FIFA 07 Soccer - Rollercoaster ride of a football season

First Encounter

FIFA 07 throws you into the rollercoaster ride of a football season. Employ real world tactics, make realistic decisions, and think like a player in order to win matches. New intelligent AI ensures that your 11 men on the pitch make realistic decisions, finding space and passing like professionals. A complete overhaul of the game engine now means that you have to employ real world tactics, make realistic decisions and think like a player in order to win matches. Take on the updated and improved challenge of the Manager Mode. Player values and wages have been tuned to be even more realistic. Managerial decisions have even more tangible effects on player performance and welfare. Smarter CPU decisions mean rival managers are even more strategic in their own pursuit of silverware

General Features

• New ball physics accurately recreate bouncing, skidding and topspin. Signature moves and playing styles for the stars have been captured.
• Experience a more sophisticated shooting mechanic that gives you greater control for pin-point accuracy.
• Goalkeeper intelligence is authentic, with true-to-life reactions and a greater variety of deflections and saves.
• Crowds react to your performance. Goals and possession result in rousing chanting as momentum builds for your team but dips to a frustrated murmur if you are struggling.
• FIFA 07 features 27 leagues from 20 nations. Over 510 teams are accurately represented with correct kits and badges.

Gameplay

Get caught up in the emotion of the world's favorite sport in FIFA Soccer 07. From the sweet taste of victory to the bitterness of a last minute defeat, savor the drama of every moment as your team battles its toughest rivals in authentic stadiums around the globe.

Whether you are storming the pitch with a custom team in Manager mode or challenging friends in online Interactive Leagues, enhanced gameplay gives you more control then ever, letting you win possession, turn defenders, and find the net for the score. This is the year. This is the season. This is FIFA Soccer 07.

• Fluid control: Improved fundamental controls plus enhanced A.I. enables you to enjoy a truly virtual recreation of international football. Take complete control as the ball and players react to the slightest touch for unprecedented responsiveness.
• Real-time analysis: Monitor how each player performs in the game by viewing passing, shooting, and defending stats.
• Advanced team management: Utilize all-new fully detailed player styles, with a complete list of attributes, and an advanced player editor. Make the tough calls that decide the match: Pull weak players, switch formations, and control your defensive line with the touch of a button.
• Advanced Challenge Mode: Undertake 80+ challenges to test your skills and earn achievement points. Challenges range from winning a key match to using a substitute to score at the last minute.
• New ball physics accurately recreate bouncing, skidding and topspin. Signature moves and playing styles for the stars have been captured.
• Experience a more sophisticated shooting mechanic that gives you greater control for pin-point accuracy.
• Goalkeeper intelligence is authentic, with true-to-life reactions and a greater variety of deflections and saves.
• Crowds react to your performance. Goals and possession result in rousing chanting as momentum builds for your team but dips to a frustrated murmur if you are struggling.
• FIFA 07 features 27 leagues from 20 nations. Over 510 teams are accurately represented with correct kits and badges.

Review

October 9, 2006

For years EA's FIFA franchise has played second fiddle to Konami's Winning Eleven franchise, at least in the eyes of true fans of simulation-soccer. But EA is no dummy and in recent years the FIFA franchise has done its best WE-imitation in terms of gameplay while also putting to use a record-number of licenses -- something Konami's title sorely lacks. In FIFA 07 on current-generation platforms, EA has put together its best playing soccer title to date, and, thanks to a few pleasant surprises, shifts from imitator to innovator.

On the pitch, FIFA 07 is fast-paced and exciting while still retaining somewhat of a simulation focus, a nice departure from the arcade products EA released in the past. On the World Class difficulty levels, the computer AI offers a decent challenge -- you should skip the lower difficulties as defenders and goalies have the combined IQs of a sack of doorknobs. Long ball passing stands out in particular as you can now drop the ball from midfield into the corners, letting speedy forwards race past the defense for a chance at a decent cross.

Passing in the air also succeeds because of the way players receive the ball. A small yellow marker indicates where the ball will land, and opponents will jostle for position, working to get a head on the ball. On offense that means sticking your butt right into a defender and pushing him backward or if he has position, trying to slide around him. On defense, you can push your opponent out of the way -- gambling on a whistle -- or you can let him push into you and, using a Judo-throw, slide in front. It's a great mini-battle that you will wage on almost every long ball in the game, and EA did a great job with it.

