Customer Reviews

FIFA Soccer 07

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I am an avid soccer enthusaist, so when i purchased the Xbox 360 i awaited eagerly for the arrival of a soccer game worthy of the next Gen, Fifa however not only dropped the ball, but they stood on it, sat on it then let all the rest of the air out until anything fun about playing soocer on a console was flat and dull.

The first things I noticed was the lack of teams, the earlier reviewer was right, only 6 leagues, many countries have been left out much to my dissapointment, one of Fifas attributes was the fact it was licenced with all the leagues and teams throughout Europe and beyond, now we are left with a meagre 6 leagues, so immediately that killed a lot of my enthusiasm.

The gameplay still isn't there, the atmosphere feels very linear, not helped by only 4 camera angles, another let down...Then comes the skill levels, there is a huge difference between amature play amd semi pro, so much so in fact you'll be in limbo for a long time. The realism of players colliding is absurd as you find 2 players going for the ball at the same time simply bump off each other knocking them back a few paces, now call me cynical but i have yet to watch a soccer game were two opponents going for the same ball butt chests and take a few steps back before going back in...which actually leads me to my next point.

Tackling a major part of the game is devoid due to the fact every slide tackle you try to do will more than likely automatically give away a free kick or penalty 90% of the time, so that button is immediately withdrawn from my thumb as a useless tatic and addition, leaving only the X bottom to put your foot out the steal the ball.

The players likeness is left the imagination of someone who I can only assume has never seen any footballers in real life because most players don't have any or much similarity between the real life player and it's gaming counterpart.

The commentary on the other hand was great, Peter Brackley and Andy Gray cough up some good dialogue that isn't repetituve and one of the few points that actually adds to the game lacking nearly every other aspect of soccer.

There is no training mode to work out moves and practice special moves, which isn't really a problem cause there are very few special moves anyway and the spare right thumb control stick doesn't do anything helpful or special except stare lonely at you wishing it had a function in the game.

Overall this game has gotten worse over the last few years, but this years version has to be without doubt the worst yet. I have traded my game in already and I am waiting patiently on Winning soccer to make it's debut sometime in Feburary, from previous experience Winning Soccer has better gameplay, more moves and now it has more leagues than Fifa's poultry 6.

Please rent this game before buying, if after a few weeks your still playing it's probably for you and you can go out and buy it, but for all others a week is usally enough before you get to the point of sighing heavily hitting eject, getting back in your car with game in hand looking for a trade in.

Get back on track Fifa, you used to make really good soccer games, what Happened??

For gameplay and graphics alone, Fifa 07 is a superb game. Fifa 07 is probably the best futbol game I've played and I've played them all. I have played Fifa since its birth to the last--Fifa World Cup 06. I didn't bother playing Fifa 06 Road to the World Cup which suffered greatly because of its premature release and thrown toghether makings. I have also admired a few seasons of Winning Eleven which are uncanny for their fluidness, sim-like control and gameplay.

The passing options (lobs, through-balls and aerials) in Fifa 07 are top notch and intuitive. Ball control and one touches feel very natural as
you perform most aspects of control with the left-stick. For the first time in a soccer game, I felt a real-sense of control that came quite naturally rather quickly. One touches are emmaculate as the direction of where you point the left-stick before trapping the ball is where it will end up on the pitch. This allows you to anticipate your defender as any great pro surely would. This means if you have a defender coming on from one side, you can trap and one touch to the other side to avoid the interception. This frees up space to take the ball down the field or pass the ball in sequence. They have slightly improved upon all types of passing from Fifa World Cup 06. Lobs definitely feel more tuned as height and distance can easily be controlled allowing for immensely
accurate crosses into the striker zone. Volleys and aerials are fantastic. Volleys set up great 'keep-away' oppurtunities and when combined with one touches, through-balls, dynamic dribbling and aerial attacks in seamless fashion it can be quite addictive and fun. I really like the flow of this game because of the passing scheme and finely
taylored dribbling. The shooting is phenomonial as you can place spin on the ball dynamically by moving the left-stick in any desired direction while its soaring through the air. Finesse (right button)and lob shot(left stick) are great alternatives for catching the keeper with his pants down. Headers and aerials are well executed and fun to watch. Peforming a bicycle kick with Rhinaldino is certainly a highlight. Diving
headers also make for entertaining replays.


Player animations and graphics are bar-none the best I have seen. From overview to close-upson dynamic camera angles -- players are amazingly rendered and animated. Player models greatly mirror their real life counter parts from pitch play to celebration. I especially like Rhinaldino's character. His quickness, ball control and aerials are well captured. This is the case with most Fifa superstars.

Commentary is superb. The best I heard in any sports genre. Fluid, dynamic, situational, toneful, exciting to listen to, passionate and you rarely hear the same commentary game to game.

The stadiums and the pitches are lush and beautiful. Well done. Crowd noise also adds a lot to the atmosphere and they actual cheer when something exciting is taking place on the pitch. Even built-up attemps on the attack get applause regardless of completion. Saved goals and otherwise.

