Customer Reviews

FIFA Soccer 2004

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I got it because I wanted a soccer game for my son's game cube. Some things make me feel good about the purchase, but having played Winning Eleven 6 and the WE7 demo, there are other disappointing things, even if compared to previous Fifa versions, where world cup or world cup qualifiers where the main attraction -No more national teams competition in this one-. It's a good game and a great effort by EA but COULD BE BETTER, specially in depth and gameplay. Over all is a fun game to play and if you don't have PS2, is the way to go.

Pros:
Licensed Teams.
- Great Grahphics. The uniforms even get dirty.
- Music Tracks from all over the world.
- Fun to play, specially career mode.
- Good Learning Curve, takes a while to master a level
- Since there is no Winning Eleven for GC this is the best soccer game. But if you have a PS2 better stick to Winnnig Eleven 7.
- Excellent Free Kicks Control System, regardless what other people think.
Interesting career mode. But there's nothing much besides it, except for national cup competitions like FA Cup or Copa del Rey.
Cons:
Players are not very inteligent, specially teamates.
Very difficult to attack from the wings.
Most Goals are scored from long range.
Defenders catch up to your offensive players very fast even if you are way ahead of them.
No National team competitions, only exhibition matches.
Can not save great goals as you can in WE.

This game rocks. From really cool shots, to fantastic saves, to the tonne load of really cool moves. I really love this game. The camera angles are much better than all the previous fifa games. The game-play is fantastic, players are the exact replica of real time fifa players. I give this game a 5 star.

I've played every game in this series since FIFA 98, and this is by far the worst title yet. There are a few good qualities, but they are few and far between. I like being able to take a Division 3 team up through the ranks of English football, and the graphics and stadia are top notch. That's about it. After one-and-a-half seasons as my beloved Arsenal my complaints are:

1. The players are too slow. Thierry Henry is arguably has been compared to Olympic sprinters for his overall and breakaway speed. Then why can't he even outrun the Wolves defenders? Sure, I can use the sprint button, yet that doesn't even seem to get him in the open. This has been the third FIFA title in a row that biased running speed for the defense to keep things more even. I play on a weekly basis, and I could run the length of the field faster than every player in the game.

2. The players are constantly fatigued. What are they doing in their off time? I've tweaked every aspect of the weekly training and even bought almost and entire second squad to rotate players. Patrick Vieira in particular was susceptible to the fatigue factor. These are top notch athletes, yet when I rested them for two weeks, they would still have a fatigue factor around 50. That's bollocks! At least in the older versions you could turn off the fatigue if you wanted to. I would, just because the current version is so bad and unrealistic.

3. Where are all of the players specific chants from 2003?

4. Why does the "prestige" factor affect weekly training?

5. When taking a free kick about 30 years out, none of the players seem to be near the box. Where are they?

6. The menus are ridiculous. You can only view three stats for a player at a time. I'm constantly scrolling across menu after menu to check, guess what? Yup, the fatigue factor.

7. It takes forever to save your progress. You are constantly having to confirm the fact that you want to save and overwrite your progress. I know what I'm doing, so quit asking me if that's what I want to do.

I could keep going on and on and on. The fact remains that I'm trading the game in tonight. I've had it. EA needs to go back to the basics and quit trying to make it so good looking. The Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution series has surpassed FIFA in gameplay, and it seems as though EA doesn't take that very seriously. I wish they would.

This game is really fun, but unfortunately as the title of this review says, it has too many bugs and glitches. It seems that this game wasn't designed for the gamecube because it freezes the system constantly. One thing I learned with this game is to save my progress everytime, because you never know when it is going to freeze. Sometimes in middle of a match, the game freezes and you have to start the match all over again.

In career mode, after the first year of career, the calendar messes up. You are in 2004 but when you have an injured player the news say the expected return for that player will be somewhen in 2003.

