The History of FIFA (Documentary/Retrospective)

[Marlon Anthony]

Hi Evo-Webbers. Just as I did with my History of PES documentary I made 2 years ago, I decided to explore the deep history of the most successful football game on the planet. Much like The History of PES, I felt dissatisfied with the lack of a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of this franchise accross YouTube, so I decided to cover it myself. This was a lot of fun to create, A lot of research went into this as well as a lot of emotion retracing my steps through football gaming's memory lane. As always with these games, many of them are more than just great football titles, they're time capsules for a simpler time, timeless memories in our bedrooms with our friends and a portal to our youth which we still strive to recapture in our hopes the series will once again return to critical glory it once held. I hope it triggers a seductive wave of nostalgia for yourselves too.

A retrospective/mini documentary on the history and evolution of The FIFA Soccer gaming franchise. From its humble beginnings, it's rivalry with the critically acclaimed PES to it's technologically revival and gigantic boom in popularity that catapulted the franchise into ultra-stardom and transformed the series into the commercial success we know today. This, Is the history of FIFA.

 

[Randomsh1t1471]

Stunning detail really makes you think how the series has ebbed and flowed

Again What a great video but a few facts you got wrong as

Wc 2006 had every nation that entered qualifying before 2010 GAME.

Also you talked in 1998 wc game and Fifa 98 as one game when it was two seperate games. Fifa 98 RTWC was the mainline game you could do qualifying and the wc but didnt have the branding or the full "tournament feel" etc. but they also Released a Standalone Wc98 with Tub thumping of course this had all or most of the stadiums and of course did have the Tournament feel

Fifa 11 was not the first game with Career mode that was Fifa 04 with the 15 season version was fifa 05. It was then Renamed Manager mode before being Renamed with a lot of stuff gutted out to Career mode once again... Its the one of many cases of Ea ripping out a mode before putting an inferior version back and slowly adding things back. Even now in fifa 23 they were adding things we had in fifa 07... that was then removed when it became Career mode in fifa 11... It was not a Revolution to the mode as you said it was a backwards step...

Other than that it was all spot in my book


Some of my thoughts/ opinions on the series as i was watching the video

2002 wc game i would say is a better game than the Euro2012 because at least it was fully licensed unlike the euro 2012 dlc

what i want to know was why was the Merlin ball only in fifa 03 and not 04 where the classic generic ball was born. There was barely any real world balls in 04 and 05

Also interesting is there was a lot of detail removed from 04 to 05 to 06 but they also had referees and linesman were removed too I believe this helped the game run smoother overall as the especially from 05 -06 the game ran a whole lot smoother...

05 did the corner system better compared to 04 with camera being pulled back to show the whole box made a little easier all though it was still a poor corner system overall

Fifa 06 was the best ps2 fifa by far though in my book the feel and the atmosphere of the game being more geared towards night time games a refreshing thing after having to unlock night time games in fifa 05 (why they did that ill never know) having night time games felt like a big feature as i never unlocked many of the night time unlocks other than Highbury... ( 07 and 08 are probably the definitive though) Not only that the Goal keepers were vastly improved as was the replays of saves with lovely slow mo replays replacing the next the post standard replay that fifa 05 had for replays of saves (if you know you know)

Also Fifa 06 brought in loads of licensed balls again after only a very few in the previous games like the mitre ball for the football league and about 3 or 4 others nothing amazing from last two games... BUT why did they choose to have the winter ball for the Premier league?? It was the first game for all the top leagues to have the proper ball of some sort in the series...

Fifa street 2 will always be the greatest Street football game.... fun and enjoyable improves everything on Fifa street 1. Sadly volta is terrible and is more "realistic" (despite what you say in the video) like the Fifa street 2012 reboot which was so hyped but was so meh and gained little interest once the hype died after 2 weeks... Big fifa youtubers at the time all said the same... Minus the stylizing Fifa street 3 (although i liked it) is a fantastic game in and is far better than what has come next

RTWC 06 was a tech demo of a game but you look at it is just the gameplay from the Ps2 version again with far better graphics Same for the World Cup 2006 game not complaining it was great to see a "HD PS2 Fifa" This was not different to what konami did when they brought out Pes 6 on 360 of which was a shiny port of the ps 2 game with less features also RTWC 06 looks better but PES did it right by trying to get as close to main version as possible in terms of modes etc... BUT RTWC and 2006 world cup game were out before Konami stepped foot on that generation so Really you have to compare Pes 6 to Fifa 07 (As we all really should) PES 6 was a "HD" ps2 port with less features . Fifa 07 was the first True next gen fifa with a new engine but the game itself was rather bare bones (like the Pes 6 one) with mutliple leagues missing that was on the PS2 Version like in fact the ps2 version had 27 leagues (Roughly) and the 360 vesion cut them all to 7... SO Pes 6 on 360 was more feature heavy (probably the one and only time that happened haha...) Sadly though becasue Fifa got there first Pes was always playing catch up and always one or two games behind in terms of features if fifa brought a mode out pes would do the same mode the next game (be a pro and become a legend as an example) but also game mechanics also