Great camera overviews allow you to see a signficant area of the pitch for passing, avoiding defenders and dribbling.

Weaknesses: Clumsy and unnatural collisions interrupt the great flow of the game. These hap-hazard collisions are dreadfully frustrating as their crash engine is nothing like real life.

There's no finesse dribbling or trick jukes. Finesse and trick moves can only be accomplished by your own creative motion with the left-stick. Although I like having the full ability to control my player's moves and motions with the left stick, such as juking one way and going the other --being able to hold down the trigger while dribbling or using the right-stick to pull off jukes such as joggles or mis-directions would have been nice. The right stick is assigned to quick turn arounds and sprinting jabs (placing the ball further ahead of you on the run). These are nice but seeing Rhinaldino pull of a devestating juke on his opponents before setting himself up with a toe grab bicycle kick would add a lot of thrill to this game. It's not a terrible loss as most of the thrill comes from well executed passes, volleys, aerials and bending one in the upper ninety.

Lack of game modes is certainly evident. And its a shame because the gameplay is so good. If you are looking for a season mode, its available via management mode which adds a little spice to what would just otherwise be regular. This may or may not be a bad thing. For me, I would also have liked to see just a regular season mode with no strings attached. The slew of options available in management mode is nice, it's just sometimes you rather just dive into the season with no real brain work required besides the genius of the actual pitch-play. If you are looking for franchise mode, management is it. However its nice to have these modes distinct from one another and completely seperate.
You won't find that here.

Lack of clubs is most disturbing, only 6 leagues to choose from. But they offer some damn good leagues that most fans will care about. All qualifying nationals team are there, which is nice. No MLS and a lot of leagues that for that matter. You can be the likes of Landon Donovan via the US National team only.

Overall, a great game featuring superb graphics and gameplay that lacks game modes and other features that should have been carried over.

I have played EA-FIFA since 1995. Always liked it more or less, but this version is an absolute waste of money. Why? For me, the biggest dissapointment is the fact that there are on 6 leagues available. Where is the rest of Europe? Where are 2nd and 3rd divisions? But I also agree with all the other issues mentioned in the other review. No trick moves, iffy game controlls, uncontrolable moves and actions, unstable on-line mode with boring opponents (not much to choose from if you have only 6 leagues)
I would definitly NOT reccommend spending the money for a new game.

Where to begin...
I've been playing EA's Fifa series for 10 years on various platforms/consoles(PC, Playstation, Xbox, Xbox 360), and I am always at the store the day the game comes out. I purchased Fifa 07 for Xbox when it came out, and I loved it. I thought the manager mode had some great touches, and the game was just a fun soccer game. But, that's a different review entirely. As for Fifa 07 on Xbox 360:

Positives:
Corner kicks. I like the fact that the players no longer just stand stationary in the box until the ball is played in. Anyone who has ever played the game in real life knows that you don't just stand around hoping the ball hits you on the head. You move to get open. EA finally added some life into the offense in this regard.

Commentary is very good. I like the random side conversations, and the nice references to particular players. I play with Newcastle, and it's cool to hear them mention Owen's WC injury, etc.

Personally, I think the graphics look pretty good. Some of the players are way off as far as looks go, but during the gameplay, the game looks great. That's pretty much where I end my positives.

Oh, and I do enjoy being able to kick the ball around with Ronaldinho during the game load. It's nice to have something better to do during load times. Unfortunately, there are no moves, so it does get old pretty quickly.

Negatives:
Player creation lost some of it's fun. First of all, you can't turn your player when you are creating physical attributes. You can't turn the head to get an accurate depiction of what the player looks like. This isn't important to some people, but I enjoy creating a team of my friends, and it's fun when the people look fairly similar to their real-life counterparts. Also, you can't stack a player's skills. This is good and bad. The main issue I have is that you can't create a real phenom player that you can use as a future backbone of a team. I haven't played enough to see how long it takes to get a player up to a Ronaldinho level of skill, but I can't imagine it being possible with the talent attribute system that EA used this time around.

The interface is horrid...I repeat...horrid. As an interface designer myself, I can't believe this game got away with this. I noticed that all of the EA games are using this new horizontal expansion menu, but it's garbage. Go back to using the simple stuff...please. Some of the stuff that I was looking for is so deep and annoying to get to, that it makes me not even want to complete certain tasks. Player creation took so long that I made one player, and didn't feel like going through the process again. The fonts are hard to read (granted, I don't have a huge HDTV), and the black is heavy and sets a very drab tone for the game. The regular Xbox version is so much nicer to look at.

Game play leaves a lot to be desired. Is it just me, or does the computer try to dribble non-stop? I can't even get the ball half of the time. It takes a double or triple-team approach to disrupt the computer's player on the dribble. Annoying.

Then there's the obvious lack of trick moves. How do you make a game this involved, a game that strives for realism, and leave out a major aspect of the game. The worst part seems to be this: EA made the defense easier to dribble around instead of adding trick moves. Very lame, and very frustrating, as it's hard to defend the dribble as well (mentioned previously).

