As such, an aggressive tackle is recommended over a conservative approach only in the most dire circumstances. Now, you had best measure your chances of contacting the ball first, or you'll risk drawing a yellow or red card. No longer do slide tackles carry a player 20 or 30 feet across the field, razing opponents without fear of punishment. The art of tackling has undergone a particularly satisfying revision. Passes must be delivered with an emphasis on trajectory rather than raw speed, and shots on the goal should be measured and carefully targeted if you don't want to miss the net completely. Rapid and repetitive button presses only hinder subsequent maneuvers, and manually controlled speed bursts do not generate the temporary supermen seen in prior editions. Players behave even more like human beings than they have in the past-taking a few moments to gather in passes, accelerating slowly, gaining momentum in their first few steps, and ultimately losing steam toward the end. In FIFA 2002, the gameplay is noticeably slower and more deliberate. Fortunately, things got back on track with last year's FIFA 2001, a game that showcased a renewed commitment to authenticity and now can be viewed as an obvious stepping-stone to this year's model. In doing so, it seemed to herald a trend toward even more arcadelike gameplay in the future.
If the series had a low point, it was in the highly stylized FIFA 2000, which focused on graphical prowess and high-speed button pushing over believable gameplay.
Since its debut in the mid-1990s, the FIFA series has continually ranked as one of the strongest PC sports games on the market. The gameplay of FIFA 2002 has a remarkably true-to-life pacing. That it also offers improved passing and player movement and a generally more credible feel are just two more reasons fans of real-life soccer will find this the most enjoyable soccer experience on the PC to date. Penalizing adrenaline-fueled thumb jockeys and rewarding those who initiate actions only after quick consideration, FIFA Soccer is quite simply a more grown-up affair than its predecessors. The foremost proponent of willy-nilly button-beating, EA Sports, has used the latest edition of its vaunted FIFA Soccer series as a springboard to a more thoughtful and more challenging control method that genuinely alters the way the game is played. Those who hammer the buttons on their gamepads as though they were synthetic rodents in a whack-a-mole game had best prepare for their day of reckoning.