2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil works brilliantly to stoke excitement before the big kick-off. But in terms of pure in-game action and for the brief amount of time you'll want to play it, it doesn't really justify its RRP.
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will only ship on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this year while EA Sports continues to develop its Ignite engine for next-gen consoles. Line producer Matt Prior specifically cited Brazil’s video game tax laws and the prohibitive cost of gaming technology in the World Cup’s backyard, but more importantly this simulation’s love of the game overcomes nagging graphical issues you might have. As much as I’d love to put everyone complaining about frame-rates and resolution into a losers bracket, the virtual crowds look like they’ve all been hit with Brazil’s ugliest and sweatiest g-string right after the snap.
These episodic challenges give you a great opportunity to get to know other countries' squads, and become incredibly challenging at higher difficulty levels. Whether or not all of this compensates for such a brief experience – less than three months and it'll be past its sell-by date – and a match engine that is a little too focused on dribbling and player skills for our liking, depends largely on what you make of the price tag.
I had a chance to play and test multiplayer via our developer build of the PS3 version last week and the game’s net code worked fantastically ahead of launch. I don’t expect millions to hop online and break the connected experience at launch either, especially as the World Cup tournament doesn’t start for weeks. Only the diehard will be waiting to start the path to a Champions Badge as soon as possible, and I suspect more players will enjoy settling post-match arguments on the virtual pitch thanks to EA’s new two-button beginner controls.
