2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil review: Qualifier | fifaservice

The FIFA World Cup is one of the grandest, most cherished sporting events in the world. The quadrennial competition pits teams of the best soccer players on the planet against one another, each representing dozens of nations (hundreds in the qualifying stages). To do the competition justice, a video game would need to elicit how special the World Cup is, especially to nations that hold the sport closer to their hearts (I'm looking at you, everyone but the United States). Purely by virtue of existing as a stand-alone product, you'd think 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil would drive home the event's importance as its own entity outside of soccer. However, EA Sports seemingly spent more time trying to convince us that 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil is worthy of being its own $60 retail game than delivering enough to separate it from the main series in a truly meaningful way. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil's striking visual style immediately denotes how it differs from FIFA 14. It carries the same menu and layout format as last year's primary FIFA game, but its clean lines and white backdrops are replaced with colorful paint splatters and strokes to give every element of the game an uneven, worldly feel. That vibe carries through the game's pinpoint commentary as well as the frequent cuts to your team's manager and fans during games. Likewise, though EA Sports opted for Xbox 360 and PS3 instead of their next-gen counterparts, the stadiums hosting the World Cup this year are shown in fantastic detail. From a purely visual standpoint, the game celebrates the World Cup in a magnificent manner. gameusd.net If only World Cup Brazil's merits rested on its graphics. On the field, it's nearly identical to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of FIFA 14, save for a few differences. While the last-gen versions of FIFA 14 felt somewhat slow, and passes seemed a bit vulnerable (read our review here), World Cup Brazil seems faster by comparison. In a way, the juiced-up athletes feel a touch smarter and more capable overall than in FIFA 14, and they probably should, given that World Cup Brazil comprises international squads only. Still, it's a small change that, even in addition to tweaked penalty kicks and new over-the-back header animation, doesn't feel substantially different than FIFA 14. This isn't to say that World Cup Brazil is unsatisfactory – just like FIFA 14, it doesn't have many honest flaws in the actual flow of the game. fifaservice.net