There are some other things about this game, including something that does not appear on the box. This game EATS memory. I think it says that this game taker 36-39 blocks of memory. The only thing they don't say is the following:
1. 3 memory blocks are taken by the profile ONLY
2. 36 memory blocks are taken by "EACH" career you make. So if you want to play two different careers, that means you will have yo give 72 memory blocks, so get ready.
3. If you want to save a tournamemt, be ready to give more memory blocks away.

Overall, this is an excellent game to play. Although it might be a little hard to get used to, but afterwards, you get great gameplay. The only thing I found annoying were the bugs and glitches. I thinks EA Sports had to take some of their time to fully test the game because once you play it, you begin seeing their glithces.

And by the way, whenever you are in the "Select Sides" screen, remember to select your profile. Don't leave it as "none". After you finish playing, save your profile. If you don't do this, you will never get the third kit for any team. Believe me. Any questions, feel free to email me.

FIFA Soccer 2004 is the best soccer game up to date. The graphics are amazing, it is way better than I expected. Players look real, not like before that they really did look like animations. The new career mode is fantastic. Loads of fun. Its is wonderful to sign on new players and gain prestige points with your success. This game is a must have for any soccer fan. There are so many clubs to choose from and over 10,000 players! The only thing that I sort of disliked was that their is an English Premier, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd divisions. It would be good enough with Premier and 1st. One thing that FIFA 2005 should have is a creation center like FIFA 2002. Creating is so much fun. I am from Bolivia and naturally I can never play with teams like Bolivar and The Strongest on a console. With the creation center I could create the players and teams and have a lot of fun. Also you can modify players' attributes if you don't agree with the guys over at EA Sports. LIke for example Botero from UNAM Pumas isn't a skill 69 player, please he is like 75 or 76. He is a really extraordinary forward. Juan Manuel Pena from Real Valladolid is a skill 75 player, not 65. Joselito Vaca is also a skill 70 player, not 62. Well, in any case FIFA 2004 is a wonderful game. Get it, you won't regret it. You will be addicted.

this game is very good for the fut bol lovers there are many things to learn from this video game I recommend it

I recently received the FIFA 2004 Game (for Gamecube) as a present and I was pretty excited about it. I am not a hardcore soccer fan (my wife is though) but I have seen enough games (mostly Premiership and MLS) to get excited about the idea of playing. After playing for a few weeks, I can summarize my reaction to the game as follows: It has wonderful graphics and details and loads of options, but is generally too difficult for a casual adult player.

Pros:

-GREAT GRAPHICS. Indeed, EA has brought beautiful images to the beautiful game. The players look fairly real and, when you are playing from a 3/4 Longview it basically looks like you are watching a live game on TV.

-NICE DETAIL: The announcers' commentary flows nicely with the game (although if you play long enough, it will start to repeat- there's only so much memory available). And some of the "cut away" scenes are fun to watch. (For example, the very funny (I thought) sight of a fallen Roy Keane angrily pointing at a player from Wolves until the ref gives the Wolves player a yellow card.) Players who have been kicked or tackled limp around in a very realistic way- etc.

LOTS OF OPTIONS: You can trade players, choose different formations, sub players during the game- etc.

Cons:

SIMPLY PUT- IT'S HARD: Controlling the players during the game requires very nimble fingers and incredible hand-eye coordination. On a typical drive, you might use both "joysticks" (one to control the general movement, another that is sort of a fine-tuning stick) as well as the B button (for defense and tackles as well as clearing the ball, and also shooting goals), the A button (passing and sometimes stealing the ball), as well as the X and Y buttons (different types of passes) and the R button (to sprint). Moving back and forth between all those buttons has proven too difficult for an old guy like myself. I miss the olden days where one button meant "jump" and the other was "shoot".

