In this series of blogs I am going to review video games. Doesn't matter if they are old or new, good or bad, expensive or cheap. The only criterion I have is that I have not played the game before reviewing it.
As you may have gathered from the title, in this installment I will be reviewing this year's FIFA football game. Let's go shall we.
I haven't played a FIFA game since FIFA 98 Road To The World Cup but I had heard that there have been a lot of changes since then but at it's core, it is still a football game. You all know football, rival armies of 11 men take turns traveling to each other's fortresses in order to do battle. These battles last around 90 minutes or so with a short break in the middle for the soldiers to recuperate for their commander to shout tactics and encouragement at them. The aim of these battles is to get more points than the other army in order to get different points so that they can win a yearly war. Every 2 years, whole countries get involved and steal soldiers from armies across their kingdom in order to represent them in alternating European and World wars. This year there is a world war in Brazil so there is more emphasis on the international armies yet they have managed to get the balance right so that it doesn't detract from the nationwide wars, I like that.
Another change that has happened at some point is the ability to equip your soldiers with different armour and weapons. I don't remember this being anything included in the real game but it sure is fun to take control of Messi after giving him the sword of omens and making him chop off Petr Chec's arm before deftly tapping the ball into the back of the net. This mechanic definitely makes the game a lot more interesting and means that armies are more customisable than before, not only boasting a ginormous character roster numbering in the tens of thousands but now there are literally millions of different pieces of equipment meaning that no 2 online games will be the same again.
Speaking of online, that brings me onto my next point that I'd like to discuss. The music in this game is terrible, don't get me wrong they've got around 35-40 songs on there, which is a respectable amount. Unfortunately, due to the fact that they've obviously tried to cater to a wide range of people with differing tastes in music, you will only have a small selection of songs that you actually like. There is a bright side however, you don't have to listen to them during the battles. The crowd noises are much more realistic than previous versions and the commentating is top notch. The halt time punditry is so realistic too that I almost fell asleep listening to Alan Shearer.
All in all, this game surprised me with how polished it felt. The controls are strange to get used to with the left side of the joypad controlling the lower body and the right controlling the upper body (don't worry lefties, you can swap them over). I was able to get past the fact that I didn't like most of the songs by hearing them so often in the menus that I developed a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, so that wasn't too bad.
My final score for this game is 9/10, the only things that let it down were the lack of music that I like (that didn't lose it any marks because it's just personal preference), and the lack of realistic blood splatter.
Until next time.
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