The Bottom Line
- New and improved career mode adds depth and re-playability
- Favorite pros such as Omar Bravo and Freddy Adu are playable
- New tactical options add depth to this accessible soccer sim
- Still very mechanical feeling, great game but needs personality
Description
- Graphics: 4 Everything is sharp and sweet, but soccer is a tough sport to limit to the small screen
- Sound: 4 Ea Trax, love 'em or leave 'em, either way the game certainly sound like soccer/football
- Concept: 2.5 Minor tweaks made a good game great, but no revolution here
- Control: 4 The new tactics and dribbling open the game up for all levels of play
- Difficulty: 3 Fifa 06 is an easy game to pick up with lots of options that add depth later on
- Multiplayer: 5 Online is grand but offline is superb, thanks EA for remembering people play together
- Replay: 4.5 If you like soccer/football you could play for eternity
- Rated: Everyone, soccer moms take heart, this one is fine for the kiddies
Guide Review - Fifa 06 Review - PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC
Graphically, Fifa 06 seems to have only minor improvements over last year's outing, but that may have more to do with being at the tail end of the current console lifespan than anything else. We are going to see Fifa 06 on the Xbox 360 in November, so we'll see how it fares on a Next-next gen system. Minor tweaks seems to be the name of the game in Fifa 06, but make no mistake, they certainly lift the Fifa series to the top of its game.
New analog and digital dribbling options give you four independent ways to control your footwork. The ability to change team tactics on the fly with the d-pad brings new strategy to the Field. The character creation system is no longer such a chore, and the offline multiplayer mode has been greatly expanded. This last point is a real treat, finally someone recognizes that as much as we love playing online, at home multiplayer is a frequent treat often ignored by current developers.
Fifa 06 makes accessible the intense action of pro soccer/football. The game is flawless in every way, and that may be its achilles heel. It plays so smoothly, that at times one wonders if they are really playing. It's a tough feeling to shake, and gives the Winning Eleven series an edge in gameplay. But, at the end of the match, Fifa 06 is by and large the most accurate and deep soccer/football sim out there.
