Jocuri pentru telefoanele mobile

[Leo]

FIFA 08





EA Mobile Site
Pagina Oficiala - EA Mobile
Pagina Oficiala - FIFA 08

When it comes to mobile footie action, 2007 marks a titanic three-way clash between Gameloft's Real Football 2008, Konami's exciting new entrant Pro Evolution 2008 and EA's FIFA 08. So having heard the pre-match views of Gameloft's Nicolas Rodeghiero and Konami's Axel de Rougé, it was only fair to get FIFA 08 producer Adrian Blunt's take on EA's refreshed game.

Pocket Gamer: First things first: How many clubs are in the game?

Adrian Blunt: There are five European leagues available - the Premiership, Serie A, Ligue 1 Orange, Bundesliga and La Liga as well as a collection of international teams from around the world. In total there are over 100 authentic licensed teams that players can choose from.

We also have access to the same database that the FIFA 08 console game uses, which gives us an incredible amount of information about player statistics and abilities as well as team information. We've managed to transfer player statistics to FIFA 08 mobile so each player is an individual.

What modes should we expect?

Gamers get the option to play through a half season in one of the leagues with a team of their choice. We felt the game had to make sense on the mobile platform while still feeling like a bona fide FIFA game, so we decided a full season of 38+ games might be too much.

As well as Season mode, gamers can take their chosen team through the Club Challenge mode, tackling a series of gripping scenarios culminating in a match to win the title. Or if they simply fancy a quick match, they can pick any two teams from any of the leagues for a one-off friendly, and there's a tutorial that will help you get started quickly.

Can you explain the enhanced Season mode?

If a player is injured in a match it will carry over into the next match and maybe even into future matches. If a player accumulates yellow cards or gets a straight red, then he will be suspended. Fatigue will also carry over into the next match, so your entire squad becomes important to you. On top of that, the commentator will recognise how well you are doing throughout the season and know when those crunch matches or local derbys come up.

More generally, how does the game differ from FIFA 07?

In addition to game commentary from Andy Gray and the Club Challenge mode, we've spent a lot of time ensuring every player has individual statistics. You'll find Wayne Rooney has a great shooting attribute and Ronaldinho has great speed and passing ability. We've also included what we call in-form players. Randomly before each match, up to three players will be marked as in-form, which means they will have heightened abilities for that match only. Defenders are less likely to get booked for slide tackles, passes from midfielders are less likely to get intercepted or go astray and strikers will have increased shooting accuracy. We have added a visual effect to these players, too, to highlight their skills.

We've added a sprint key for an extra burst of speed but users should be careful not to overuse this feature as we have added fatigue as well. Use it too much and you may need to look to your substitute's bench late in the game. Players will now do an automatic standing block tackle as well as a sliding tackle. And we have added the offside rule for the first time.

You also added a landscape mode haven't you?

Yes, with an increasing number of handsets that cater for a landscape mode, it felt natural to integrate this capability into the game, meaning you can turn your phone on its side and play with a widescreen. In conjunction, we've added more pitch textures and improved the stadium and crowd as well as allowing the user to customise the position of the radar.

Finally, how does the game experience differ across different handsets?

We work hard to provide similar experiences no matter what handset it's played on, but there are natural limits within some handsets we have to try to work around without losing any of the FIFA 08 experience.

On lower-end handsets users can only choose from international teams in a tournament or friendly match and don't have access to the Club Challenge or Season mode. You'll also find the in-form system primarily on higher end handsets. On some of the mid-end handsets we've had to reduce or remove small details like varying pitch textures, sound effects and music - but overall, I don't think people will be disappointed with their FIFA 08 experience no matter which handset they own

FIFA 08 mobile is released on September 27th.


Pozele de mai sus sunt cu FIFA 08 pe telefoanele ce au aplicatia N-GAGE (de la Nokia).

[Leo]

UEFA EURO 2008




It's fair to say football purists may be wary of EA Mobile's UEFA Euro 2008 game. It's not just FIFA 08 reskinned for this summer's England-less tournament, as you might expect.

