Ea’s Fifa soccer series has held a grip on the North American soccer video game market since the series début back in th
The bulk of your time spent with Fifa 2004 will be in the shallow career mode, but tournament, practice and single game modes are also available. The career mode sets you as a manager of a club from one of the many leagues offered. Right from the beginning, you are given a set of goals which you must achieve to gain prestige points, such as getting 5 clean sheets in a row or having a positive goal differential at the end of the season. It has the potential to be a nice feature, but these goals are forgotten almost immediately as they really have minimal effects until the end of the season. You are also allotted 1000 “prestige points” at the start, which you can use to train your team or individual players, and points must also be spent when making transfers with other clubs. This is really a problem with the game, you are not given enough points at the start, and things like standard training for your club cost as much as 250 points. You will quickly see your points diminish 2 or 3 games in, and then you don’t receive any until the end of the season. Other things that you can do in between games include adjusting your strategy, changing up your starting lineup and signing new players to your club. It should be mentioned that the menus for the career mode are extremely un-user friendly. Finding player from different clubs is very time consuming, and examining stats is a chore due to the cluttered tables. In the end the career mode ends up being a minor distraction to the stuff that really counts; the action on the pitch.
Once you hit the field the first thing you’ll realize is how easily Fifa controls. The button layout is simple, and the gameplay only takes a couple minutes to get used to. That is both in favor for Fifa, and against it. The ease of play is great for all of the soccer fans out there who have never played a soccer game, but the depth is extremely lacking for hardcore Fifa veterans. Lobbing the ball for example, is done by pressing the lob button, then watching the ball fly semi-realistically to two players on the field. Once the ball is close to your player, you press the pass button and hope that your player out jumps the opponent for the ball. This isn’t a problem if you’re looking for an arcade like experience, but it becomes very repetitive after a few games. Passing is also extremely simplistic, and plays out more like a connecting the dots game than a game of soccer. Shooting is handled well, with shots glancing of posts and being deflected by defenders. There is a problem with longer shots, which can be scored to easily, especially on the lower difficulty levels. Free kicks are a highlight, and each shot is a mini thrill ride as you see the goalie stretch out to put a finger on the ball that you just expertly put spin on. Overall the gameplay stands up as an arcade gamers paradise, but is far to simplistic for anyone looking for some depth.
Fifa 2004 is a great looking game, with outstanding stadiums and realistic shadows. Player models look great from the default camera view, and look solid in close, although there is notable artificial shine on them. Face models are eschewed somewhat, but you can easily distinguish your favorite players. Animations look great, but there isn’t a great amount of variety among them. On the whole though, the graphics do a good job of immersing you into the action on the pitch.
Commentary is for the most part good, with the play by play keeping you informed of the action on the pitch. The color commentary is rare and pretty un-useful. Crowd noises are awesome, with a great variety of different chants and cheers. On the default settings, the crowd is a little loud and tends to drown out the commentary. The ball gives off a solid oomph when kicked, and slide tackles are equally realistic sounding.
The Gamecube and Xbox versions have no online play, but the Xbox gets a slight edge in graphics. Fifa 2004 isn’t an incredible game, but it doesn’t strive to be. Its lack of realistic gameplay (this is evidenced by the maximum of 10 min half’s!) could turn off hardcore soccer fans, but anyone looking for a fast, fun soccer game that’s great to play against friends should find what they need here.