Gameplay: Soccer is the sport you play with your feet. The traditional reason for this is that you worked all week with your hands and EA Canada is asking gamers to be fast fingered with 2002 World Cup and its in-depth control and precision. The frantic pace comes from the fact that you will be good friends with the Y button since it's your turbo and it works step for step. That is, you need to be mashing Y repeatedly if you want to beat somebody down the field. Speed is an integral part of everything you'll do in FIFA, so in regards to all of the passing controls we're about to describe, just know that one of your fingers will always be tapping that yellow turbo button at the same time.
The passing system is so simple yet so well designed that it makes it hard to play any other soccer title. The bottom three action buttons on the Xbox controller represent an air pass (X), ground pass (A) and a shot (
. The analog nature of those buttons allows you to put as much touch and strength on the pass as you need. Using the left analog stick to aim means that the entire passing mechanism is based on your ability to fine tune your aiming and the strength of the pass you're making. Throw in ball spin control on the left and right triggers and its clear that the beautiful game in 2002 FIFA World Cup is only going to be as pretty as you make it. Sharp through passes and benders inside the far post are totally at your control.
The development team didn't stop there with the control they've given us in this game. Players can make runs on their own or, using the white button, you can send guys on runs when you want them to make a move. The "run indicator," a series of team colored spots showing where the player is heading on a run, can be turned off if you want a genuine soccer experience where you have to recognize runs when you see them. Full fledged juggling controls that allow you to play the ball to yourself from the ground are well animated and can even be used during the run of play so you can intentionally play a ball off of your shoulder (if it's high) or thigh, for example.
The air play is the most significant enhancement to the FIFA engine mainly because of the excellent physics of the overall game. The mechanism for playing balls out of the air is simple, hit a pass or shot button and a direction on the analog stick, but the animation of the header or volley is exquisite and will be affected by the jostling of the two players contending for the ball. The player's ratings for strength and headers factor into it more than his positioning since the CPU is rather generous in getting players under an incoming soccer ball.
The star players system is a welcome addition to the FIFA series but it's something EA should include in every single one of their sports franchises. The easiest explanation is that the best players on any team in 2002 World Cup will be capable of outstanding feats of skill. Players are rated across a variety of categories like speed, shot, fitness, etc on a scale of 1-7, with 7 being the highest. The best players will have a 7 rating somewhere in their skill set. Brazil's world class defender Roberto Carlos gets a 7 in speed and his shooting ability, but you won't need to look up his numbers to know he's great. Streaks of light will appear on a player or on a kicked ball whenever he's exhibiting his perfect "7" skill. When you hit turbo with Roberto Carlos, you'll get a streak of yellow behind him indicating he's blazingly fast just in case you couldn't tell by all of the opponents getting lost in his dust. When a good shooter shoots, the ball will get a streak of light on it, travel extremely fast and will bend on its own to sneak inside a post even if you aren't putting ballspin on it. You get the same thing when a star passer makes a long enough pass.
As great as the soccer engine is in 2002 World Cup FIFA, the game is too thin in terms of features to make it worth a full $50 purchase especially considering what EA includes in the standard FIFA games. You get the 32 World Cup teams with the option of unlocking additional special teams like All-Europe or All-Africa. Compare this to the 400 squads, including national teams, seen in FIFA 2002 on PS2 and GameCube. You get two game play modes: Friendly and 2002 World Cup Tournament. There's obviously no franchise or league play because of the game's strict adherence to the World Cup license. You can customize your team's roster, play style, strategy and formation, but there can't be any kind of trades or player creation going on. The lack of options and features is made especially frustrating because overall we love the way this game plays soccer and we only want more ways to enjoy it.
Graphics
The animation in World Cup is outstanding even with the default camera angle that's set fairly far away from the action. And with EA's intent on bringing us the emotion of the game, we especially liked the dynamic camera that zooms in at key moments to show the well animated players reacting to goals, fouls and near misses. But all is not rosy on the Xbox version. There's noticeable slowdown when the ball changes possession and the camera tries to adjust to show the length of the field in front of the player in possession. The lighting isn't up to the standards we expect from the Xbox either.
