FIFA 06 Road to the World Cup Review

Reviewer: Maximum Fear

Game: FIFA 06 Road to the World Cup

Gameplay: The gameplay in football games is normally very simple but fun. FIFA keeps this formulae but adds some more elements which lead to more competition and a little more skill needed to play. You can choose between a wide selection of international teams to play as, change the difficulty, which in my opinion is quite hard and all the options such as injuries and offsides. The controls are pretty easy to learn but take time and effort to master. Special skill moves are hard to pull off and free kicks and corners take a lot of time to get use to but it is mostly a fun and entertaining experience.

Graphics: The graphics are beautiful, all sports games from EA are generally good but this is defiantly next generation. The players look superb, with awesome detail and individual blades of grass can be seen. In fact if a person walked in while you were playing they may think they are watching a real football game.

Sound: The sound on this game is as good as you could expect from a football game. The commentary is “ok” I suppose but can get slightly repetitive after a while playing the game. It sounds pretty good when the crowd is singing and cheering when your team is winning though. There are very little special effects but the ones that are there sound realistic.

Xbox Live: The online multiplayer is pretty well designed and executed. Games can be found pretty easily and lag is kept to a minimum normally. Many measures have been taken by EA to prevent any cheating and I haven’t experienced any at all (on any Xbox 360 games). You can play matches that last between 2 to 45 minutes a half, ranked or unranked. You can change most of the setting in unranked but the ranked games are pretty much set out for you. Same as single player you pick from a wide variety of international teams, which gives the both players opportunities of having equal sides.

Replay: Well as it is a football game you are doing basically the same thing every game. There is variety, with the different tournaments and the many different teams. You can play for a long time before you get bored if you like sports games.

Achievements: The achievements are given out for winning so many games in a row, beating certain teams or winning certain tournaments. They do enhance the gaming experience, giving people more of a challenge and something to achieve. They are distributed evenly throughout the game, but some are quite hard to unlock. It may take a while for even skilled players to unlock all the achievements.

Leader boards: The leader boards are well set out fair. Basically the more games you win, the less games you lose, the more you goals you score and the less you concede the better your score will be therefore, the better your rank will be. They make playing Xbox Live rewarding and meaningful and allow players to find other gamers who are as equally skilled as themselves.

Score: 73/100