While it is certainly better than its predecessors, bad referee decisions make FIFA soccer 2005 not very enjoyable.

User Rating: 4 | FIFA Soccer 2005 XBOX
I've always been a fan of soccer games, but I just cannot find the fun about FIFA soccer 2005. While it certainly has its strong points, it's weak points largely outweigh them. I'll speak about its weak points first, so this won't look like that much of a bad review. 'Cos I hate doing those.

First of all, the referee makes horrible decisions. It's like that in real life as well, but it's really annoying when you do a sliding tackle to somebody in front, hit the ball first but accidentally knock down the player afterwards and receive a yellow card for it. This would probably be a foul in the official soccer rulebook, but certainly not a card. Secondly, your opponent hardly makes any fouls at all, which makes it all very corny and unrealistic. The fouls a player received a card for will be viewed at the highlights of the match after every half of the game as well; and unless you or your opponent managed to score a goal, the only 'highlight' you will see would be that foul. The passing is horrible. When you play a long pass over the field to another player but it doesn't quite arrive well, your fellow player will actually wait on that spot until the ball arrived on his very location. This gives the opponent's defender more than enough time to jump in between to catch off the ball and change the game to his side, which is irritating. Even if you've selected that very player and push the left stick in the ball's direction, the player remains glued to that very position. Not cool. Lastly, the classic one-two-punch is a nono, because if you play the ball towards a fellow player and you gain control of him and lose that of your previous one, it won't run towards with you. Again, he'll be glued against the ground, and refuse to play along so you'll be alone against four defenders.

Alright, from here on, I shall list the things I like about this game.

The player design is fairly good. The more succesful players are often easily recognizable, such as Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy. The tenue design is alright; they're recognizable enough, and all complete with its sponsors. I personally like most of the music tracks, it doesn't get old very quick, and after a few years of playing, I still enjoy listening to some of them. Creating your own player works good as well, but this isn't all that special. The controls are all very basic, but as such they are easy to pick up, and it all makes for an exciting match of soccer.

Pro's:
the more succesful players look great
the soundtrack is alright
good controls

Cons:
the referee's decisions are horrible
your opponent hardly ever makes a foul himself
the 'highlights' are almost always poor
AI fellow players is worked out unforgivably bad