CHEAPER THAN CABLE
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is your regular videogame tie-in to one of the biggest shows of sportmanship that comes by every four years and a spin off from the regular FIFA series from EA. However, being only available on pastgen consoles, it is stuck to the older Impact Engine. If you’ve played FIFA 14 on a PlayStation 4 (or Xbox One for the lucky few of you), you’ll notice a step back in terms of cosmetics and AI.
Gameplay-wise, you’ll be helping fuel the (pipe) dreams of your favorite country with over 200 nations available in the roster. Take “Road to the FIFA World Cup” for a spin and force your national colors into the qualification rounds of the World Cup and onto the finals. Controls are something you can pick up and go with eventually and after a few bits of faltering, you’ll be knee-deep in the World Cup spirit.
As a tie-in, you’ll get exclusive content such as being able to play to faithful recreations of the 12 stadiums of World Cup Brazil, along with all the fans, both in and out of the stadium watching from big screens, and the managers of the qualifying teams, who the game will cut to for added effect in case you want to look at your adoring fans and the angry managers in defeat.
There are other modes such as “Captain Your Country”, where you start off as a runt in the league, be it a player-customized nobody or an existing soccer player, and try to rise the ranks of the team and make captain, eventually sweeping up the glory for team and country in the World Cup finals.
Online multiplayer takes on the form of “Online World Cup”, where you prove your skills against real players and “Road to Rio De Janerio”, where you beat opposing teams to advance through all 12 stadiums in Brazil.
As someone with very little experience playing football (I would rather sit in the sidelines and manage a virtual team like any good real-time strategist), I can still safely say that FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 is accessible and engaging enough for anyone who wants to experience the spectacle that is the World Cup. Be warned though, between the splashes of gold and green, you’re also subjected to and incessant looping of Pitfull’s “We Are One”.