Review: Fifa Street 3

Repetative and no longevity. These two characteristics sum up the majority of ‘Street’ type games in what is slowly becoming a quagmire of a genre. So enter the latest football entrée into the bog of foreboding.

My first experience of the game pitted my team of 4* players against a similarly ugly looking bunch of 3* players. Pleasantries were not exchanged and the myriad of football balancing skills ensued. With enough skills performed under my belt, followed by a deflected shot, I had achieved my ‘gamebreaker’ – a special power, which on my next possession I activated, gave a goal on the first shot. I regained possession quickly after the goal kick and subsequently scored again – and again. Here we are, 3-0 up, and only 30 seconds played. What manner of madness is this?

OK, I’m a sore loser. Easy difficulty or lower is my best friend. The next hour of me vs. CPU games resulted in an entire clean sheet. Even a quick foray into the challenge mode yielded little resistive powers behind the three CPUs powering this Microsoft console. Team after team, challenge after challenge, all fall under my spell of apathy, despite all the players being of the same level.

I see many games like this recently – they insist on a five star rating system bt refuse to let anything have only one or two stars. Where are the crap players? Where is the team I can fob off to friends in local multiplayer?

Despite all of this, EA can yield some small home comforts – the menu system in this sports game incantation is clear and easy to navigate (unlike other EA regular outings), and the sounds in game are appropriate – not stellar, just appropriate.

Multiplayer on Xbox Live is very empty – little in the way of players online (just watch, EA will close this server too), and thus games with a friend are mostly what you’ll get. I was getting no lag with UK to US games. The five minute time limit on ranked games is also a downside, as it makes one Xbox 360 achievement a jolly waste of time.

As for the achievements themselves – a visit to an achievement website will quickly net you all but 2 ‘offline’ achievements and the online ones. But do not despair! The 2 offline ones to which I refer involve playing with certain teams you can unlock in challenge mode. Should one wish to not soil their boots by treading through challenge mode, find an online friend who has, have a game of Playground Picks, with them hosting the game and picking the relevant teams for the achievements. The online achievements require only a friend or gaming buddy, but each player will need 25 ranked wins * 5 minutes a game = 50 games total, or 250 minutes plus loading screens.

On the DLC front, 300MSPs gets a pack with teams to unlock and 3 new stadiums. Also, easy achievements.

Overall, a sub-par repetitive football game with no longevity. But easy achievements.

borandi