Graphics 85/100

I guess I have to start off this part of the review by mentioning just how freakin’ gorgeous games in High-Def look! Prior to picking up my LCD I had a 6 year old 27-inch, regular aspect JVC TV and my Xbox and PS2 hooked up on S-Video and Component cables, respectively. After about 10 seconds of play time on a wide-screen 42-inch LCD in High-Definition I knew it was going to be very difficult to look at non-480p compatible PS2 games (*cough* Winning Eleven 10 *cough*) without grimacing. Everything just jumps out at you, the colours, the clarity of the picture and most of all – the wide-screen! The wide-screen format is just MADE for soccer games as even the close-up camera angles afford you a greater view of the pitch than on a regular aspect television.

Once the clarity of the visuals sinks in the next thing you notice are the lighting effects. I mentioned in my FIFA 06 review that EA Sports went over the top with bloom lighting and I think the same goes for World Cup 06. It’s as if EA Sports are going for knock-out when it comes to the wow-factor. However, after a few hours the impressiveness wears off and you realize that the excessive bloom lighting gives the visuals an almost dream-like quality rather than making them look super realistic. Everything is just a little too shiny and colours too brilliant – I think going this overboard would have been good for the big matches, but not for group games between smaller nations.

One aspect of the lighting effects that are done exceptionally well (and not to excess) are the shadows cast across the pitch. You know those matches you watch on TV where half of the pitch is cast deep in shadow but the other half is in sunlight, and when a cross-field ball moves from the sunlight half to the shadowed it takes a second for your eyes to adjust to the darkness? Well, there are a few select pitches in the game that feature those same lighting conditions the lighting effects mimic real life. It’s really neat.

Unfortunately, the player models in World Cup 06 are crap. Sure they may be high-definition and crisp but when the novelty wears off you realize that all the players have more or less the same body build. Some may ‘slightly’ taller, some ‘slightly’ shorter but they all have the same build – the same square shoulders, the same Roberto Carlos-esque ripped thigh muscles, and similarly buffed arms. No where is this better illustrated than in the games numerous cut-scenes. I almost laughed my ass off during the intro to a match when the camera panned across the two squads standing for the World Cup anthem and Steven Gerrard was pretty much the same build and height as Gary Neville and Michael Owen! This similarity wouldn’t have been so much of a problem in the last gen, but with everything so crisp and clear it makes the problem more pronounced.

One mitigating factor with the player models are the faces which are, generally, pretty good. There are a few instances where the distance of the camera in a cut scene, combined with the lighting on the pitch (daylight looks best), produce a moment of near photo realism but then you take a look at the cardboard cut-out body builds and the illusion is shattered.

The player animations are mediocre. They’re not bad and there are definitely lots of nice animations for the ‘skill’ moves as well as for spectacular shots, however, the transitions between animations (particularly when you strike the ball) aren’t very smooth and there are no player specific animations (a la Winning Eleven).

The game’s stadia are great and I do like the lighting and shadows, but again EA Sports have overdone it with the confetti, streamers and general crap happening in the background. The fan-fare would be great for the big matches (i.e. the final), but even then, how many England fans have you seen throwing confetti and streamers? Furthermore, the stadia are always packed and rocking, even when it’s St. Lucia versus Canada in a qualifying match. It also would have been nice to see players and staff on the benches (which are conspicuously empty). Some of the managers for the top ranked countries have been modeled but you only see their zombie-forms in cut-scenes.

Finally, the TV-style presentation is very well done. I love the pre-match intros where you start off with a 3D globe and the camera zooms in, satellite-map style, into the stadium. The score overlays and the menus are also top-notch and light-years ahead of the Winning Eleven series. The in-game cut-scenes are also well done, unfortunately the goal celebration cut scenes still aren’t always congruent with the action on the field. For example, I scored a goal late in a match while trailing and after the ball went into the net Thomas Radzinski sped off to the corner flag to celebrate. However, a second later the camera switched to a cut-scene with Radzinski grabbing the ball from the back of the net and running back to the half-way line! What the hell?

I’ve also noticed a few graphical glitches that pop-up occasionally. My favourite; I played England versus the Czech Republic and scored two first half goals with Michael Owen. Late in the second half I subbed him off for Peter Crouch. At the end of the match, the post-game highlights showed CROUCH scoring the goals that Owen had scored!

However, despite my gripes, I just have to iterate once again just how fantastic this game looks. The combination of the high definition graphics and the top notch TV-style presentation puts any and every other soccer game to shame.

Sound 80/100

Commentary in World Cup 06 features Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend (Chelsea fans, briefly remember him? Of course not, you supported Man U until 2 years ago! Ho ho!). I’m not particularly a fan of either (I much prefer John Motson and Andy Gray, or at least Tyldesley and Gray like in FIFA 06) but they do a good job of describing the action and are light-years ahead of the shithouse English commentary in Winning Eleven 9.

