FIFA Street 3 impressions and details

After spending some time with FIFA Street 3 I went through to take down as many details of the game as possible and post my overall impressions. I’ve tried to include everything from game modes and types to online play and ratings categories. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments and I’ll try to dig up answers to them over the next few days. I haven’t had the opportunity to play online yet but I’m hoping to soon and will be posting quick thoughts on the performance and fun factor once I have. I’ve recorded a few full games and will be posting them up in the near future as well.

The demo seems to be an ideal representation of the final game. Sometimes that isn’t the case but here I haven’t noticed any differences in the gameplay. If you enjoyed the demo you’ll likely enjoy the game. If you didn’t you’re probably not going to find much that would change your opinion on it.

Because of that my initial impressions from the demo basically transfer over. Visually I really like the graphics and art style that was used and there are some very impressive and smooth animations. It’s easy to see how they benefited by using the engine from NBA Street: Homecourt. The right stick moves are fun and they’re quick and responsive although I’ve found that I’m just hitting the stick in whatever direction and not really knowing what the player will do. Overall the actual player control feels a little heavy and I get annoyed by the split second you lose control of your player after contact.

I guess I was looking for the game to have a slightly faster pace but the players feel a little slow. In a way it seems more grounded in reality than you might expect for an “arcade” game. You get the over-the-top animations and higher scoring but it seems that it can be played in a sim type manner with success. I recognize the effort and technical achievements made but it probably just isn’t the game for me. Again though the demo should provide a sufficient gauge for whether you’ll enjoy the game or not.

I thought FIFA Street 3 had completely bypassed criticism of thin manuals by not including one at all. I can’t think of another game that had done this so it seemed pretty odd to open up the case and have nothing there. It seems though that I was just unlucky and there is actually a manual that should be included. At least the game does a good job of teaching you the controls anyway. There is the in-game help that pops up and tells you about them and you can go into the controls section and read up on them there. As far as I can tell they aren’t customizable and the player switching when on defense being LB just doesn’t feel natural to me.

Game modes
Play Now, FIFA Street Challenge, Head to Head (choose from the six different game types), Playground Picks (both sides choose five players from the same team), Practice Mode, Xbox Live.

Balls
Classic, Silver, Diadora Gamma, Puma v106, Adidas F50 FF, Adidas F50 Xite, Adidas Adipure, Adidas TGII Sala TB, Adidas TGII Areia, Nike Total 90 Aerow, Leather, Winter

Game types
Time Based (highest score when time expires), Score Based (first team to score a certain number of goals), Score Difference (win once ahead by a certain margin), Headers and Volleys (scores only count off headers and volleys), Gamebreaker Goals (scores only count when in a game breaker), and Five-A-Side (straight play with no game breakers).

Game settings
Difficulty (easy, medium, hard, cheeky), Auto replays (on/off), Help info (on/off), Camera (action or sideline)

Online play
Ranked games are time based five minutes with overtime being decided by the first goal scored and no guests allowed.

Options open up for unranked games. Game modes available are time based, score based, score difference, headers and volleys, game breaker goals, and five-a-side. Tie-breakers can be settled by next goal or win by two. Co-op on the same console is available as well.

In addition to just quick play games there is Playground Picks where you and your opponent alternate choosing players from a single team until each has their five. Also there is the World Challenge where you can represent a nation in hopes of moving that team up the leaderboards.

Locations
Beach, Mediterranean, Oil Rig, Riverside, Rooftop, Samba, Shipyard

Teams
A full list of the 18 national teams and 2 street teams with their ratings out of five stars can be found here.

Individual player rating categories
Strength, Passing, Defending, Skill, Pace, Shooting, Goalkeeping