Instead, it monkeys about with the very mechanics of a mobile football game, introducing a new control scheme that eschews frantic button-pressing in favour of slidey bars and – gasp – regularly pausing the action.

"We're not trying to dumb down football," says producer Adrian Blunt. "We're just trying to make it accessible, and show users another way of playing it."

A quick explanation: the way UEFA Euro 2008 works is that instead of you pressing specific buttons to shoot, cross, tackle and do skill moves, an icon pops up when you're in the right position.

Hit '5', and the action stops dead while a slidey bar pops up, with you having to press '5' again to stop a moving pointer in the green section. Get it right, and you execute whatever move it is successfully. Get it wrong, and you don't.

"We acknowledge that the sort of player who's going to be playing this game isn't necessarily a core console gamer," explains Blunt.

"They're more likely to be a football fan for whom this may be their first experience of a football game on any platform. We wanted to give them something they can easily get into, with single-button gameplay. Rather than try to come up with a system where the game chooses things for you, we went down the route of the user-timing mechanic."

It's certainly a departure from FIFA, although EA Mobile's willingness to experiment won't come as a surprise to anyone who played its UEFA Champions League 2006-2007 game last year, which used innovative card-based gameplay.

Clearly the UEFA licence gives EA Mobile a bit more freedom to experiment. "We do have more latitude to try new stuff than with a FIFA game," agrees Blunt.

"With those, you have a very core FIFA consumer who has a very high expectancy of the style of gameplay, but with something like Euro that's very much championship-focused, it's a different type of player, so we can try different things."

Blunt says the slidey bar mechanic has other benefits, giving players a clear indication of success or failure, and also helping EA introduce skill moves into the game, without having to map them to separate buttons.

He also thinks the one-button controls highlight the realistic data behind the game, since the bars show that it's demonstrably easier to do a stepover with, say, Cristiano Ronaldo than it is with John Terry.

That's not the only change, mind. UEFA Euro 2008 is also deliberately easier to play than FIFA 08 was.

"The game is quite easy, certainly on the easy levels," Blunt confirms. "That was done on purpose to allow people who just want to take their team through and score lots of goals to do that. We have kept the more difficult modes in there to provide a challenge, but we were consciously making an easier game to play."

It's clearly true that UEFA Euro 2008 will attract more casual gamers than a FIFA game might, but that surely won't stop hardcore FIFA fans from buying it too. What will they make of all these changes?

"I think somebody that's very used to playing football mobile games will find it... different," says Blunt.

"It is a different way of playing the game, and I do think it will take them time to adjust to it. But we've spent a lot of time with the tutorial system to get them up to speed, and we've focused on the game's entertainment level. That's where we think we're rewarding the player for changing their preconceptions of how to play a football game."

The final selling point for UEFA Euro 2008 is the dedicated mode to set up your own tournament. It's suddenly become a big deal, since it allows people from countries that didn't make it to Euro 2008 to rewrite history and qualify.

Countries like... well, you know. So was this mode introduced purely to spare the blushes of us poor England fans?

"Not at all!" laughs Blunt. "We always knew there would be nations in Europe who wouldn't get through. It's just unfortunate that it's the English market who'll have to enjoy this feature."

Intrigued by UEFA Euro 2008? Click 'Track It' for an alert when we review the game.

[Leo]

FIFA Street 3




Hone your skills and roam the streets in your quest for the ultimate freestyling challenge. Bring your lightning reactions and silky skills to the blacktop to complete demanding tasks and own seasoned FIFA Pros. Then beat the best the world has to offer to take the title of Ultimate Street Footballer.

Boasting cutting-edge graphics, a unique visual style and three distinctive and destructible interactive urban environments, FIFA Street 3 on your mobile gives you the freedom to freestyle.



Traverse the world and impose your style to become the absolute master of freestyle! Work your tricks, defy the stars of the world foot and become the best player of foot of street. Graphics to cut the breath, single visual environment and entirely destructible decorations: the signal of freestyle on mobile!



