FIFA 2005

Career Mode

The main single player mode in FIFA 2005 is the career mode. You can go through as many as 15 seasons and it is a very interesting but time consuming process. Just like every other sports title, you are put in the position of being both manager and star player for your team. You have to choose the right players while staying under budget and still competing for the championship. It all works exactly like it does in Madden or NHL or NBA Live, but there are a couple of complaints. You are limited in your team selection to a handful of cellar dwellers in the lowest divisions. The idea is that you win with that team and can then get job offers so you can move up to your favorite teams, but it is annoying that you have to invest so much time and effort into playing with players and teams you don’t really want to. Choosing new players to add to your team is made difficult thanks to a clunky menu system which makes it hard to check their stats. When you find a player you want, you can’t negotiate their contract. It is either pay them exactly what they want or you don’t get them. On the whole, though, career mode is still very fun and once you get into it, it is quite addictive.

Online Play

Another area of the game that will take up a lot of your time is the online mode. You can play quick matches as well as compete in tournaments with up to seven other people. The experience isn’t completely lag free, but it is still very playable. The online mode is fun and is a welcome addition of course, but it isn’t as good as it could have been. Checking an opponent’s connection speed is more of a hassle than it should be and you can’t check your friends list to see who is online and what they are playing. Tag these as rookie mistakes and EA won’t do it next year. One great thing that has been implemented into online play, though, is that you are encouraged to use teams other than the world powerhouses of Brazil, France, or Real Madrid. The ranking system takes into account what teams you use and what teams you beat and weights it accordingly so that if you can take a little-known team and beat a Brazil or Manchester United, your ranking will improve more than it would have if you had just used an equally powerful team. That is simply wonderful and makes the online mode a lot more exciting than it would have if everyone had just used the best teams every time they played.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, FIFA 2005 is impressive and very detailed. This is the best looking soccer game on the market. The players are amazingly detailed and very smoothly animated. The stadiums are great looking right down to the grass and it really is a joy to behold. The crowd is still made of cardboard cutout people, but you are usually so focused on the action on the field you don’t notice it.

The sound is also well done. The soundtrack consists of over 40 different tracks from all over the world. This really drives the international love of soccer home and makes you appreciate just how popular it is in the rest of the world just a little bit more. Commentary is handled by the BBC’s John Motson and Ally McCoist and they do a pretty good job. They keep up with the action just fine, but they say some flat out incorrect things at times. Things such as saying the wrong score happen every now and then and it is pretty weird. They say it when they should, but what they say isn’t always right.

Bottom Line

Overall, if you are looking for a soccer game on Xbox you need to look no further than FIFA 2005. You have more control over the action on the field than in any other soccer game, so hardcore fans should really love it. The graphics and sound are well done and the presentation is top notch. Online play is a blast and you are actually discouraged from just using the most powerful teams in every match, which makes online matches very exciting and fun. FIFA 2005 is a great game that fans of the sport can very happily purchase. If you aren’t a huge soccer fan, I recommend renting it first because FIFA isn’t as simple as just pointing the ball in the right direction and taking a shot anymore. You have to play smart in order to win, which is very realistic, but it also makes the game pretty challenging if you aren’t a hardcore soccer fan. Give it a rent at the very least and buy it if you are a fan. FIFA 2005 is great.