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"This is the season," claims the marketing tagline for FIFA Soccer 07 on Xbox 360, effectively suggesting the two previous soccer games on the platform were trial runs. In short, if you snapped up the earlier offerings, you weren't getting games specifically designed for your wonderfully noisy (and pricey) platform. FIFA 07 is EA's first soccer game in years to feature a 3D engine built from the ground up, bringing the sport in line with the publisher's other efforts on the system. And if you are a loyal EA Sports follower with an Xbox 360, you know exactly what that entails: accepting a reduced feature list in favor of sharp visuals. Soccer addicts will be happy to hear, however, that the gameplay has actually improved over previous versions and is one step closer to Konami's Winning Eleven series.

Slow Starter

FIFA 07 can best be described as an acquired taste, as its first impression will have casual fans thinking about ejecting the disc and bending it like Beckham. The pace is slow. You'll have an easier time scoring with a cloistered nun. The default camera angle is distant. Athletes look more plastic-like than an aging Hollywood star. And the two-man commentary team sounds like it should be calling a round of golf instead of a soccer match. Yet many of these complaints are a result of the game feeling so different, not to mention more difficult, making it easy to give up on the title before putting it through its paces. Only after playing several games will you learn to love the speed, appreciate the animations, welcome the challenge, and accept the zoomed-out camera view as a blessing in disguise. Even the low-key nature of the commentators is a bit deceptive, as they will routinely surprise players with game-specific observations or by engaging in humorous banter.

Footloose

It's difficult at first to adjust to the new freedom you have on the field. Instead of the ball automatically sticking to your athlete's foot as in past games, it will react independently based on several variables, from a player's momentum and skill-set to the strength and type of pass or shot. You can even hit the ball off a defender or kick it through his legs, allowing for a more dynamic experience. New management features such as a formation editor and fatigue (both short- and long-term) create more strategic options and means you have to judiciously use the sprint button instead of spamming it. Shots on goal can be taken from a variety of angles and require a degree of technique lacking in earlier versions. Creating scoring opportunities involves spreading the ball around and trying to feed it to your playmaker. You can perform stop-and-gos and feints to elude defenders, set up chip or finesse shots with varying power, and send one of several pass types anywhere on the field.

Minor Leagues

While the AI could use a few tweaks (defenders are often reluctant to attack the ball and tend to retreat toward the net), critics of previous FIFA games will be surprised at how competitive the games are, even at the amateur level. Once players switch off the pass assistance feature and start taking charge of the field, they will enjoy close, nerve-racking matches. Despite the gameplay improvements, however, FIFA 07 struggles in other areas. The biggest disappointment is having only six leagues to choose from, which ultimately hobbles the manager mode. It's an otherwise addictive feature that needs more clubs and stadiums to reach its potential. As you embark on a five-year stint as a club manager, athletes will earn experience points that can be traded in for improved attributes and new traits. Teams begin with 10,000 credits to upgrade eight staff positions to address certain deficiencies in offense, defense, scouting, and so forth. Each club has a choice of sponsors to please, season objectives to complete, and financial goals to meet as you try to build prestige.

Pitch Perfect?

FIFA 07 also includes a challenge mode with 85 team-specific scenarios to complete, earning you points to spend in a virtual store stocked with jerseys, cleats, videos, and more. Other than a fairly straightforward online component, there's not much else to FIFA 07 to sink your cleats into, which is frustrating since EA sires more soccer games in a shorter time span than Kevin Federline does children. Notable omissions include a create-team feature, an indoor soccer arena, mini-games, an MLS license, an option to save replays, and of course, hundreds of viable clubs. FIFA 07 will still please enthusiasts with its enhanced ball control and realistic play, but it’s hard to validate this game as "the season" when it would have benefited from more seasoning.

Article by: Scott Alan Marriott
Video produced by: Ross Beeley