Continuation of the famous series of arcade football imitators FIFA Street will give you a beautiful street soccer. The basis of FIFA Street 3 is a totally new concept: the appearance of world class stars will be under the stylized images of heroes and fighters comic, and simplified management system will allow incomprehensibly finty and stunts. Effects of FIFA Street 3 unfolding in the most exotic and unusual corners of our planet, under continuous pulsations of music stars compete in world soccer ball possession skills, precision strikes on driblinga and gates.

[Leo]

FIFA 09




The battle of the footballing big guns is about to hot up. No, we're not talking about Manchester United and Chelsea's struggle for Premiership spoils. Or even Bishop Stortford and Bromley FC's battle for Conference South glory.

We're talking mobile football games, and the three-way fight between EA's FIFA 09, Gameloft's Real Football 2009, and Konami/Glu's Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. Real Football 2009 is already available, FIFA 09 is coming out this Friday, with PES 2009 following next month.

Exciting times. We sat down with EA Mobile's Adrian Blunt to find out what this year's FIFA has in store for mobile gamers. Quite a lot, it turns out, with an impressive list of gameplay and presentational improvements.

"The first thing is we've focused it around the concept of 'My Team'," he explains. "The first time you install the game, it asks you what your favourite team is - Liverpool in my case - and then tracks everything you do as that team, makes them the default choice when you start a Quick Match, and customises all the game menus with their colours."

In terms of game modes, FIFA 09 will have the regular Quick Match mode, and an expanded Season mode that'll let you play through a season with your favourite top-tier team from key European countries.

However, that mode now dovetails with a new Challenge mode, which presents you with eight specific challenges - score two goals in 40 minutes or beat a top team with an average team, that kind of thing - unlocking reward cards that can be used in the Season mode.

"You can use them to heal injured players, remove a red or yellow card, or make players perform better on the pitch," explains Blunt. "So for example, if your star striker gets injured in Season mode, you can go into Challenge mode and play the injury challenge, and use that card to cure him."

The idea of the Challenge mode is also to encourage players to try different teams - playing as Hull City rather than Liverpool, for example, to stretch their skills.

As we said, the Season mode itself has been beefed up too. Every player now has a fatigue rating, which affects how likely they are to get tired and/or injured. There's also a neat Man of the Match feature, which tracks the player who does most stuff - shots, passes, tackles - in a match, and gives him a performance boost for the next one.

"It replaces last year's In Form Player feature," says Blunt. "But there's a trade-off. If you get Steven Gerrard running about like a madman and scoring lots of goals, there's a strong possibility he'll be Man of the Match, but also it's more likely that he'll be tired and prone to injury. So you might even end up resting players, or thinking more strategically about who's seeing a lot of the ball."

Rafa Benitez-style rotation policies ahoy! There will be a specific challenge in Challenge Mode to earn a card that lets you choose the Man of the Match, too.

What about the gameplay itself though? The most obvious change for FIFA 09 is its move to a side-on viewpoint, rather than last year's isometric view. Blunt says EA Mobile thought long and hard about this, but feels handsets are now powerful enough to do the viewpoint justice. The fact that both Real Football 2008 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 adopted a side-on perspective last year was surely a factor too though.

"We've done a lot of work on the visuals and animation," he says. "The frame rate of the game is generally better across all handsets, and we've completely redone our animation system. We had an animator working for ten months taking all the animations from the console editions, analysing the, and bringing them down to pixel art."

Blunt says EA has doubled the number of animations in FIFA 09, meaning more variety in the action - something shown off most in the action replays. Other presentational tweaks include the addition of a manager, who pops out of his dugout to offer advice and encouragement during the match.

FIFA 09 will continue to walk the tightrope between satisfying hardcore football game fans and new players who simply spotted the game on their operator's portal. The defaut difficulty level has been bumped up to 'Medium' for the former group, but there are hints and tutorials (and the option to set it back to 'Easy') for the latter.

So what about the gameplay itself? FIFA 09 has some significant new features, including the skill-bars that first appeared in EA Mobile's UEFA Euro 2008 game earlier this year. They're the little bars that pop up when you're performing an action, with you having to stop the marker in the green bits to succeed, rather than the red bits.

However, they're not being used quite as often as in UEFA Euro 2008. In FIFA 09, they're restricted to shooting and tackling.

