EA Sports rule in sports games...including soccer

Type of game: Football Simulation

Developed by: EA Sports

Published by: Electronic Arts

This is a little new to me: I’ve never reviewed a football game before, because every year I buy NBA Live. But this year I’ve made an exception. I was afraid I’ve made the wrong choice... But I didn’t! FIFA 99 is an excellent game and it showes once more that EA rules sports on your PC.

After the great intro, you end up in the menu. While Fatboy Slim rocks on with "The Rockafeller Skank" (Better known as "The FunkSoul Brother"), you can choose out of various modes: Friendly, Quick Start, Golden Goal, European Dream League, Season and Training. In Golden Goal, the team which reaches the goal quota wins and the European Dream League is some sort of Champions League. In Season, you can either choose Cup (Champions League, EFA Trophy, Uefa Cup), League (Including BELGIUM!!) or you can create your own cup and/or league. The possibilities are truly infinte! The only thing I missed was the Penalty Shootout. Sure, it was included in the Training, but without croud and special ingame tension, it’s different. Speaking of ingame: The ingame graphics are very nice and clean. The grass and the stadiums are truly magnificant and cool and realistic weather-conditions are included (If you’ve got a 3DFX of course...). The players look even better and the motion-capture is driven to perfection. The players react very realistic in numerous of situations (e.g. When he misses a shot very close to the goal, he acts disappointed. When he scores, he sometimes makes the famous "rocking" sign). The referee is also very well animated. The players’ AI is even better than the previous FIFA’s : They now can pick a ball close to the outer lines, instead of foolishly kicking it out of bounds. In Professional and World Class difficulties, the computer really playes hard ball! You can also alter team management, players, etc. As I said before: The options in FIFA 99 are infinite. The crowd is really very loud and cheeres up the whole thing. The commentary is very accurate and not annoying at all. When you make a goal, the commentator really is enthousiastic.

EP sez:

Every year, you should buy an EA Sports product. NHL 99, NBA Live ‘99 and FIFA 99 are all fine products, and you can’t make a wrong buy! EA Sports is the only game in town involving sports games if you ask me...

(c) 1998 Erwin's Pages
Erwin "Reaper" Husin

Score

Gameplay: 9

Graphics: 9

Sound & Music: 8,5

Addictiviness: 8,5

Overall: 88,5%

Links

> EA Sports (Only latest annual version)