2002 FIFA World Cup Xbox

A disappointment

By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 23, 2002 | 3 out of 4 found this 2002 FIFA World Cup review helpful

This review pertains to XBOX version of the FIFA World Cup 2002 game.The subject of the game is awesome, but that’s where the praising ends. The game itself is very much sub par. There are so many flaws in the game, it’s not even funny. It reall...y looks like an unfinished product, rushed into market in time before the World Cup begins.Here are the example complaints:1)Contrary to EA Sport’s claims, the game play is not intuitive. In certain situations, especially when you play in faster mode (especially at professional or championship difficulty levels) with better teams, it’s very easy to make a mistake of shooting instead of passing the ball. 2)How hard would it be to make the control buttons configurable??? Soccer being a complicated game with a lot of possible moves, the fact that you cannot change the default controls is an inexcusable shortcoming of this game.3)There are numerous implausible mistakes you keeper will make (e.g. runs out of the goal in opposite direction that the attacker is coming from thus leaving the net empty) that have no place in junior leagues, let alone on international level.4)There seems to be no rigid rules on tackling – sometimes you will get penalized for a clear tackle and sometimes you get away with a genuine leg-breaker! Very inconsistent. 5)Statistics kept by the game do not reflect the actual performance during the game – e.g. sometimes your missed shot (or lob) on goal is not counted, sometimes it is. Not clear at all.6)This is the only game I have played on XBOX so far that freezes occasionally, only to resume the play a second or two later. Happens rarely, but when it does happen, it is extremely irritating!The game play clearly favors five teams: France, Argentina, Italy, Brazil and England. The player’s speed seems to be the deciding factor in the game, yet some of the fastest players in the world from other than these five teams are loosing out to normally much slower defenders from the five teams. In general, I feel it is the worst game I have played on XBOX so far.By XBOX Standards graphics are mediocre, sounds are average, too. Reality of the teams is preserved by the names of the players that participated in the teams’ international games in the last couple of years. That is probably one of the best features of the game, but it fails to suppress an otherwise dejecting feeling of disappointment with this game. All in all, the rules that seem to govern this game are not very transparent, making it often an irritating experience especially when playing at a professional or championship difficulty level. What is most disappointing though, is the fact that most of the mistakes and shortcomings of the game could be fixed with relatively small amount of effort involved, which does leave you wondering if the product was released prematurely just so it can make it to stores before the real World Cup begins on May 31st. Unfortunately, there is no competition to EA Sport’s product on the market. Unless you love soccer and are dying to play a soccer video game, skip this one, save the money, or wait until the price drops after the World Cup - it’s definitely not worth its current asking price.Graphics – 3 points, Sounds – 3 points, Game play – 2 points, Reality of the teams – 3 points, User interface – 2 points, Configurability (what configurability???) – 1 point. Read more Less