down and pretend they're winning), you can get online for their next fixture and kick some ass, contributing to earning the three points they need. And the hard work you put in will be well worth the effort because the game will also keep a record of how many games you've won for your team, and display a leader board for the top 100 players for each team. Hit the top of that leader board and you'll get RESPECT, from us at least, and fellow fans of your team.
To enhance the game's ties with the real life sport, the game uses a system called Online Everywhere, which basically means that it will go online the moment you switch it on (providing you have a Live account) and keep you connected with real footie events. You will be able to keep up to date with the latest league standings, game scores and fixtures all from within the menus of the game. It will retrieve live information from the internet over Xbox Live, so you never miss a beat. Even better, Booth told us that players will have the option to have live score bulletins appear on-screen during gameplay. So even if you're a FIFA addict and can't put the pad down, you'll know what's going on in the real sport. Being the official FIFA game, we're surprised EA didn't do this before. Finally, our wish list is coming true.
And that's not all. EA will use the online connection to post weekly podcasts for your enjoyment, featuring interviews with players, and various football-related stuff. You also won't need to buy ANOTHER FIFA game three months later for the new transfers because EA will beam all the latest transfers down your fat internet pipe to your Xbox, once after the game's launch and then again after the transfer window closes in January.
All these fantastic features sound great, but it's the core gameplay that matters, and as we said before, EA has worked on that aspect of the game a whole load too. EA no longer wants FIFA to be just another footie game, and is determined to make this the most believable football game ever made. Joe Booth explained his philosophy behind it: "After around 15 to 20 hours of playtime, people tend to stop playing football games as football, and they start to play them as videogames. As in, they learn patterns that they can repeat to score, or can get into advantageous positions exploiting tactics that aren't authentic to football but through shortcomings in the game engine. We want players to hit 50 or 70 hours with FIFA 07 and still be seeing new animations, scoring new kinds of goals and seeing new rebounds."
To achieve this, EA has started with massively enhancing the physics on the ball. The new physics system works out how much spin, speed and height is on the ball, and accurately works out how that affects the ball's trajectory when struck by the head or foot of a player. EA has also designed a system of 'context sensitive' shooting. This is a system that figures out how likely your player is to hit the target when he takes a shot, based not only on his statistics but also on the current situation he's in. It assesses all the things that might affect your shot to determine your power and accuracy. Confused? We'll let Booth do the talking: "When you take a shot it's all about composure. Do you have enough space? Have you gained full control over the ball before you shoot? If you're trying to do a 180 degree turn and shoot you've got less composure and are less likely to hit the net. If you're hitting the ball while it's moving quickly through the air, it's a tougher shot so you're less likely to hit the net. So it's all about finding space, getting into position for a comfortable shot and having composure on the control pad as well as on the pitch."
It's really clever stuff. Even your best striker will flunk a shot if he's trying to wrestle with a defender and turn at an awkward angle. As Booth explained, it also assesses how under control the ball is. If you try striking the ball as it's fumbling around your feet, you won't get the shot you desire. But the context sensitivity doesn't just work to hinder your shots. You know those sweet situations when the ball rolls nicely out ahead of a striker who just happens to be sprinting towards goal? Hammer the shot button in this situation and the context sensitivity kicks in beautifully, and your player will belt it towards goal so fast the keeper won't know what's going on."
Passing has also been re-worked, and the game now lends more of a helping hand when you're tapping the ball around the pitch. "What's easy for footballers to do in real life should be easy for the player to do," Booth explained. "Passing is very easy for real professional footballers so it should be easy in the game, too. They wouldn't try to pass the ball through a player of the opposing team." But in a video game, you're controlling a small player in the telly with buttons - it's nowhere near as accurate as kicking a real ball. So the game has an autoaim mechanic that will work to help you avoid opposing players as well as target the ball at the player you wish to play the ball to. Very useful.
But while the game gives you more help in one area, it takes away assistance in another. We're talking about winning aerial balls. If you want to get your bonce on the end of a cross you've really got to work for it. At the moment, FIFA and Pro Evo games move your player automatically to where the ball will land and you just wait. In FIFA 07, you have to move the analogue stick to wrestle ferociously with an opposing player as the ball comes down to win the header. It's fantastic to see - elbows and hands shove you about as you grapple to get to the ball before your opponent does.
It's the finer details like this, along with all the online support, that will surely make FIFA games the ones to own in the future. And with realism enhancements made to the Manager mode too, FIFA 07 looks like it could be something special. Pro Evo games are widely considered to be the better footie games (despite FIFA always selling more copies), but with all the effort EA has clearly put into its FIFA series lately, we could be seeing the official game reclaiming its position at the top of the league.
FIFA is getting better and better every year but i can't help but think they would improve the game faster if they didn't make big deals about things that have been done already.
Players have had a harder time shooting when under pressure and when turning for a while in Pro Evo (at least the last 2). Not too long ago people from EA where raving about "realistic nets". They should just get on with it.
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