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Do not buy this game. Just
don't. Even if you're a FIFA diehard fan. And that's
pretty everything you should know about FIFA 98'. It's a
perfect example of a rather decent game screwed up by
lazy programmers that suck at making games for Saturn.
If you saw a PC or PSX version of this title, don't even
look at Saturn version or you'll be scarred for life.
On paper FIFA 98' doesn't look that bad with lots of
licensed teams (even the Malaysian league is here),
moves, options, tactics settings, customization options,
12 stadiums to choose from, etc. Game starts with nice
intro, the soundtrack (including the "Song 2" by Blur)
is great. Almost everything is ok as long as you wander
through menus (which are a little unintuitive). Almost
beacuse there's a little problem with saving, and it's
not even beacuse the saves take too much space, in fact
they're pretty small (18 blocks at most), but for some
reason even if you have enough space in your internal
memory (there's no problem with backup cart) let's say
220 blocks, the game will say that there's not enough
space left. After deleting one file I could finally save
but I had only two save slots left even though there was
space for fifteen. But worse comes when you want to load
a saved game. It takes ONE MINUTE to load it, honestly!
I've never waited longer. Still, it's nothing compared
to what you'll see after entering the pitch.
Say, what comes to your mind when you think about pure
evil? Is it Darth Vader, Hitler or perhaps Dr Eggman?
Believe me, FIFA's framerate outshines those guys. It's
so dreadful and atrocious that makes you cry. It jumps
out of telly and mutilates your eyes with a rusty, dirty
hook and then shoves it up your ass.
Honestly, it makes the game almost unplayable. I would
understand it if the graphcis were so good that fluent
animation wasn't possible. But visuals are really
average, simple and blocky with big pixels. Aside from
slideshow, there's some slowdown as well. Now you can
imagine how FIFA 98' looks like- like shit.
Gameplay itself isn't that bad but it's completely
spoiled by awful graphics. There are a lot of skill
moves (you can even dive), shooting is ok but scoring
becomes a little too easy after some practice. Crosses
are a little screwed up. Even with auto-aimed crosses
mode on players still kick the ball out of the pitch
instead of sending it into the penalty box. Controls
suck a bit while defending, sliding tackle is useless,
normal takckle has to be really accurate to be
successful. In general, controls are a little
unresponsive.
Probably the only parts of gameplay you could enjoy
fully are penalty shootouts and 5 on 5 matches played on
the indoor stadium (clipping is still there but not that
dramatic) but unfortunately you can play only friendly
matches using it.
Commentary is pretty good though it can lag sometimes.
Score a goal just after the whistle and you'll still
hear something like "Let's prepare for today's big
match". Still, it's one of the game few bright sides.
While playing FIFA 98' I felt just like I was watching
Polish national team's WC qualifying games back in 97'.
FIFA is just uninteresting, boring and disappointing as
those matches were, if not worse.
Unless having a complete PAL Saturn games collection is
your lifelong dream don't even think about getting this
game. You can find much much better, quality footies for
Saturn than this crap. FIFA 98' feels like it was some
sort of a beta version. Really, everyone that was
involved in making it should have been whipped to death.
I hope I clearly explained why FIFA 98' is a worthless
piece of crap that shouldn't have been released in the
first place. Those few hours I spent playing FIFA I
consider wasted. Do not buy it or even take it for free,
ever.
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