FIFA '07 demo on Live

By Tom Bramwell Published 6 October, 2006

Remember to tip your router.

With the next-generation version of FIFA '07 due to launch on Xbox 360 before the end of the year, Electronic Arts has shoved a demo version up on Xbox Live Marketplace, which ought to give me something to concentrate on while Crouch is busy saving England again tomorrow afternoon.

There's no immediate word on what's in the demo (since it takes my poor little router a good little while to download 827 megabytes), but past EA FIFA demos have thrown up an exhibition match between whichever teams are in vogue at the time. So probably not my beloved Liverpool then.

Anyway, Xbox Live's ever-useful director of programming Major Nelson informs us that the demo is available in all Xbox Live regions, so go and get your fill. Alternatively, how about some predictions for tomorrow? My money's on 2-0. And for some reason I think Scotland are going to beat France.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (66) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Furbs #1 5 years ago

    Immediate Word Follows:
    4 minute half
    Choice of Man Who? Barca, Lyon, AC Milan and a Mexican team.

    A nice demo, but EA have brilliantly chose to remove any sort of skill moves from the game (not just the demo) and you have no control of your players when the ball is in flight (an improvment they added for current gen versions).

    Oh well, maybe next year eh EA? I'm sure I said that last year when I was making allowances for RTWC.

  • Barry619 #2 5 years ago

    Just saw the demo on live, gonna get it even though i'm a total PES lover, always good to know how far the competition is lacking behind! i've heard there catching up though, so will be fun to see how it plays!

    i'm going for 3 - 0. scotland beating france!!!... you got nothing better to do than smoke that crazy shit while downloading the demo?! :p
    Edited by 1 at 06/10/06 @ 17:53

  • Blanchy #3 5 years ago

    Who cares?

    Pro Evo 6 is under a month away.

  • Sid-Nice #4 5 years ago

    NFS Carbon and FIFA 07 in only 2 days you're spoiling me EA; or you're stopping me from purchasing your 2 top selling titles. New engine, where did they get it; out of a lawnmower? EA have a hell of a lot of work to do to get this sorted in only 3 weeks.

  • tiddles #5 5 years ago

    Sony has bought exclusive rights to special moves in next gen football games.

  • smelly #6 5 years ago

    One word review follows:

    Shit.

  • sajtion #7 5 years ago

    i didn't like it

  • Furbs #8 5 years ago

    LOL tiddles. "Real time skill moves for massive entertainment"

  • freedumb #9 5 years ago

    I thought you could use the analogue stick for skill moves?

  • Cider-X #10 5 years ago

    it blows.. no way near PES5 in realism.
    I fail to see who this game is for. Fifa fans will not enjoy this new poor man's PES "engine".

  • Furbs #11 5 years ago

    You can in the current gen versions and every FIFA for the last few years. For whatever reason they've omitted it from this years "next gen" version. As I say, its been confirmed that its not just from the demo. Apparently some things (such as lane change) are possible on the left stick (you have to slow your player down though), but I've been playing all afternoon and not even managed a stepover.

    Its a real waste - they have this awesome physics engine but taken out the feature which would show it off most of all.

    Cider, from what I've been reading on several FIFA forums, most people love the game engine itself. Quite a few PES fans have said they are impressed too. It remains to be seen if some of the missing features will have a huge impact on sales. As a FIFA fan (who enjoys PES too) I've gone from "100% getting it" to "I'll wait and see how it compares to PES". What do you mean about lacking realism though? I really cant fault the physics, player interaction or the ball. The worst part of the main gameplay mechanic is not being able to move players when the ball is in the air.
    Edited by 2 at 06/10/06 @ 20:26

  • KennySim #12 5 years ago

    Stop with the Liverpool references!

  • ilmaestro #13 5 years ago

    Furbs pwnt.

    EA nextgen lol.

  • Furbs #14 5 years ago

    It could have been beautiful :(
    I know what a West Ham fan must have felt like after the FA Cup final now. So near, and yet..so far.

  • CrunchinJelly #15 5 years ago

    Alot of people (especially on here) were saying this would probably be better than PES this year -- not so.

    The game feels half finished (and I don't just mean because it's a demo). It's like they had a load of ideas of how to improve the whole game, but just decided to leave the majority till next year.

    Turns out I was right to pre-order PES6, then.

  • Sid-Nice #16 5 years ago

    Turns out I was right to pre-order PES6, then.

