With four years until the next World Cup, FIFA '99 focuses on the fierceness and excitement of club soccer, offering such prominent teams as Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, and more than 237 others.The only bummer is that EA didn't land the MLS license, but most hardcore American soccer fens devote themselves to European soccer anyway. A.Land controls push this game to the pinnacle of its sport Tough Tackling If you dismiss FIFA '99 as jusc another boring soccer game, you'll miss out on one of the best sports games of the year. Because the tackles come flying in so quickly, you're often forced to pass the ball almost immediately or almost certainly lose it. When you have possession, you really should be able to shield the ball from the opposition before playing the next pass or taking a shot.

It's also still way too easy to win the ball from an opponent and make successful tackles.

So what's wrong with it? Well, the keepers tend to parry the ball into their own net a bit too often, and the AI is still questionable at times, though this is an area that, arguably, no developer has been able to perfect. You can even edit and transfer players and play almost instantly with just two clicks of the mouse, thanks to a handy new 'Quick Start' option. The presentation is up to the usual high standard and the commentary, sound effects and music are in a different league (ahem) from the competition. There's a whole host of tournaments, leagues and custom competitions to take part in, as well as EA Sports' own European Super League. New 'binding logic' means you can run up to and retrieve the ball from the touch line without it flying into orbit and, perhaps most significantly, you can now chest the ball down to other players and turn a lot quicker, which speeds the game up no end. The AI is still a little suspect at times, but the CPU-controlled players now get into better positions and there's a panic button you can press that causes your keeper to come screaming off his line and retrieve the ball. As well as a whole host of new moves, there are now interruptible animations, so you no longer have to wait for your players to complete their animation cycles before attempting a new action. Okay, it may not look that different, but it's certainly a lot smoother, with a 20-odd per cent increase in the frame rate. FIFA 99 is a lot less frustrating and a damn sight more enjoyable than previous FIFA games. All the above niggles have been addressed to varying degrees and. Yep, FIFA 99 is even better than World Cup 98, and that really is saying something. The result is a faster, smoother and even more playable game than before. They've looked long and hard at their best-selling World Cup game and listened to the feedback and criticisms that were levelled at WC98. It may be only a few months since World Cup 98 was released, but the developers have been beavering away on FIFA 99 since the end of last year. Why the hell did the ball fly off the pitch when you tried to retrieve it from close to the sideline?

The AI - the weak point of so many football games - was still often questionable, especially where the goalkeepers were concerned. The hundreds of motion-captured moves meant the players' actions might have been more realistic, but uninterruptible animations meant you didn't always feel in total control.

Despite the introduction of a variable speed feature, it still wasn't as smooth as Gremlin's Actua Soccer.

Fifa 99 game play