Where to begin? Let's start with the graphics. Aside from the players being amazingly ugly, and the framerate being rather choppy and inconsistent, the game really doesn't look any different from last year's version. The control has, amazingly enough, been tightened a bit, but it still feels as if the players are skating over the ground rather than running. Tight control is also a bit of a problem.

I'm going straight to the heart of FIFA's problems--realism. Basically, it's not realistic. Not in the slightest. Sure, FIFA has and boasts proudly of their official licence and real team names and players. But what do they do with it? None of the teams boast a correct kit. Sure, Liverpool play in red like they do in real life... but where's the badges? Same with the international teams. England, white shirts, blue shorts. Where's the famous crest of the Three Lions? Even the unlicenced ISS series has it. And about the players. Yet again, EA have used some pathetic player creator that allows for about 7 different hairstyles and 7 different hair colours. And even THEN, they get some players wrong. Note to EA: The World's Most Expensive Footballer, Christian Vieri, does NOT have that colour hair. Lots of players just LOOK wrong. And what about the players with "individual" appearances? Nope. Taribo West's dreadlocks? Nope. Carlos Valderamma's afro? Not even close. Roberto Baggio's ponytail (yes, he grew it back)? Nope. Again, other games have these details WITHOUT a licence--why can't EA get it right with the licence? More complaints--the stadia. Where are the famous stadia from FIFA 99? Where is the Bernabeu? Where is the San Siro? Where is Anfield? Gone, for an utterly inexplicable reason. Next annoyance: The classic teams. Why, oh WHY, is the AC Milan team of 1988-90 rated as average? The team that included Dutch trio Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit with defensive maestros Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta and Franco Baresi? And while we're on AC Milan, why isn't the legendary 1994 team that destroyed Barcelona in the European Cup Final 4-0--possibly the greatest performance by a club team--not included? Why doesn't the Liverpool team of 1977-84 not include the club's record scorer, Ian Rush? I wonder if EA even bothered to do the research.

The game also doesn't play anything like real football. It plays more like a glorified Pong, really. Take ball, whack it upfield, run through defender, shoot, score. Repeat. Upping the difficulty level only results in ONE thing--the opposing defender have a tendency to tackle you from about 5 yards behind you, AND win the ball while sending you sprawling. Note to EA: FIFA have banned tackles from behind. Dangerous tackles from behind are now punishable by red cards. Why all the horrible tackles? This isn't NBA Jam. Additionally, what's with the grunts and groans of players being tackled? This isn't American Football. In years of watching English, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, German and International football, I have never heard the amount of grunts and groans that an average game of FIFA produces. Even though the phrase "crunching tackle" exists, you usually don't hear it on the television coverage. The incredible simplicity of FIFA's gameplay is a marvel--it's so incredibly unrealistic, it almost makes me scream. It's like an ultra, ultra simplistic arcade game, which has nothing to do with football. It really is almost like Pong--whack ball towards goal. Other team gets ball, smacks it towards your goal. Etc.

EA tried to innovate with a "passing indicator". Again they demonstrate their complete lack of competence by overdoing this feature. In the past, FIFA games were criticised because passes had to be precisely aimed at a player if you had any hope of getting it to them. Now, the passing indicator picks out a player and selects him as your passing target. Fine, except it's a pain to choose to pass to someone else. Additionally, EA have supposedly programmed the option to allow you to use the pass button to execute a sidefooted shot when alone with the goalie. The problem is, even when you are one-on-one, the passing indicator seems to magically find someone to pass to--even if they are a good, oh, 20 yards back and covered by defenders. The passing arrow is also colour-coded to indicate whether the pass will be successful or not. Nice idea, only problem is... well... it's almost always wrong. Red should mean, according to the manual, a very low chance of ball finding target. Evidently not.

Anything else to complain about? Oh yes. The commentary. Commentary is handled by the BBC team, with John Motson assisted by summariser Mark Lawrenson and Gary Lineker introducing them. Now they actually say some pretty good things, and there are few errors. The only real problem is that they repeat phrases FAR too much. Especially in a cup competition, Lawrenson is likely to repeat the same thing over and over again when introducing teams, and it gets quite grating.