The Virtual Stadium engine uses moving multiple camera angles and scaled sprites which have been motion-captured, SGI-rendered and then extensively touched up so that they look right. Spinning in the bottom left corner is a 3D gold VS logo, just to keep your processor busy in those spare clock cycles when you wander off to make a coffee.ĭuring the game itself, you have a choice of seven cameras from which to view the action, although I usually stick to the default tele cam view. Getting around the menu tree always requires a return to the main menu on the way. The menu system is very slickly presented in SVGA, but not quite as easy to use as it could be. Sometimes, the screen zooms in and shows replays of offsides, fouls and goals from a random viewpoint chosen from the replay facility.
The video screen is also used to show animations when goals are scored, ranging from flying cheerleader hippos to celebrating players. Little FMV clips are displayed on the stadium's video screen at half and full time reflecting your performance in the match. Nonetheless, the intro sequence is very long, very pointless and oozes quality as the images flow from live-action video to the SGI-rendered sprites and back again. Unless you have a quad-speed or better CD and a fast graphics card, the intro will be somewhat jerky in places - I have seen it running on a P90 with a 4X CD and it's very smooth, but my DX2-50 with 2X CD struggles. Now, Bruce Macmillan and his team at EA Canada have brought into the world a new baby, son of FIFA - has evolution improved on his ultimately flawed parent? You want FMV, you got it.
The CD version added a commentary which was nice but it still had the same old isometric view and the same gameplay faults. And, for some obscure reason, EA made up the names of all the players and you only had international teams to play as. Worse than that, the players often seemed as though they were doing their own thing and you sometimes spent more time battling the control system than playing football. The original FIFA often degenerated into a series of long range shots, interspersed with charging down the keeper's drop kicks when you were a goal down with seconds remaining. The PC version was virtually a straight conversion of the original Megadrive game and whilst it was graphically the best football game around, it just didn't have the playability of Sensible Soccer and perhaps even the Amiga Kick Off 2, even if the latter did sometimes play a little like a pinball game. When the 3DO version of FIFA appeared a while back, us PC owners were left drooling over the quality of the multiple camera views and stunning graphics. It is the second game to feature the new Virtual Stadium technology (the first being NHL Hockey '96). Read Full Review The new king of the football sims ?įIFA Soccer '96 (hereafter known as FIFA96) is the eagerly awaited next generation version of Electronic Art's footy game.
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