"We had a good response from a lot of people to the clarity that the skill-bars provided, but core traditional FIFA players said they struggled a bit with the lack of choice," says Blunt. "Someone who's played football games before have a feel for when they're going to cross the ball. They don't need to be told. Having the element of choice is crucial."

So, when you press the button to press-tackle an opponent, a skill-bar pops up, with the size of the green section dictated by elements like the two players' stats, the direction they're facing, and the distance between them.

"Of course, you can just double-tap to do a slide tackle and take them out," laughs Blunt. Good news for budding John Terrys in the FIFA fanbase...

Meanwhile, for shooting the green bars depend on where the goalkeeper and defenders are positioned, as well as your attacker's shooting skills. "So if the goalie's on the left of the goal, there'll be a big green area on the right of the skill-bar, unless defenders are covering that side of the goal," explains Blunt.

From our hands-on with the game, the system works well in practice, especially with the additional option to tap the 'shoot' key to just do a quick shot at goal, or double-tap it for a lob - with no skill-bar needed in either case. Again, choice appears to be the watchword.

"With the fixed camera angle, if you're shooting, often you can't see the goal, but this takes out the randomness from the process," he says. "It gives you an idea of where the best place to shoot is, but there's still skill in there, and of course the player stats taken from the console game's database."

Other changes include the ball being in the air more than before - meaning more scope for headers and volleys - and the introduction of two skill-moves - a Zidane-style 360 pirouette, and a step-over.

Oh, and it's faster, too. "One of the things that came out of the research we did on last year's FIFA was that although the game felt realistic in the way players were moving, people wanted a faster more arcadey experience," says Blunt.

"We haven't gone mad and made it a game of ping-pong, but we've increased the pace of the game, worked a lot on sprinting, and on being able to move the ball quickly and fluidly around the pitch."

Passing has also been spruced up, with the introduction of one-twos to complement short, long and through-ball passes. All are handled with one button - a tap makes a short pass, a longer press hits a long ball, and a double-tap does a one-two.

Through balls are entirely contextual - if you see a player waving his arm and starting a run, pressing the 'pass' button knocks a through ball for him.

"The timing is the crucial thing, and we've worked a lot on the AI of the players to make sure they're making these runs at the appropriate times," says Blunt. "You feel like your team is moving around you much more. And we've worked a lot on the defensive AI too, in terms of how players react to what you're doing with the ball."

FIFA 09 supports landscape play on handsets that are capable of it, now with a choice of right or left-handed controls, depending which way you want to hold your phone.

One feature that's NOT in the game is Bluetooth multiplayer, in marked contrast to both Real Football 2009 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. Why not? Blunt confirms that EA "definitely thought about it", but decided not to include it.

"The thing that stopped us moving forward with it was really the way we feel people are playing mobile games," he says. "It's still quite a solitary experience, with people playing these games in their downtime. The chances of me and a friend going out, and both having the right phones to have that Bluetooth experience, are still relatively slim. We felt our time was better spent invested in the gameplay itself."

He doesn't rule it out for the future, though.

"Head-to-head multiplayer is very cool, and with iPhone and wi-fi, connectivity is becoming more popular - people are starting to use their phones in different ways to mass-market Java games. It'll definitely be big in the future."

EA also decided against emulating the one-button mode debuted in last year's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (and refined for this year's version.)

"We thought long and hard, and prototyped it, but found that one of the real negatives was the lack of control," says Blunt. "If you use the same button for shooting and long passing, at some point the game is going to have to choose between those on your behalf. It can get it right most of the time, but when it doesn't, players feel like they're fighting with the game."

Konami and Gameloft will doubtless disagree on both the Bluetooth and one-button counts, but the real proof will come with the reviews of all three games. Needless to say, we'll be putting them through their paces in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for our verdict.

[Leo]

[Leo]

REAL FOOTBALL 2009





"You can play a football game, or you can get real with stars like Cesc Fabregas from over 200 teams around the world. When you hear the roar of the fans, feel the thrill of intelligent opponents and find yourself in the middle of the most incredible football matches, you'll know this is the most realistic football experience on mobile. With the easy controls, you'll shoot, pass, defend, and perform the most amazing moves like a pro in minutes. Then show off your skills by challenging friends on compatible Bluetooth phones."



