2002 Fifa World Cup

2002 Fifa World Cup is excellent. I think that this is the best Fifa football game ever. It has very good graphics and it has many teams to play with.

As a fan of all the EA Fifa Football games, ever since the first one came out, with its unique diagonal scrolling pitch to Fifa 97 with the first 3D Fifa football game to the new ones that come out twice a year.

However I feel that too much time was spent on the animation and graphics of this game and not enough of the playability.

EA have tried to make the game more realistic with the players bumping, pushing and jumping to get position of the ball. It all looks impressive until you try to play the game and the computer wins virtually all the battles on the harder levels. On Armature, you lose most but the computer is nearby when you finally get control of your player again. On Professional the computers pin point full pitch length passes often ends up with your player stumbling around while the computer runs 1 on 1 with the keeper.

The AI (Artificial Intelligence, the thing that controls how the players you are not moving, act) is the worse one I have seen on all of the Fifa series. I would often be caught out by one of the computer's deadly long passes to a player 10 yards behind a depleted defensive line. On replay I find for some reason 2 of my 4 defenders run to the half way line when the long pass was being made, leaving 3 computer players in an empty box with 2 of my defenders nowhere near anything.

Now I go onto your passing. There is a bar which is displayed, as about 8 white squares which fill up the longer you hold the pass button, to show how hard you are passing the ball. Nice for when you want to do a pass to space. However I found that the ball hardly ever goes to the player you want and that the powerbar had very little to do how hard you pass. Many times I have just wanted to do a little pass to a player in front of me and only a few yards. A quick tap of the pass button and I often the ball being kicked way past the intended player, because there was another player of mine off the screen and the computer thought the pass was intended for him.

Also the direction of the passes are very confusing. A red circle goes below the player you are facing and the way the ball will be passes. However, most of the time the ball will go no where near. For example 4 defenders in your own half, the left centre defender has the ball and you want to pass it to the left defender who is 2 yards in front of your player and 10 yards to the left near the touch line. You press up towards the player, and the red circle appears below him and hold the pass button so there is enough power to get the ball there. You find the ball will be passed in a straight line across the pitch go straight out and not a little bit forward as you wanted. So next time you try pressing diagonal to pass to him, only for the pass to directed to beyond the half way line to a player who may or may not bet there. This totally took all the enjoyment out of the game for me.

As I said the animation of the game is great, the best I have seen. However these animations take time and while they are happening you have no control over the player. Many times a player of mine was controlling a cross on his chest, where controls the bounce off his chest with a little knee of the ball then to let it land softly on his foot before landing softly on the ground. By which time the computer has ran 20 yards to you taken the ball off you, which again results in you stumbling to stay on your feet, where again you have no control over the player until his has finished his animation of stumbling for 2 steps the hands on the floor to steady himself and getting up before any input from your controller will do anything.

Another example of what I like to call "Once the animation started nothing can stop it" was once when a I was defending a corner and it was scored by a scissor kick into the top corner. Once again I was confused why it went in so easily and watched the replay. While the ball was in mid-cross, the goal scorer started is beautiful animation of doing the kick, and once the animation has started nothing can stop it. Not even the 2 motionless defenders who I watched the ball go through their chests before landing on the sweet spot of the goal scorers foot.

I would like to have one final moan before talking about the good bits, and yes there are some. I have never known a ref to get in the way so much. I have had passes blocked by him, tackles and even shots. Another piece of realism put in which wasn't thought out and makes the game annoying.

As promised the good things about the game.

The star players for teams are players who are better at doing things than other team members. Owen, his good speed and shooting, Beckham has good shooting and passing. You can tell your start players by the start above their head, instead of the arrow which tells you which player you are controlling. Another nice touch is when these players do their special talents. Owens shots will leave a blaze trail accompanied with the sound, and a while blur will appear when he gets burst of top speed sprinting. Beckham's passes have the ability to curl a little more and will again, leave a small blaze trail. Its a nice touch that makes the players seem a little more special.

Another very welcome touch is the realistic free kicks, with shots on goal being possible and not, almost errors like in previous Fifa games. However, not having too many free kicks in the correct place means that I don't score with them often, but this is where the practise mode found on most Fifa series games comes in handy. But for some reason its not there. The only time when I would have found it handy to use it and its been taken away. Bad judgement.

My final conclusion is that the game is very beautiful and impressive, but not the most playable Fifa game. While on Armature level I win 4-0 upping to Professional I get slaughtered 5-0 and don't have a shot on goal, and I am a player who plays all the other Fifa games on World Class. If you are a die hard EA FIFA fan, I dont think you will like this one. However if you are a new FIFA player, this is not a bad place to start. The easy levels are good enough to challenge the new players, and the ground breaking graphics is what old FIFA players expect to see with every new FIFA game.

Hi

I am a very big fan of EA Sports and especially FIFA and Cricket series. I will use "FIFA" here to refer to FIFA the game and not FIFA the federation.

In this mail I would like to give you an analysis of all your FIFA games as viewed by a typical customer like me.