Of course as you said this was first True Next gen game was Fifa 07 and the beginnings of The golden fifa ps3/360 era was born BUT really again it was another tech demo (infact you can see its more of a Tech demo than the RTWC game as that was to make sure they beat PES on the Console/ fill the gap. The first Full Fifa experience did not come to Fifa 08 when no features were cut all the leagues were there in my opinion. I must say though the Gk's looked terrible though and a massive step down from PS2 Version... I must say i only played the fifa 07 on Ps2 arguable the definitive version of ps2 fifa (that or 08 of which was the version used right up to fifa 14 on ps2 i.e new kits thats it)

Uefa champions League 04 05 with those two with the horrible bars at the top and bottom of the screen... why the hell did they do that...

The 06 07 was fantastic on the ps2 though... and had a better exclusive mode (the Treble Mode) than the 360 version with all the advertising of there rivals ps3 despite never appearing on that console haha... They did have Ultimate team but the Treble mode was more deep OF COURSEWith the birth of the Ultamate team was the Gaming Industries equivalent of the Nuclear bomb The world most likely would be a far better place with out it once one had one every one wanted one you can see the similarities haha ... If only they never had the concept and fleshed it out properly in Fifa 09 we may still have a proper PES and a Decent Fifa.... (Ill stand by this to the day i die)

I couldnt stomach buying/ asking for Euro 2008 with england not being there... It would be interesting to see how well it did sell here in England.... I remember the advertising campaign about to this day but looking back it does look a good game and is right up there with wc 2010 and 14 its a shame they gave up giving a proper shit about the tournament games now just a tag on tournament mode with one or two stadiums a very much PES thing to do (As they did with there two Euro patches). That being said it will be intersting what Uefa does next as PES is no more and I highly doubt they we will want to be Aligned with Efootball. but thats a conversation for another day... whoever does do it will be the bare minimum as every tournament from both EA and Konami have done since 2014... Even if its a World Cup 2002 style but with all the stadium and atmosphere than its better than world cup 22 mode of which was new scorecard and a trophy lift and one or two stadiums... (they didnt even have a wc ultiamte team this time and thats saying something)

The step up from Fifa 09/10 to fifa 11 graphically was astounding Player face wise... I remember it to this day how amazed i was...

OF the ps3 era games it has to be Fifa 12 was the my most favourite game and most enjoyable over powered finesse shots and all..


I can see why they did it but because they did do it like that Euro 2012 is sadly lost forever due to there decision to charge for the dlc unlike what konami later did and just patch the game rather than dlc has caused that... sadly it was very meh and was the worst attempt at a tournament game/add on at as a lot of clubs was un licensed Gavin Belth anyone and no way of changing them of which thankfully you could withe konamis euro 2016 dlc

The original era of UT was great from 09-13/14 was great then Ea got greedier and Greedier Price ranges killed the game a bit each year...

Again as i have said earlier Fifa street 2012 was very dull and lost all the charm it was a reskin of fifa like volta... BUT this game is far better than volta sadly though When you found out the game was easier to play with out doing the skills it lost all fun.. It was just 5 a side fifa Volta is even worse at this as they have no special system to do trick like FIfa street 2012... i.e holding a button to lock the player in place to then flick the ball around the feet to then do a skill
This is absent in Volta is so you can100% say its Fifa normal match minus 6 players and the games and matches are very much Fifa with wild colours. Why they added Fouls and Futsal ill never know In regards of Fifa street 2012. THis game ultiamly killed the series NOT fifa street 3...



Of the ps3/360 games the definitive/pinnacle has to be Fifa 13 although 14 was just as decent... The ignite engine was not a massive step away from the ps3 version... it added atmosphere but it wasnt a massive departure to me ignite engine was refined version with added tech and therefore playing the ps3 version didnt feel such a downgrade so was rather easy to leave the next gen game until fifa 15... from what made the game so great (Unlike a certain frostbite engine

Skill games before matches are horribly boring and has nothing on the one on one arena...

Wc 2014 was only on the older consoles no doubt because it was far easier to do as the next gen was a new engine unlike in 06 when it was just a polish version of the ps2 game graphics wise. I reckon also it had a marker with the Wc 2010 and could copy the modes etc over far easier Well thats my theory...

Shame though it wasnt on next gen i was looking forward to get it on next gen after skipping the nex t gen fifa 14 Alas fifa 15 was worth the wait....

