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2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

Has EA Sports managed to replicate the spectacle and excitement of this summer's tournament?

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You can have an opinion on 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil before you even pick up a controller; it's an instantly divisive title. Firstly, for what it is, it's heavily priced. Secondly, it follows FIFA 14 and precedes FIFA 15 (which hasn't been announced yet, but is an inevitability), as such making it an even more costly acquisition for those who are emotionally invested in the series. Thirdly, it's old-gen only, and if you want to play World Cup football on your shiny new Xbox One or PS4, you're going to have to make do with some kind of FIFA Ultimate Team offering made closer to the tournament.

Each of those points is likely to illicit a response among fans of the series, for better or worse. The high pricing is hard to get behind. There's plenty of modes here, but it'll lack longevity in the way a core FIFA title doesn't. There's already going to be two FIFA titles either side of it and in the space of twelve months, and unless you're either completely new to the series or a diehard, it's hard to see where you'll get longterm value, especially when we'll likely to have FIFA 15 land at the end of September. The fact that it's on old-gen consoles only is perhaps the least contentious point, though if you bought an Xbox One or a PS4 so you could play the best football games available, its omission on those platforms will likely be a huge frustration.

The biggest mark against 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil isn't actually that it's only on old-gen consoles, however, the fact that we've had FIFA 14 on new-gen platforms means that it's getting increasingly difficult to accept the shortcomings of the series. The genie is out of the bottle and we've seen what's possible thanks to the extra computation power of the Xbox One and PS4. Anything released on an old-gen console now is going to pale in comparison, and that's exactly what has happened here.

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
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But being inferior to new-gen FIFA was an inevitability, and once we've put that disappointment behind us we can evaluate what we've got in front of us, and that's a solid if unspectacular FIFA game that does a job, even if it isn't the digital representation of its source material: the pinnacle of football.

It's a sidestep rather than a progressive move forward, tweaked yet comparable to FIFA 14, and ultimately more of the same. It's fair to say that old-gen FIFA has peaked (some might say it did that in FIFA 13, maybe even FIFA 12), and is now merely treading water. Speaking with EA Sports ahead of the launch of the new-gen versions of the game, it was made clear that they had been moving things around rather than adding new features, sacrificing here in order to improve there. Like last September's release, this World Cup-themed entry in the series is a rearranged affair. There's very little in the way of refinement or improvements to the core, and the only significant differences can be seen in the interface.

The main core of the game, the matches that you'll play against other teams/players, are much as they were in FIFA 14. The controls are the same, and there's but a few minor tweaks and new additions such as over-the-back headers, set piece tactics, and improvements to the penalty taking, basically adjustments you'll barely notice. But, it's built on solid ground, the series has been in fine shape in recent years, even if it has been progressing sideways of late. The overall play here feels a little bit slicker, a little bit more arcade-like. It's not pronounced, in fact, you'd not notice it unless you were looking for it, but player movement felt a little bit more floaty. However, it's a slight change, and not one that hugely impacts the way a typical game will play out.

What also endures from previous entries is the feeling of inevitability that sometimes settles in around some passages of play. You can still sense when that shot from the opposition is going to fly past your hapless/helpless keeper, especially around the ends of each half. Sometimes the AI just wants to score, and there's literally nothing you can do about it. While you can chalk it down to similar situations in real-life matches - smash-and-grabs where one team withstands a barrage of attacks and sneaks the winning goal against the run of play - these moments happen more here than they ever do in real life, and far too frequently for our liking.

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2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

As for the pacing, it is somewhat disrupted by needless cutscenes, inserted into the action to try and add a bit of atmosphere to proceedings (managers roaming the touchline, fans back home celebrating/commiserating with each other). They're just another barrier to the action, and while they're nice for the first match, after that they just get in the way and break up the flow. There's other examples, such as key moments and goals, that are highlighted mid-game at opportune moments. These too felt superfluous. Most FIFA players come to the table with a serious addiction already in place, so there's really no need for the extra guff. Even if newcomers might appreciate the atmosphere and international flavouring, it would be nice to have the option to turn this off.