    Only if you're a FIFA fan; the game physics are said to be identical to FIFA World Cup, which isn't a bad thing. The bad news is you can't edit your teams' kit. :(

  • belziah #17 5 years ago

    Been playing it for the last hour and totally agree with furbs. I'm a PES man myself but had heard good things. Alas, I'd rather play PES5 on my psp.

  • stevencole7 #18 5 years ago

    SHITE!!!!!

  • thinktank #19 5 years ago

    poor

    PES6 you have my money

  • effinwooly #20 5 years ago

    dreaful ! PES for me then...........

  • Eighthours #21 5 years ago

    A nice demo, but EA have brilliantly chose to remove any sort of skill moves from the game (not just the demo) and you have no control of your players when the ball is in flight (an improvment they added for current gen versions).

    The cynical part of me can't help feeling that this was done on purpose to give them bulletpoints for next year's version...
    Edited by 1 at 07/10/06 @ 00:18

  • sinco #22 5 years ago

    FIFA keeps on getting better, even if that´s a consequence of the clear aproach to PES process it´s been on for the past two years... but I would still prefer PES 3 to FIFA 2007 in the present day.
    This Demo showed me I don´t have to bother about buying two soccer games this month. PES6 will be the only one.
    Just for fun question: What do u think is the average speed of a FIFA´s C . Ronaldo, for example? 50Km/h? 60 km/h? As much as I would like Cristiano Ronaldo could run at 50Km/h ( beeing a Portuguese soccer fan) I know he can´t do that. I think they have to slow down... a lot.

    :)
    Edited by 1 at 07/10/06 @ 00:33

  • OnlyMe #23 5 years ago

    I think they have the gameplay speed set on fast. The full PC game had the speed set on fast by default, and I've noticed most fifa games have done this the last couple of years. I thought the PC version was too fast too, felt completely unrealistic. So I turned it down to normal.

  • Steroyd #24 5 years ago

    Wow judging by the reaction of the demo I was genuinely intrigued to the point that I'd give Fifa some notice (maybe as far as looking at the game case in the shop).

    But it doesn't sound like it's near the hype.

  • gamesport #25 5 years ago

    i thought this was an ok demo. I haven't bought any Fifa games since 2004 (when i vowed not to buy FIFA again, or any other EA game) and i don't intend on getting this one either, but again i thought it was better than Fifa 05. Then again what does an American know about soccer games?, eh?

  • Pachinko #26 5 years ago

    The 360 version of FIFA 07 is again very different from current-gen versions. Whereas the FIFA 07 for the PC, PS2 and Teh Old Xbox has many of PES' elements and plays like a 'small PES", yet has its own charm, this 360 demo shows a return to the previous 'FIFA-like' form. It feels like World Cup with better graphics in many ways, from the AI to the way is plays - like FIFA again, not like real footy. They achieved the similarity to real football in current-gen FIFA 07 with likening it to PES - but here they went the FIFA way yet again. Dislike.

  • papalazarou #27 5 years ago

    The demo is still painfully slow, and had none of the intuitive one-touch passing of pro evo. It still doesn't feel "right".

  • dredd97 #28 5 years ago

    EA should sell the FIFA rights to Komami so we can get a descent FIFA game..

    (EA will probably just buy Konami, and fuck them up too)....

  • Darren #29 5 years ago

    As I regular buyer of both Pro Evo and FIFA, I'd like to think my opinion isn't in any way shape or form, biased.

    Well, I thought the demo was great and definitely feels different (in a good way) from the previous versions to play. It feels more realistic: the controls are very responsive (no more lag from waiting for animations to finish), the A.I. is much improved (less players just standing around) and the ball physics feel and look more like the real thing (there's less of the stuck to the foot feel). It's not perfect though, the A.I. still does some odd things (but that happens in Pro Evo too so it's not the sole offender) and there are some framerate hiccups, fortunately restricted to the replays and cinematics.

    Overall a vast improvement on the previous two games and one I really enjoyed playing; it gets more and more like Pro Evo every year and that's no bad thing. I'm looking forward to playing the full game.

    I'm also buying Pro Evo 6 so I can see how the games compare. I prefer Pro Evo for multiplayer (I despise the awful Master League mode) and FIFA 07 will be the game I play solo for its excellent Career mode, authentic atmosphere and fully-licenced teams. I couldn't just buy one game because I don't think either are perfect all-round packages but both cover everything I want from a football game.