Passing in general is a treat as players make realistic runs and a perfectly-timed pass or combination will often result on a chance on goal. As for actually shooting on goal, that is a mixed bag

Too often players in FIFA 07 miss point-blank shots — do not even get them on goal. True, keepers do tend to make plenty of amazing saves in one-on-one situations, but you'll sometimes kick the ball wide of the net without any pressure on you at all and only meters from the goal. A better shot aiming system where you press shoot and then aim in the split-second before you release would have worked just fine. Because of this, there are just as many “Oh my God! Look at that goal!” moments as “Oh my God! How did he miss!” moments.

Also, midfield play is basically non-existent. 90 percent of gameplay is focused in the offensive zones. In the middle third of the pitch, players can basically run, passing once or twice, unimpeded before hitting a wall of defenders. These guys make more runs than Mark Foley to Trillion after sessions close (too early?). This is not a big deal because goal-scoring is such a dynamic experience — great physics off the post, goalies and defenders — but it is not real soccer. To improve the gameplay in FIFA 08, EA should really focus on shot aiming, midfield play and goalie AI.

Yes, even the world's best keepers make under-12 girls youth soccer mistakes in FIFA 07. It does not happen every game, but keepers will occasionally dive in the wrong direction, stay on the line even when the ball is mere feet away, or simply play out of position. Then again, you may think that keepers -- when not hampered by buggy AI -- are a bit too tough as they make outstanding save after outstanding save. In one-on-one situations, you really have to fake out the keeper to get the ball past him.

EA also does well with the trick stick, a right analog innovation that is almost too fun to play with. Studs like Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo have signature moves available, and players can perform a variety of step-overs and dribble beats to shoot past defenders. Where FIFA succeeds is that these moves are hardly powerful and are usually only good for an extra step on a defender. Sometimes, that is all you need. But unlike FIFA 2001 where you could 360-your way to a 7-5 score, these special maneuvers need to be timed perfectly and even then they only work on the more hapless of defenders. Winning Eleven could learn a lot from this stick in a game that is a bit too dependent on passing.

Visually, player models are a bit rough, but the animations are excellent and plentiful. You'll notice more dribble and trap animations than ever before, and the cutscenes are as good as we've seen on the Xbox, with some recognizable faces in most of the stars around the world. In the sound department, the commentary is excellent, and the team takes a "less is more" approach, letting the action speak for itself. Rarely in sports games is commentary this satisfactory. The crowds are excellent, chanting team-specific cheers and reacting to the action with a passion only seen in the sport of soccer.

Off the pitch, FIFA 07 features more than 510 officially licensed teams and 27 leagues from a total of 20 countries. And yes, MLS is included, Freddy Adu fans. There are a number of tournaments and challenges to complete, there's the FIFA Lounge, and there's the excellent Manager Mode, the single finest franchise mode in videogame soccer. Manager includes scouting, sponsorship, a robust transfer market, player development, ticket pricing and even real newspapers specific to your team's country, like Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy.

Online, EA takes a giant leap forward with Interactive Leagues. Choose your favorite team in F.A. Premier League, Bundesliga, French League or Mexican 1st Division (EA couldn't squeeze in all of the best leagues, although we'd like to see more next season and on the next-generation consoles). Let's say you take Arsenal. Every time Arsenal plays, you have a week to play the same fixture. The opponents are controlled by players that have selected the opposing team as their favorite. But, let's say Arsenal plays Man U. And you are a Chelsea fan. As one of Arsenal's rivals, you also can play as Man U to try and stop your bitter foe. Pretty cool, eh? Unfortunately, there is only one-on-one online -- no co-op multiplayer. The online performance is also pretty poor -- we've been disconnected more times than we'd care to count. When the game does run, it is usually choppy and we haven't had one perfect game in more than a dozen matches.

Closing Comments

FIFA 07 is a fun, fast-paced game of soccer and EA's finest effort to date. While the effort to imitate the best elements of Winning Eleven is obvious, EA does its own fair share of innovation with some great long-pall passing, jostling and the Interactive Leagues feature. With solid visuals and sound, a dearth of gamemodes and decent online play, FIFA 07 is one of the best sports games of the year. Though the gameplay must be tightened up before it can overtake the competition.

Gamespot Review

Almost a year to the day since the release of FIFA 06, EA Sports has released that game's inevitable sequel, FIFA 07 for the PC, the PlayStation 2, and the Xbox. Last year's game could only be described as the best FIFA game to date; so the question, of course, is whether or not EA Canada has improved upon that game in any meaningful way. Not all of the changes that have been implemented since last year's game have been for the better, but there are more than enough improvements here to make FIFA 07 worth a look.

