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EA Sports’ series makes a return. While soccer isn’t very popular in the United States, in many other countries like Mexico and Portugal, it is actually much more popular than football, arguably the most popular of American sports. FIFA Soccer 2005 is the latest entry in EA Sports’ long-running series and even to a series newbie like myself, offers gratifying, arcadey gameplay.
You’ll spend much of your time in the game in the rather lengthy career mode. In it, you play as a newcomer coach, and as such will have to begin in the bottom with the worst teams of whatever region you choose. If you play well, you’ll be rewarded with points which you can use to add new players to your team or “level up” your coaches, managers, and scouts. Leveling up these coaches will enable your players to become more efficient. As you progress through the career, you’ll be offered jobs in more prestigious teams and you can pack up your beefy coaches and take them with you. The game allows you to play each of the games in a series or you can choose to simply simulate them if you’re only interested in the managing aspects.
The actual soccer gameplay in the game is very functional. You’re given a great deal of control over the ball in the game, and you’ll be able to do things like passing it to a specific point very easily (simply tap the analog stick and the ball is on its way). The game also gives you much control over the ball as you run about the field, so much so that with a good deal of practice and a very skillful player, you can become nearly unstoppable. The move, called first-touch controls, is fairly balanced so you can’t rely on solely mastering them and humiliating opponents. All in all, the game rewards you for mastering its delicacies, without forcing them to be successful.
Controls are important in a sports game, and FIFA Soccer 2005 handles very well on the PlayStation 2. EA has been accustomed to the four shoulder buttons of the PS2 and the game uses them very well for the more complex moves.
To keep you interested in playing, FIFA Soccer 2005 gives you bonus points for completing certain objectives, like winning a game by a certain number of goals. While the unlockables aren’t particularly great – a few new uniforms, slightly altered stadiums and the like – it does provide some incentive to keep playing.
While the career mode is certainly fun, sports games lend themselves to be multiplayer games with ease. On the PlayStation 2, you can hook up two multitaps and play with up to eight players. Of course, you can hop online and enter a game via the appropriate titled Play Now button. You can also set up tournaments. The game has a bit of lag here and there, but thankfully it doesn’t happen frequently. While others experienced disconnects, in my play time I never had such a problem. Playing online gives you bragging rights as you can always check the leader board, although don’t be surprised when you notice that it is dominated by the likes of Manchester United and Brazil. Additionally, you’ll be able to gain the unlockable bonus points I mentioned above by playing online.
Visually, FIFA Soccer 2005 looks great. The game’s many licensed players look realistically (although if they are representative of actual players is beyond my knowledge) and have very impressive animation, which fits the game’s nature while not looking absurd. Furthermore, they have authentic uniforms. The stadiums are also quite large and detailed. The PS2 version, which thankfully supports progressive scan, looks a bit less detailed than the Xbox version, but the differences are insignificant.
The game’s sound effects reflect the actual sport of soccer rather well and the commentary by Ally McCoist and John Motson is dead-on for the most part. As expected, you’ll find many music tracks in the game (over forty actually) and you have the option of turning any of them off, a handy feature with such a varied list. The PS2 version of the game uses Dolby Pro Logic II, which doesn’t sound quite as good as the Xbox’s Dolby Digital, but good nonetheless.
FIFA Soccer 2005 is a very solid product overall. The game’s presentation is superb, the gameplay is good and fast-paced, and the game offers much replayability. Overall, a great purchase for soccer fans. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 21, 2004
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