FIFA Football 2003

2002 Electronic Arts Inc.

After a sub-par outing on the Game Cube in the form of 2002 Fifa World Cup, EA Sports have had to start from ground zero with their latest take on the popular soccer franchise. This year EA are promising more of everything. More stadiums, more detail on players, better ball physics, and better overall gameplay from the previous instalment. The 2002 World Cup edition of the franchise really only hit sale highs because of the actual FIFA World Cup Tournament taking place, as well as EAs Fifa Soccer series being a deeply established brand name with casual gamers. Other than that, the actual game was lacking, even compared to the previous attempt. Many complaints must have flown through the windows -attached to bricks- at EA SPORTS' HQ as this year theyve promised to up the ante on every aspect and in a few areas they seem to have delivered. Why thank you EA!

Features

  • Play as one of 350 teams across 16 leagues across the world
  • Over 10,000 acurately portrayed players
  • Many new detailed player animations
  • Realistic set-piece dynamics allowing full control over placement of the ball
  • New in-stadium atmosphere
  • Worlds greatest player skills replicated with haunting realism
  • Added goal keeper realism
  • Enhanced player artificial intelligence
  • TV-style broadcast package featuring half-time and full-time highlights and distance to goal measurements at free kicks among others
  • European Club Championship mode with real location stadiums and actual team chants and songs
  • Freestyle moves with the C-Stick perform an array of dazzling tricks
  • 1-4 players

Anthony P: As the saying goes, another year, another FIFA, but why have the boffins at EA got us all excited this year? Well, EA Sports have always put out football games that attain a clean and crisp front-end with a well produced sound track, featuring various famous artists mixed in, along with fleeting appearances from your footballer heros in a star-spangled intro. Meanwhile, lurking in the background was a weak arcade engine, aspiring simulation greatness. It had the impressive faade but couldnt match the pace setter Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami in terms of pure gameplay. Times have definitely changed.

With the release of FIFA Football 2003, EA Sports have done themselves proud, putting out a game we knew they could through all those years of forgettable updates. Remember how the ball stuck to your foot like a third leg as you weaved through 10 players and slotted it past a flapping keeper? Not anymore Jim. Try to make it as far as the first line of strikers out of defence and youll be greeted with a reality jarring tackle straight from the school of hard-knocks. Its satisfying to see that effort has been paid towards the defensive element of the game this time.

In-turn, that strong defensive element forces you to pass a lot more than you will have in any previous instalment of the FIFA Football series. Again, this tricks you into playing more of simulated style of football, although the strong arcade roots linger. Facets of arcade football such as the lightening-quick passes and the amazing range of shots you can pull off remain. This is by no means is a bad thing, and certainly dictates a chaotic experience in multi-player mode with strikers bombarding the goal keeper with a cacophony of shots before the fracas ends with the ball trickling over the line. Sound exciting? It tends to be, with the goalies now having gone back to school -i swear they snuck in some nightschool too- to brush up for this latest instalment, they arent the push-over they once were.

You are however, given an arsenal of tricks n flicks to humiliate defenders with, all accessed by the tip of your right thumb with the C-stick. Although the effectiveness of the C-stick has been called into question among gamers in regards to FIFA 2003, the Freestyle moves when pulled off can cause game-changing effects. Pulling off, for example, a quick step-over and flick in one smooth motion with a tap of the stick in the desired direction can result in forwards bursting past defenders with embarrassing ease only left with the burden of a cool finish. The difficulty in achieving the more impressive signature moves that you see the stars performing on television adds to the realism. I find that its more rewarding and you cannot help but grin uncontrollably when a snazzy skill works for the first time.

Not everything is peachy in soccerland though as is the case with most sports simulation/arcade titles. There are a few graphical annoyances that this reviewer simply cannot bring himself to overlook. The aliasing in the game is non-existant at most times in-game the game, and that's great. Saying that, when you are actually "treated" to an eyeful of jagged lines it's almost as jarring as the aforementioned tackles in the game. The aliasing seems to be more obviouse on the stadiums -especially Man utd's Old Trafford- and as the camera pans you'd be forgiven for thinking the cantalevering roof of the stadium has a built in exscalator. Other than that annoyance, the fact that some of the cut scenes and replays decide to offload frames for no apparent reason doesn't help matters.

