FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup – Review

The Xbox 360 is like an entire candy store enclosed in one tiny little box. So far, we’ve been treated to the joys of FPS, sports, adventures, and RPG titles, and we all know there’s a whole wealth of games yet to follow. Needless to say, when I saw that FIFA 06 was available at launch, I had a little hint of excitement at the thought I’d be able to play my beloved football on the new console.

Oh…my…God! What have EA done to a thoroughly decent football franchise? There are just so many problems with FIFA 06: Road To FIFA World Cup that I could have wept. EA has its fair share of haters—I am not amongst them. Largely, I enjoy EA’s FIFA titles, and regardless of the continual yearly updates, renewals, and tweaked versions that come out of what is, essentially, the same game, I always buy them because they are fun. That’s what gaming is all about, playing something fun, and yet with FIFA 06, EA has seriously shot wide of the goal. I was expecting to love this game, the graphics ‘should’ have been outstanding, and the gameplay ‘should’ have made the most of the 360’s expansive processing power, but for some reason it just all seems a little rushed and…creepy. Yes, creepy, but I’ll get to all that later.

There are multiple ways to play FIFA 06, most of which have been seen before. You can play a Friendly Match, Road To FIFA World Cup, Tournament, Practice, and Xbox Live. There are also various difficulty levels ranging from Amateur to Perfect and, trust me, you must be some kind of gaming God if you can win a match on Perfect mode. The core of FIFA 06 centres on the Road To FIFA World Cup mode—naturally—since this is the game’s main selling point. Yet, let me explain why this is a problem. For a start, you are obviously playing just the qualification stages, so never actually get to play in the World Cup proper. Sounds fine in principal, but when you realise that there’s a ton of club teams missing and you are only able to play 72 teams, with more than 50 of these originating in Europe, you start to see how much the game has been scaled down from even its nearest equivalent on the Xbox. Furthermore, to state a fact, FIFA 06 on the Xbox is the best football game out there (I’ll second that—Ed), certainly not this 360 watered down version. And beyond the core gameplay, there’s also no club shop to spend money in, and the only unlockable features offered are footballs and the classic FIFA team.

One of the first things you notice when playing FIFA 06 is its graphics. At first glance they wow you, and you think they’re the best graphics you’ve ever seen in a football videogame. And this it true, from the furthest possible camera angle the game does definitely look very good. But, get a little closer and suddenly everything seems to have been tainted with some weird ghoulish and creepy filter. The players appear recognisable from distance but, again, when you get a little closer, they seem to morph into someone akin to Herman Munster. Wayne Rooney—hardly the best-looking player anyway, bless—looks as white as a sheet with dark, deep-set eyes and all these odd markings on his face. Collectively, the players look like a representative squad for Living Dead Utd. It’s just not right, and the bizarre white aura that surrounds all the players on the pitch only adds further to the growing list of oddities. This strange ghosting effect seems to bring nothing to the game other than a bizarre trailing blur when players run about. These little graphic irritations are really unfortunate; especially as the stadiums and the textures on the squad kits are all really top quality. The soft ripples on individual strips and the shiny defined muscles all add some semblance of tangible reality to the overall look of the game, but sadly it’s just not enough. Even the crowds are somewhat flawed and suffer from an obvious pixelation that simply should not be visible on the Xbox 360. To compound matters, action replays look lovely until you realise that there’s a serious deterioration and slowdown in the framerate, which sometimes makes the ball completely disappear from the screen. It’s truly tragic that a franchise product so well placed to become ‘the beautiful game’ has been so viciously beaten over the head with the development ugly stick.

And, the graphics aren’t the only disappointment in FIFA 06. The controls are slow and clunky, and occasionally it feels as though there’s a definite delay on implementing a move or action and your player actually executing it. This is a serious and fundamental problem in a football title, especially when the A.I. isn’t that great to begin with. At times you’re hoping your teammates will run into playing space for a through ball pass, or simply looking for them to make an intelligent move to drag defenders or create space for you to run into—but it just doesn’t happen. The players run back into formation as soon as a pass is made and this leaves you all alone upfront facing four opposition defenders. There are no attempts made to run forward and, at times, they simply stand stock still and watch as an opposing player runs past them and shoots for goal. It’s all just unforgivable really, and certainly far removed from the usual high standard we’ve come to expect from EA’s FIFA titles. Another problem arises through the marker that’s used to highlight the player you’re currently controlling; sometimes it seems to stick to a player that’s far from the ball rather than change to one who’s closest. This means you end up worrying about changing the controlling player rather than making a perfectly timed tackle, or creating an overlap, or watching for opposing runs. It’s all just so fiddly and disorganised that even changing the tactics easily in the middle of a match doesn’t really help much. As if matters couldn’t get any worse (no, they really couldn’t—Ed) then FIFA 06 is also pretty much impossible to score on. Yes, while we like a challenge, and it’s good to struggle towards victory, scoring a goal shouldn’t really be this tiresomely difficult.

The sound on FIFA 06 is probably one of the better aspects of the overall game. The commentary, provided by SKY stalwarts Andy Gray and Martin Tyler, is adequately delivered. However, there are points where you will start to become slightly irritated by them lapsing into repetition, and their constant related trivia will get on your nerves too. Thankfully the soundtrack is one of the game’s saving graces. It seamlessly switches between Latin music to Brit Rock and, thanks to EA Trax, can all be altered to suit your own personal tastes. Deaf gamers won’t be at any disadvantage as the game can be freely played with the sound off and you’ll still know what you’re doing—or not, as the case may be.

Since this is a football title I’m loathe to even write a female gamer angle. There is none. There are no females throughout the game and, for once, I’m hoping they’re all off being footballer’s wives and shopping for meaningless items and ridiculously expensive designer clothes rather than watching this particular game.

Overall, I am gutted that FIFA 06: Road To FIFAWorld Cup hasn’t lived up to 360 expectations. The removal of franchise mode, player’s lounge, club teams, decent graphics, accessible controls and, most importantly, fun, have made this game a shadow of its former self. It’s not the best football game out there by a long shot, but it is playable, if only for a short time. If you’re looking for a good football game on the Xbox 360 you’ll need to wait for a little while as, sadly, this isn’t it.

Review by Tracy

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