Pro evolution FIFA

By Justin Towell
published

A new FIFA feature every year... but which ones stuck?

FIFA 2004
The twelfth man idea was taken a stage further, allowing the player to control two team members at once. Cue horrific thumb injuries. Probably. There was also a deep career mode, which let you manage an unknown youth team and take them all the way to stardom. EA even got Erich Rutemöller from FIFA's Technical Committee to advise them on the management aspects. Strangely, the PS2 version had online matches and Xbox didn't.

FIFA 2005
This iteration introduced "first touch" technology. Some people hated it, but we quite liked it. Flicking the right stick as you received the ball would knock the ball a few feet in that direction, allowing you to turn defenders to create a chance out of nothing. Shame the game was still nowhere near WE 's standards overall.

Above: Ah, the massive heads of FIFA 2004. Amazingly, this isn't a cheat mode screenshot

Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.