The amazing offering of teams and players!!! Okay, okay, you know that's sarcasm. 6 leagues? What? Seriously? If I'm lucky enough to get to the "ECC" or "EFA", I can't wait to see the teams in the tournament(s). I guess you go straight to the group games even if you finish in 4th in the Premiership. Looking forward to that! Ha.

With all of that said, I will continue to play this game and hope that they improve some of the gameplay issues via updates, but I'm still highly bummed about this offering, and I'm so tempted to just go back to Fifa 07 on Xbox, because I had a lot of fun playing that...and thankfully, I didn't trade it in.

1.Any kind of accident within the game (players running into each other, ball hitting the post, etc.) results in instant and total paralysis of your active player.

2.Goalkeeper just stares at the ball in his own 6 yard box

3.Defenders fight each other for the ball in their own penalty box

4.Attackers try to take the ball from each other in the opposing teams penalty area.

5.Inexplicable delay between pressing the pass button and that actually happening during the game.

6.Player's team AI resembles that of a 5 year old soccer team.

7.Players that run into each other bounce off like 10 yards (resulting in aforementioned paralysis)

8.EA spent so much time and effort in making the game "pretty", but the gameplay basically hasn't changed since Playstaion 1. Actually, the Playstation 1 version was more fun.

9.Playing the EPL with no option for weather?????? It's friggin' England!!

10.Ahhh..yes...the Manchester chants.........in the Fulham v. Everton match.

But seriously, if you don't mind playing the easiest level and winning 8 - 0 every time, most of this can be overlooked.

But no weather???? Come on.

Anyone who thinks this is a great game probably also believes that Brittany Spears writes great music, war IS the answer, and that David Beckham moved to MLS for the challenge.

FIFA 07 is a complete disappointment to me and two items contributed to my *extreme disappointment*:

*) Contradicting the description of the game on the amazon listing (see Product Description), FIFA 07 for XBox 360 only brings in 6 leagues (not 27!). And it leaves out leagues that include some of the best teams in the world (e.g. Portuguese league with the likes of Benfica and FC Porto among *many* other leagues).
*) The manager mode is now hugely simplified at the cost of the overall experience of having to grow with a team.

Of the two items above, I was especially appalled at the reduction of leagues from 27 to 6 (!) on this version. This was one of the selling points of FIFA, you could actually play with the teams you know and love. Is EA planning on selling those missing leagues via Marketplace at some point ? No win in either scenario. If they do it, is shameless of them to milk this franchise this way. If they do not, the game is severely crippled...I can only hope they offer the upgrade for free at some point.

After having played FIFA Soccer 06 for some time and trying out FIFA 07, I can only say that I am considering heavily the option of "downgrading" even if that means loosing some money.

Bottom line: heads up, the 360 version is a completely different beast than the other versions out there...and a much inferior one for that matter.

Save your money. Not worth getting this title at this point.

I have been playing FIFA games since FIFA '97 and I think that the series was at it peak at FIFA 2005. I play both this and Pro Evolution Soccer (winning Eleven in the USA) and, although both games have cut down features from they're previous gen counterparts, I think that FIFA has NO excuse.

EA has already released 2 previous FIFA's on the 360, Road to World Cup and the official World Cup game. They really ripped off buyers there eh?

Its Pro Evo's first next gen game and they have the great Master League Mode and although they dropped a couple of licences since number 5, its still fine.

I think that EA are basically trying to do as little as they can but silll manage mega-sales. The graphics are a step down from the World Cup version too.

Pro Evo's gameplay is still best and most reliable, but EA really managed to revolutionize FIFA with the new ball phyisics. Just a few niggles like player switching.

I recommend getting Pro Evo, or the last gen FIFA 2007 (PS2, XBox, etc).
Thanks for reading.
David.

This game is missing too many clubs from too many leagues. The Playstation 2 version of the same game had a lot more leagues and teams. Had I known, I would have waited until the 2008 version. The 2006 version in the old xbox had more teams...

I recently traded up to the 360, and one of the first games I always buy for any system is a soccer game (maybe even two). Since Goal! for NES, I have been addicted to soccer video games. I decided to pre-order Fifa 07 since PES will not be out in the US until January. I have to say I am a bit dissapointed. The graphics are great, and the physics are an upgrade from Fifas past, but the mechanics and playability are still not there for the EA submission to the soccer world. I would still find playing Winning Eleven on XBox better. The game plays very slow, and does not grab the attention and the excitement of the older titles (one example is the way players react, or in this case don't react to passes). I will be ordering PES when it comes out, and I will probably trade in Fifa when I do. In the meantime, I will play around with Fifa some more in the hopes that it addicts me like other soccer games in the past. Beautiful game, but the gameplay needs more excitement.

Fun game. I just bought it to play my bro online. There are very few modes and couldn't seem to play xbox live on the same team to play another team, which sucked. Pretty good game. It is kind of old, so understand at the time I am writing this hardly anyone plays it online, but still decent value.