“Reckon you’re about an 8 or a 9” – FIFA Football 2005

**FIFA Football 2005** (EA Sports, PlayStation 2, 2004)

FIFA Football 2004 spent five weeks at the top of the UK charts, consolidating the position of the series after its early 2000s wobble. Particularly with a new generation of consoles around the corner, for its successor it made a lot of sense not to fix what wasn’t broken. With Euro 2004 also having come out in between, FIFA Football 2005 is the most familiar a FIFA game has felt since the Mega Drive version of FIFA Soccer 96.

What’s new in FIFA Football 2005?

Not very much at all. There is a video in the game where John Motson talks you through the new features, which makes that easier to confirm. The big one is additional first touch controls – move the right stick as you get to the ball and the player will take action in that direction. It does make for a much improved dribbling experience, with knocking the ball ahead to rapidly chase after soon becoming an essential move. But the game overplays it ridiculously by even having John Motson and Ally McCoist pepper their commentary with bits about how important a good first touch is, a bizarre and jarring bit of fourth wall breaking. Outside of that, career mode gets an upgrade and there’s a player creation mode almost as detailed as that in Tiger Woods PGA Tour.

What’s gone?

Nothing at all that I noticed in my time playing it. Selecting corner routines from a list and fiddly off-the-ball movement remain, inessential as they are.

Who is on the cover?

Another trio to cover different countries with Patrick Vieira (French, playing in England), Fernando Morientes (Spanish, playing in Spain) and Andriy Shevchenko (playing in Italy). Only Germany is missing of Europe’s big five football markets/automatic Eurovision final qualifiers. The lack of a singularly obvious star to go for kind of reflects the state of football at the time (Cristiano Ronaldo was a talented but inconsistent young Manchester United winger; a teenaged Lionel Messi was a week away from making his league debut for Barcelona).

What’s on the soundtrack?

Paul Oakenfold provides a theme much less memorable than his Big Brother one. Elsewhere it’s more expansive, more international, though still with rock at the centre. Every song again gets listed with a flag for the artist’s origin, which gets unexpectedly political when Franz Ferdinand are represented by a Scottish flag but every song by a British act from outside of Scotland gets a British flag. Including Morrissey’s “Irish Blood, English Heart”. The blokishness quotient is slightly down from FIFA Football 2004, or at least would be if it wasn’t for the single handed efforts of The Streets’s “Fit But You Know It”.

Who is the best player in the game?

Thierry Henry of Arsenal, the previous year’s Ballon d’Or runner-up behind the less marketable Pavel Nedvěd. Henry is rated 97/100. So far FIFA games continued to resist making its highest-rated players line up with its cover stars, and indeed wasn’t pushing the concept as massively important.

Who is the worst player in the game?

An influx of multiple leagues in its key territories mean that the previous worst teams from Korea or Israel now get outdone by players from Italy’s Serie A and England’s League Two (which is the fourth division, obviously). Namely, the players I could find rated 40/100 were T. Youngs of Northampton and M. Ascenzi of Ascoli.

What do the players look like?

See FIFA 2004, and indeed FIFA 2003 when it comes to appearance, although the animations are improved a little.

How does it play?

See FIFA 2004 (and pretty much FIFA 2003). You’d think that stasis would mean perfecting the formula, and it’s close, but it’s still slightly off in central ways that its smooth rival doesn’t suffer. In Pro Evo, playing through balls is a delight every time, with options from players making proactive runs and the game keeping right up with you on what you’re going for. In FIFA Football 2005, you have to use its convoluted off-the-ball control to achieve the same effect, by which time your player with the ball has been robbed. Try to do it without and every so often the game will make a wildly optimistic interpretation and shove the ball forward towards a teammate you haven’t even seen. Work within those confines, though, and it plays a very good game of very, very telegenic football. Aesthetic details like the pitch cutting up where players have slid stand out. ‘Experience absolute broadcast’, as the box puts it.