FIFA Football 2004 for the PC is a soccer game that sports realistic players and decent graphics for the time of it’s release.
Full Review
FIFA Football 2004 Review
By, Nimish Dubey
Backdrop
.hack Part 1 Infection (Dot Hack) begins with a bang. Something disastrous happens to your character‘s real world friend, while innocently playing a 20 million-subscriber base, wildly popular online RPG game (MMORPG), The World. To unravel the mystery of your friend’s misfortune, you become an online, ingame rogue hacker, exploring every corner of The World, even some virus-infected ones.
The hero is armed with the special skills of Data Drain and Gate Hack, and some colorful, talented fellow adventurers to fill the two other available party slots. Different adventurers must accompany you depending on the plot‘s development. You have some control over the others in your party, including upgrading them through trades or gifts. You can play only a single class, Twin Blade. Other characters are from different classes, with varied strengths and weaknesses, from a mage type (Wavemaster) to a bully (Heavy Axeman).
Gameplay
Gameplay takes place in three principal areas – towns, fields, and dungeons. Towns house The World’s servers. There, the player can save the game, buy magic scrolls and useful and unique items, store items, buy equipment, and talk and trade with lots of other players in character online. One town has an unusual ranch to check out, a patent homage to an enduring feature of just about every Final Fantasy.
The town’s Chaos Gate provides instant teleportation to a particular wide-open Field, containing monster encounter hotspots, a mystical spring, treasure, and lots of mysterious food. You enter three distinct keywords, some known at the game‘s onset, and others learned through play. Whatever keywords are entered, the difficulty level of the destination is helpfully revealed. This prevents a low-level party from being massacred. Once the keywords are entered, you travel through the Chaos Gate. (You can enter specific keywords learned to continue the plot, do side quests, or do unlimited exploring. Or, you can instruct the Gate to enter random keywords, and take your chances. There‘s also an option to enter any keywords you wish from a word list.) Every Field houses a single Dungeon. The dungeons, where you spend much of the game fighting for your life, are not overly large in size, and always range between three and five average levels.
Many have compared Dot Hack to Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II (PSO) on the Gamecube. Let us gently discredit this. We feel Dot Hack has far better graphics than PSO. The Fields and Dungeons contain many colorful, over stylized backdrops and settings, including weather effects. Dot Hack’s monsters resemble the beautifully-drawn monsters of the later Final Fantasy’s. Dot Hack’s world is gigantic with a seeming infinite number of locations to explore. PSO’s world is relatively small, and plot is threadbare, with meaningless, though fun, side quests, which instill no enthusiasm in the player. Dot Hack’s plot is deep and complex, with each subplot advancing the story just a little bit further. (Remember though, the end of this game in no way comes close to wrapping up the story, to be completed in the three games to be released later this year.) One visual treat, however, was lifted directly from PSO – the cascading rings that accompany the teleportation of characters to and from different areas.
Combat
Dot Hack’s combat engine can best be described as modified real-time. Much like the action-RPG, Kingdom Hearts, button mashing can be effective to beat monsters. Monster combat icons appear as large yellow twirling landmarks. As you approach, the landmark dissolves, monsters come at you big-time, and, undoubtedly, players will feel a healthy adrenaline rush. Some of Dot Hack’s many monsters do not stand around waiting to be pummeled, rather some you need to catch. Dot Hack lets you turn combat almost into a turn-based affair. The player needs only to hit Triangle in the middle of battle to pause the game instantly. From there the player can give orders to the others in the party, anything from healing someone, reviving another, casting a spell, designating a target monster. Without jeopardizing your party from the hailstorm of monster blows, combat becomes a calmer, more strategic, experience. This will help the many action-challenged. Camera angles play a big role in successful combat. You must be facing a monster to do any damage. As in many games, manipulating opposing environmental elements, like fire vs. water, is a key to successful monster combat.
Dot Hack’s cyberspace setting provides a wealth of Wow-inducing outbursts. The Data Drain option in combat is a great example. When a monster’s approaches zero, the player can Data Drain to reduce a horrendous, gigantic steel robot, for example, into a sniveling, puny monster, easily defeated with a single blow. Data Drain always results in a nifty, rare item or essential Virus Cores so you can Gate Hack areas of The World now closed, but needing investigation. One bad side effect – if you defeat, a Data Drained monster, but a single experience point is earned. One REALLY bad side effect – if you Data Drain too often without giving the skill a rest, you may overload and explode. Game Over. In the case of Boss monsters, Data Drain works the same, but what remains is no sniveling puny monster, but a full-blooded slightly less tough monster. All of this makes for interesting and captivating combat, a large part of the game.
Fresh Features
Dot Hack is replete with new and interesting features that kept us riveted.