  • gogobaka #30 5 years ago

    I had low expectations, and I was still disappointed.

  • dredd97 #31 5 years ago

    Just been reading an article over at a pro evo forum and it seems people are pointing out that the 360 version has some leagues 'missing'.. they seem to be in the ps2 version, just not the 360 version....


    Konami going to 'do' and EA and charge us for content freely available in the 'last-gen' versions?

  • PS3lol #32 5 years ago

    It's a good demo, Pro evo looks like shit next to this.

  • jamesbee #33 5 years ago

    I am not much of a football game fanatic but I liked this Fifa demo. Defiantly seems to play better than previous games. It's certainly nowhere near as bad as some of the comments here would suggest. Would be interesting if PES supporters would elaborate on why they dislike it so much?

  • weaselrat #34 5 years ago

    Let's be honest, this is so dissapointing that my 360 started crying.
    It's has improved over the others but it's still not that good. The AI and movement is still shit and the graphics should still be better on the next gen but you get the feeling they just update them slightly from the other versions.
    They just can't achieve the smooth feeling of
    PRO EVO PRO EVO PRO EVO

  • Barry619 #35 5 years ago

    It's Slow, It's Sluggish, It's Horrible. It's Another Fifa title from EA.

    But i'm glad they released the demo now, it's made me decide to pre-order Pro Evo 6 right now!!!

  • foamy #36 5 years ago

    Just been reading an article over at a pro evo forum and it seems people are pointing out that the 360 version has some leagues 'missing'.. they seem to be in the ps2 version, just not the 360 version....

    ---

    The Xbox 360 has 6 leagues, if I remember correctly. Can't tell you why though. It's on the official FIFA 07 site, so check it out.

  • Darren #37 5 years ago

    FIFA 07 on the 360 has six leagues because EA didn't have the time to add the other 21 leagues and update all the graphics to the same standard throughout. Understandable I suppose given how superb FIFA 07 looks but still extremely disappointing all the same. Perhaps if they'd only released the 2006 FIFA World Cup game and this, they might have been able to add more leagues to the 360 version.

    Never mind though, I'm sure EA have every intention of selling some of those extra leagues as premium content at 1000 points each! ; )

  • Inflatable #38 5 years ago

    No time to put all the leagues etc in? Right, that's total BS imho.. Maybe they shouldn't release 3 FIFA games within 1 year, maybe then they have the time huh..

    I really liked the demo, but out of protest of leaving the Dutch league, teams and stadiums out, I'm simply not buying this.. And I hope all Dutch football fans will do that same (at least most of them because some will buy these games no matter what).. It's the only language EA understands, that of your wallet..

    And they leave in Mexico, what a joke! Sorry..

  • Furbs #39 5 years ago

    Maybe you should to complain to the Dutch FA for being restrictive when it comes to licencing? Thats always been an issue with FIFA games until very recently.

    The lack of leagues is understandable if you factor in that each of these teams was designed from the ground up - this is the first year the FIFA team havent been able to simply import the previous years models. That said, the proof will be if EA offer a new league for download within the first month or so. If they do then they really were BS'ing.

  • Psychopompus #40 5 years ago

    This is typical for EA ; at first it seems a rather polished game, but after playing 30 minutes you know enough. Ronaldinho without skills/tricks is unforgiveable btw!
    PES5 owns this poor excuse for a footballgame, PES6 will crush it.

    Americans/canadians should stick to hockey, baseball and american football and stop this blasfemie! Do you hear EA !!!!!!
    Edited by 1 at 07/10/06 @ 21:31

  • RMXtreme #41 5 years ago

    The dutch league is licensed in the 'current gen' versions of Fifa 07:
    [link url=http://fifa07.ea. com/extra/?id=4311
    ]http://fifa07.ea. com/extra/?id=4311
    [/link]
    So it seems EA either didn't have enough time, were just lazy or are going to make it available via X-Box live for a fee.

  • crazyhorse174 #42 5 years ago

    'i'm going for 3 - 0. scotland beating france!!!... you got nothing better to do than smoke that crazy shit while downloading the demo?! :p '

    Oh sweet, sweet justice...I really hope your going to eat your words now!

    Thanks Eurogamer for your faith in ol' Scotland! Get it up you France!

  • evad_lhorg #43 5 years ago

    he was right! Scotland did beat France.

