FIFA 2005

Written by Cbadds

EA Sports FIFA franchise is the world’s best selling football game whether wrongly or rightly depending on your preferences. Have EA given Gizmondo fans something to chant about or will we be left with our head in our hands?

Aim:

Like any other FIFA football game the aim is to bring you the most realistic football game possible on your system. This is done by giving the user fully licensed teams and players from you favourite football leagues around the world (even if the game is a little out of date, Andy Cole still with Blackburn Rovers?). Everything here a football fan could want Even an annoying soundtrack.

Controls:

The controls are tight with each player having they’re own unique attributes giving a different feel to each player on the team. The controls are simplified compared to console versions of Fifa making the game feel like more of an arcade experience. Everything is present that you would expect from a football game, sprint button, pass, lob, shoot, conservative tackle, hard tackle and even a last man back button. But unlike console versions there’s not a trick button to use but in all honesty its not really a big lose. Overall the controls are very easy to use and you will be remembering them in no time.

Gameplay:

FIFA though mostly flawed in aspect of gameplay always provides the gamer with fun and in this case it’s no different. The game is easy pick up and play and people will find them selves easily getting into the game.

The game has 5 game options Friendly match, Challenges (playing famous moments from the past) career mode (main mode of the game), completion where you can play a single season or play in a cup the final option is the multiplayer game.

The game gives the player the chance to play on different pitch conditions and allows you to select the level that you want to play (Beginner, Amateur, Professional and world class just like in other FIFA games) you can also change the goalkeepers AI. You’ll find yourself putting the difficulty level up top as scoring goals is a little easy on the lower levels. The amount of wind can also be changed causing the ball to move differently though the air.

An impressive feature in the game is to view a reply any time though out the game by pressing the L button, so if you ever produce skill of that worthy to Ronaldinho then you can view it in all its bliss.

I found the pace of the game a little slow even while the players are sprinting but that’s not really a big issue.

There’s a wealth of teams to play with in Fifa 2005 from nearly every league you could want (but no Conference!) The game also offers international teams so there’s plenty for you to play with.

Multiplayer:

The game offers multiplayer gaming.. I will try to find out how this plays when I find another person with the game, but I would imagine that it would play as expected.

Graphics:

When first seeing this game as E3 I thought it was a straight port from the N-gage, now months later even though the graphics have sharpened up I’m still of the same opinion the Graphics aren’t going to blow you away, but the player animation is very good and when the camera is set to broadcast the game looks much more respectable than that of the action camera view (also a better view to play the game in).
The Interface of the game is nicely set out with menus being very easy to navigate also you’ll find the text on the screen is very clear even though it’s small.
Player detail is very low but with the screen size it is expected and again this really doesn’t bother you while playing (no that it would), the pitch also has little detail to it with the crowd leaving a lot to be desired.

Sound:

WORST MUSIC EVER! Also accompanied by some awful in game sounds

Improvements:

Graphics, sounds, gameplay everything could be improved upon… but that’s the case with most games

Closing comments:

Awful Graphics appalling sounds disjointed gameplay but some how FIFA is a game that manages to waste a good few minutes each time you turn the Gizmondo on. 30 English pounds I would say on your bike… but if it was cheaper I would say it’s a title to be considered on the Gizmondo.