To start, the entire background and story of a real world gamer becoming a rascal hacker, penetrating deep into a virus-infected online game, is quite novel. Combine this with Dot Hack’s emulating the look and feel of an online game universe. (Message traffic on the web shows many gamers mistakenly believe Dot Hack is a real online MMORPG, along with monthly fees! No real Internet connection is required.)
Just like in the real word, Dot Hack replicates your excitement level when “New” appears before a popular forum or on your email screen. Some of the game involves receiving emails as the plot develops, as well as new, crucial information surfacing on The World’s Board. (Look out for emails challenging you to a strange game of Tag.) The online game world looks very familiar with a bunch of characters wandering around the game’s towns, with the ubiquitous balloon icons talking typical “trash” to each other, even criticizing “newbies“.
Combat grippingly called for surprisingly strategic decision-making to succeed, not related to the usual attack or defend choices. Do you go for experience and upgrade your character or try for some special equipment or a Virus Core, vital to Gate Hacking? The innovative control of other party members became second nature to us after some practice. The game rewards a player taking chances, like entering a Field or Dungeon rated 5 levels above the player’s current level. On the other hand, the game scoffed at players entering areas much lower rated the their current level, by awarding negligible experience points for victory.
Dot Hack takes progress reports to a new level, by slowly unlocking books that contain much in the way of statistics and information. There’s even a monster compendium with tips for defeating them.
Some might complain about the minimal “Save Game” ability, but we thrived on it. You explore a very hostile cyberspace environment without the facility to save. Only in a server-hosting town is saving possible at the local Recorder. We may be a solitary voice in the Wilderness, but we like this throwback to the good old RPG days. Those of you old enough to remember the Wizardry series, may recall those fingernail-biting multi-combat treks back to the Castle just to save the game. In case you’re really stuck deep in a dungeon, a common item will teleport you to the outdoor field, from where you can simply gate back to town from the command menu.
Many pieces of equipment come with distinctive powerful attack, healing, and status skills, essential to combat dominance. The player must tradeoff whether to equip something that will raise defense or offense or something less vigorous that lets you use a powerful skill. Trading is the most successful way to upgrade equipment.
In a first, Dot Hack comes with a 45 minute anime video. This gives some great background on what’s going on in The World, as well as provide clues for completing the game. In a nice twist, voiceovers for game speech can be set for Japanese or English presentation. Listening to the authentic Japanese voices really keeps you glued to the game.
Though some may scoff at what follows as meaningless, we liked the game’s unlocking of some nifty new “toys” to like, some only available when the game is cleared. You can unlock many different background music play lists. Tired of creepy tunes, just switch to something more upbeat, or futuristic. Just like real world gamers, who constantly change their desktop wallpaper, new and different wallpapers are unlocked along the way. Some are concept art of characters, while others are full blown anime renditions of the characters. This makes for great fun, and seems to pump additional energy into the game. As you progress over a dozen special cut scenes or movies will become viewable after defeating the game.
Though Dot Hack’s extras and new wrinkles enhance the RPG game experience, much of the gameplay will ring true to those who enjoy RPG‘s. Expect plenty of exploration in a huge 3D world, frequent monster combat, tons of treasure to earn and discover, upgrading your character’s weapons and armor, and needing to level before tackling pivotal story dungeons. The status screens for the characters and all equipment are well laid out and easy to grasp.
Time for Completion
Game length in hours always concerns many purchasers. A short RPG normally takes a lot of flack, and many online are asking about Dot Hack‘s time for completion. (Some have questioned whether Bandai should have released a single 80 hour game for $50, rather than four 20-hour games for $200 for a single story. This matter is beyond the scope of this review, but our high opinion of this game as a standalone is obvious.) Our experience, playing the plot without doing side quests or extra exploration, is in the 12 to 15-hour range. Players side-questing and extensively exploring, aside from the main plot, can expect to spend 25 hours to complete the game. You can even continue to advance your character, after game completion, to get a jump start on Part 2 due in May. In the next game, your character can be imported from Part 1.
Furthermore, imagine trying to explore every nook and cranny of the fields and dungeons accessible by a large number of 3-word combinations. Doing that would put the game in the 50-hour range, if not more. However, at a certain point, new items dry up, and a single experience point is earned for any defeated monster, no matter how tough.
Shortcomings
While, as is evident above, there is much to recommend in Dot Hack, certain concerns to varying degrees deserve mention.
From the “Why oh why did they leave this out?“ File. Pregame game board traffic and information about the Japanese version released months ago had many salivating for replaying the game in “parody” mode. This mode apparently converted all Dot Hack’s game world characters into satirical comedians. Sorry to say, this highly-anticipated feature is missing from the version released here.