There's a bunch of different game modes for players to sink their teeth into, but in truth only one or two will likely appeal, and which will depend on how you like to play FIFA. Captain your Country sees you put in the shoes (boots) of either a fictional character or a first team player returning from injury via the B Team. As always this mode, where you control just one player on a field of 22, can feel very solitary. You can team up with friends and cooperatively compete in the same team, and as you'd expect, playing with buddies improves the atmosphere no end.

There's the World Cup and the Road to the FIFA World Cup modes, where you pick your team and play through the tournament. You can get really immersed in your team preparations and play training sessions not dissimilar to the skill games that you play to kill time while matches load, but ultimately we quickly bored of these optional extras and started to simulate them. If you tackle the long-form campaign, whereby you also play qualifiers and friendlies, it makes more sense to tinker with your team and try and improve them. You just don't feel that much benefit from the training during a shorter campaign.

The menu system in the single player mode is a little unintuitive at times, especially if you want to skip the training sessions - it's far too easy to accidentally sim games. Other than that, the World Cup-themed lick of paint that they've applied across the board is really well done. Presentation is, for the most part, nicely executed. But, at the end of the day it is just that, a lick of paint. Commentary was the usual car crash accompaniment that got muted early on. There's a couple of radio stations that provide more focussed World Cup banter in the lull between games. You can choose between Talk Sport and Men in Blazers; it's not cutting insight, but it's interesting nonetheless and a nice deviation away from the typical soundtrack offering that usually leaves us feeling cold.

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

Presentation aside, it's the game underneath that's the important thing. We spent most of our time playing through the World Cup with different teams on different difficulty settings (we've yet to find a level that's just right for us, too low and it's too easy for us to thrash teams into submission, but going one level higher we struggle horribly in the knock out rounds), but we also had a look at the Story of Qualifying modes. These are scenarios that mix up the modes and put you in interesting situations taken from real-life qualifying games, sadly it didn't really hold our attention (admittedly, these modes never have). For those who appreciate these scenario-orientated challenges, there'll be more coming during the tournament, added in hours after the real events play out on the field.

Then there's the online modes. You can either play through the World Cup itself with a team online, trying to get through to the final and lift the trophy itself, or you can head down the Road to Rio de Janeiro, a series of mini leagues where you play against others as you try and earn the points needed to be promoted to the next level. Add to those modes the returning friendlies, and you've got plenty of ways of playing against other FIFA fans, if that's your cup of tea.

All told it's a solid entry in the series. There's no huge step forward here, and when you consider what you're getting for your money, it's hard to get super excited. There's more focus on skills and trickery than pass and move, more than we liked at least, but what's here is entertaining enough. We know that these World Cup games are the only time that many people will pick up a FIFA title, so we understand the decision to release it as a standalone, but surely it could have been done alongside offering a downloadable update for existing FIFA 14 players (like they did with the last Euro tournament), saving them the expense of having to fork out for a fully-priced game that won't have the legs to take them past the end of the tournament.

The number underneath this paragraph represents a middle ground. If you've got FIFA 14 then you can probably take one off the score; there's no step forward and given the limited scope of the source material, there's not a lot of longevity there; it's hard to recommend at full price. However, if you're new to the series you might as well add one on, because underneath the presentation and the World Cup fluff, there's a really solid football game waiting, and this represents as good an entry point as you're likely to find thanks to a beginner mode and an inviting interface crammed full of Brazilian flavour.

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Nice presentation that captures the mood of the tournament, solid football game underneath, decent range of modes and options
-
Too expensive considering the brevity of its relevance, no series progression
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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2014 FIFA World Cup BrazilScore

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

REVIEW. Written by Mike Holmes

"It's a sidestep rather than a progressive move forward, tweaked yet comparable to FIFA 14, and ultimately more of the same."



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