FREQUENT BUTTON PUSHING FRUSTRATION: This is a term I made up because I can't think of another way to describe the idea that when I'm playing the game, I constantly am frustrated (or ruin my chances) because I push a button once too much. This might seem like it's my fault ("Just don't push the button" you might tell me), but the problem is that the game sort of forces you to mash the A and B buttons a lot.

examples: If the opposing team has a breakaway, you need to hit the "A" button because it allows you to change defensive players. But "A" is also the button for stealing a pass in certain situations. So I get busy hitting "A"-"A"-"A" scrolling through players and then hitting "A"-"A" to try to steal from the other team. Suddenly, I have the ball and, if in that instant, I hit "A" again suddenly (because now I'm on offense again) "A" now means pass, and I wind up making some unintentional lame-ass pass that goes out of bounds (or directly to an opposing player). This whole sequence might happen in two or three seconds.

I guess what I'm saying is that the game encourages you to button mash but the penalties for pushing a button one too many times is painful and frustrating.

Anyway, those are the pros and cons as I see it. I could get over the cons if I had a lot of free time to practice. But the problem is that I want to play a video game for FUN, and I am not so interested in practicing heavily and "sweating it out" until I am a fine tuned, calibrated button-pushing machine.

In the final analysis, my suspicion is that you will enjoy this game if you are a serious soccer fan and/or a serious gamer, meaning that you have enough time and energy to get the timing and rhythm of this game down. If you are more of a casual player (Let's say you play video games a few times a week and just want to get into a game without much practice), this game will probably prove frustrating and difficult.

This game is good. There are good graphic's, good gamplay (like the new off ball control), and more. There are a few flaws like some player's could be faster, like Theirry Henry. And when you sprint you do lose ball easily. I think it is still pretty good though and the gamplay isn't that slow, just a few character's. This is also more realistic in a way because if the player's have the ball they dribble less in control, and can't run as quickly with the ball than regularley. Still E.A. should have made that better because that would make it funner with great run's past the defender's. Anyway This game is still very good, and I don't think many but really hardcore gamer's should have many complaint's about this game. I really like the meter for the through ball's, and lob. It takes a little practice to get used to but is really fun when you get it. The commantary is nice to, some time's showing how the play was formed like on ESPN when they show the football play's. Also the camera is really good. You may not think of it as important, but it really can be because you can get a ton of angle's, and zoom's, for example: the view you start with is far away, and you can't see the player's that distinctiveley like Beckham, and Ronoldo look the same. Then I zoomed in with the action camera and I felt like I was a player. I could see the faces of the player, and had a view right on the ball, I really think the camera is good in this game. In practice they should let you pick where you want to practice free kick's because the angles they give you are horrible. I liked the carear mode like the training option and such, but was dissapointed that the player';s never really got in shape. Beckham would be tired 5 minute's into the match. I also am confused about the point's you win like I'de spend 800 ( out of 1000) with 200 to spare then the next week have a thousand, not a thousand two hundred. Well this is a good game with a few flaws but really not much to complain about.

in this game you choose different soccer teams including mls and fifa.teams like manchester united or metrostars.also world teams like usa and brazil. the graphics should be downright tight.ultimate gameplay with a lot more options like injuries,uniform change,weather control, brand new players with better substitutions,and you choose the date if you play season.i have fifa 2000,striker 1996,and fifa 1997.believe it or not they're all great.this game is awesome including original and best characters like ronaldo,friedel,beckham,and mathis. honestly get it for any system.This is a great one. This is a defenite "GOLD". I own this GREAT game!!!

First of all, I was waiting for this game a long time because the producers said that The Creation Center was back in this year
and now I found out that was a LIE. The Creation Center is not back in FIFA 2004.

Second, at the back of the box of this game says 32 blocks of memory required and when you play the game you find out that's another LIE, because you will need the expensive memory card to play that game, you need a lot more of 32 blocks of memory to play this game.

Third ,the language section it doesnt work, it says
LANGUAGES: <---ENGLISH -->

But you cannot move those arrows to change the language

Finally, the producers announced new teams for this new version of FIFA 2004, including the main important clubs from America
and there are just 5 teams from AMERICA and those are:

Boca Junior and River Plate from Argentina
Toluca,Monterrey, Pumas and America from Mexico

What about the other countries??

Is that a Joke?

Fifa 2004 is not what they told us....it is in fact the worst FIFA game I ever played in my life.

What a waste of money....