Could have been better...
User Rating: 7.4 | This Is Football 2004 PS2
Before i start reviewing this game, we've all known for all this time, the Winning Eleven series have always been the best football games out there while the Fifa series have always had the best licences and graphics plus presentation. This game on the other hand, is surprising good on both ends, well almost. Gameplay This had to be the weakest points in the game. Though people might say this game have crappy mechanics, but i would like to offer a different view instead. It's true in this game when you direct the players on the field while chasing the loose ball, you might missed the ball altogether and your players sort of like glyed through it. Now, this is pretty realistic in the sense, when your actually playing football, when u chase after the loose ball you might missed controlled the ball altogether (either ur feet aren't quick enough - your opponent nicked it off your feet, or your controls skills sucks pretty bad). Scoring in this game is quite fun sometimes, you can execute swerving volley to the top hand corner (whichever point u pick), the not fun part comes when your player is executing a venemous strike only to find the ball magically appear on the keepers grasp with no force momentum to carry the keeper backward a little bit. Passing system also depends on the direction u press the directional button, which means it often can be stray if u didn't know where your teammate is. Crossing is also a breeze. Header on the other hand are hard to execute. Defending is also pretty taxing, i give away 0.5 penalty in each 5 games i played. The Customization feature actually saves this game from being a mediocre title. You can change player faces, manager faces, kits, team name, player attributes and etc. Graphics The graphics in this game surely is better than Winning Eleven Series by a mile. The players are nicely rendered with pretty realistic texture mapping on thier face. Famous players are instantly noticable from the field. Although players like Xabi Alonso, Milan Baros have generic faces on.. too bad. During in game, the animation of the crowds, the managers and player tussle are all very well done. I only recognize a few managers like, Santini and Sven Goran Eriksson and probably the majority are generic faces. But this is the big plus point of this game. Although there aren't many stadium in this game, but left's face it, how many actually bothered which stadium your team is currently playing when the focus of a football game is the green pitch and the goal. That's all that matters. But of those stadium that are available for this game, it's all nicely rendered. Sound The sound in this game is very immersive. From the crowds reaction to the commentary, it's all pretty authentic and nicely done. I find the sound during a cup final to be especially immersive and really add to the tension of the game very well. Replay Value This game have tremendous replayability, because of the customization and the 900 teams that this game have. Although the teams might not have real names (some only - like arsenal is called highbury - it's better than call arzegum), you can just change that in the customize team screen. I forgot to mention one thing about this game, apart from the loading before an actual match and after it (which is really damn long), the whole in game loading is very fast plus you won't hear grinding sounds. Overall This game could have and should have been better. Hopefully a major tweak to the game mechanics can really keep this series alive. Although i've seen WTS 2006 which is a major setback to what WTS2005 have achieved. This game is surprisingly good after a while..
