FIFA2004

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Anyone playing this?

It's FUCKING HARD! Thinking my mad skillz from Fifa 99, 2000, 2001 etc etc would support me, I played my first game on the 'Professional' level and got my ass sorely kicked. I then tried to balance things a little by playing Real Madrid against a UK 2nd division team - and still got my ass kicked. Controls are nice and hard, the career mode option is great, graphics are the best and the reintroduction of the Training Ground is great for practicing set pieces, long shots, crossing etc.

It's definately one of the best footie sims (and note: it is a sim, not an arcade game. Don't expect bicycle kicks and maradona-esque dribbling galore) ever but it has its share of little annoying "bugs".

#1: The pointer. I hate this fucking thing so much that my dislike of Sweden seems like infatuation in comparison. The "click point" of the pointer seems to change constantly, and I can't say how many times I've accidentally subbed in a defender instead of an attacker or vice versa. This leads to

#2: Team Management is counter intuitive, the entire selection process is annoying and inaccurate, and the fact that your players get fatigued yet you can't see an indication of the fatigue on the Team Management screen is a pita.

#3: First version doesn't support direct IP or LAN multiplayer games, and EA Sports has the Single Most Retarded Patch System In The World. Patch until it says it's done, wait 10 minutes and if you're lucky your patch will be installed. If it isn't, prepare to reinstall the whole damn game to get rid of the files that were fucked up in the patching process.

On the whole this is a very good game that has its flaws - some of the flaws seem to indicate that the PC version is more of a port from the PS2/Xbox/whatever than a standalone game. And the manager feature makes things much more fun - you can play your own team now and bring them to the glory they never see in RL. Go Sunderland!

Edit: I forgot to mention something! The commentary is NO LONGER COMPLETELY RETARDED - only mildly retarded, which for a sports game is quite the feat.

[Boogahz]

Drolgin replayed Denmark vs Germany in '92 EC?

hehe