The game requires massive amounts of button pressing. Every item or treasure uncovered from combat victories or exploration (opening chests, searching expired adventure remains, collecting food for Grunty’s, as examples) must be confirmed with a button press. When there could be 50-100 such occurrences in a single dungeon or field, over the course of the game, finger cramps seem inevitable. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance also required lots of bashing for buried treasure and chests, but the items literally flew into your inventory, a much better way to handle this.
The manual is woefully terse and lacking in some crucial information and guidance. While the ingame tutorials fill in many of the gaps, one extremely important gameplay feature is missing from both the manual and tutorials – instructions on control your characters directly during combat.
Final Word
We got a kick out of Dot Hack. The feeling of “just one more dungeon” dominated our lives for the 3 days to completion. The engaging environment held our attention without much effort. The strategic nature of combat, plus the convoluted plot kept us going for hours on end. The constant unlocking of both frivolous and important gameplay features created a “what’s next” anticipation. Now, if I could only read Japanese better, Dot Hack Part 2 is already out in Japan!
Final Grade: B
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Some things never change. Come November and the temperature seems to dip discernibly. Rock and pop stars start hitting the stores with new releases aimed at cashing in on the Christmas and New Year goodwill. Speculation starts about the Oscars and the Golden Globes…and EA Sports inevitably brings out another edition of its best-selling football game, FIFA Football.
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| No surprise therefore that November 2003 saw FIFA Football 2004 hit the stores. Needless to say, a copy found its way into my collection before the week was out. |
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Henry, Ronaldinho and Del Piero – what a cover story
The first thing that hits you about the game is its packaging. For one, instead of the usual huge cardboard box and jewel case, you now get a smaller box with the two CDs coming in a videocassette-type pack. And then there is the little matter of the cover itself. FIFA Footballgenerally features a single player on its cover but this time there are three superstars – Alessandro Del Piero, Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho. The inclusion of those three was enough to trigger a press release, although the rationale for having them is not really clear. Perhaps EA wished to indicate that this game was three times as good as previous versions?
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| The game installed smoothly on my PC and played with nary a hitch, although things did get choppy when the action was hectic. The game kicks off the almost statutory cinematic. This time it features — surprise, surprise — the lads on the cover of the game, Henry, Del Piero and Ronaldinho, playing under spotlights with a helicopter whirring overhead. Do not ask me why (contractual obligations, maybe?)! That said, it does look rather spectacular, which I guess is the reason for the whole exercise. |
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Getting your kicks
First things first — the game is not short on variety. There are several leagues to choose from. You can choose the star-studded Real Madrid or Manchester United as your team or go all the way down to the third division in the English league, if wallowing among the minnows is more to your liking. The player database is pretty much updated, although one could argue endlessly about the skill allotments. Raul more skilful than Roberto Carlos? Come on! And surely EA could have given us photographs of players in the profiles, instead of crude sketches. Mind you, there are some players who do not even merit a sketch — such as England superstar Michael Owen!
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| On to the game itself, FIFA veterans will be delighted to know that the basic controls of the game are still the same. The good old A, S and D keys will take care of most of the basic moves and direction is controlled by the arrow keys. The game is basically still the same — get the ball, keep it and slam it past the long-sleeved bloke in the opposing goal. But don’t let the familiarity breed any contempt — beneath those familiar looks lurk a bunch of new features. |
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Hey, Zidane looks like…well, Zidane!
One of the most stunning improvements in FIFA 2004is the near life-like appearance of most players. While previous editions did make an attempt to make players look like their real-life counterparts, the 2004 edition beats them hands down. Suddenly, you no longer have to read the jersey to identify a Beckham or a Zidane and that is good news! Mind you, you can make out the features clearly only from close-up. From a distance, most players still look the same. While in play, each player’s physical state is displayed by a status bar, which shows just how fatigued he is. So before you launch Ryan Giggs into one of his long, mazy runs, just check whether he has enough fuel in the tank!
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| The rendering of the playing areas is simply awesome. As you have the option of playing a match in daylight or under floodlights, this makes for some stunning theatres of action. My personal favourite was Barcelona’s Nou Camp — it’s the place to play, especially in the night! EA has even done a good job with the practice areas — you can hear the manager bleating instructions and also the odd toot and trumpet from passing traffic as your players sweat it out for the big match. |
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Backing up all the action is commentary from John Motson and former Scottish international Ally McCoist, with all the usual camera angles and action replays as well. While the commentators do seem to say a lot more than in previous versions of FIFA, there are times when they badly misread the play. For instance, one of the commentators was raving about how good Luis Figo was on the ball even as an opposition defender nicked it off him. The stadium sounds are pretty good as well — the crowd seems to be more inclined to get into the swing of things than before. And FIFA 2004 does seem to have some of the most fair-minded spectators. I played a match between bitter rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona at Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium, and the fans were actually applauding the Madrid players! Whatever happened to good old partisan home advantage?