Ca o adaugare jocul contine echipa nationala a Romaniei + Steaua Bucuresti.




Cele 4 poze de mai sus sunt de pe versiunea 3D.

Pagina Oficiala Producator
Pagina Oficiala Real Football 2009
Pagina Oficiala Real Football 2009 (Versiunea HD)

[Leo]

PES 2009



''Konami has revealed that Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 will be getting a mobile spin-off, to follow up last year's highly successful first phone version.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 will be released for mobile alongside the console versions this autumn, and once again will be published by Glu Mobile.

The big new feature is Bluetooth multiplayer, which should be a hoot – it'll be interesting to see if this feature makes it into rival games Real Football 2009 and FIFA 2009 too, though.

Konami says it's also been refining the one-button control system that was used for last year's mobile Pro Evolution Soccer (pictured), as well as making the player animation more rich.

Oh, and it's making the goalies more intelligent too, which should be a godsend. Plus there'll be new stadia to play in, new unlockable bonuses, and extra training challenges.''

[Leo]

REAL FOOTBALL: MANAGER 2009



"The first name in football management simulations on mobiles is back for another season! Real Football Manager 09 features a new, simplified interface and improved artificial intelligence for maximum realism. Choose your club from one of 8 different leagues and more than 200 teams. All transfers are updated for the 2008/2009 season. Plan your players' training schedule and perfect each position's tactics to lead you to a title.
As an exclusive feature, you can even transfer your team to Real Football 2009 to play!"

[Leo]

FIFA Street 2



Perfect your moves and follow the beautiful game underground to launch your bid to Rule the Streets. Armed with a deadly arsenal of reputation-shattering tricks, it's time to put your pride on the line in spectacular venues around the world as 16 international teams face off for the ultimate bragging rights. Master your beats, polish your skills and unleash Gamebreakers to completely dominate the opposition. Prepare for battle in the ultimate blend of arcade action and street football.



Features:

4 on 4 Football Action - As opposed to the Traditional 11-a-Side Football game, FIFA Street 2 is a game of 4 a side Football with fast paced end to end Football action. Speed, Style and Goals are the key elements.

Trick Based Game-play - In FIFA Street 2 - Tricks are key - The more tricks you performing the quicker your score goes up. The faster your score goes up, the sooner you get a 'Game Breaker'. 'Game Breakers' are nearly impossible shots that few Goal Keepers can stop, use them to score big. Master the tricks, gain 'Game Breakers' and rule the streets.

Strong Visual - Look & Feel of Franchise - FIFA Street 2 Mobile captures the look at feel visually of the Console product. In game we reproduce as much of the console look & feel as possible - If we can do it on the Mobile Screen it's in there.

Quick Game Play with Intuitive Controls - FIFA Street 2 is all about fast action - The controls are familiar to those who have played FIFA 06 - To those who haven't our Help & Hints and tips will have them playing like a Pro in no time. Quick-Play allows the user to be in game and playing in less then 20 seconds - Perfect for that Quick Street Football Fix.

Two Game modes - Quick Play and Rule the Street - Quick Play allows instant street football satisfaction whilst Rule the Street offers a long term Character Driven Challenge. In Rule the Street, the Player must build a Team and lead them through a series of Challenges in their aim to be Crowned King of Street Football.



Pagina Oficiala Producator
Pagina Oficiala FIFA Street 2

[Leo]

FIFA MANAGER 08



Is there room for another mobile football management game? Once a neglected genre, now we've got the impressive Championship Manager 2008, Real Football: Manager Edition and LMA Manager 08 all duking it out at the top of the table. Can the Big Three become a Big Four?

EA Mobile certainly reckons so, and it's got the FIFA brand to back it up, even if FIFA Manager has been somewhat sidelined on PC by Champ Man and Football Manager. Mobile is a different bag of kittens though: there's more competition and nobody's dominating in quite the same way as on PC.

