FIFA 2003 (PS2)

Having played and owned every Fifa game from Fifa 95, for various different consoles it was inevitable that I would be picking up the new game. Throughout the years there have been plenty of Fifa games and many of them good games, but over the last few years it seems as if the standard has fallen as EA sports have tried the game play. However I am pleased to say that the standard of this year?s game is much higher.

GRAPHICS
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...been this many in a Fifa game before but you get a much more realistic experience when playing in these stadiums as each one if modelled to look like the real thing. The stadiums in the game are from the 18 teams that have been chosen from around Europe to be in the new club championship competition that EA sports have created, as well as hidden stadiums that need unlocked and regular ones that are made up. Another example of the great graphics in ... more

Having played and owned every Fifa game from Fifa 95, for various different consoles it was inevitable that I would be picking up the new game. Throughout the years there have been plenty of Fifa games and many of them good games, but over the last few years it seems as if the standard has fallen as EA sports have tried the game play. However I am pleased to say that the standard of this year?s game is much higher.

GRAPHICS

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The graphics on Fifa 2003 are excellent; there are over 20 superb real stadiums in the game, I don?t think there has ever been this many in a Fifa game before but you get a much more realistic experience when playing in these stadiums as each one if modelled to look like the real thing. The stadiums in the game are from the 18 teams that have been chosen from around Europe to be in the new club championship competition that EA sports have created, as well as hidden stadiums that need unlocked and regular ones that are made up. Another example of the great graphics in this game lie with the players, the faces are accurately modelled and many of the top players look like their real life counterparts. On the front of the Fifa box are Roberto Carlos, Edgar Davids and Ryan Giggs, these are the 3 players chosen to promote the game and these 3 in particular look fantastic on the game, as well as David Beckham whose hair is like it was at the world cup in Korea and Japan.

SOUND
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As usual on any Fifa game the commentary is a real plus and on this one is no exception, commentary is provide by John Motson and Ally McCoist. The commentary runs very smoothly throughout the game, however one thing that really annoys me sometimes is when I am playing in a cup competition, lying 2nd in the table with 1 game left and needing to win to get on equal points with the leader and go through with a better goal difference. The thing is when you play that game and score a goal and take the lead you are told that it doesn?t matter, as you can?t go through anyway, although quite clearly you can and end up doing so. The thing is though you are not told just once it?s usually every time you score in that game, very frustrating. Apart from that the commentary seems to be very solid, although I would love to see commentary that is fast flowing, and continuous nearly all the time like in EA sports NHL 2003. The music to this game in my opinion is top draw and spot on; there are some great tracks from Idlewild, Avril Lavigne, D.O.G and many others. This of course you need in any sports game when you are going through the menus, as it makes the game more enjoyable. The final aspect of the sound is the crowd chants these in my opinion have been into the game beautifully. Most of the chants are the real ones from the teams in the club championship. Some notable ones are Liverpool?s ?You?ll never walk alone? and the chant of ?United United? from Manchester United. There are also chants put in there for every team to use such as ?you?re not singing anymore? and a few others.

GAME PLAY
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This is what EA sports have been concentrating on improving for this years game and I must say it has actually been vastly improved from previous years. Some of the main features of the game play that have been improved is the shooting system and also the dribbling system. When shooting in this game you are presented with a power up which increases the longer you hold down the button. It starts off green and then changes to red at the end of the bar, if the button is released in the green then the ball has more chance on going on target and if held down towards the end of the green you can shoot higher. This new system allows for more chance of scoring spectacular goals from 30-40 yards out and is much easier to use, although my shots always seem to go over the bar by a few miles. In past Fifa games you have been able to basically just run down the pitch with the ball do a few tricks that are very rarely ever done in an actual football match and score. However in this game you cant do that as the way the player dribble with the ball has changed. The faster a player runs with the ball the less control of the ball he has and the more likely he is to be tackled by a defender, which always seems to happen to me.

A feature EA sports has put into this game is the new EA freestyle button, which is the right analogue stick. This allows the player to knock the ball forward past a defender and get past the defender and also produce special moves such as a 360 turn or a feint. The top players in this game such as Zidane, Davids etc have the ability to pull of these moves far easier than the not so good players in the game which is another example of how EA sports has incorporated realism into this game.

