I thought Madden was EA's flagship title....

[DSGamer]

Quote: Originally Posted by statum71

By the way....you might wanna check it out. FIFA is pretty tight.

This. After giving up on NCAA this year I decided to try FIFA. I have no history with soccer. I played college football and never played a minute of soccer. But as a video game trying to represent it's sport FIFA is really good.

[sleepyeagle]

I'm actually kind of surprised to see all the people who don't play soccer but like FIFA, and here I thought I was one of the few lol.

I played FIFA before I ever even heard of Madden. A good friend of mine was a soccer player and introduced me to FIFA Soccer 96. I'll never forget it because even at the time I was blown away by how addictive it was.

I started playing Madden around 1999 when Ricky Williams got drafted into the NFL. Sadly, even though I'm a fan of the NFL, the gameplay of FIFA has always been a bit more rewarding than that of Madden.

If anyone hasn't tried it yet, play a couple games and get comfortable with it, you'll see why it sells so many copies.

[Johns Jets]

I'm British and as such was brought up in a world of soccer (football to me but we'll try to avoid confusion). I love soccer and have supported Liverpool since I was 5. You just have it ingrained into you if you are a male here.

I didn't discover American Football (football from here on) until I played Joe Montanas Sportstalk Football on my friends MegaDrive (Genesis) in 1992/3. He only had the game as it had come with the system and he never played it but I always wanted to due to the novelty of the commentary at the time. We had no idea what was going on but slowly grasped the basics. I didn't learn much more until the last few years and the internet age where it's much easier to find stuff out.

From there I've picked up more and more and have held many an in depth conversation about the game with Americans on various trips to New York, most of whom have been quite impressed by my knowledge or just surprised I know anything maybe.

The points that have been made about the games problems for newcomers are certainly true. I've tried to get my friends into it but other than a couple who already liked it they just can't get into it. There is the added problem of the fact that the only free to air game here is the Sunday night one which starts at 1am our time.

For me, American Football is my favourite sport now and I much prefer watching a game of it to a game of soccer. soccer has way too much emphasis on ego and money which of course the NFL does too, but high profile soccer players are just such dicks it makes it hard support any of them. It might be the same with the NFL but I don't hear about it every day.

Finally, I think the other problem for newcomers with football is that so much of it is about tension and pressure and unseen things that it takes time to understand. Only about 10% of the game is out there to see in a play. the rest is before the snap or even before the game and if you don't know the game you don't know that. It's a vicious circle really.

[Johns Jets]

Also, being in the somewhat unique position of being a Brit who was brought up with soccer and now prefers American Football, I can agree with the sentiment that soccer is boring. I often struggle to sit through a whole game without wandering off to go on the internet or something.

You sometimes get one sided NFL games which I lose interest in but on the whole I'll usually sit through the entire thing.

Having said that, a good soccer match is just as good as anything else in sports. If anyone is thinking of giving soccer another go I' recommend watching Champions League games, especially if they feature Barcelona. This is the pinnacle of the sport and is the only soccer competition that holds my interest now. International football is awful as none of the players really care about it anymore.