1-May-2002 Want a souvenir of the finals? Here's one that fits inside your PS2 Want a souvenir of the finals? Here's one that fits inside your PS2
By rights, they shouldn't sell this in game shops at all. It should be racked next to the mugs, pens and other silly merchandise. The box says it's the game of the World Cup and it is.
Player names are spot on, although the developers have made some odd choices as to who would make the starting eleven for most countries. There are giant windsock puppet men dancing in the corners of the stadium and it all looks pretty damn close to how it will on TV. Which is pretty much all the casual buyer will want, and fair play to him.
third division Is it a world-beating footy game? No way. Like a World Cup mug is the same as a normal mug, this is essentially the same game as FIFA 2002. The graphics are sharper (at the cost of a glitchy framerate when things hot up) and the new gameplay addition is the ability to do keepy-ups – a feature the N64 ISS games had until they realised it was pointless.
2002 FIFA World Cup plays a clumsy game of football. It's easier to dribble the ball than pass it, as the game draws dots on the pitch to show player runs and the game also makes pass execution frustratingly hit-and-miss. Creating a scoring chance isn't hard, though you'll often hammer stupidly wide and wonder why. When the roar goes up for a goal, you don't feel nearly as pumped, as goals come pretty cheaply.
Big scores are often in evidence, but you'll get more satisfaction from Pro Evolution Soccer. Even vocals from Motty and Andy Gray can't disguise the fact that this is just another piece of World Cup merchandise. We know it, EA knows it.
Dean Scott
// Overview
Verdict
No doubt it will feed World Cup fever adequately enough, but at the end of the day, it plays only average football.
In some lame predicting exercise, we decided to play the championship as England first time we loaded it. No reading the manual, no setting it on Easy mode. Go on the England!
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