The crowd sounds are a bit of a disappointment, I would have expected more chants and songs but in general they create a good atmosphere and the 5.1 encoding is well done. The musical selection in World Cup 06 is mediocre (with the exception of “Mas Que Nada”) and a bit of a let-down after a fantastic soundtrack in FIFA 06, but I do really like the fact they have the anthems for all 127 teams featured – I just wish they played the anthems in the OPENING scenes of a match instead of at the end.

Options 75/100

World Cup 06 features the following modes of play; Exhibition, World Cup, Practice, Penalty Shoot Out, and the Global Challenge. As mentioned at the beginning of the review, World Cup 06 features not only the ability to play in the World Cup Finals, but to also go through WC qualifying using teams from each of the 6 FIFA World Cup qualifying zones. The PLAYABLE team break-down by zone is as follows;

While there are a lot of teams available in total, you can probably see from that list a lot of playable teams are missing from qualifying regions – in particular Asia.

That said, there are still a lot of teams from other regions and it’s a lot of fun going through the qualifying of different regions and making it to the finals (which you can play through as well). The TV-style presentation and menus when qualifying are also pretty impressive. During matches you get ‘live’ score updates from other matches in the group (both via graphical overlay and commentary) which really ramps up the sense of immersion. There are also post match quotes from players and coaches (though many of these are recycled fairly quickly), and every few matches there’s a World Cup ‘magazine’ that shows stats, rankings and so on. It’s all very nicely done and further draws you into the mammoth task of qualifying for the world’s biggest tournament.

The only shortcoming of the TV-style presentation comes from the fact that your players don’t celebrate qualifying for the WC until after the final qualifying match – regardless of when you mathematically clinched a qualifying birth. It’s a bit strange to have clinched qualification with three games remaining and the players act like nothing has happened and then, after the final match of qualifying they go all ape-shit. The same thing occurs when you mathematically clinch a spot in the Final 16 of the World Cup Finals.

The Global Challenge mode allows you to re-create/re-live famous moments from World Cup history. However, the game only features the current World Cup squads. I understand that there were likely a few licensing issues standing in their way but how about pseudo-names or player numbers for classic players?

National squads are fairly large and feature a good number of reserve players so you can take your preferred players to Germany (no Theo Walcott though, sorry Sven). Player ratings, however, are a bit of a sham since, as far as I can tell, the players are rated in only 5 (five, FIVE!) categories – Attacking, Defending, Overall, Speed, Fitness. Needless to say, this means that there really isn’t a wide variety in player abilities….oh wait, some players have special ability ‘Stars’ on their heads (which I’ll talk about more later).

Stats tracking still doesn’t include assists which is, quite frankly, shocking. The tactical options are similar to those in FIFA 06 and the in-game defensive and attacking strategies are the same as before. You still cannot create custom formations.

X-Box Live play is featured with leader-boards/rankings however, the XBL FIFA community doesn’t appear to be nearly as vibrant as the PS2 WE community. Most nights many people are online but very few are in lobbies and the best way to get a game is to use the random match-up function.

Finally, the game features a few unlockable extras; classic kits, different balls, a few classic players (where are Pele and Maradona?) and a few gameplay tweaks (Invisible Walls, no fouls, etc). Most of these are pretty useless and I’m surprised there weren’t video clips of classic World Cup goals or moments since FIFA 06 did such a fantastic job with the extras.

Gameplay 80/100

I mentioned in my FIFA 06 review that I thought it was the best FIFA game in the series – not just in terms of features and game modes, but also in terms of gameplay. With World Cup 06, EA Sports Canada have made some important tweaks to the gameplay to make it even more entertaining, albeit tilting the balance of the gameplay away from that of a simulation and more towards an arcade-style experience.

The biggest differences between WC 06 and its predecessor come from the increased game speed, the new shooting system, and the slightly tweaked AI.

The change in game speed is the most obvious difference between WC 06 and FIFA 06. the game moves noticeably faster but fortunately, the ball and the players still move proportionately – so you don’t have a situation like in previous FIFA games where the ball moved at 600mph. While I thought the slower game speed in FIFA 06 was most befitting a simulation, I think the increased pace of the game in WC 06 suits the arcade style gameplay. Though the game still stays true to the basics of football – pass and move – it puts much more of an emphasis on action in and around the box rather than methodical build up play. In this sense, the faster pace adds greater excitement to the game.