All of the animations that you'd expect out of a soccer player are well done and once again all of that motion capturing of San Jose Earthquakes star Landon Donovan has really paid off. Left and right footed kicks, as well as headers, bicycles and step-overs are all easy to recognize. The animations that soccer fans and players will be able to appreciate the most are the reactions to slide tackles, fouls and saves. The physics of the game are reflected in the animations so that when two players are running side by side battling for the ball you'll see them shoving each other and throwing elbows to get position before one player lunges for a tackle and commits himself to the ball. In a situation like this you can see one of several of animation routines once he goes for the ball ranging from a perfectly clean tackle all the way to a poor slide that'll get you a booking. You won't need to wait for the referee to step in to know you've committed a dangerous play and that you deserve a card. This is just an example but the pattern is repeated in other areas of the game like playing balls out of the air and even corner and free kicks.
When you score a goal or commit a foul the camera instantly zooms in real time to get a close up of the player in question. In fact you'll see him start blowing kisses to the crowd from the default angle before instantly zooming and catching the rest of the animation. Some of the players look exactly like their real life counterparts while others, even the stars, seem to be cut from the same generic cloth. Donovan has his distinguishing curly hair that looks believable enough, while other players seem to have gone to the same toupee shop in Seoul. The hair models in the efforts to display individual strands end up looking like nappy hats of some kind.
The stadiums themselves are exquisitely reproduced and feature all of the World Cup decorations and branding --including scary inflatable "men" that flap and wave in the corners-- that we'll all finally see in a few weeks here. I've never been to the stadium at Busan, South Korea but I'll recognize it when I see it thanks to this game. The buildings are only half as interesting as the throngs of fans jumping up and down in their team colors that fill them. Unfortunately the fans are covered head to toe in their national colors but it's better than cardboard cutouts of old.
The framerate issues are unforgivable even though the game is processing 22 players plus all of the sideline activity. Even when you have the field radar turned off you'll notice a tad of slowdown. It's slight enough so that it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the game, but it seems like something that could've been addressed had the game been fully optimized for the Xbox.
Sound John Motson and Andy Gray are great together even if they don't always seem to be reacting to one another. They make timely comments that actually have something to do with what's going on in the game, but they still don't do any contextual commentary that takes the whole game into account. Motson's excitement level builds with crowd noise when you put a nice play together and create a nice chance. When a player possesses the ball for a long time and starts charging towards the goal his simple "Zidane!" or "Owen with a move!" is the perfect punctuation.
As great as the commentary is I recommend switching it off so you can hear what it sounds like on the field. The players talk to each other throughout the game, some in their native tongue, others in English, and even others in a reasonable facsimile of a foreign language. All of the South American players make comments in Spanish even though some soccer nations there speak Portuguese. The Poles and Danes speak English as well as the Americans and English, go figure. Even if they're not accurate in terms of syntax and pronunciation you get the feeling that you're hearing the best players in the world chatting with each other.
The stadiums come alive and get rowdy when there's plenty to get excited about. They cheer louder as you move closer to a goal scoring chance, but the best part is when they break out in a national anthem or team song in the middle of the match. When they bust out the French national anthem, both you and the French squad will get fired up as visions of that great Pele/Sylvester Stallone movie Victory flash in your mind.
This game isn't in true Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound but there is decent balance and separation that you really can appreciate when you have the commentary turned off.
Closing Comments
As the first soccer game on the Xbox, I have to say 2002 FIFA World Cup is easily the most fun to play. The fact that soccer translates to videogames so well and EA's attention to detail when it comes to gameplay kept me and all of the other soccer fans around the office engrossed for weeks. That's saying something considering all of the different games that come through here.