On the pitch, for example, you'll find that FIFA 07 plays a quite different game of soccer to its predecessor, though initially it can be difficult to figure out exactly what has changed. One of the few obvious changes to this year's game is that players accelerate and decelerate more realistically, which means that they cannot turn nearly as quickly when they're moving at speed. This results in your needing to pass the ball more, and depending on your play style, you might find that your trick (right analog) stick gets a lot more use than it did last year when you are attempting to beat opposing players in one-on-one situations. Both passing and using trick moves are a little more challenging in FIFA 07 than they were in 06, and because that is true for both teams (and because tackling when you are on defense is still relatively easy), the result is often that ball possession changes more frequently.

Trick moves have become more challenging not because they have a lower success rate, but simply because the controls for them are a little less forgiving. The section on trick moves in the FIFA 07 instruction manual bears more than a passing resemblance to a special-moves list for a fighting game, and the tricks available to you vary according to whether your player is running or standing still at the time. Passing the ball hasn't become more difficult per se; you just cannot take it for granted as much because the accuracy of your passes is now dependant on the positioning of your player in relation to both the ball and his intended target. A pass to a player directly in front of you when you have the ball at your feet, for example, is more likely to succeed than a pass to a teammate who is barely in your players' field of vision, particularly if you are trying to make that pass on your first touch after receiving the ball at waist height. Lengthy strings of one-touch passes, then, are more difficult in FIFA 07 than in previous games, which adds a nice risk-versus-reward mechanic any time you attempt one rather than take a moment to get the ball under control.

Shots at goal are also greatly affected by the positioning and balance of your player, as well as by how well he has the ball under control. If you try to play the game just like FIFA 06, you'll watch a lot of your shots fly wide of the goal and into the crowd. This can be frustrating at times, but the flipside is that spectacular, almost unbelievable goals in the game are now the exception rather than the norm, which is certainly a good thing. that is not to say that scoring goals in FIFA 07 is difficult, though, because it is not. Defenders generally back off attacking players a little too much, and the goalkeepers, although good at stopping shots for the most part, are a little too prone to spilling the ball when they do. Worthy of note is the new "finesse shot" feature that, using a modifier button that needs to be held down when taking a shot, lets you unleash shots that are more accurate but less powerful. It's not a feature that we've felt inclined to use a great deal, but if you have already beaten the defense and rounded the keeper it's a great way to avoid embarrassing open-goal misses.

Another way that you can avoid potentially embarrassing mistakes, though in a much more subtle way, is to keep your team's momentum up. Your momentum, as indicated by a performance meter in the top-left corner of the screen, is an indication of how well your players think the game is going, as determined not only by the current score but also by recent events on the pitch. It's entirely possible, then, for your team to be a couple of goals down but your players will still be playing their very best football or, by the same token, to be winning a game but struggling to contain their opponents. It's difficult to quantify just how much of an effect momentum has on your players' behavior, but it's definitely noticeable, and we've enjoyed numerous matches in which the run of play has shifted between the two teams several times.

Matches like those, along with one-sided goalfests, are perhaps the ones that best show off one of FIFA 07's most improved features--in-game sound. The commentary from ITV's Clive Tyldesley and Sky Sports' Andy Gray is not nearly as repetitive as it has been in previous years, and it's both accurate and well delivered to boot. Complementing the commentary team's efforts perfectly is the noise from the crowd, which changes dramatically according to what's happening on the field and which of the teams is playing at home. Many of the teams in FIFA 07 have specific crowd chants (it's generally just the name of the team being shouted over and over again, but it's still neat), and these will give way to thunderous applause and cheering or venomous boos and whistles as the action dictates. One especially nice touch is that if a home team is winning comfortably and passing the ball around without their opponents getting a touch, the home crowd will start to cheer every completed pass individually--mocking the away side in exactly the same way you'd expect them to in real life. Furthermore, when the crowd is quiet, you'll occasionally hear the players calling to each other, though it's far easier to make out what they're saying if you are on the practice ground with no crowd at all.

As was the case in FIFA 06, the players on your team other than the one that you are controlling are adept at making off-the-ball runs and such. You'll often need to trigger offensive runs manually, but this is achieved via only a single button press, and the subsequent pass or through ball invariably feels more satisfying as a result. CPU-controlled players are less proactive on defense than they are on offense, unfortunately, which is especially noticeable when they continue to back away from attackers well into the penalty area. You shouldn't be relying too much on any defender that you are not controlling yourself anyway, and the good news is that when you switch players on defense, you'll usually be given a defender with a chance of intervening rather than one who's chasing back from a forward position, even if the latter is closer.