In FIFA Manager 08, there's a choice of five countries to manage in - England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy - with the top two divisions in each being playable. This makes us happy as Gaffer Dredge can command the mighty Norwich. ('Where are you! Let's be having you!' etc.) And as you'd expect from a FIFA game, all the team and player names are accurate - it's fully licensed up.

The first thing you notice about the user interface - especially if you're playing on a Sony Ericsson phone - is how similar it is to that company's handset user interface. The main screen has nine icons: Finances, Fixtures, Messages, News, Line Up, Training, Tactics, Transfers and Continue (the latter takes you to the next week/match). The Messages icon even looks like the one on your phone.

AdvertisementFrom here, you can control everything about your club. Messages is where you receive much of your information, whether it's the board outlining their expectations, transfer negotiations or post-match analysis from your assistant. By contrast, News lets you check various bits of information, including the next round of fixtures, your managerial profile and what the supporters think of you.

EA has wisely kept the micro-management to a minimum, so in Finances you just see an overview of your income versus outgoings, without having to fiddle with ticket prices and the like, while Training is just a case of picking two areas to focus on each week.

Tactics, meanwhile, involves simply picking a formation and playing style. Kevin Keegan would love this level of tactical simplicity; Jose Mourinho or Rafa Benitez wouldn't be so keen. At least it makes the game quick to get into.

Still we were puzzled by the Line Up menu, which simply presented a list of our players without any info on their abilities, until we realised that pressing left when they were highlighted takes you to their Player Details screen. It's not obvious, but once there you can see details of their age, value, position and skills. There's no way to compare players on-screen, however, so you'll need a good memory (or a notepad'n'pen).

Transfers are a bit strange too: everything seems to be in millions, so players are valued at Ł1m, Ł2m, Ł3m and so on - but nothing in between. If only the real world were that simple. It jars slightly though, in terms of the game's overall feeling of realism. There's also no transfer list or loans system - you just pick some attributes to search for, then bid on a player.

Matches take the form of text-based commentary only, setting this alongside Championship Manager 2008, rather than Real Football: Manager Edition and LMA Manager 08. Besides the commentary, you can move left and right through a success of informational tabs, showing your players' performance ratings, match stats, pitch area percentages, and letting you change tactics and make substitutions.

It works well, with a neat touch being the way the match itself pauses when you're on any tab other than the Match Screen, letting you ponder changes without missing any action. If you're impatient, you can ramp up the commentary speed to medium or fast, to make matches pass quicker.

FIFA Manager 08 is nicely put together, and certainly accessible for anyone who fancies a quick bash at taking their team to the top. There are some elements we really like too, such as the useful advice from your assistant (for example: "What a performance! However we were lucky as we could not keep the ball enough! Should we look at training more to keep possession possibly?").

However, it doesn't quite measure up to the kingpins in its field, particularly Championship Manager 2008 and Real Football: Manager Edition. You get your team organised, make a couple of transfers, and then just keep clicking Continue while tweaking your Training according to the advice. And that's it.

By necessity, there's a certain amount of dumbing down for any football management sim that transfers from PC to mobile. However, it feels like the process has gone too far in this case. FIFA Manager 08 isn't a bad game if you just want a quick bash, but if you want deep managerial depth, then you'll have to look to one of its rivals.



Pagina Oficiala Producator
Pagina Oficiala FIFA MANAGER 2008

[Leo]

FIFA World Cup 2006



The World Cup is looming as ominously as Peter Crouch in a penalty area, and as always games developers are getting in on the action. EA Games has thrown caution to the wind and is investing time, effort and bundles of cash into producing and marketing a new range of mobile games -- it spent a massive wodge acquiring developer Jamdat last year. The company's latest addition to its growing mobile game collection is the well-timed FIFA World Cup Germany 2006.

This edition of FIFA follows suit to FIFA 2006 Mobile Edition, but only features 32 international teams -- the domestic ones have been removed. You don't get the same number of options, but the gameplay and controls are the same and it looks very similar. We were slightly disappointed that the feature which meant tackles caused the phone to vibrate was lost, but we'll manage.



