Review: FIFA 07 (360)

The 360 has already played host to two of EA's FIFA titles - the poor FIFA '06 and the inevitable cash-in that was World Cup 2006. With regards to developing games for a new generation of consoles, it usually takes the company's overworked staff a couple of titles to start getting things right again. This should be the game that starts turning things in the right direction, the title that shows EA is changing, trying something new. Sadly, this is not the case.

The first thing to strike you when loading the game, is the chance to have a kick around while everything runs in the background. It’s not a new trick, as EA have put this free play mode in the majority of their 360 sports titles. It's a nice touch, giving you something to do instead of staring at the controls for a couple of minutes. It’s when you press start to enter the options menu where things take a turn for the worse.

The game options menu is a shoddy mess, all small text and lack of modes. For a company who prides itself on presentation over gameplay, this really is a nasty surprise. The standard "Kick Off" mode is there if you fancy a quick game, and "Manager" mode if you wish to play five seasons. You can set up your own leagues as usual, but are limited to a selection of teams from the top leagues in several countries, alongside national teams. This is where the disappointment of the menu system fades away, and turns to genuine shock at the appearance of the team selection screen. Gamestyle felt like playing a quick friendly, just to have a glance at the game itself. Gamestyle fancied a match between Plymouth Argyle and Wycombe Wanderers. Looking through the leagues, we realised to our horror that the Championship and League 1 had been omitted from the 360 version, as had several other leagues (Serie B, Liga 2 etc). The fact that these had been included on the current gen versions of the game and not the next gen edition was not doing the title any favours. Gamestyle plumped for a Manchester derby and continued.

After a brief kick around with Ronaldinho, the game was about to begin. A camera pans across Old Trafford as Martin Tyler and Andy Gray tell us "there’s no such thing as a friendly" - thanks for that nugget, lads. The players are in the tunnel, about to head out to the pitch, but something's wrong. With EA banging on about player likeness and such, Gamestyle takes a closer look at the teams. The faces are familiar, yet have the appearance of plastic figurines. After the amazingly lifelike visuals in Fight Night, NBA Live and so on, it's appalling to see such lifeless dummies representing one of the most popular sports in the world. The blurry crowd cheer as their teams enter the pitch. Gamestyle grumbles, hoping the gameplay can make up for the lacklustre presentation.

Within the space of five minutes, our hopes are dashed. It seems the FIFA series now plays like a bastardised Pro Evolution - the first one. This wouldn't be so much of a problem - the first Pro Evo was a great game - but the game doesn't play smoothly. Your CPU-controlled team mates regularly manage to hinder your progress by blocking shots on goal, not going where their supposed to, and generally getting in your way. The AI is terrible, worse so than previous titles in the series, yet it really is hard to see how EA could have messed this game up so much. The control system (which also apes Pro Evo to some extent) fails to work. Trying to have your team mates run alongside you becomes an ordeal, the game seemingly rolling a dice to decide whether you need help or not, leaving through-balls a riskier option than it should be. The times the game does decide to interpret your button presses as commands, the goals come all too easily, leaving you with little feeling of achievement.

As if coping with the controls wasn't enough, you have to tolerate the relentless banter of Tyler and Gray. Not commentary, banter. The fact that the commentators have so much to talk about beside the game being played defies logic. Surely that space on the DVD could have been put to better use, for say, more teams? It would have been a nice touch if the game were a little better, but as it stands, it's just one more annoyance to complain about.

With the first 750 or so words of this review based on pointing out the bad points, it's time to focus on the few things that FIFA '07 gets right. There are only a couple, yet they are nice touches. The first is the quick loading times (the kick about with a player of your choice does help). The second is the news ticker. When connected to live and trying to navigate the menus, Gamestyle noticed a news ticker at the bottom of the screen. The text scrolling across was giving the latest football scores and news. We were impressed with this, and even more impressed when, at around 6.30, TalkSport news was being beamed through live toward our ears. Gamestyle likes little touches like this, yet sadly it was too little too late. The fact that these are our fondest memory of the title speak volumes about the game itself.

So, should you buy FIFA for the 360? If you've read the whole review, you should have made your mind up by now. Fifty quid is a lot of money to spend on a title that doesn't offer either a realistic feeling football title, or even an arcade one. FIFA prefers to sit uncomfortably between the two, occupying an area that most would rather not visit. If you're quite happy to shell out for the fully licensed teams that EA provide every year, feel free. We tried to warn you. All we'll say is this: Konami can sleep easy for another year.

Rating: 3 / 10

Words by Dan Gill