An ISN Editor’s Pick

If the FIFA World Cup results were based on a video game, Colombia would win it all. Brazil would never make it out of group play, and Luis Suarez would play all the way until the semifinals. Such is the life in EA’s take on the 2014 World Cup. In such an exciting time for soccer fans across the globe, picking up a copy of this year’s digital World Cup is a must do.

For regular players of EA Sports FIFA franchise, this year’s World Cup video game will feel very familiar. Passing, shooting, defending, and tactical controls are much the same with the regular FIFA. EA did an excellent job putting the features of FIFA 14 into their World Cup rendition. Any regular will feel at ease picking up a controller and instantly being able to compete. There should be no fear if you have never played a video game in your life either. With a quick guide displaying the different control arrangements, and some in-game drills to teach you the game, it is an easy game to pick up.

Something great about this year’s World Cup game is how accurate players are to their actual talent levels. Playing as the United States for the World Cup, I found the players and results are very similar to what has happened up to this point. While playing against the likes of Ghana, Portugal, and Germany, my USA team faced many of the same obstacles as the real team. My results were not even as great as real life, as I won against Ghana, and lost to both Portugal and Germany. The USA’s attacking and passing game could not measure up to those of the Germans and Portuguese. I still managed to advance to the quarterfinals, losing to Argentina in extra time.

Something highly recommended is downloading the most up-to-date roster available. With the initial game, multiple U.S. players were missing including DeAndre Yedlin, John Brooks, and Julian Green. Other countries as well, such as Ghana had slight roster changes to adjust to the final 23 man rosters. For any enthusiast, having the actual players available makes this game all the more enjoyable.

Another exciting feature of this year’s World Cup game is the return of the “Road to the FIFA World Cup”. In this mode, you pick a team and go through four years of qualification to reach the World Cup finals. It is a great way to build your team’s talent through the momentum feature. With each game played, your players gain or lose momentum. Great games boost player talent, while a poor game can drop a player’s ranking severely. As an example while playing, Alejandro Bedoya was outplayed against Germany and dropped three overall ratings points. Not to worry though, as over time I built my team into a contender. It’s a great challenge, but requires a lot of time.

As for graphics, this game is fantastic. Each World Cup stadium is extremely accurate to its real life counterpart. Playing for fun at every stadium, I would compare pictures to tje game, and could not find any noticeable differences. The only quirky thing throughout the game was that the players seemed slightly too big for the pitch. Someone that is under 6 feet would look comparable to LeBron James on the pitch. Even the likes of Messi looked capable of starting at middle linebacker for an NFL team.

Overall I would highly recommend this game to both soccer enthusiasts and casual fans alike. It is a great game to play with friends and family or you can just challenge yourself with the campaign mode. Just like the coaches and players playing down in Brazil, there is nothing more exciting than seeing a team you built step out and dominate the soccer universe.