I gave Fifa 07 on the 360 a good run yesterday, including a lot of games online and I've decided it's f***ing hard. For all of you who aren't up with the gossip, it has a different physics engine to all the other versions which makes it play closer to a cross between Sensi Soccer and Pro Evo then previous versions, with a familiar (although slightly tweaked) control layout.
When you get the ball to one of the games faster players (e.g. Ronaldo), it's an absoloute joy you deftly skip around the defenders and deliver a cross (or in the case of what I did to somone online yesterday, run Rooney straight from kickoff to the edge of the box and fire it home - That's how to cancel out conceeding a goal!). The manager mode is also superb, but it's not really worth signing superstar players as once again it has the scout... I searched for a CB, signed one and now never play Vidic or Silvestre because the youngster I obtained is so good! Online, it's sharp and pretty much lag free (I played some dude from asia and had a small bit of lag, but it was still just about playable).
The downsides though; Tackling is friggin impossible. Literally, you will tun head on into an opponant and 'bounce' off them while they skip past you with the ball. This does work both ways (see: that Rooney goal I did), but if your desperately defending a 1 goal lead with 30 mins to go, you will get frustrated with it... Especially as the AI can also be hit and miss. Play on the harder difficulty settings and it'll really dance with you, but until you get to a skill level where you can hack playing it on difficult, you have to deal with your own team mates being as dumb as the opposition (there's some satire in there about football itself...)
Overall, it's good. And for only 35 quid, I have no excuse to complain.
And what some lad form Bristol was telling me as I was chatting to him during a match, it's 100 fold better then the 360's version of PES. So there you go.
