EA’s FIFA 07: Not So Next-Gen?

How does FIFA 07 translate to next-gen, if not by the numbers?

When does next-gen begin? Sony said it started with them, but if we were asking the teams behind EA’s FIFA 07 games, they might have a different answer. Remember the whole ‘Microsoft Nets Soccer Exclusives’ hub-bub from Leipzig?

How will that exclusive deal shakedown and will consumers get short end of the stick from EA, or a polished, feature-rich next-gen product?

In EA’s FIFA 07 for the Xbox 360, gamers will be able to choose from one of 7 soccer leagues to play in — these leagues are a collection of teams, generally region specific. The United States’ Major League Soccer is not included in the next-gen version. It is, however, along with 25 other leagues, included in the Nintendo DS version of the game. Major League Soccer and 27 other leagues are included on the curren-gen (PS2 and Xbox) versions of the game.

The story of the stadiums is remarkably similar. Current-gen copies of FIFA 07 boast 47 stadiums where users can run amok. The Xbox 360 version of the game has 21 stadiums (a whopping four of them exclusive to the platform).

What’s the deal, EA? Premium next-gen games at premium prices (hello $59.99 for FIFA) with tremendous cuts to the feature sets contained within (we’ve seen this before, with Madden, right?). We spoke with Hugues Ricour, the Producer on the Xbox 360 version of FIFA 07 and he tried to clarify exactly what was going on with the Stadium and League lists in the next-gen version of the game.

“First, there are more stadiums in the game than on that list,” Ricour said. The list he’s referring to is at the top of the page and comes from the game’s official site. Additionally, Ricour explained that the “generic” stadiums in FIFA 07 would do more than just place two teams in them and get into the game: “The stadiums will sort of remap in the next-gen version of the game. The team’s colors will be put on field, there will be some changes to the stadium depending on where it is, weather effects, open or enclosed domes.”

So there are more than 21 stadiums in the game, but still not the 47 from the game’s current gen version.

What about the leagues? Don’t people love their soccer leagues? Ricour explained that the demands of the sheer volume of players (6,000 in next-gen vs. 20,000 in current-gen) coupled with FIFA 07′s revamped attribute system has taken considerable amounts of the team’s time.

So what’s new about the attribute system?

“A system evaluates how well you play the game and how well your players are performing. Based on how those players are played, you will earn points to spend at the end of the game,” Ricour said. If a player had an exceptional game of defense, using FIFA 07′s RPG-style system, players will be able to spend some of those points to increase the player’s defensive attributes.

In addition to this, players have one of 45 traits assigned to them, these traits could include things like “player shoots from long range with right foot” — the players’ actions incorporate these traits.

These new features don’t explain away the league system or the stadiums entirely, however. Ricour discussed the brand new engine that EA built for FIFA 07. The two previous FIFA games Road to the World Cup and FIFA World Cup Germany both used current-gen assets upscaled to the 360 hardware, not so with FIFA 07. The game’s all new engine includes changes like “There were three places on the boot [shoe] in current-gen where we monitored the ball and its interactions, in next-gen there are over 100 points on the boot that the engine is tracking,” Ricour said.

Instead of using assets and manpower to port two FIFA titles to the 360 (one for launch), why not use the hours on focusing on the flagship brand — FIFA 07?

“We’d been working on the engine — but until we knew the specs of Xbxo 360 and PS3, we couldn’t really get moving,” Ricour said. “We definitely wanted to do a World Cup game — a World Cup game is a bit more mass market and we wanted to supplement the FIFA mothership with a World Cup game.”

“The Road to the World Cup was a good opportunity for us to work with the hardware. I don’t think it was a misuse of time,” Ricour said.

Does FIFA 07 offer enough in next-gen gaming to make-up for potential shortcomings with current gen iterations of the game? Will the new ball physics and rebuilt next-gen engine make up for the low number of leagues and similarly small number of stadiums shipping in the final product?

That choice is left to the consumer.
Source: gametab.com

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