Our only serious niggle with this game (and with almost all other mobile games, to be fair) is the control layout, which is functional but hardly condusive to instant fun. Nokia's N-Gage range of handsets had the best solution to date, but is now just a fond memory.

Too many mobile games are let down by their control layout and small screens, but we like seeing established franchises like FIFA coming to handsets near us, and this is a positive start for an interesting concept.




Mai sus este versiunea 2D.
Mai jos este versiunea 3D.



Pagina Oficiala Producator
Pagina Oficiala FIFA World Cup 2006

[Leo]

FIFA 07



Strictly speaking, a realistic football simulation nowadays would have to include bungs, roasting and shrieking WAGs, rather than any on-pitch action. But while the world awaits a publisher brave enough to tackle the off-field exploits around the beautiful game, we'll have to make do with good old-fashioned passing, moving and shooting.

FIFA 07 still appears on mobile with something to prove, mind. It may be the top-selling footy series on console, but on mobile FIFA hasn't quite hit the target in the past.

Previous versions have strived to squeeze the console game onto mobile, with results that while technically impressive, were often a bit fiddly and unrewarding to actually play.

Well, it's time to stand up and give EA Mobile (and developer Distinctive Developments) a huge Mexican Wave. By Jose, they've done it! Made FIFA a fun mobile game, we mean. And they've done it by stripping down the controls and tweaking the player movement without losing the slick presentation that's always been FIFA's hallmark.

AdvertisementAs ever, there's several gameplay modes. Training lets you get a feel for the controls, either in free-play mode, or practising free kicks and penalties. Meanwhile, Friendly mode lets you match up any two teams from the game.

The meat of FIFA is to be found in Season mode though, where you play a whole season in one of the five featured leagues – England, France, Germany, Spain or Italy – while Scenarios mode has a set of classic matches where you have to beat the opposition.

FIFA 07 is licensed up to the hilt, so there's not a made-up player or team name in sight. Plaudits are due for its strategic depth, too. You can tinker with your line-up, formation, playing style and set-piece takers to your heart's content. This is what you'd expect from a FIFA game, but it's all very well-implemented.

But it's the Fun Factor that makes FIFA 07 great. Here's an example that sums it up. In our first game playing it – Arsenal against Bolton – we spent 30 seconds stroking the ball around the pitch, before advancing on goal and cracking a scorcher into the top corner to go 1-0 up.

Just like the real thing? True, but more importantly, it was fun, and instantly rewarding. And that's not a coded way of saying the game is too easy, as we didn't go on to win 18-0. But in FIFA 07, passing is easy, shooting is easy, even tackling is easy (a real departure in this genre).

What do we mean by easy? Well, your players run straight ahead, with you just turning them left or right – a nod to the system that worked so well in this year's Playman World Soccer game. What it comes down to is this: on FIFA 07, you're playing football, not wrestling with the controls.

Other good stuff: the graphics on the N70 version we reviewed are excellent, offering a variety of camera angles, and cool TV-style replays. There's also a tutorial included, which does a good job of introducing you to the various controls.

There are still niggles. The action can feel a bit pedestrian at times, and the goalkeepers alternate between passable and rubbish, seemingly at random (we would insert a cheap David James joke here, if he wasn't playing so well this season).

But there's no doubt that EA and Distinctive have kicked FIFA into shape for mobile, with the result a genuine Premiership contender, rather than an also-ran. Even without the WAGs.




Mai sus este versiunea 2D.
Mai jos este versiunea 3D.



Mai jos este versiunea de pe telefoanele cu N-Gage.



Pagina Oficiala Producator
Pagina Oficiala FIFA 07

[Leo]

UEFA Champions League 2006-2007



Like many issues in football, opinions upon the UEFA Champions League are decidedly divided. Ask a hundred fans whether it is a glorious celebration of the highest standards of modern football or a cancer on the domestic leagues, designed to make the rich clubs richer and leach more cash from an already well-tapped fan-base, and you'd get a pretty even split.

