Menus and backgrounds are saturated
What stat?
Menus and backgrounds are saturated in the official burnt-savanna oranges and yellows of this year’s competition, and the radio playlist breezes smooth Reggae, African Dub and Bossa Nova.
Pared back by the World Cup format, gone are the club teams, league and cup competitions of regular Fifa titles. Instead, the default play setting is to take one of the thirty two qualified teams through the seven games required to lift sporting’s greatest trophy.
Additional modes let you play through the entire qualifying campaign, or re-enact classic scenarios in the Story of Qualifying. For the more egocentric, Fifa’s Be a Pro returns as Captain your Country, which sees you start off as a second-stringer, playing to secure a first-team call up and ultimately fight for the captain’s armband and the World Cup itself.
While bolstering variety and longevity, these additional modes fail to lessen a pervading feeling that this is Fifa-lite; and a little rushed too.
The news feeds, supposed to heighten realism during tournament play, are woefully generic. Pure Lingua Franca: you’ll cringe at such feeds as “Xavi banned for next match Spain play in this tournament.”
Come on ref, he just likes eating grass!
Next page: Commentary for our times
COMMENTS
Re: Just curious...
reghardware is our consumer tech publication. According to our research, 70 per cent of our readers play computer games. So it makes sense for us to branch out.
Besides, what is hardware without the software to run it!
No mention of the gameplay?
It's a fair point about the annual (or in this case six-monthly) re-vamp churning from the EA machine, but what I find disappointing in this review is that not once in the four pages does it make any reference to how the game actually plays...
For what it's worth, it plays a great game a football and tightens up on a few of the snags from Fifa 10. The refs aren't quite so whistle-happy this time around and the same goes for dishing out cards. Shooting's been made snappier and the timing of the shot has more importance than ever, it's very possible to fluff shots and send them dribbling along the floor to the welcoming keeper. It plays faster, and while it's a bit gimmicky, it's interesting to see the high-altitude grounds effect the teams not used to it. I like how form carries through the tournament and affects the players too.
Is it worth forty quid to people who already own Fifa 10? Probably not. Does it play the best game of football on a console today? For my money, definitely.
(I'm not getting my coat, that's EA reaching for my wallet)
Fair enough
The same rationale could be used for putting games software reviews anywhere, perhaps, but at least it is a considered decision and not just on the whim of the reviewers!
Just curious...
What is the rationale for including games software reviews in Reg Hardware? Is it just because they don't fit anywhere else, and if so, does that mean a new microsite is called for?
