In most soccer games, a player rushing to a ball near the line will invariably kick it out of bounds upon contact. A seemingly minor improvement is in how the players control the ball near the sidelines. While the view system often forces you to make blind passes, the computer play is good enough that your teammates are usually where you expect them to be. World Cup 98 introduced excellent goalie AI FIFA 99 bumps up the positioning and overall play, but nothing really revolutionary.
FIFA 99 offers league play in twelve leagues, the ability to create a custom league, championships and a European “Dream League.” The opponent artificial intelligence in the FIFA series has always been among the best in the business, with improvements made in each incarnation. The only wide screen option is a somewhat top-down view that loses much of the graphic excellence of FIFA 99 a higher resolution view that shows more of the field is needed. As well done as the graphics are, there is no satisfactory view that allows the player to see a wide enough segment of the field to prevent the need for blind passing. Some stadium interiors look nothing like the displayed picture during selection.Ī more significant limitation is the restriction to 640×480 resolution, regardless of the video card used (Glide and Direct3D acceleration are supported). One area of controversy and debate is the graphic portrayal of the stadiums, which have been made more generic-looking due to time constraints. The player animations look better than ever, textures are more detailed and weather effects look believable.
The crowd chants, cheers great plays and goals and proclaims its anger at the referee. The commentary is relevant, accurate and timely. You might as well use your cut and paste function when describing the sights and sounds of any EA Sports game: they’re great, the standard to which others are compared. The series has never looked this cinematic.