Ask a hundred game fans for a similar opinion on EA Mobile launching an officially licensed Champions League game half-way through the competition – and only a handful of months after the latest FIFA (which itself followed shortly after their 2006 World Cup game) – and we'd expect a rather more polarised response.

To be fair, even the determinedly unbiased review staff at Pocket Gamer towers were a little sceptical when we first heard of the title.

All of which might explain our surprise and delight at discovering in UEFA Champions League 2006-07 a game that is not only an entertaining additional to the portable footie canon, but a refreshingly original one, too. Whilst the PSP version (reviewed last week) set the tone for gameplay innovations, the mobile game has extended things considerably, effectively creating a whole new footie genre.

AdvertisementAt first glance, UEFA Champions League looks worrying familiar; you pick a team from a hefty officially-licensed selection, engage in a little strategic shuffling, and then launch out onto the pitch. Even the players look familiar (albeit slightly less detailed than in the latest incarnations of FIFA 07), up until you try to take control of them and realise... you can't.

Instead, your miniature midfielders go about their business of passing, tackling and shooting whilst you happily watch them – or more likely look on with the sort of dismay usually found on the faces of the England coaching staff, as your charges waste chances, lose possession and generally perform ineptly.

Fortunately, unlike Steve McClaren you do have the power to do something about it, interacting with proceedings via a series of cards that enable you to leap into the mind of a player and direct him to perform a particular action, be it a tackle, aimed pass or long shot. Once the card is played, the game resumes and you get to watch the actions play out until you drop in again. In practice, this is usually pretty soon afterwards, as you follow a sliding tackle with an incisive pass and then a shot.



The mechanic may sound a little clumsy, but it works incredibly well and provides an engaging mix of strategy and action without the need to scramble for hundreds of keys.

The tactical element is sharpened by the fact that each deck of cards (of which there are four – defensive, passing, attacking and special) are frozen for a time after you've played a card from them (so you can't follow a slide tackle with a diving save) and the more powerful the card, the longer the recharge.

As you proceed through the competition, from qualifying to group to knockout stages, the strategic options are widened by the ability to exchange points secured by victories and goals for further, more exotic cards. Even here there's a clever balance at play: with limited resources, you have to choose between opting for a broad deck featuring the likes of 'wing passes' and 'back passes', or channelling all your resources into one or two super cards like 'perfect shot' or 'catlike reflexes' for your keeper.

There's a sustained challenge on offer, too, with three skill levels and a fantasy team option offering good replay value, although with each competition lasting three to four hours, you're unlikely to feel cheated even if you decide not to return after scooping your first European crown.

Admittedly the balance isn't perfect; some cards are unfairly over-weighted (the miss-kick being the prime example), others (like the magic sponge) virtually pointless, and the recharge system for most seems a little too speedy. The player and formation selection process is redundant, too, in that there's little noticeable change on pitch in their performance (special cards for star individuals would have been great) and we never once saw a defensive player breaking up to support and score (a John Terry card?).

If you wanted to be especially picky, you could point out a few niggles in the presentation, with players looking identical on-pitch, the passes and shots happening a little too 'on-rails' at times, and the presentation of a single flat picture of the trophy proving a slightly underwhelming reward for victory. Where's the ticker tape and official music?

However all of these elements can be addressed easily enough in future versions, and the fact that we're already looking forward to the next rendition with even more varied cards and polished visuals tells its own story. UEFA Champions League is a refreshing, inventive and enjoyable mobile experience, and one that's deserving of its brand.



Pagina Oficiala Producator

Pana mai sus am pus numai jocuri de fotbal... o sa pun si alte jocuri 8)

[Aurelian]

Cand mai incerci sa faci vreun review , scrie-l tu nu copy & paste.Aici te-ai dat de gol,limba fiind engleza. Parerea Mea...

[Leo]

Nu sunt reviewuri. Sunt informatii si poze culese de pe internet.

[Aurelian]

eee ce mai conteaza...as mai pune eu cateva tot dintr-o revista dar imi este cam sila sa scriu acum

[Aurelian]

ma da alte jocuri nu puteati pune? numai fotbal ?

[sir andrei cel mare]

chiar......
il am pe cel din 2007

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