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With the countdown to the 2006 World Cup ending this summer, EA treats gamers everywhere to experiencing the event on the PC.

A Little Bit Of World Cup History

Ever since its first game in 1930, in Uruguay, there has quite probably never been a sporting event to enthrall the globe’s spirit, growing in popularity and importance from year to year, day to day, and hour to hour, as the FIFA World Cup. It all began in the 1920s, with Jules Rimet, leading a group of French visionaries in the field of football, who are responsible for the concept of organizing a competition for the world’s strongest national football teams to battle for football supremacy.

Before being interrupted in 1942 and 1946 due to World War II, the original tournament trophy, bearing Rimet’s name was contested three times, in 1930 by the host, Uruguay and both in 1934 and in 1938 by Italy. After resuming, the World Cup rapidly evolved to its state of full glory, rising into position as the world’s greatest sporting event, aside for the Olympics. Alternately held in Europe and America, since 1958, the World Cup provided a pleasant surprise in May 1996, when it was announced that the event’s 17th edition would be co-hosted by Korea and Japan in 2002.

Even though the World Cup has only had 7 different winners, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Uruguay, England, Argentina and France, the 17 tournaments played so far have not been devoid of surprises and upsets, like the USA defeating England in 1950, the Romanian national team out-classing Argentina in 1994 or South Korea’s triumph over Italy and Spain in 2002. Today, with a world-wide audience of over one billion people, it may be said that the FIFA World Cup definitely has a firm grasp over the global public.

Getting Settled In

It’s probably safe to say that what we’ve come to know as EA Sports is, by now, the brand through which EA Games has manage to achieve global supremacy in terms of sports simulators, with some of the most popular sports games to this day having been developed under this brand, including NHL, NBA, or FIFA series.

EA Sports’ success throughout the years is most likely due to them not limiting their titles to a single platform, but rather to the best-selling ones, whichever these may be. Although this has often been regarded as a clear sellout, the tactic’s results are financially indisputable.

Setting this aside, however, let us turn to an aspect that may be, by now, seen as an EA Sports tradition: covering major world football events, with games such as FIFA ‘98: Road To World Cup, FIFA 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004, and the new FIFA 2006 World Cup.

Also part of this tradition, until Euro 2004, we were used to finding this particular brand of football simulators rather poor, content-wise. A little over the number of teams qualified for the respective tournaments is all a gamer would get for about the same price as a standard FIFA. Other than that, one or two all-star teams would be the only consolation.

And while Euro 2004 broke the ice with a few innovations, FIFA 2006 World Cup, through its appearance on the American market on the 24th of April, and on the European market on the 30th of April takes tournament football simulators a step further.

“It’s In The Game”

What is? To make a long story short, mostly everything you would want, aside for club teams, of course. As for the rest, yes, you can pretty much find it browsing through the game’s sliding menus, which you get to right after viewing or skipping the classical presentation video.

In terms of gameplay, the menu covers quick matches, Internet and network play, practice sessions and penalty shoot-outs. Not to be confounded with the penalty practice mode within practice sessions, the penalty shoot-outs are an all out novelty, players being able to experience the whole virtual thrill of trying to put the ball past the opposing goalkeeper in front of a packed stadium.

Also in the field of novelties, although strictly tied in with tournament football simulators, some will be surprised to find this game more similar to the regular FIFA series than perhaps expected, in the way that the Team Management menu allows creating your own player, with up to 16 slots available, or modifying the in-game ones, exactly like in FIFA ‘06.

Continuing with similarities to FIFA ‘06, players can strive for obtaining points in Global Challenge mode, where they have to complete certain objectives within various scenarios, like coming back from a 1-2 deficit to win scoring 3 goals, 15 minutes into the second half, or beating a team at the shoot-outs, saving at least 3 shots.

Each match earns you points, from the various goals (pun intended) achieved. These points can be spent on the many unlockable features, ranging from classic football stars, who will be added to their national team’s squad, to special kits, balls, and others. You may even purchase a new difficulty level, Perfect, which, while being far from its what its name might imply, still gives the players a good run for their money.

The World Cup Mode is, naturally, the game’s main aspect, with players being able to chose from over 120 teams world-wide, divided into continents, which they can lead to the Cup Final all the way from the Qualifying Rounds of the tournament.

Each match in this mode is presented via a camera placed somewhere in orbit, with Earth in the foreground, taking us on a leveled zoom, first to Europe, then to Germany, to the city in which the match is being played, and finally, to the very stadium itself.