One feature that this game offer that needs to be mentioned here is the way the players celebrate after they have scored a goal. As usual it?s the top players that this affects, they actually do their trade mark celebrations for example Raul of Real Madrid kisses his ring after he scores a goal just like in real life, this once again adds to the realism of the game. Another superb feature that I have to mention is the option at the start of a match to select what kit your team wears and what kit the other team wears. For most premiership side the 3rd team strips have been included. Southampton for example as well as the red and white home strip and the white away strip you can also choose from the yellow strip. This is a great new feature as you can always play in the strip you like best and gives you so much more freedom to do what you want in the game.

A major improvement that was made in this game over the Fifa 2002 version is the free kick system; in Fifa 2002 this tormented me, as I just couldn?t score a goal because of the dismal shooting system. However when I got this game I was very pleased to use the new free kick system, when you receive a free kick a ball appears on the screen with a small circle in it and a shooting bar around the outside. To create curl on the ball you have to move the circle to the appropriate section of the ball, to shoot though and score needs good timing. On the shooting bar there is a small green line not very wide that you have to try and get he marker to land in as its moving, successfully doing this allows the opportunity for the shot to be on target.

DIFFICULTY

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Many people criticise the Fifa series saying that they are to easy and you can master it in a day, of course these people exaggerate just a bit. I was pleased this year though to the introduction of the semi-pro skill level, this is added to the 3 other levels of Amateur, Professional and World Class. It seems to me that Fifa has got harder this time around, and that it is difficult to completely master like the previous games. Although that could be down to me being not very good at it, I do like to think of myself as a Fifa master (really I?m useless) and I do play on world class (still lost to Ipswich!!). I think in terms of difficulty the game does have a longer life span than before, as this year you have 1 extra difficulty to master and not only this you have to start on amateur and work your way up even if you really are one of the better players on this game.

SECRETS

Not often do Fifa game have very many unlockable features but some have been included in this years game. In total there are 3 hidden stadiums (better not say what they are) and also 1 unlockable tournament. The stadiums are well worth unlocking, as they really are great to play matches in. I still do not think Fifa offers enough hidden features that you have to unlock, if there were more stadiums or other options or something that you could unlock the replay value of the game would really increase.

TOURNAMENTS

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Several new tournaments have been included in Fifa 2003, most notably the addition of a club championship tournament. The club championship is a league where 18 of the best teams in Europe (chosen by EA sports, where is Southampton??), about 3 from each major country i.e. England, Spain, Italy etc, you compete to try and win the championship. All of the teams in the club championship have their own stadiums in the game and specific crowd chants just for them. Other Tournaments that have been included are the usual UEFA cup and Champions League, but there is also now a World Tour. The world tour is where you travel around the 16 different leagues (supposedly) playing the best 5 teams in each of the leagues. Once you have finished top of every group you will then go into the knockout stages before finally getting to the final. The amount of games played in this tournament is huge and to be honest it was very boring and repetitive, but has to be done if you want to unlock all the stadiums.

Season mode has been extended this year with 5 seasons now available to play one after the other. It is much the same though with promoted teams coming up replacing the relegated teams. I did notice that one of the promoted teams into the English league was called London, and after a bit of looking around I did find that they were in fact Millwall, strange people at EA sports decided to rename though. For me season is the most enjoyable aspect of the Fifa series, as you can work your way through each season with your team trying to claim European spots, win cups, and maybe (depending on how bad you are) even try to avoid relegation, and of course spend money and try to build a great team.

OVERALL

I must say that I really do enjoy playing this game, and usually just talking about it on the internet or with other people makes me want to pick it up and play it again (which happened far too many times when writing this). This game is an improvement on some of the previous versions and with any luck it will continue to get better and better. There are a few things not in this game that I would have loved to seen in, like the reappearance of the training, a feature that worked really well in other Fifa games but seems to have been missing from the recent ones. Also the create team/player mode which everyone loves, it allows the game to stay up to date as you can just edit the appearance of a player and create any new signings that are not already on the game (like I could have done with Prutton and Higginbotham of Southampton!!). Apart from those things this game is a very solid game and a good effort by the team at EA sports, I would recommend this game to any football fan like myself.

Although there are other football games available like This is football and Pro Evolution 2, but to me Fifa is the best, especially as it has the official licence so it can have all real team names and players. Having played them all I found Fifa gave me the most enjoyment and fun to play. I would recommend trying out all of the 3 main football games to see which one you like the best before buying Fifa, that way you can be sure you get the best (that means this one).

Thanks for reading :O)

 

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