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FIFA 2004 Review - Xbox

22nd February 2004 by
78%
Built on the success of its predecessors the FIFA series is one you can't help but applaud, to be at the top of the pops for so long offering gamers around the world an incredible football experience is something to be extremely proud of. Being one of the biggest series in the gaming industry many thought the FIFA series over past years has relied on its previous successes and not really done anything to upgrade from its predecessors, many can argue that it didn't need improvements but I disagree. Has FIFA undergone real improvements this time around or are we back to disappointing the football fanatic who overlooks a pretty intro?

Gameplay

Impulse buyers usually go for the first option of availability and interestingly enough FIFA wasn't the first to hit the shelves between the fierce battle for top spot between Pro Evolution Soccer series and the FIFA series. Could this be a definitive factor in the spot for top dog? Not really, PES3 is console exclusive to the PS2 and with Xbox gamers waiting for FIFA because there is no other real decent football game on the Xbox platform. But is this FIFA worth the wait this time around?

In football terms FIFA has the license to roam on the Xbox console it has no competition for places and is able to basically put out anything because of this. Some of us have questioned the releases of a few FIFA titles in the past thinking it's the same old stuff as its predecessors and EA expects us to swallow yesterday's leftovers. They say they've worked on updating the game, refining it further into a more overall good game instead of just aspects and trying to challenge the best of the genre. With a new career mode that allows gamers to build an empire, taking a team from the lowly slums of a lower division to rise to the challenge of the top divisions around the countries. But not only take them to the heights of success but to create a team of stars that you have brought in to do the job, it almost has that sense of achievement that one does experience in the Championship Manager series when you created a team full of unknowns and took them to glory!

The career mode doesn't just stop at that; you must prove your quality and determine a contract and clauses within the contract to maintain as you manager if you can perform certain tasks. Given a one year contract you don't have time to mess around, to all those who thought they could stick with a team for as long as they wanted, definitely not the case, you must prove your up to the job and if your not then it was fun when it lasted right? The tasks that are in the contract have to be realistic; no big club would allow objectives like finish in the top half of the table or concede less than forty goals in the league, they (continued next page)

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