FIFA Soccer 07EA SportsFour out of five stars

For anyone who isn’t going abroad, ‘FIFA Soccer 07’ might be the next big thing.

That’s because the game is loaded with teams-especially international teams. It puts the gamer in soccer-crazed Europe or lets them battle elite Brazil. It’s not simply the national teams that are prominently featured in ‘FIFA,’ but club teams from around the world. So Manchester United can go up against the Chicago Fire, and the winner can take on World Cup-champion Italy. The possibilities aren’t endless, but with more than 510 teams, it’ll take a lot of lonely Saturday nights to figure out all of them.

Manager mode allows a gamer to run a team in its respective league. There’s scouting to discover a player like Freddy Adu and transfer fees to theoretically acquire a player like Cristiano Ronaldo. The manager also has to deal with sponsorships and ticket pricing while reading about the organization in the press. It’s like a sports management class in your living room-without a mid-term.

The gameplay also works well for beginners, with simple control for all soccer basics. But for the advanced gamers, there are serious controls like player-specific moves that can be utilized to help top Brazil. But it’s not done in such a way that the games become unrealistic 8-7 thrillers, but rather like an actual soccer game. For one who wants to run up the statistics, this might become frustrating. For those looking for realistic game situations, ‘FIFA’ does a solid job of simulating it.

The gripe in the game could be the graphics, which are impressive but don’t look as realistic as some of EA Sports’ counterparts. Compared to ‘Madden’ or ‘NBA Live,’ where the player models look eerily similar to actual television, ‘FIFA’ still has a way to go. But that’s a minor peccadillo considering the other parts of the audio and visual-specifically the crowd and the commentary-that make it seem like one’s watching an actual game.

For those who have online capability, ‘FIFA Soccer 07’ offers extensive leagues online. In that case, one can play live against someone with one of the game’s many teams, even against a friend abroad, who could switch off the game and watch the actual team.

Published on October 28, 2006 at 12:00 pm