I would say fifa 15/16 was the last fifa that genuine love was put into the game... Maybe 17 too but no more. its all about how they can make the most money....

Fifa 15 new gk system changed a lot but made them bloody awful... in a whole lot more ways than they fixed. Fifa 16 was were the gk system got back on track. Im suprise you didnt mention the change body types in there game they all looked like they lifted weights they were all huge and looked more in place if they were in a WWE game

We can all say Fifa 16 was the last great fifa with a Engine built for sports games NOT a FPS game...
And yes it is this a very polarizing game in the series too I remember Fifa Youtubers moaning saying the game was stale (maybe it was there content that was stale...)
Similar to PES 5 normal people love it but the kids didn't hence we get the crap version now....

It was great to see when Women were added but they were largely forgotten and was clearly a marketing gimmick...
Eafc24 will be the first time anyone will give a shit about the womens part of the team no doubt thanks to the addition to Ultimate team... when it first come to the game it was clearly a tag on thing to tick a box.... at least they are finally growing that side of the game with more womens league etc...

Fifa has had shit penalty system since 17 despite changing again since there was nothing wrong with the old system. The free kicks are the same again there was nothing wrong revision for revision sake i think

The Journey overall was a poor minus the cutscenes it was just a skill game simulator it was rather boring the best way to experience is to watch a cutscene movie on youtube.. Im glad they dont waste there time on it now no one asked for it and took away from over core offline modes...

You can tell your not over on the Frostbite games as the enthusiasm when talk about them goes down a far bit haha Exactly the same for me too (maybe it was just me)

Wc 2018 and wc 2022 were terrible poor free or not... IM glad Ea have lost them rights for next time as i hope someone will do them justice again...

The cutscenes in career mode are annoying and just slows the game right down gone are the days of quick game of career mode it killed any intererest unlike the Master league ones of which dont slow the game down. I ve lost interest year on year in career mode thanks to EA adding more and more things to slow the progress down i.e having to scout a player before knowing there stats if i wanted that id play Football manager

The only thing i disagree with you in the Entire video is you saying VOLTA was closer to the original that... what a load crap there are nothing like the originals haha (one thing in over 2 hours of content is not bad haha)

Legends (added to fifa 14 on xbox only) was far better than Icons... although the amount of icons are greater the legends felt special to get but thats just nostalgia talking

Seeing the different kick off types makes me miss Lounge mode it shits on King of the hill and the rest

This years final was in Istanbul so it did get its final in the end...

Between the ps4 frostbite games and ps5 version are negligible when comparing to the gameplay no matter how they market the "hypermotion" bullshit... Detail wise its great when up close as you said... but gameplay is not moved along barely since fifa 17 you could play them side by side and even see regression now doubt haha.

Fifa 21 added career mode stuff we had in fifa 05 so it wasnt a great step forward... in fifa 05 we could drop into games mid simulation and then removed in 06 so when they brought it back it was 15/16 years after we already had the feature nothing they add is ever Revolutionary as you said haha Nothing ever changes with career mode its just old features coming back.

Fifa 22 added create a club this was available in fifa 07 and was far better AND you could edit players too. Again Another "new feature" that was done far better before...

Fifa 23 i barely touched and i dont plan to buy EAFC 24 as the slogan should be Same game new name...

I used to like to dabble in the early game UT Before all the bullshit cards come about but they ruined the chemistry system of which didnt need fixing (this is the modern way)

To conclude With Fifa being renamed and Pes being dead for years and EFOOTBALL being a shell of a game (Will not touch it until a master league appears) I feel like I officially am hanging up more Football video game boots until UFL comes about prehaps... Sadly though that is another Ut clone no doubt...

Thanks for the video Marlon it was fantastic... Really makes you think how great it was and how poor the series has become... Next up this is football retrospective

 

[*aLe]

Thanks man! I just finished watching it. What a massive work!

I was about to point out too that RTWC 98 and World Cup 98 are two different games (but @Randomsh1t1471 already did it among the other things).
Other than that, like it happened with your history of PES, I must admit I knew many of the facts yet I managed to learn something new.

THanks for the huge effort man, much appreciated!

History of "other" football games (This is Football and/or Club Football and/or all the others that popped up and disappeared after one or two iterations) up next? It would be great to see it narrated by you.

 

[Randomsh1t1471]

Thanks man! I just finished watching it. What a massive work!

I was about to point out too that RTWC 98 and World Cup 98 are two different games (but @Randomsh1t1471 already did it among the other things).
Other than that, like it happened with your history of PES, I must admit I knew many of the facts yet I managed to learn something new.

THanks for the huge effort man, much appreciated!

History of "other" football games (This is Football and/or Club Football and/or all the others that popped up and disappeared after one or two iterations) up next? It would be great to see it narrated by you.

at least someone read my comment