But like I said above, you're getting very little in the way of features and options with this game. The DVD extras are cool with a few featurettes but there's nothing too outstanding. The World Cup license is the game's greatest strength and weakness. All of the emotion and pageantry of the tournament is here, but I'm not sure that's enough of to make up for all of the stuff EA couldn't include. I love FIFA and wish the 2003 version could include a full blown World Cup mode because I know a World Cup without options and features comes up a little short.
OVERALL SCORE 8.2
The passing system is so simple yet so well designed that it makes it hard to play any other soccer title. The bottom three action buttons on the Xbox controller represent an air pass (X), ground pass (A) and a shot (
. The analog nature of those buttons allows you to put as much touch and strength on the pass as you need. Using the left analog stick to aim means that the entire passing mechanism is based on your ability to fine tune your aiming and the strength of the pass you're making. Throw in ball spin control on the left and right triggers and its clear that the beautiful game in 2002 FIFA World Cup is only going to be as pretty as you make it. Sharp through passes and benders inside the far post are totally at your control. The development team didn't stop there with the control they've given us in this game. Players can make runs on their own or, using the white button, you can send guys on runs when you want them to make a move. The "run indicator," a series of team colored spots showing where the player is heading on a run, can be turned off if you want a genuine soccer experience where you have to recognize runs when you see them. Full fledged juggling controls that allow you to play the ball to yourself from the ground are well animated and can even be used during the run of play so you can intentionally play a ball off of your shoulder (if it's high) or thigh, for example.
The air play is the most significant enhancement to the FIFA engine mainly because of the excellent physics of the overall game. The mechanism for playing balls out of the air is simple, hit a pass or shot button and a direction on the analog stick, but the animation of the header or volley is exquisite and will be affected by the jostling of the two players contending for the ball. The player's ratings for strength and headers factor into it more than his positioning since the CPU is rather generous in getting players under an incoming soccer ball.
The star players system is a welcome addition to the FIFA series but it's something EA should include in every single one of their sports franchises. The easiest explanation is that the best players on any team in 2002 World Cup will be capable of outstanding feats of skill. Players are rated across a variety of categories like speed, shot, fitness, etc on a scale of 1-7, with 7 being the highest. The best players will have a 7 rating somewhere in their skill set. Brazil's world class defender Roberto Carlos gets a 7 in speed and his shooting ability, but you won't need to look up his numbers to know he's great. Streaks of light will appear on a player or on a kicked ball whenever he's exhibiting his perfect "7" skill. When you hit turbo with Roberto Carlos, you'll get a streak of yellow behind him indicating he's blazingly fast just in case you couldn't tell by all of the opponents getting lost in his dust. When a good shooter shoots, the ball will get a streak of light on it, travel extremely fast and will bend on its own to sneak inside a post even if you aren't putting ballspin on it. You get the same thing when a star passer makes a long enough pass.
As great as the soccer engine is in 2002 World Cup FIFA, the game is too thin in terms of features to make it worth a full $50 purchase especially considering what EA includes in the standard FIFA games. You get the 32 World Cup teams with the option of unlocking additional special teams like All-Europe or All-Africa. Compare this to the 400 squads, including national teams, seen in FIFA 2002 on PS2 and GameCube. You get two game play modes: Friendly and 2002 World Cup Tournament. There's obviously no franchise or league play because of the game's strict adherence to the World Cup license. You can customize your team's roster, play style, strategy and formation, but there can't be any kind of trades or player creation going on. The lack of options and features is made especially frustrating because overall we love the way this game plays soccer and we only want more ways to enjoy it.
Graphics
The animation in World Cup is outstanding even with the default camera angle that's set fairly far away from the action. And with EA's intent on bringing us the emotion of the game, we especially liked the dynamic camera that zooms in at key moments to show the well animated players reacting to goals, fouls and near misses. But all is not rosy on the Xbox version. There's noticeable slowdown when the ball changes possession and the camera tries to adjust to show the length of the field in front of the player in possession. The lighting isn't up to the standards we expect from the Xbox either.
