Opinions - How EA Sport's FIFA series reclaimed its football crown

[HEXUS]

One minute it was great, then it was rubbish, and then it was great again. How did the FIFA series reclaim its soccer crown? Check out this opinion piece...

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[Beserker]

Couldn't agree more, great article. I've felt almost insulted by Konami over the last couple of years , with the tripe updates they've realeased, truly they had run out of ideas when pretty much the only new feature was the 'dive' button. I wonder how long it took them to think that one up......

I have Pro Evo 4 on the PS3 and it looks as good as the new ones do with it being upscaled. Although I've always been a bit of a fanboy of FIFA, I always had to learn to play Evo as all my mates did, I just couldn't get into their way of thinking....I always knew FIFA would come good again...and it did. But EURO is just superb

[SupaT]

I'm sorry but how is Fifa '07 a good game?

I only ever play mulitplayer, and still play it for about an hour a day at work (lunchbreak) but I can't believe it was ever released in the state it was:

Advantage rule clearly broken beyond all reason and no use to the game what-so-ever.
Poor AI - Defenders keep backing off and backing off, making it easy to just run forwards and launch a long range strike which all too often went in, "earning" an instant equaliser for the player who's just concded.
Being able to just hoof the ball upfield and have it drop on your attacking player, who is then always faster than the defender.
When running across the pitch, the player with the ball is always fastest.
Sliding tackles always going towards the ball, rather than in the direction the player is facing meaning you can't always block a players route.

It goes on and on. One of the easiest single player modes ever, complimented by a multiplayer game so frustrating it makes you want to physically hurt EA Sports employees.

That being said, I'll give Fifa '09 a chance if they've actually bothered to play-test it.

[wzix]

All throughout the 90's there was ISS on the ps2 and snes, ISS is PES but the arcade version, it was a great game and played by lots, do youre research

[Nelsaidi]

Upto fifa 2004 all i played was fifa, but now, im just a fan of PES.

fifa 00 was awesome

[Merlin4458]

Fifa 08 was the turning point. Nothing before

[Steven W]

I'm sorry but how is Fifa '07 a good game?

I only ever play mulitplayer, and still play it for about an hour a day at work (lunchbreak) but I can't believe it was ever released in the state it was:

Advantage rule clearly broken beyond all reason and no use to the game what-so-ever.
Poor AI - Defenders keep backing off and backing off, making it easy to just run forwards and launch a long range strike which all too often went in, "earning" an instant equaliser for the player who's just concded.
Being able to just hoof the ball upfield and have it drop on your attacking player, who is then always faster than the defender.
When running across the pitch, the player with the ball is always fastest.
Sliding tackles always going towards the ball, rather than in the direction the player is facing meaning you can't always block a players route.

It goes on and on. One of the easiest single player modes ever, complimented by a multiplayer game so frustrating it makes you want to physically hurt EA Sports employees.

That being said, I'll give Fifa '09 a chance if they've actually bothered to play-test it.

I thiink I've been misinterpreted. I didn't say it was a good game, I said it was better. What I meant is that FIFA 07 was the beginning of the end for me. I actually say I still played PRo Evo, instead of FIFA 07, which was the better football game. All I'm saying is that EA had upped it's game and things were starting to improve in their series. I played FIFA 07 mainly because of the online mode was better, but you could see at this point they were starting to pull their finger out.

It was really FIFA 08 where things really changed.

[cj2mrhat]

Er - is this a review of FIFA on 360/PS3? Fine if it is - I've played the ps3 version of Fifa 08 and to my surprise it was very very good - but have you tried FIFA 08 on the pc? I have - Its a port of the ps2 version of the game!! How lazy do EA want to get? PES on the pc is exactly the same as the 360 and ps3 versions so I'll be sticking to that until EA actually pull their finger out. what a joke!

[Steven W]

Er - is this a review of FIFA on 360/PS3? Fine if it is - I've played the ps3 version of Fifa 08 and to my surprise it was very very good - but have you tried FIFA 08 on the pc? I have - Its a port of the ps2 version of the game!! How lazy do EA want to get? PES on the pc is exactly the same as the 360 and ps3 versions so I'll be sticking to that until EA actually pull their finger out. what a joke!

Yep, perhaps I should have clarified. My experience on FIFA 08 is on the Xbox 360. I've not played the PC version.

[SupaT]

I thiink I've been misinterpreted. I didn't say it was a good game, I said it was better. What I meant is that FIFA 07 was the beginning of the end for me. I actually say I still played PRo Evo, instead of FIFA 07, which was the better football game. All I'm saying is that EA had upped it's game and things were starting to improve in their series. I played FIFA 07 mainly because of the online mode was better, but you could see at this point they were starting to pull their finger out.

It was really FIFA 08 where things really changed.

I wasn't having a pop at you, I apologise if that's how it sounded.

I haven't played Fifa '08 so I can't comment (I vowed never to buy another Fifa game until they actually started to play-test them before releasing them).

But I much preferred PES '07 to Fifa.

I'm not really a fanboy, I'll play what I deem to be the better game but having been stung by EA Sports apparent comtempt for it's customers I'm now most definately a "try before I buy" consumer.

[Steven W]

I wasn't having a pop at you, I apologise if that's how it sounded.

I haven't played Fifa '08 so I can't comment (I vowed never to buy another Fifa game until they actually started to play-test them before releasing them).

But I much preferred PES '07 to Fifa.

I'm not really a fanboy, I'll play what I deem to be the better game but having been stung by EA Sports apparent comtempt for it's customers I'm now most definately a "try before I buy" consumer.

no worries, you had a valid point.

[Silent Shark]

I'm afraid FIFA08 on the PC suffered from EAs policy of wanting to include everyone, and not targeting the hardcore gamer. They were worried that porting the next gen FIFA to the PC would mean only those with top of the line PCs would get it to work, and that's not their target audience (which is fair enough, as most of my friends who play FIFA/PES have old laptops with nVidia 5 series Go chipsets in them).

FIFA09 on the PC is supposed to have the new engine. Fingers crossed it does.

[clearlyolly]

I have to say I disagree. Maybe it's because I'm not at the same level at fifa as I am a pro evo but, whilst I can appreciate how much fifa has moved on, I just find it boring somehow. It still feels a bit slow and clumsy. Passes don't go where you tell them to, shooting is woeful, still, keepers are poor. It still feels a bit scripted somehow. There's still "pipes" (guaranteed ways of scoring, such as running towards the corner of the 6 yard box and shooting low to the near post).

However, the online part of fifa is absolutely fantastic, I'll give them that. The be a pro feature is great, and I can't wait to see the improvements in fifa 09.

Purely for a game of footy with your mates on a console, pro evo still edges it for me, it's much more exciting, however lazy and complacent konami have become.

I hope they've realised this and are completely redesiging the new game. Maybe next year we'll have a real fight on our hands as to which is the best footy game!