FIFA 07

The first time I played FIFA was on the Sega Megadrive and I thought it was great, there was a good choice of teams, it played pretty well and it was football, I continued the trend of buying the game every year and I was pretty happy with it, that is until one year when I found Pro Evolution Soccer sitting on a shelf and decided to give that a go as well and from that day FIFA had lost my loyalty, it's not that FIFA wasn't good it's just that it never seemed to change much, until now that is.

Having played the demo of FIFA 07 on the Xbox 360 and being impressed I couldn't wait to get started on the full version and find out if this game was going to challenge Pro Evolution Soccer for peoples hard earned money.

As is normal in FIFA Soccer the menu's are very well presented and easy to navigate and the sound track complements this well, you are also given the chance to use your favourite player to practice shooting in the lobby while you decide which menu option you are going to choose and although the default player is Ronaldinho this can easily be changed.

The game itself is what we all want to know about though and I can tell you that it is much improved on previous versions, it just plays and feels so much better than previous versions and this is mainly due the fact that the movement of the ball and players has been dramatically improved, another feature which has been added to improve the game is fatigue, the players fatigue bar decreases the more a player sprints which eventually slows him down, so you need to make sure that (if your like me) you do not hold down the sprint button for the entire match as this will result in your player running at the speed of a tortoise.

It also seems to be harder to score this year too, the defenders will close your players down much faster and any crosses into the box are usually dealt with quite efficiently, so the days of winning 10-0 could be over, unless the computer is having a particularly bad day.

FIFA looks and sounds great, the HD graphics and sound are some of the best seen yet on the Xbox 360 and it's rival Pro Evolution Soccer cannot touch it in this department, the stadium full of singing fans give just as much to the game as the excellent commentary and during the match the animation gives so much, the way the ball moves is something you will notice straight away, also when Ronaldinho does one of his overhead kicks it is a joy to behold.

The multiplayer support for FIFA is also excellent offering a lag free four on four game of football over Xbox Live and again this is something which leaves Pro Evolution Soccer dragging behind, you are also able to play a ranked match over Xbox Live and are usually connected to an opponent very fast and whilst you are waiting for the game to load you are even treated to the sounds of Talk Sport Radio, very flash.

Unfortunately as with most games, FIFA does have it's flaws, the player Al is still not quite perfect and often results in your players bumping into each other or not making the runs you want them to, also the game just doesn't seem to flow that freely and therefore at times it can feel scripted, when you are playing Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and you hit the bar or post with a shot you that you should have scored with, the feeling of frustration is there for every true football fan to see but with FIFA you just don't get this and as far as i am concerned this is what has been lacking in all FIFA's including this one, although it plays nicely it doesn't seem to have that excitement to it, then there is the lack of leagues, all in all there are six leagues to choose from, which is a drastic cut when compared to for example the PS2 version, however to make up for this we have a better match engine so perhaps we can't complain about this too much.

EA were always going to have a lot of work to do to catch up on Pro Evolution Soccer and they have done an excellent job in the changes they have made, this version of FIFA is most definitely the best yet and it does beat it's rival in a few area's, especially the online play, this can only be good for you, the football fans, because now you really do have a decision make, so what will it be?