If the defender in question happens to intervene with a sliding tackle, you'll probably notice that the ball physics in FIFA 07 are even better than those in FIFA 06. Perhaps for the first time in a FIFA game, the ball feels like it's an object reacting to external forces rather than one with physics that are fudged for certain player animations. The ball physics are best demonstrated by shots on goal that do something out of the ordinary when they strike one of the posts or the crossbar. One of our most memorable goals, in fact, was a free kick from Bolton Wanderers' Kevin Nolan that hit the underside of the crossbar really hard and bounced straight down at an angle that resulted in the ball barely crossing the line. This kind of goal does not happen in real life often, but it does happen, and it's great that it can now also be said of FIFA games.

The aforementioned goal was a particularly satisfying one because it was scored during an interactive league match, interactive leagues being a major new feature of this year's game. Interactive leagues are league tables that are generated using results from players who have pitted their teams against each other online according to the same match schedule used in real life. Four real-life leagues are supported, including England's F.A. Premier League, France's Ligue 1 Orange, Mexico's 1st Division, and the German Bundesliga. It's really little more than a new way to get matched up with opponents online and for results to be tracked, but because you are contributing to your favorite team's league position every time you play, it definitely adds to the experience. Predictably, fashionable teams like Chelsea and Manchester United have far more online players than many other clubs, so if you choose to commit to one of those, it might be more difficult for you to find opponents. If you are unable to find an opponent in a timely fashion, you have the option to participate in a fixture involving one of your rival teams instead--taking control of the opposition in the hope that you can indirectly benefit your team by beating its rivals in another match. You can also just choose to find a regular online game in a lobby.

We found that the Xbox version of FIFA 07 afforded us the best online experience, not only because it was the one with which we experienced the fewest disconnects and the least lag, but also because playing it didn't require us to sign up with EA Nation and go through the usual ritual of agreeing to let a soccer-related Web site send us spam (for the record, we've never knowingly received any) in return for waiving a small subscription fee. The PC game was also lag-free for the most part, but the EA Nation lobby system is somewhat unwieldy when compared to that used in the console games. The PS2 version of FIFA 07 uses the same online menus and lobby system as the Xbox game, but we experienced lag to some degree in every match that we played, and on more than one occasion we were abruptly disconnected and subsequently very disappointed to see a statistic next to our name to suggest that we were quitting out of games intentionally--which no doubt deterred some potential opponents from playing against us.

While we're on the subject of differences between the three versions of FIFA 07, there really aren't too many that are worthy of note. The PS2 game suffers from noticeable slowdown on occasion (especially when playing in widescreen), which the other two rarely do. A unique feature of the PS2 game's manager mode is that it boasts connectivity with the PlayStation Portable version. The handheld game's manager mode boasts all of the features found in the PS2 game, and transferring the data between the two consoles takes only a few seconds. The PS2 game does support progressive scan, but does not look nearly as good as the Xbox version in 720p if you are in a position to take advantage of it. The PC game's controls are the most customizable but do not let you re-create those of Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven outside of Europe) series perfectly, while the Xbox game uses its controller's badly positioned black and white buttons to perform some important functions, like chip shots. Where those of you playing FIFA 07 on a PC are really going to miss out is the lack of a FIFA Lounge mode, which remains one of the most enjoyable ways to play the game if you are in a room with up to seven of your friends, although some questionable changes have been made to the feature this year.

In case you are not familiar with the FIFA Lounge mode, the idea is that a group of you can play each other across multiple gaming sessions and have the game keep track of your results in a league table. Furthermore, you'll collect power-ups (or opponent power-downs) known as "cheap shots" as you play that can be used to level the playing field in your favor before a subsequent match. In FIFA 06, these cards were allocated in such a way that losing players generally had more cheap shots available to them. In FIFA 07, however, the opposite is true, since winning players are almost always rewarded with better cheap shots.

It's still possible to level the playing field to some extent before FIFA Lounge matches, but doing so is now achieved by awarding goals to a team before any cheap shots are activated. It's neat that when awarding goals to a team in this way, you can actually see a visual representation of how much it's likely to improve your chances of winning based on previous performances, but the system feels like a step in the wrong direction after last year's game. Winning a match against a superior player because you were able to bench his star forward or give all of his players a level of fatigue before kickoff is still rewarding, but beating that same player with a two-goal head start is a hollow victory at best.

