Soccer has made a pretty good showing on the Xbox 360 since it’s release almost a year ago. To date there have already been two soccer titles released and another one just came down the pipe (with one more on the way soon). It has been very much a roller coaster ride of games, the first being average to not so good, and the second was just awesome, with the newest rendition falling somewhere in the middle.
First off EA has decided to try a new formula which may account for it not being as good as FIFA World Cup, but I truly think that though we may have to suffer through a few sub-par FIFA games, in the end this new style of gameplay will pay off. I played soccer starting at the age of six and going all the way up through a state-championship winning team in high school. The FIFA series has always been something I have looked forward to and FIFA 07 for the Xbox 360 was no different. I was curious to play it once I found out that EA had decided to go for an all-new game plan and toss out the old one. Being the third FIFA title from EA for the 360 I was expecting it to be the most polished and well-done one of all. Not everything worked out like I had hoped but one thing is for sure, FIFA 07 is going in the right direction, although it might not be all the way to the end of the road just yet.
FIFA 07 is not just a reworked FIFA 06 game with new teams and new players on the front cover; this baby is all new from the ground up. EA has decided that the time has come to revamp their soccer franchise for the next-generation. Unfortunately the next-gen mentality does not carry over to the amount of modes or features in this game. There are only two modes available to Xbox 360 gamers who purchase FIFA 07: Free Play and Team Manager Mode. The second being the meat of the game I dove right into after only a few warm up games. First you get to name your character, choose your team, choose a sponsor, and decide what attributes of your teams’ players are going to shine. There are around 117 teams to choose from which honestly is a disappointment to anyone that is used to the massive lists that are usually included with FIFA titles, hell even the current gen FIFA 07 has more teams than the more expensive 360 version. It would not make many soccer fans happy to see the rest of the teams show up on Xbox Live marketplace for a small fee. We want full games now and extra content later, not content that was supposed to be in the game originally. Anyhow after I got over that I picked my favorite team, Manchester United, and suited up for my first game against Chelsea.
Wrongfully I assumed that my years of FIFA game time would allow me to whip any team that EA threw at me during the season, but boy was I wrong. This really is a completely new game built from only small parts of previous versions and it’s not easy. First let’s cover the good. The new ball physics are simply awesome, no soccer game in the past has been able to handle the way a soccer ball should bounce or roll as good as FIFA 07 did it this year. Player’s dribble the ball in a whole new way that you really just need to see to believe, the realism shines during the ball handling. Moving away from the more arcade-like feel of FIFA World Cup EA is shooting for a good mix of realism and fun, and this they succeeded in. All of these ball movements would be nothing without good player models and FIFA 07’s move with the best of them. Even the classic Winning Eleven series has never came this close to making the models move with a sense of realism that is really refreshing to see in a soccer title. The difficulty is ramped up a little this year and thanks to the scoring difficulty you will find yourself in many tied matches even on the “semi-pro” (medium) setting. Now for the bad parts, and there some big ones. Player collisions are so ridiculous in this game it is really better if you actually stay away from other players, just keep to yourself and everything will be fine. Shooting, and to a smaller extent passing, took a huge hit this year with the new gameplay as well. Gone are the days of pressing B to place the ball in the back of the net. Now are the days of precise aiming and a much more realistic shooting style. The cool thing about this feature is that hitting the upper 90 from 25 yards out with Rooney’s right foot is something that can easily be done. Scoring a goal from inside the penalty box is a different story all together. I did notice that after twenty plus games I was beginning to score a lot more and was able to more accurately control my shots.