All of the animations that you'd expect out of a soccer player are well done and once again all of that motion capturing of San Jose Earthquakes star Landon Donovan has really paid off. Left and right footed kicks, as well as headers, bicycles and step-overs are all easy to recognize. The animations that soccer fans and players will be able to appreciate the most are the reactions to slide tackles, fouls and saves. The physics of the game are reflected in the animations so that when two players are running side by side battling for the ball you'll see them shoving each other and throwing elbows to get position before one player lunges for a tackle and commits himself to the ball. In a situation like this you can see one of several of animation routines once he goes for the ball ranging from a perfectly clean tackle all the way to a poor slide that'll get you a booking. You won't need to wait for the referee to step in to know you've committed a dangerous play and that you deserve a card. This is just an example but the pattern is repeated in other areas of the game like playing balls out of the air and even corner and free kicks.
When you score a goal or commit a foul the camera instantly zooms in real time to get a close up of the player in question. In fact you'll see him start blowing kisses to the crowd from the default angle before instantly zooming and catching the rest of the animation. Some of the players look exactly like their real life counterparts while others, even the stars, seem to be cut from the same generic cloth. Donovan has his distinguishing curly hair that looks believable enough, while other players seem to have gone to the same toupee shop in Seoul. The hair models in the efforts to display individual strands end up looking like nappy hats of some kind.
The stadiums themselves are exquisitely reproduced and feature all of the World Cup decorations and branding --including scary inflatable "men" that flap and wave in the corners-- that we'll all finally see in a few weeks here. I've never been to the stadium at Busan, South Korea but I'll recognize it when I see it thanks to this game. The buildings are only half as interesting as the throngs of fans jumping up and down in their team colors that fill them. Unfortunately the fans are covered head to toe in their national colors but it's better than cardboard cutouts of old.
The framerate issues are unforgivable even though the game is processing 22 players plus all of the sideline activity. Even when you have the field radar turned off you'll notice a tad of slowdown. It's slight enough so that it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the game, but it seems like something that could've been addressed had the game been fully optimized for the Xbox.
Sound John Motson and Andy Gray are great together even if they don't always seem to be reacting to one another. They make timely comments that actually have something to do with what's going on in the game, but they still don't do any contextual commentary that takes the whole game into account. Motson's excitement level builds with crowd noise when you put a nice play together and create a nice chance. When a player possesses the ball for a long time and starts charging towards the goal his simple "Zidane!" or "Owen with a move!" is the perfect punctuation.
As great as the commentary is I recommend switching it off so you can hear what it sounds like on the field. The players talk to each other throughout the game, some in their native tongue, others in English, and even others in a reasonable facsimile of a foreign language. All of the South American players make comments in Spanish even though some soccer nations there speak Portuguese. The Poles and Danes speak English as well as the Americans and English, go figure. Even if they're not accurate in terms of syntax and pronunciation you get the feeling that you're hearing the best players in the world chatting with each other.
The stadiums come alive and get rowdy when there's plenty to get excited about. They cheer louder as you move closer to a goal scoring chance, but the best part is when they break out in a national anthem or team song in the middle of the match. When they bust out the French national anthem, both you and the French squad will get fired up as visions of that great Pele/Sylvester Stallone movie Victory flash in your mind.
This game isn't in true Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound but there is decent balance and separation that you really can appreciate when you have the commentary turned off.
Closing Comments
As the first soccer game on the Xbox, I have to say 2002 FIFA World Cup is easily the most fun to play. The fact that soccer translates to videogames so well and EA's attention to detail when it comes to gameplay kept me and all of the other soccer fans around the office engrossed for weeks. That's saying something considering all of the different games that come through here.
But like I said above, you're getting very little in the way of features and options with this game. The DVD extras are cool with a few featurettes but there's nothing too outstanding. The World Cup license is the game's greatest strength and weakness. All of the emotion and pageantry of the tournament is here, but I'm not sure that's enough of to make up for all of the stuff EA couldn't include. I love FIFA and wish the 2003 version could include a full blown World Cup mode because I know a World Cup without options and features comes up a little short.
OVERALL SCORE 8.2