Score: By: Andrew Castenmiller Date: Tuesday, 21 September, 2004
FIFA 2005
Game Type: Action
Developer: EA Sports
Publisher: EA Sports
Platform: PC, PS One, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube
It’s now over a week since the release of the FIFA 2005 demo. If you’ve played it you will have a feel for the gameplay and how it’s improved over last year. You don’t need me to tell you the new moves you can do with First Touch, how the shooting, passing and just about everything has been improved. You can judge all that for yourself by playing the demo, which you can get at our Downloads Centre.
I was lucky enough to be able to play the full version of FIFA 2005 for the PS2 thanks to EA. Here I will explain more about the features that you won’t see in the demo.
User friendly interface
Interface
The first thing when that struck me when playing FIFA 2005 was the interface. It’s simple, not too busy, slick, easy to use and just looks right. The backgrounds as you navigate around are wonderful photos of real-life stadiums that add to the football atmosphere.
Music
Add to the great looking interface the excellent variety of music. I don’t claim to be an expert on music, but from what I heard it seemed pretty cool. And not once did I hear a song repeated, so everyone who has been brainwashed by the “EA Football Theme?song in the demo will be glad to know that the full version doesn’t repeat the same song over and over again. And if you don’t like some of songs they can be easily removed through the jukebox.
I also noticed international teams have their national anthem being played before each game. This is something we saw in Euro 2004 and FIFA 2005 appears to have kept this feature.
Commentary
This year heading the English commentary yet again is John Motson with special comments by Ally McCoist. It’s more fluent than ever. I found this year they didn’t fall behind the play as they did on occasions last year, where sometimes the commentary was delayed and out of order. This year the commentary seems as good as any other sports game I’ve played. It was also nice to see Motson commentating the names of some of my players in my Division 2 team. Definitely the best commentary ever in a football game.
Crowd Sound
Crowd sound is superb. Many of the well established clubs have their own chants, although that doesn’t mean you won’t hear the crowd singing at other games. If you’re playing in the English Football League you will still here the generic English chants that are sung every week and there’s a good variety as well. I haven’t tried all leagues but I would think leagues in other countries would have their own chants as well.
When a home team scores a goal you will know about it. A huge roar fills the stadium. When an away team scores there is still a roar but a much smaller one, with most fans in the stadium remaining quiet. Playing FIFA 2005 on surround sound and your ears would tell you that you’re at the stadium.
Weather
There are two basic weather conditions. You can play a match during the day or night with “clear?or “rainy day?conditions. There is no snow or sleet as has been rumoured. In “rainy day?conditions there is no visible rain on the screen depending on the camera angle. EA explained to me that this is realistic rather than having “fake and arcadey?rain drops visible from every angle, a feature they originally had in FIFA 2005 but decided to remove it. When watching a real game of football on TV you don’t actually see the rain falling from the sky from the standard camera angles, but you do from certain camera angles. This also applies in FIFA 2005. What you will notice is “rainy day?matches are duller looking and include nice effects like water splashing off the ground when the ball hits it.
Weather isn’t just cosmetic, as it also affects the gameplay. On a rainy day the ball is heavier, players slide more, their pace is effected etc. It’s difficult to explain in writing but you will notice a difference between wet and dry conditions when you play the game.
Player Creation
Player creation is better than ever. The face making feature especially is one of the best seen in any sports game, with an astonishing level of detail. Not only can you specify the skin colour, hair styles etc. You can also adjust areas including cheeks, ears, eyes and many more facial features. The eyebrows alone can be adjusted in seven different areas using the sliders. It is very detailed and with a bit of effort you can create a near replica of your face in the game.
You assign your player playing attributes (like shooting, tackling etc.), choose your team, your number, height, weight etc. Unfortunately you cannot shape the body in a specific way and original faces (for example a face of Beckham) cannot be used on your own created players. Also, there is no EA DNA this year, which EA explained to me as proving quite troublesome to implement.
Editing original players is also not possible. Thankfully you can transfer any player to any club through “My FIFA 2005?so you can keep your game up-to-date.
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