Game Overview
The first blow in this years battle has to go to Fifa, for the reason that it has been released earlier, we think that if you have competition such as Pro Evo then it's key to get your game released before your rival, much the same with Football Manager (Oh, how we love it) and Championship Manager.

Fifa this year sees the addition of more clubs including the Coca Cola Championship (Come on Palace!), League 1 and League 2, it has more tournaments, leagues, teams and players than ever before. These are all huge arguments that Fifa fans use when defending Fifa against a PES fan.

What we are about to say may offend some Fifa fans, you may not be happy about us saying it but everyone is entitled to their opinion, we try and give games to you straight and to the point, so here goes. EA have made Fifa 2006 play a little bit more like Pro Evolution, there, we said it! It does handle a lot more like a PES game, however for us it is not quite up to scratch with the handling of it's main rival. Ball control is pretty good but it is almost impossible to run at players and take defenders on.

The graphics this year with Fifa 2006 seem to have taken a slight step back, we think that EA may have exhausted the power of the PS2 and are now trying things that just don't work or look right, for instance, a close up of a player in a replay will reveal a nasty bald spot on the back of their head. Now we have come to the conclusion that this may be some kind of light effect they have implemented into the game that has gone slightly wrong and just looks pants, see for yourself and make your own mind up about this.

Whilst we are on the subject of hair, when you are playing the game it appears that they only have 3 different hair colours, bald, dark or blonde. We could be wrong, but this definitely seems the case. The infamous Dougie Freedman (he’s a palace player) seems to be either bald or blonde (we can't really work it out) but as most football fans will know, he actually has dark hair. This could be the Fifa "not put so much effort into smaller teams" syndrome, but it is definitely a problem we have come across on more than one occasion. Unfortunately we have found another problem with Palace as well, ok, so there aren't many people in the world who care for Palace, and you are probably thinking, "Yeah, and one of them’s me" but we have to get this off of our chest. Take a look at the new Crystal Palace home shirt, in particular the back of it; notice that it is plain blue? Well boot up Fifa 2006 and take a look at the back of it on there! See the continuation of Red and Blue stripes? Enough said!

Fifa 2006 just doesn't seem to be as flowing as past editions, there is something that just doesn't seem right when you are playing the game, maybe it's when you score a goal the player pauses for a second or two before running off and celebrating, nothing too major, we agree, but when we get to the level of gaming we are at at the moment, this just shouldn't happen, or maybe it's the shooting doesn't seem very powerful, to be honest we aren't sure!

The whole EA 2006 range is including the classic EA range, Fifa 2006 includes Fifa 94 which if we recall made it's first appearance on the Sega Megadrive, Now that was a class game! You now have 2 games in 1 and we can guarantee you will spend ages playing the original 94 release to bring back all those memories! Complete with the floating goalkeeper, the over extended leg when taking a shot and the original EA Sports, Its in the Game! Classic!

One thing we will add is that the soundtrack to Fifa 2006 is brilliant, much like previous Fifa titles and most EA Sports games, also listening to the commentary of classic goals whilst you are setting the game up is a real touch! Nice one EA!

Our Conclusions
It's a football game, it's bound to be at least half decent because of that fact, and for overall gaming experience it's not all that bad but we can't help but think that maybe this year is PES's year. There are still going to be Fifa fans all over the world defending Fifa 2006 and in some cases they do have a very good argument but until we have played PES5 we just won't know!

Overall Score: 7/10

Thanks to EA and Emma at Media Maze.