Ladies and Gentlemen the true game of futbol is back and here to stay
with EA's Road to World Cup '98.

Let me start by saying RTWC '98 is leaps and bounds over ANY sports game
I have ever played.  The realism is unmatched. As soon as you put the 
game in you can feel the energy. All are greated to a beautiful EA intro
with music by none other than the internationally known group Blur. woo
hooo!!! Next up is the game.  You can choose to engage in a Friendly,
train your favorite team, customize your own team, or get right on the
Road to World Cup '98.

No matter which option you choose you will be able to pick your way
through over 170 teams and 4500 players, awesome. If you love futbol
than you can find top players like Ronaldo, Campos, Weah, and Lalas
waiting for you command.  Ever wondered who would win a match of Jamaica
and Norway find out here.

As you can tell I really enjoyed playing this game, but lets get down to
what makes a difference the ratings.

Gameplay- 9.5/10...FIFA '98 has tons of moves... bicycle kicks, side
volleys, sidesteps, 360' spin moves, and a tackle evading ball
flip...sweet. The control is pretty easy to get used to. The learning
curve is not too steep, but it will take a few tries before you score
that first goal.  I would have given this area a 10,but there are many
moves to perform that can not are not neede during a real game,
especially one that may eliminate you from the Cup.

Graphics- 9/10...The graphics are superb...The polygon players look
great and each player has his own distinguishing feature.  The movement
of the players is fabulous... players stop, turn, sprint, kick and slide
just like the real thing.  The stadiums are perfect 16 in all...plus
visits to Brazil, France, USA, South Africa, England and others. 10 secs
of free sightseeing. cool..

Sound/Music- 10/10...The sound in this game is PERFECT...When you go in
to the stadium you will hear chants in many different lanquages...horns
will go off...people will cheer a goal...and sigh a miss...A neat thing
is on training mode all you hear in the empty stadium is cars driving in
the background and birds chirping in the wind.
The commentary is the best out there.  While playing this game it sounds
as if Gray and Motson were really watching the game.  There commments
were 95% on time and 99% correct to the situation excellent for a title
of this magnitude.

Difficulty- 8/10...I won the World Cup with England my first try
through.  Mind you that England has an excellent side, the competition
wears down once they get behind...I will talk on this in a moment.
RTWC has (3) difficulty levels so that you learn the game and also
really challenge yourself in the end.

Before I get to my overall rating let me write a few things that may
disappoint you about the game.  First is the competition level.  I
played on professional setting and won the Cup.  Although the AI in this
game is great the CPU will choose to shot from anywhere on the pitch
when it is losing.  This makes for boring..."oh he didnt make the keeper
work for that one..." happen over and over again in the waning minutes
of the game.
 
Speaking of commentary...the 40,000 words that exist here can and will
be heard often enough once you really get in to your quest for the Cup
and especially during a season.

Another thing that I must comment on is the load times.  I am not one to
complain about load time, but the average is a good 30 secs to the main
menu and about 1 min to get to the game.  Hey channel surfers on your
mark!

Okay enough is enough:

Overall rating  10/10:  This is a must have for all 1 Billion of you
futbol fans out there.  EA has put together a first class futbol title
and this game definitely can hold the Cup in the air and kiss it a
hundred times. Bye now and Good luck to all in World Cup '98.


Richard K Rocha