  • oerhoert #44 5 years ago

    Absolutely awful. Too slow, too little control, and to top it all of: bad framerate.

    I'm an hopeless optimist, and each year I'm thinking that maybe <em>this</em> time they'll get it right. But no.

    The NFS Carbon demo was even worse, which somehow is even more astonishing, since Most Wanted was fun.

  • The-Bodybuilder #45 5 years ago

    >"I'm an hopeless optimist, and each year I'm thinking that maybe this time they'll get it right. But no."

    Me too.

    The graphics are dire IMO. There seems to be a lag with slide tackling.
    Frame rate drops (what is it with you EA? Even with a tri-core console and subpar graphics, you STILL have slow-down?)

    DON'T FORCE ME TO USE THE ANALOGUE STICK.
    I've witnessed the ball move trajectory and instantly "stick" to the feet.
    No skills.....AT ALL.

    I mean really, what were they thinking? CRUSH'EM KONAMI, crush'em good.

  • Anthony_UK #46 5 years ago

    To have no tricks seems very stange indeed, am i being over suspicious of ea, but after hearing that they are going to be releasing extra staduims and celebrations for madden for a fee, maybe in the near future we'll be paying for the extra bonus of being able to perform a step over ????

    step over - 800 points

    would it really be that unbelievable?
    Edited by 1 at 08/10/06 @ 18:32

  • sajtion #47 5 years ago

    please review fifa 2007 on xbox 360. i predict a score of 6

  • bloodflowers #48 5 years ago

    Yuck. What a load of old rubbish. After accidently making a couple of acceptable games, EA have wised up and gone back to total junk.

  • Steroyd #49 5 years ago

    @Anthony_Uk
    I wouldn't put it past EA TBH.

    Paying for Ronaldinho or C. Ronaldo will be a bitch though. o_O

  • jonsaan #50 5 years ago

    Why do EA insist on having demo's that time out. Wankers.

  • Frogger #51 5 years ago

    "Scotland will beat France"

    Hahahahhaaa !! What a joke...




  • Darren #52 5 years ago

    @Jonsaan - The FIFA 07 has a half that lasts 4 minutes then it returns you to the main menu screen (the practice one) where you can play the half again and again to your hearts content with a choice of six teams.

    How is this a timed out demo? That infers one that quits out of the game to the dashboard after a pre-set time (e.g. the Test Drive Unlimited demo) and that's clearly NOT the case here... :?

  • Glitch #53 5 years ago

    Demo is cool, looks alot better than RTWC. For some of the people also making comments regarding the special moves and tricks using the right analogue stick well dont forget this is a demo, they leave you wanting more. If you want more tricks and extra stuff then buy the game. I also dont understand how people can say it is poor, it is 10x better than RTWC.

  • TheGrandChappo #54 5 years ago

    "Scotland will beat France"

    Hahahahhaaa !! What a joke...

    The only joke at the wkend was England 0 Macedonia 0!! LMFAO

    Scotland 1 France 0 Mon the Scots, 3 wins in 3 games, top of group above Italy & France, both World Cup finalists!!!

    We've got to sing when were winning, it doesn'y happen that often ;o)
    Edited by 1 at 09/10/06 @ 11:21

  • Frogger #55 5 years ago

    I wasn't aware of the brilliant England-Macedonia score. Quite impressive I might say ! :-)

    About Scots, congratulations, you perfectly managed the tactical side of the game, we have been trapped. About world cup finalists, I think everybody knows that France and Italy were not the two best teams in the competition, except for diving (ask the australians) and karate (ask materazzi) ! ;-)

    edit : What does mean LMFAO ?
    Edited by 1 at 09/10/06 @ 13:12

  • bavelb #56 5 years ago

    Played in Semi-Pro and won a lot of matches, but most goals of rebounds. Got a lot of 1 on 1 situations. Keepers have quite godly responses 1 on 1, but manage to bounce the ball in front of 2nd attacker 75% of the time. Due to this and some other goals I made, there was no satisfaction from scoring a goal. Every goal I scored was more due to luck then skill from my behalf.

    -Dribbling controls felt sluggish. Both in offense and defense it feels like you're controlling a tank.
    -Give and go's are pointless as the person giving the first pass stands around for a second before deciding to sprint, making 1-2's virtually useless.
    -most shots on goal from left or right side of goal go wide, into the side of the net.
    -shots on goal from the middle that are aimed to left or right go wide a lot, leaving the middle.