When you are not playing online or against your friends in the FIFA Lounge, you'll likely be putting your management skills to the test in FIFA 07's manager mode. The manager mode lets you assume control of any team in the game (or even one of your own creation) and then tasks you with leading them to glory while making decisions that can affect your club both on and off the field. After accepting a job at a team, your first duty will be to select a sponsor for the season. These sponsors won't replace the real ones on your uniforms when you play, but they're an important source of income, and you'll find that the sponsors offering you the most money are invariably the ones that will be the most difficult to please.

Next up will be an e-mail from your club's board of directors detailing their expectations for the season. Predictably, clubs that are currently enjoying a lot of success in real life expect it to continue, so choosing to manage a top-flight team can be more challenging than opting for one that is accustomed to midtable obscurity or relegation battles. The expectations are a little more varied in FIFA 07 than they were in FIFA 06, so in addition to achieving certain league and cup positions, you might find yourself tasked with improving club finances, reducing player salary bills, or extending the contracts of certain players. The board will also let you know which players are the fans' favorites, hoping that you'll find room for them in your starting 11 as a result.

As in last year's game, your three main considerations in manager mode are keeping the fans happy, maintaining job security by keeping the board happy, and having good team chemistry. One of the new features for this year's manager mode is the player growth system, which lets you pluck upcoming players from your youth squad and then, by playing them alongside the first team, encouraging them to develop. Every player in your squad will gain experience points at the end of a match based on his performance, and you'll notice that the number of points awarded to young players is generally much higher than the number given to experienced pros. The flipside is that to nurture a star for the future, you have to spend multiple seasons fielding a player who is not really good enough to be playing alongside the rest of your team.

The other significant new feature in manager mode is the "visual sim" option for matches. If for some reason you do not want to play a match yourself (we're not sure why that would ever be the case, frankly), the visual sim option lets you watch play-by-play commentary of the match and intervene with tactical decisions or by jumping in and assuming control at any time. The text-based commentary and match statistics that you have access to while in visual sim mode are adequate rather than impressive, and we cannot help but wonder why there's no option to watch the game being played out using the regular, great-looking match engine. Fact is, the management portion of FIFA 07 works well in between matches, but it's not nearly deep enough to play purely as a management sim, which makes the option to "quick sim" games and get a result instantly even more redundant than the aforementioned one.

Regardless of the fact that the management in FIFA 07 is not particularly deep (though it can be very engaging), to play the game without actually playing the matches yourself would be to miss out on some of the best soccer visuals that we've seen in a game to date. The players in FIFA 07 are instantly recognizable for the most part, but it's their animation that really stands out as a huge improvement over last year's game. In FIFA 06, the player animation was difficult to fault, but in FIFA 07, it's nigh on impossible--you'll see players controlling the ball with different parts of their bodies, you'll see them losing their balance and falling over occasionally, and you'll certainly notice them bumping into rather than clipping through each other when areas of the field get busy.

FIFA 07, then, is a game that undoubtedly improves upon FIFA 06 in a number of ways, though it also has a few quirks of its own. This is an easy game to recommend if you have any interest in soccer, especially since you can keep up to date with the latest soccer news and results via a ticker tape along the bottom of the screen anytime you are online, but it's not a giant leap forward for the FIFA series in the same way that other recent iterations have been. FIFA 07 is a must-have if you missed out on FIFA 06, and it's definitely worth a look if you own last year's game and are ready for a change.

Cheats

Double stepover

Cristiano Ronaldo and Robinho are considered by most to be the best two dribblers out there. Use the Trick Stick with either one to perform a double stepover. Press Forward, then rotate left and then right.

Easy goals with finesse shot

You need to perform a finesse shot when one-on-one with the goalkeeper. This will trick him from going from one side to the other. Just fake right and shoot left or vice versa. You will make the shot nearly every time.

If you are outside the area and have the ball but not on your half, just look on the map to see how far the keeper is off his line. He is usually about two meters. Try to get the power right and you can lob him.

Money $$$ Money

When playing as any team in Manager mode, buy the best free agents in the transfer market. Sell them during the same transfer market window so you do not have to pay the high salary. Because they are free to you, once you sell them you can get the added money to your account.

Unlock countries

B, X, BLACK, WHITE, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP

Tactics

In amateur mode do not bother passing too much. It is just an oppurtunity to lose the ball. However in world class you need to pass alot to win.