I started playing FIFA from the year 98 with FIFA Road to World Cup 98 and frankly speaking I haven't thereafter played a better game on my pc. It still, even 4 years later tops the chart of my all-time favorite games. The kind of atmosphere and the feel that was built around the game, its presentation style, the huge information database, easy game play, the animations, the soundtracks and a lot of flexibility in the game turned it into anyone's hot favorite. But I was immensely disappointed with the subsequent sequels in FIFA 99 and FIFA 2000. Neither matched up to its predecessor due to several reasons like the lack of feel, things got repetitive, tougher game play i.e. one needed more keys to play and tackle effectively whereas in FIFA98 only A, S & D were enough. And in generally more concentration was on baseless hype and show rather than on actual game play.

I had completely lost my interest in FIFA when FIFA 2001 came up. I liked this version but not as much as 98. Now I'm finally hooked on to FIFA 2002 for the past two weeks and I feel that this is the best version out of the four but still falls a little short of the original FIFA 98. Below I am giving you a few tips and advices on how to make a better FIFA game: -

The graphics have definitely improved over the last years and with every new FIFA they just get better and more realistic. This is one field where EA are doing great.

Though the FIFA 2002 feel is good try to improve it a little more. What I mean is that try to make the user feel that he is no outsider but just one of the footballers. Just create a whole new world of soccer. Match the soundtracks with the presentation style e.g. like in FIFA98 the World Cup mascot playing hide and seek while in the menu did the trick. Create a worldly feel of its own. Remember soccer is the world's largest religion not a game.

One of the best things about FIFA 98 was the ability to choose more than one teams at one time for any season or world cup. Like we could play Italian league by choosing AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus , Lazio, Fiorentina all at the same time. In all the subsequent sequels this option was missing and this is the biggest drawback of FIFAs from 99 to 2002. I hoped this feature would be incorporated in FIFA 2002 but it wasn't. Please add this feature in your future FIFAs or just release game patches for the same. It helps one to get absorbed in the soccer world and feel that he is a part of the whole tournament and not just a single team.

Another feature missing was the Training feature, which provided a very healthy behind the scenes environment and a good platform to practice and perfect one's skills.

The huge information databank of FIFA 98 is also missing. In FIFA 2002 there are many teams with players without name and referred to by their numbers. For example in Ecuador no player has a name. Having a sound research on the latest player names and incorporating the same makes the game much more original.

The Game play should not either be too easy or too tough. Innovative logic should be present in game engines. Keys used should be kept to the minimum. In almost all FIFAs once you master the skills you can beat the opponent easily. I have reached scores of 18-0 while playing against a twice-strong team (in FIFA 2001 and all the earlier ones. I haven't yet mastered FIFA 2002.) The only solution is innovative logic and no to get repeated.

The best feature of FIFA2002 is that it allows you to remap keys according to your convenience.

FIFA 98 included stadiums and stadium animations from around the globe, which were great.

Please try to include as many teams as possible. Like we in India hate it when India isn't included. These teams are included only in the World cup editions.

Another great feature in the new FIFAs is the tournament creation center.

All in all FIFA2002 with a better info base and the ability to choose more than one teams would be the ideal FIFA. I still remember how FIFA98 bowled everyone who saw and played it. It was a revolution.

Well these were my frank opinions and advices. I'm sure there are many more people who feel the same. If the opinions of typical gameplaying customers like us matters then please do write back and let me know what you have to say. Also tell me about any patches or fixes available on the net.

Thank you

avi

FIFA 2002 has stunning visuals, although I've only given them a nine because no doubt EA will further improve on them next year! The ball control is so much more lifelike and the gameplay is much more logical and you need to construct a game plan to win against the better teams. Previous to this, football games have been very pinball like. This game has a button to send a player on a run which is the major feature... they've removed the amusing but rare in reality 'Rocastle 360' and flipover (how many times do you see players doing that, certainly not every time they get the ball?!) You still get a little sidestep and, of course, the back heels and all that are still there. EA have gone for realism - and it works...!

When you look at the EA FIFA series over the last few years, they have been more of an evolution rather than a revolution.

Yes, the graphics and sound improved, the game play was tweaked every year; but you always knew what to expect. FIFA 2002 is a pleasant surprise, its now all about tactical game play, decisive quick one-twos and good approach play. With an all new passing system, and the ability to direct players ready for those 30-yard defence-splitting passes, this game has come of age. Long gone are the days of those glorious solo runs, or legging it down the wings to the corner flag and crossing the ball to the waiting striker that never missed.

It took me a while to get used to the new control system and updated game play, but believe me it's a far more rewarding game to play. Especially as you watch the back of your opponents net bulge with that sweet curling shot you just let fly.

Ultimately for me, FIFA 2002 is the football gaming revolution I have been waiting for. The game play is by far the best currently available, the graphics are indeed an improvement over its predecessors, and with neat little touches like being able to hear the players call for the ball, no stone has been left unturned when its come to updating this game.

All new football games on any platform are going to be benchmarked against this game. Simply put, JUST BUY IT!