I mention that the replays stutter at points but during most replays the game will play smoothly (which begs the question why they stutter for no reason and quite randomly). The Camera selection in the game is very respectable with many interesting places to view the action from but Im sorry I have to moan again allow me a quick word with EA Sports,

Guys. You create beautiful models, that animate extremely fluidly, and score incredible goals. You give us a long breadth of time to view the build up play. Fine. Then you position a multitude of cameras miles away from the players! What in the 12 disciples made you do that! I can barely make out the players faces due to the L.O.D management system removing every identifiable feature off of the players faces anywhere near five yards from their forehead! Why Why? Why!?

Along with the franchises strong arcade roots the games longevity comes into question. After scoring thousands of goals past ailing keepers around the world, will you still want to pop the game into your cube after youve mastered every difficulty level? Saying that, the titanium plated World Class difficulty level complete with impenetrable defences- and multi-player modes should help things tick along until EAs next offering.

But forget about the future, if youre looking for a football title -Soccer? What the hell does that mean?- with all the fanfare of the real thing coupled with an excellent use of the FIFA license that actually plays as an entertaining replica of the beautiful game on the GameCube, then look no further than here. For all my complaints about the game Ive given it a great score because Im still playing it after nearly a month, and any gamer knows thats all that counts. Now, Im off to listen to the in-game remix of Avril Lavignes Complicated (Hey you! No, laughing at the back!)

Brenden: Note: I'm calling it football. Even though I'm Canadian, it just doesn't sound right.

First, let me just say that this game looks simply fantastic. It's got some problems with the framerate stutter (probably the cost for the looks) and some off-looking textures in the stadiums, but these problems can be shrugged off thanks to the rest of the presentation. The announcing is superbly done. You can really hear the emotion coming from the famous John Motson when a shot is missed or a great goal is scored. On top of that, the crowd chants are spot-on. You could swear that you were watching a real football match when you hear something like "AND YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!" coming from your adoring fans.

The new gameplay system in FIFA 2003 brings about a much needed change. Realism. Just like in real life, passing is essential. You'll have to learn how to set up plays and even look for thru-balls, another requirement for victory on the harder difficulty levels. The new system has also made a lot of other things more challenging, like headers. This I think is great, because you can't win every mid-field ball challenge now. With some practice though, you'll learn how to position yourself properly and win them most of the time. But while it's great to have more of a challenge in that regard, they're next to impossible to make off a corner because the computer player always seems to have the edge on you. This means that most corners from the opposing team will result in a goal, unless your keeper can punch the ball out of the danger zone.

Honestly, I don't know what's going to come first... actually mastering World Class difficulty or throwing my controller at the wall. I fear that the latter may be true. Why you ask? Simple. FIFA 2003, like most, if not all sports titles, suffers from a "sore-loser complex". It's really only apparent on the highest difficulty setting, but it will drive you insane. I shall regail you with a little story to further explain this "sore-loser complex". I was playing an ECC match against Inter Milan and scored in the 8th minute. Quite a feat I might add. For the entire game, I was defending barrage after barrage of attacks. They became endowed with this never-before-seen superhuman power. Their fullbacks would fly in front of my midfielders making perfect tackles and challenges every time I even attempted a pass. Their midfielders would make perfect passes every time. It seemed unstoppable. Luckily, my goalie made a couple of superb stops and I made some very timely tackles in the 18-yard box, allowing me to hold them till the 83rd minute. Upon which they scored off of a corner (shocking). By this point, I'm thinking to myself: "Hey, it's alright, I can live with a draw." ... 3 minutes later, they scored off a gorgeous strike from just outside the 18.

Moral of the story: Run an 8-1-1 defensive for the first 80 minutes, then go all out for the rest of the match.

FIFA 2003 is EA's best outing in terms of gameplay in a football game, but they may have gone a little too far in some areas. Or rather, maybe they went far enough, but didn't tweak the mechanics enough to allow for some more improvement and skill on the part of the user. Aside from that and the framerate stutters, it's a solid title that any football fan should own.

N-Sider Review Staff