| Playstation Review |  by Adam |
||
| Category | Sports | ||
| Players | 1-2 | ||
| Difficulty | Medium | ||
| Review Date | 2/00 | ||
| Publisher | EA Sports | ||
Let's
start with the visuals. The much improved graphics are as fluid and precise
as ever. In some games you enjoy an improvement in graphics but your player
control suffers. Not this time. The players move easily across the field, allowing
you to stop on a dime, change direction and out maneuver the opposition. It
is also worth noting that your players finally seem to have purpose, even when
your not controlling them. They move to the open field, they give support to
the ball carrier, and if you give a nice cross they crash towards the goal to
set up for headers in the box. While the Playstation still shows its age with
this title, EA Sports did the best they could with what they had.
There are two new additions to player control. The first is the ability to shield your opponent from the ball which allows you to fend off challenges if only for a moment. The second is the through ball pass. This is a brilliant new ability to play a pass that leads a streaking teammate down the field for an opportunity on goal. Both of these new features make game play more realistic than ever. Watch out for the defense though; through the course of a game don't expect to get to much distance between you and the defender trying to climb into your back pocket.
As
far as options go, this one is chock full. There are over 800 teams in this
game including classic international teams, current National teams, a full compliment
of clubs from fifteen leagues from both Europe and South America, and last but
not least, this year's MLS teams. This variety is a credit to the designers
who realized that soccer is the most widely played sport in the world. In most
other parts of the world the sport holds almost religious significance. Soccer
is universal, as are its fans, so kudos for making the effort to include everyone's
home team.
Overall FIFA 2000 is a great game, but it is not without faults. Penalty kicks do not look good. The angle that the cameras shoots from is uncomfortable, and control over both the shooter and the goal keeper are still not that great. Sometimes they don't even seem to respond.
I don't know about you guys, but one of my favorite accessories in these games is the feature that allows you to customize players. Soccer is about style. Hair styles are especially celebrated. Unfortunately, the changes that have been made to this feature of the game make it difficult to see each player's unique look. But of course this sort of amenity is secondary to game play so I'm not going to cry because Cobi doesn't have dreads and Valderama's fro has no flow.
Always thorough with great attention to detail, EA Sports comes through for all of the soccer fans of the world. They continue to make each new edition in the FIFA series better than the last, proving that they are not just content to pass on new versions without particular consideration paid to graphics, gameplay, controls, and authenticity. If you have any desire to play the best soccer game on the market, FIFA 2000 is your first place pony.
| Revolution Report Card |
| A- |
|
+ Smooth Graphics |