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Bending it like Beckham and going off the ball!
Good news for all those who like dead-ball situations. FIFA 2004 gives you far more control over free-kicks and corners. You can now control not only the speed and direction of the kick, but also decide what kind of curve you wish to put on the ball. Mind you, the interface will take some getting used to (you have to jiggle a few keys and then hit a few more in quick succession to get the desired pace), but once you get the hang of it, you will find yourself whiling away hour after hour just trying to curve the ball over the wall into that top corner. |
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Topping off the basket of new features is the ability to control players who do not have the ball. In the past, all one could do is control the player with the ball and select a candidate for a pass. Thanks to a new Off The Ball feature (they were so impressed with it that they even slapped a TM on it), you can actually make one of your team mates dart in a direction even while you move with the ball. Of course, this needs some practice because you have to make sure that the opposing players do not take the ball off you while you are encouraging your teammate to make a run. The feature is handy even when you are defending as you can ask other defenders to back up the man you have designated to make that crunching tackle on the player with the ball!
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The managerial side of things
Like earlier editions, FIFA 2004 also gives you the option of managing a club side in the ‘Career’ mode. If you yearn to prowl the touchline screaming invective at the officials, you will have to sign a contract to manage a club. A bit of advice — read the contract carefully. It will contain the conditions you need to fulfil to keep your job. These could range from avoiding relegation to having a positive goal difference. Once you are in charge, you can play god for the period of your contract — chalk out tactics, buy and sell (the polite term is ‘transfer’) players, set out exercise routines…the works! |
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Of course, even in managerial mode, you will still have to play the games. I found this a bit irritating, as all a manager can basically do is outline the strategy, select the team and hope for the best. Making him or her play the entire match is a bit unfair (if you quit a match midway, it goes down as a 2-0 defeat for your team. Ouch!). But then, this is an action game. Perhaps EA saves all the ‘pure’ managerial action for its Total Club Manager series (modelled on the best-sellingChampionship Manager).
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| Arrrgh…foul play!In spite of its new features (and some of them are awesome), FIFA 2004 is tripped up by some rather basic flaws. The game’s developers still do not seem to have understood that football owes its popularity to its inherent simplicity — you have to boot a ball into the opposing goal. Unfortunately, FIFA 2004 is anything but simple. Veterans may have got used to the keystrokes, but newcomers are going to wish they had more fingers to keep track of them. And unfortunately every new feature that the game introduces only makes it more complicated. |
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Take the Off The Ball feature, for instance. When your player has the ball, you have to press the Z key to view his passing options. These are displayed with numbers above the heads of potential pass-receivers. You keep clicking Z to get to the player of your choice and then use the right shift key in conjunction with the arrow keys to guide the run of the selected player. And when you pass to him, do remember not to hit the usual S key (which is for normal passes) but the A or W key. And while you are doing all this, the game is not paused, so there is a decent chance that an opposing player will nick the ball off you by the time you have decided to make the pass! See what I mean about a complicate life!?
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| The complicated keystrokes are not helped by a navigation that is nightmarish at best. The absence of clear instructions can make getting to a game — leave alone playing it — a real pain. More than once I found myself staring at a menu that seemed to make no sense whatsoever with arrows pointing in different directions. A classic example was the practice session where, instead of just selecting a team and getting on with it, one had to make all kinds of choices and then hope that the practice would start. In most cases, it did not! |
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Full-time!
At the end of it all, one cannot help getting the feeling that EA thinks its on to a good idea, and instead of improving it substantially, is contenting itself with putting some fresh gloss on it year after year. I have played earlier versions of the game, and while every new edition had some nice new touches to it, beneath it all was basically the same old game.
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| That said, there can be no denying that FIFA 2004 does deliver a pretty decent football experience, once one gets used to it. Those who have played earlier versions will find it utterly compelling as they will be familiar with most of the controls. Newcomers, however, will have to be patient and budget for some gnashing of teeth before they come to grips with the latest from the EA footy stable. |
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(A final word — while I know that most developers try to release games towards the end of the year to catch the Christmas crowd, I am not too sure why football games are released at this time. Every football follower knows that teams change radically in January when the ‘transfer window’ opens, allowing players to move to different clubs. So the teams that are in the game inevitably change within two months of its purchase. Of course, EA develops a patch to update the teams, but surely it would be simpler if they just released the game at the beginning of the season in August, when teams are unlikely to change for a good four to five months!)
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Final Score: 75%
The Score
- Graphics: 90%
- Sound: 80%
- Gameplay: 50%
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