    I was looking forward to a nice, slightly more arcadey, pro-evo clone after the Leipzig interviews and such. Guess I need to look into the last-gen versions for that.

  • jonsaan #57 5 years ago

    Darren. I stand corrected. I haven't downloaded it yet. I was referring to other EA demo's I've tried.

  • Amazing Bryan #58 5 years ago

    I've been playing ISS and Pro Evo for years now and had given up on FIFA, but I'd say this is the best version I've played since Road to World Cup. The one thing I've never liked about PES is the shooting and this FIFA game seems to have got it down to a tee. I spent about 30 mins last night just having shots with Ronaldinho.

  • Amazing Bryan #59 5 years ago

    I just realised why I love the shooting so much. The reason, is that the shots are responsive to the analog controls, so if you are heavy handed with the direction, than your shots are always going to miss. You have to add slight direction to the shot, not like the old style, where left was left and right was right.

    It means it's more of an achievement to score a goal, just like in real football. If you could score everytime you got in front of goal it would get pretty boring. Still not as good as PES 5 though.

  • jonsaan #60 5 years ago

    Come on, if these games really were like real football they'd be goaless bore fests. :) or draws.

  • The-Bodybuilder #61 5 years ago

    @ Anthony-UK

    Is it? Don't be suprised if EA start charging us for patches.

  • The-Bodybuilder #62 5 years ago

    >"I spent about 30 mins last night just having shots with Ronaldinho."

    Would that be the actual match? Or the 1 on 1 bit prior to the match?

    Because I know it's the latter.

  • Amazing Bryan #63 5 years ago

    ^^^
    Yeah, that was the 1 on 1 bit at the beginning, but it's easier shooting from that view. I wouldn't play the actual game from that viewpoint, but it gives you a good idea about how it works.

    Seeing as PES6 isn't coming out on the Xbox, EA are going to get some good sales for this version, because even though it isn't as good as PES5, it's definetly fun to play and that's more than I can say for the previous 8 versions...

  • SomaticSense #64 5 years ago

    I just can't help but feel that some of the comments on here are undeservedly harsh.

    I'm a massive PES fan (bought every one released officially in the UK, including all the ISS games on PS1) and I've not liked FIFA since the '99 version. I also didn't like the World Cup 2006 game either despite the fact it got some critical and public acclaim from some other non-FIFA players, it was a step in the right direction, but still utter shit.

    But I've played the demo and have been massively impressed so far. Granted I've not played PES6 yet (obviously) or even the last Winning Eleven game, so I don't know if they are much better. But going by PES5 on the PS2, this feels like a much more realistic game of footy from the few games I've played so far. I is also a blatant copy of PES, and I like it for the

  • Sweetmate #65 5 years ago

    Some good stuff in this, the improvements in physics and animation make it feel alot more random and lifelike, less repetitive compared to world cup 2006. i like the finesse shots and chips, the warmup game with ronaldinho is a great display of this.

    But the omission of skill moves and most of the leagues is so fundamental it means there is absolutely no reason to buy this.

  • belziah #66 5 years ago

    Has anyone else noticed that we're the first to actually play a game at The New Wembly Stadium ;D

    About the skill moves, FIFA 96 had step overs etc yet 10 years and 2 generations later its suddenly its not possible. Very next-gen:b
    Edited by 2 at 11/10/06 @ 09:33

  • xs1ghtuk #67 5 years ago

    Can someone confirm that there will be no skills in the 360 version? I bought the console for the very purpose of PES6 and Fifa 07. Well Fifa was an added bonus tbh. I thought the demo at first was quite decent, refreshing to play tbh. But now i've explored it a bit more and played two player with my mate... now i find myself regretting the decision to sell my ps2 with pes5 :'(. The pace of the game for me is a joke, counter attacking on it is non-existant. I've always been a pes fan but i kept an open mind. Fifa World Cup 2006 was a better game than this. And just to have no skills at all? They're having a laugh surely, i will be so so dissapointed if this game has no skills at all on this version. Why advertise Wayne Rooney and especially Ronaldinho if you're not going to use their traits? I know pes every year feels slower, but once you get into it you realise how they have changed it for the better, and the pace comes back to it. But this only gets worse, i know it's a demo but this is a joke in my opinion. Note this is my opinion. I'm only hoping this is showing off gfx rather than gameplay.