I hit the post-Christmas sales with vouchers to spend and wondered what new game to buy. After browsing for some time the only title that really caught my eye was Fifa '99. But did I really want another football game? Would it be that different from Fifa '98. Was it worth shelling out £39.99 for? Twenty minutes later I was back home and about to personally put right Newcastle United's season and make up for the two disastrous defeats over the festive period
After the brit-poppy style intro of Fifa '98 using Blur's Song 2, EA have gone for the current golden boy of pop/dance Norman Cook aka "Fatboy Slim" as their musical flagship and boy does it get your adrenalin flowing. The loading times between games and menus has been decreased dramatically which was a pleasant surprise and there are options to play pre-rendered cups and leagues or create custom ones. The usual friendly games, training and options have been retained with the ability to transfer and edit teams and individual players to keep the game as up-to-date as possible for the budding footy fans. Now onto the game...
Upon initial viewing the game doesn't look, feel and sound that much different, but once you get into it the subtle changes in all three aspects become apparent. The graphics have been enhanced, not to a point where the players actually look like their official counterparts but there is a definite improvement. Des Lynam and John Motson are retained but Andy Gray has been binned off (shame) and we introduce the sublime tones of Gary (fancy a crisp?)Lineker, Mark Lawrenson (Ugh!) and Chris (I'm a geordie but I try to talk posh) Waddle.
The gameplay is where the most subtantial improvements have been made. The game tempo has been upped a little and the difficulty level increased from Fifa 98. New moves include the ability to chest trap the ball or chest into a teamates direction. The artificial intelligence of your players and the opponents has been re-worked too. Your teamates will look for a space or your wingers will head off down the touchline in order to make your attacks more authentic and the opposition will not resort to booting the ball upfield when they go a goal down. Instead they will change formation and try putting more pressure on you.
Fifa '99 has been enhanced visually from its predecessor but not to a groundbreaking degree. Nice touches like players heads tracking the ball and new lighting effects have been added along with some realistic cut sequences when there is a near miss and your striker swings a punch at the air in frustration and when the players shake hands before the kick off etc. New celebration sequences have also been added
The commentary itself cannot be faulted. The amount of phrases voiced is quite phenomenal but if you play the game for a long time the odd repeat starts creeping in now and again. But the choice of summarisers... I know it all ties in with the Match of the Day team but Mark Lawrenson and Chris Waddle are awful. Des Lynam and Gary Lineker share the match introduction duties while John Motson is the ever present main commentator but the dynamic duo take turns summarising and both voices grate on you something rotten (and I'm a geordie myself). The music is excellent and the sound and crowd effects are second to none.
I thought that there couldn't bee that much room for improvement as Fifa '98 was excellent and the current sequel could only amount to an expansion pack and should have been priced accordingly. But I invested in Fifa '99 and to my surprise was amazed the EA had managed to create a new football game that makes Fifa '98 look dated and old hat. Everyone seems to be jumping on the football bandwagon these days and all of them including the big guns like Actua Soccer and ISS Pro have fallen by the wayside as the Fifa series have become runaway leaders in the current premiership of soccer sims.
