The annual battle of the football games comes round again, and this time the competition is fiercer than it's been in some years. What a year, then, for the longest running of them all to play its trump card and put in its finest performance to date. For with new added features, and a general all-round polish, FIFA 2004 becomes a must-buy. The big innovation this time round is the off-the-ball feature, and this really is a stroke of genius. It's fiddly to get to grips with, but basically when attacking, you can control a separate player as they run into space, ready to take receipt of a killer pass that splits the opposition defence open. It takes a little working at, but when it comes off, you'll be smug beyond belief. The feature itself genuinely adds tactical edge to a game that used to be wrongly dismissed as an arcade-style kickabout.
On top of that, there are the things that FIFA does better than anyone. The presentation, audio and visuals are superb from top to bottom, and the improvements to the club management side boost the game's longevity--as does a promised link up with Total Club Manager 2004, where you'll be able to import teams from that into FIFA 2004.
Most importantly of all, at the heart of all these improvements is a highly playable football game that's very easy to get into yet suitably challenging to master. And in multi-player mode, it's even better. --Simon Brew
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