My personal opinion is that this year's
FIFA has taken a turn for the worse. It's not so much in the options given to you for gameplay, but the actual gameplay itself. Now, I've never claimed to be some great video game soccer player, but the unresponsive controls and overall
feel of
FIFA Soccer 2003 just isn't good. To put it into perspective, consider this. If I were to rate this game solely on the feel of the controls, it wouldn't fair very well, with a 2 or 3 out of 10.
Fortunately, FIFA 2003 and the game of fútbol does appeal to a vast variety of people in this world. For those fans, FIFA has always been a great series. It would be nice to see a bit more depth to the game, but what you get are the standard modes of play. You can start a Season, Tournament, of Championship, as well as play a straight exhibition game.
But no matter what mode you are playing, the game does have one major downfall... its loading times. Not only do you have to wait for what seems like an eternity between screens, but the PS2 also needs to take extra loading time for simple things like a player substitution. This is the first and only time I've ever come across this in any sports game, and I think it's completely ridiculous. When you combine that with the delayed controls, FIFA Soccer 2003 just isn't a game that I can honestly recommend. It's extremely frustrating to never get that feeling of control that has been present in past games within this long-running (and usually great) soccer franchise.