The FIFA Football series began back in the early 1990's, when Electronic Arts first produced the first of what was to become one of the most popular football series ever. It quickly became the company’s biggest franchise, but had stiff competition from Konami's offering, International Superstar Soccer. Regardless, more than a decade on, the series is still going strong with the release of FIFA Football 2004 for PC.

As a game, FIFA 2004 is virtually identical to any other footy game, but t ... more >>

The FIFA Football series began back in the early 1990's, when Electronic Arts first produced the first of what was to become one of the most popular football series ever. It quickly became the company’s biggest franchise, but had stiff competition from Konami's offering, International Superstar Soccer. Regardless, more than a decade on, the series is still going strong with the release of FIFA Football 2004 for PC.

As a game, FIFA 2004 is virtually identical to any other footy game, but the series has always boasted one very significant advantage over many of its competitors - official licenses. Thanks to EA’s deep pockets, FIFA 2004 plays host to more than 500 official licenses, with 350 teams and a massive 10,000 players available at your disposal. All player names are genuine, making it one of the most authentic sports games the industry has to offer.

With regards to gameplay, FIFA 2004 doesn’t stand out too much from the crowd, but it’s a solid game nonetheless. The game is surprisingly playable with a keyboard and mouse, but it does benefit greatly from a third party controller. Clones of Sony’s PlayStation pad work particularly well.

FIFA 2004 looks great for PC as well, featuring higher resolution graphics than any other platform. And depending on your graphics set-up, the game can boast anti-aliasing and a variety of other rendering techniques.

A career mode is at hand to extend the life of the single player experience. Here you’ll be able to build your own squad, make frontline decisions, manage a budget and even promote and relegate players from the game. There are literally hundreds of hours of gameplay to be had if you’re willing.

It’s easy to see why the franchise has been running for such a long time, and given EA’s sheer size and bank balance, the FIFA series is set to continue for a few years yet. This'll do for now... << less