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But there is one game I still play today. A game that, though by no means universally popular among gamers, is vouched for by all football fans. And that game is FIFA.
FIFA's greatness lies in its simplicity. The gameplay is very straightforward, and the goal of each new edition seems simply to be to replicate a real football match as closely as possible. Which, for non-gamers and passionate footballers like me, is all we want from our gaming experience. Pretending to be in control of teams like Barcelona, Brazil, and, of course, Tottenham Hotspur is a great buzz for every football fan, and the game contains many features that fans can immerse themselves in. I shudder to think how much of my friends' lives I have wasted as they wait for me to complete my needlessly elaborate pre-match tactics and formation set up. All of which was invariably to no avail, as I would succumb to yet another defeat.
FIFA is a great social game, especially among friends with a shared interest in football, who if it's raining or are feeling to lazy can still have a virtual kick-a-bout on the console. FIFA offers the opportunity for those not much good at football but with a passion for the game to be able to do things with the ball that they never could in real life, and beat their mates that run rings around them when playing in the park. Not me though. If anything, I'm even worse at FIFA than I am at football.
But not to worry, FIFA has itself a handicap system to ensure for competitive games despite wildly varying ability levels; through my playing as Barcelona and friend playing as Accrington Stanley, suddenly the playing field is levelled. But even then I'd struggle, spending all my energy in passing the ball unendingly around my team-mates and making pretty patterns in a vain attempt to replicate the real Barcelona, only for an Accrington player to tackle me, run past half my team and slot the ball past my long-suffering goalkeeper, despite his stats being twice as slow and unskilful as all my players.
Though in spite of my hopelessness, I've still always loved FIFA. Loved to such an extent that in FIFA 09 I even painfully crafted out my own football team made up of players that, through the 'create a player' feature, was made up of avatars of my 6th-form mates. I spent several hours, maybe even days, subtly adjusting all the players' stats to accurately reflect their corresponding friend's ability, and appearances to look as much like their real life version as possible, frustratedly trying to visualise accurately what all of my friends' ears looked like.
The team was called St Peters B team, named as such to mimic our own football team, who weren't good enough to get into St Peters School A team but enthusiastic enough for our PE teacher to organise the occasional game against other school's 'B' teams. Though only mildly appreciated by my somewhat bemused friends, I relished the opportunity to put St Peters B up against the best teams in the world. For someone who has never really got games, nothing comes close to this level of obsession, confirming that FIFA is indeed my ultimate gaming experience.
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