2006 FIFA World Cup

Spectacular addition to the FIFA franchise.

The long awaited Fifa World Cup Germany 2006 came accompanied by a great video game in all the sense of the word. First, it's a huge improvement for the FIFA games to feature ALL the National Teams affiliated to FIFA. You can play with all the super soccer starts from all the world.

Then, the Qualifying campaign is also great because it gives you detailed information about countries, fictional events and declarations from every game. At the end, if things are done correctly you qualify for the most important event in the history of sports : The FIFA World Cup.

The tournament is visually stunning filled with amazing, spectacular f/x, commentaries, ambient from the crowd, stadium, players, benchs, etc. The visuals couldn't be better. I haven't seen a better looking soccer video game than this one. This is probably the best in history.

Also, the playing system is powerful, great.

This is the best video game based on a World Cup. Please get it, it's surely spectacular. For a better, almost real experience get the xbox 360 version. It's truly a different experience.

A couple of weeks back, I reviewed the Gamecube's "2002 Fifa World Cup" game and, inspired by that trip down memory lane, I decided to take a look at the version released 4 years later to see what had changed. From a personal standpoint, by 2006 I am working full time, as opposed to 2002 when I was still at university. That fact, along with the European kick off times meant that I watched much more of this tournament in the pub after work, so I do have fond (if occasionally foggy) memories about this one.

The game, feels a lot more like todays Fifa that the 2002 version did. Gone are the arcade elements, the fire behind the shots and the curved passes and instead is a much closer to simulation feel. Graphically, it's a big step up. I played as England this time and all of the team were identifiable from the in game versions of themselves. The game flows much better than four years previously and the through ball is there to make off the ball runs much more deadly. It feels much more like a game of football does. It's slower than the last one, but again, this only adds to the realism and the camera is actually able to keep up.

Away from the actual match though, the game presentation, menu's and options feel much more current. There are actual music tracks playing, from a selection of around twenty real bands from around the world, there is an unlockable store of additionally shirts, balls, boots and other options - using the ingame currency, which is a feature that still exists in the game today. Commentary wise, Andy Townsend is a bit of a disappointment (as I say, it's much more realistic!) - and though I only played two games I think I ran through all of the banter they had available "England have not won the world cup in 40 years, could this be the time?". No.

As before it was nice to have a bit of a blast of something different, but I'm not sure that I'll be back to it, over the latest version, any time soon.

Update - I recently dug out my copy of the Xbox 360 version of the same game. Compared to the Gamecube version it's really not that much of a visual step up. You can tell who the people are in the close up replays, but during the actual game it's not really possible. Gameplay wise it seemed much harder to tackle, fairly anyway. It seemed easier to just stumble alongside and wait for the ball to bounce the right way or dive in like Kevin Muscat at every opportunity. As with the Gamecube version, it was an interesting blast of history, but I'll not be back anytime soon.