Another change found in WC 06 comes from the shooting system. Gone is the shooting power bar, and now the speed of a shot is determined by the computer (based upon the player you’re shooting with). That leaves holding down the shoot button to determine the height of the ball. When I first read about this shooting system I was dead set against it – it takes far too much of the control away from the player and makes shooting far less of a skill. While both are still very much true, after playing the game I actually think that the shooting system suits the more arcade-nature of the game. If the game featured the power bar present in FIFA 06 I doubt you’d get off many shots at all because of the increased speed of the match. Now you can fire off quick shots, but that’s tempered by the fact that defenses are more stingy and afford you less space than before.

Speaking of defenses, a third change in the game engine comes from slight tweaks in the AI, particularly in defenders. On the Professional and World Class difficulty settings the CPU players are particularly adept at tackling and very rarely fall for ‘skill’ moves. Instead the key to beating them comes from passing into space and using your teammates. Your teammate AI is also fairly good with players making simple runs into space.

The controls are practically identical to those in FIFA 06, except that Pace Control and Step-Overs/Feints are now mapped to the Left and Right Bumpers making them far more accessible.

Unfortunately, there are some areas where the game engine hasn’t evolved, and others where it’s actually regressed. On area where the game seems to have stood pat since FIFA 06 comes in the form of the ball physics which, while no longer on rails, can’t even come close to the unscripted physics in the Winning Eleven series. The game still doesn’t even feature a preferred foot for players, however, with the game’s tilt towards arcade-style play this is less of an issue.

However, another where EA Sports Canada really need to step it up is in coming up with some kind of variation in both individual and team playing styles. Pretty much every single team plays the same style and players all play the same way. Sure, those with special ability stars are more likely to score or run faster, but Vanuatu play the exact same style of football as Brazil. Likewise, a CPU controlled Atiba Hutchinson will perform the same spins, feints and moves as Zidane. Even when you’re controlling players the only difference between controlling Riquelme or Savage is that Riquelme runs faster and his shots are more likely to go in.

An aspect of WC 06 where the game seems to have regressed are the ultra-conservative keepers. These guys hate to leave the net and hardly ever rush out. If you get a breakaway from half in Winning Eleven 10, the keeper is often out like a flash to the top of the 18 yard box to confront the attacker. In the same scenario in World Cup 06, the keeper merely stands around his 6 yard box smoking a cigarette and scratching his nuts till the attacking player comes close (okay you don’t actually see him smoking and scratching his nuts but you get the idea). Even when you hold down Y to bring out your own keeper he lumbers out like his boots were made of lead!

Finally, the ‘new’ penalty system much touted by many professional reviewing sites (I guess it was bolded on those EA Sports press sheets that they copy off) is, in a (hyphenated) word, fucking-garbage. There really is no functional difference between this and other penalty shot systems, except for the fact you have a power-bar (big whoop) and now the keeper can wobble his legs or wave his hands to distract the shooter (which Attention Deficit Disorder child this actually distracts is a mystery to me). In multiplayer games, as the goal keeper you can tap the A-button to make the shooter’s controller rumble…ooooh! The ball can still only move in the 9 cardinal D-pad directions and goal scoring is still basically random luck.

Okay, despite the fact the fact that I’ve ended this section of the review with some negative points, World Cup 06 is, on the whole, a very entertaining game. Despite the fact that the game engine has veered off into more arcade-style territory, it’s okay because the gameplay is balanced and it still stays true to the basics of football. Everything may move faster but you still need to pass your way up the field, skill moves don’t work all the time, and there are a wide variety of goals that can be scored. Most importantly, scoring these goals is rewarding and you rarely feel like the CPU is cheating you. Multiplayer is also a lot of fun and the few games I’ve played on XBL have been largely lag free and played in good spirit.

The game still doesn’t come close to the Winning Eleven series when it comes to depth and complexity of gameplay (again, most of the action in World Cup 06 occurs around the two penalty boxes, with the gulf of the midfield largely ignored), but it stands on its own merits as a very entertaining arcade-style experience without being over-the-top like a Blitz game.

Replay Value/Longevity 70/100

Because of the lack of complexity when it comes to the game engine, a lot of the longevity in FIFA games arises from the modes of play. I played FIFA 06 for so damn long because of the brilliant Manager Mode. While World Cup 06 plays a better game of football than FIFA 06, I don’t think I’ll be playing it as long because of the lack of club teams and crappy extras/unlockables.

Overall 80/100

If we imagine the travesty that was Road to the World Cup 2006 never existed, the comparison between FIFA 06 and World Cup 06 is very much like the comparison of EA Sports’ RTWC 98 and World Cup 98. World Cup 98 had a better game engine than RTWC 98, however I played Road to the World Cup more because of its superior modes. Likewise, I find the World Cup 06 game engine to play a more entertaining game of football than FIFA 06, however, I think that FIFA 06 is a better overall game because of the extras it presents.

That said, since FIFA 06 isn’t yet supported for backwards compatibility on the X-Box 360, World Cup 06 represents your only viable option for soccer action and it’s a pretty darn good option.