PRO EVO BEATER (FIFA 07 (Xbox))

Member Name: sifair

Product:	FIFA 07 (Xbox)
Date:	07/06/07 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Online features, good gameplay, top graphics, so much to do, cost £10 now

Disadvantages: None really

Fifa 07 is the the most recent football sim to be released on the xbox, with no offering from konami this season Fifa didn't have to compete with Pro Evolution Soccer as the sixth version of the game was only released on the next gen console. So is this Fifa worth buying or should you just stick to the old Pro Evo 5 that was released a couple of years ago? Well I am pleased to say that EA Sports has done a good job with Fifa 07 and as most people say every year with Fifa, it's getting better and better, it's not perfect but it's getting there. It plays differently than Fifa 06 and plays more like a Pro Evo game but not exactly the same. This is a step in the right direction and hopefully Fifa will be better than Pro Evo in a couple of seasons.

<<GRAPHICS>>
This year as always Fifa 07 looks great on the xbox, beating the previous versions in looks and style. The stadiums have been created very nicely and really good, the crowd is active and they actually do look fairly decent and have good animation. The player models look nice and it looks like EA has done a fair bit of work on the players as you can tell exactly who is who in the majority of cases without even looking at the name on the shirt. The players are animated nicely and they move well, not quite as well as in Pro Evo 5 but they still move quite realistically even if they don't move perfectly. As ever the presentation of the game is done in a TV style and everything looks and feels immaculate, the scoreboard and in game menus look fresh and tidy and so do the navigation menus. The kits also look fantastic as EA Sports have got the vital licenses to make there game look authentic, the kits look great and they are all done to a high standard which makes you feel even more like you are playing a realistic football game which is good.

<<SOUND>>
Once again EA has pulled out all the stops to give you a great sounding game, although this is football the company has included a good soundtrack with lots of well known music as well as some lesser known but enjoyable music. The soundtrack helps you enjoy the game more as it lets you listen to a good set of tunes whilst you are navigating the menus. Once a match is started you get straight into the commentary which is presented by real commentators, another license EA seems to have acquired and although the commentary sounds good for the first few hours of gameplay it does start to get repetitive and annoyingly the commentators do say stupid and irrelevant things which particularly gets on my nerves. You can turn the commentary off if you hate it but I think it adds to the realism of the game so I always leave it on. As well as having a soundtrack and commentary EA has added relevant chants from regions all over the world to the game, they haven't put in every song, mainly just 1 or 2 for each big club and some general chants such as 'who r ya' and 'way' this makes the crowd feel like it's actually there rather than just being drawn in the background like in previous versions of Fifa.

<<GAMEPLAY>>
This is the biggest area that Fifa has improved on this year and it's where the game is set to make a much better impression than in previous versions where EA has relied upon it's good style, presentation and graphics to carry it through, thankfully Fifa 07 doesn't rely on these things, it has good gameplay that you will enjoy. The major overhaul to the gameplay has been in the defending, dribbling, shooting and passing areas, the goalkeeping is still bad but thats about the only thing that Fifa lets itself down with. When passing the new improved passing system makes sure the pass goes to one of your players, why you might ask, well it's been done because real footballers find it easy to pass so in Fifa it should be the same. Your player will never just randomly passes it anywhere when doing a simple pass, he will pass to a team mate in the direction you actually pressed. Occasionally the ball is passed to the wrong player but very rarely and you don't usually give the ball away so it's not really a problem. The dribbling has also been improved, no longer are you glue foot, the ball is pushed out in front of the player especially when sprinting with the ball, this gives the dribbling a much more realistic feel, the only way your going to dribble round every defender now is if your extremely lucky or incredibly skillful and can hold of and dodge opponents well. Shooting has been overhauled and now your player will shoot according to his surroundings, if he is under pressure, trying to turn and trying to perfectly time a volley it's pretty unlikely to happen and usually he will miss embarrassingly like in real football. On the other hand if you are in space and the ball is nicely played in front of you then it is much more likely to result in a goal or a decent shot on target. So basically when you are attacking it takes more skill to score a goal than in previous Fifa's, this results in more realistic gameplay and realistic scorelines which is excellent. Also now no two games feel the same, 1500 new player animations have been created and this makes a much more variable game, you may score similar goals but never exactly the same, Fifa will keep you entertained for ages and EA reckons they have created over 80 hours of unique football action which is some going and in my opinion it seems to be true as I am still scoring new goals and coming up with different ways to score even though I've had the game for over 6 months.

<<GAME MODES>>
As this is Fifa and it has complete authenticity there are many great game modes that will keep you playing Fifa forever if you enjoy it. There is loads of different tournaments available, every real league and all the cup competitions are present and when you have finished with them you can create your own league or cup but I guarantee it will to take you years to complete every different competition. You can also compete in the Career mode which allows you to take on a team and build them up in there real league to be the best, you know the story. It allows for up to a 15 year career and you can change clubs at the end of a season or if you get sacked. It also allows to sign the best players improve the stadium, improve coaches and train up youth players sign sponsors which helps the career mode to feel fulfilling and satisfying rather than just winning match after match. As well as the career mode and all the other tournaments you can can complete challenges, some of them are for winning the leagues and cups but there are others, such as win 5-0 on this difficulty or score with a goalkeeper, there are loads of others and they are all very individual and different to one another, basically this mode allows you to enjoy the game more and it gives it extra longevity. The reward for completing challenges is given in points which you can use to unlock extras such as dream teams or new stadiums to train in, third kits, sound effects, camera angles and a whole host of other stuff. On top of this it is possible to play online which is great as it gives you a break from challenging the AI which is always a good thing in any game, a nice human opponent to bring you a bit of unpredictability and a different style of play to the AI to mix things up a bit. Online it is possible to play in matches to improve your ranking or you can just play for fun. If you want you can choose a team and play real league fixtures to try and help your team win the league. So If Man Utd are playing Chelsea in real life and you are a Man Utd fan you can play as them against a real Chelsea fan on Fifa to try and effect where your team finishes in the league. This feature is called interactie leagues and all the wins losses and draws are added up by EA to see which teams supporters are best at playing Fifa. This is an excellent feature and good thinking by EA but there is only four leagues to choose from which is a little disappointing, nevertheless it is excellent to have an effect on a league table to try and help your team become the champions of the interactive league. Of course the all important English league is there so I'm not to bothered about there being only four leagues to choose from even though there are many more to choose from offline.

<<OTHER FEATURES>>
Also online there are regular updates to the game and this increases the accuracy of the game by transferring the players to all the correct clubs so you don't have to bother. This is an excellent feature and saves you a lot of time if you like to keep things like real life. When you are playing Fifa you can choose to have a ticker displayed, this means that you can sign into xbox live and the ticker will show real world football news and scores from ESPN so you never have to leave your xbox even when an important match is being played. As well as this a new podcast is released every week and will automatically load itself when you sign into xbox live, the show is about the interactive leagues and what fans think of the game, the show also discusses real football stuff and often a guest from the EA Sports team comes in to talk abut the game and it's features and answers fan questions.

<<CONCLUSION>>
Personally I now love Fifa's gameplay because it is so much better than before, it now challenges Pro Evo on the gameplay front and smashes it on the presentation side of things making it the best footy sim you can get for the moment. I would definitely recommend Fifa to any sports game fans or footy fans or anyone else for that matter as it is a very enjoyable and satisfying football game that has significantly improved upon previous versions of itself. There is so much to do it will keep you going forever, they don't need to release another Fifa for years because there is just so much content here.

Thanks for Reading :-)

Summary: Great Fifa game that improves greatly on past attempts, well worth a look