FIfa FAnatic!!!

The rich and the power are obsessed with priceless artifacts, vintage cars, vineyards and various others. Everyone are obsessed about something or the other in their whole life; girls obsessed about jewels, guys obsessed about computers, bikes, video games. Likewise I was smitten by the video game bug and am crazy about one game which is FIFA.

It was during the summer of 1998 I was bitten by the football bug. In the following summer arrived a new computer of the best configuration then (Pentium I Processor), having the craze on video games I asked my father to get me a game, he duly obliged to the request and got me the first edition of cricket by EA Sports: Cricket 97. Having mastered the game in few months time, the boredom returned , therefore bought FIFA 98. From then onwards there has been no turning back, I have 90% of all the FIFA editions so far.

FIFA 98 is a game which is closer to my heart, anytime even today I would not mind playing that beautiful game. When compared to today's games, FIFA 98 is no where near the graphics and game play, but for the games of that time it was one hell of a game. Since I had less knowledge about the clubs playing those days I stuck to playing with the Brazil team and it was fun playing with them. I hardly managed to finish one level and proceed to another level. Game play was tougher for me then. :-(

FIFA 99 made its entry, the following year and I duly bought it without any second thoughts. There were no differences from its earlier version except for the team rosters. Every player had the same face, same physique. Game play was almost similar to that of the 98 edition. By 1999, having got some knowledge about the clubs and having seen Manchester United play, I started playing with that team and till date I have continued to play with Manchester United in every edition of FIFA.

The 2000 version of FIFA according to me is the worst one, as the players' physique resembled that of the scarecrows. It was looking like sticks tapping the ball around and the game play improved a bit from its earlier versions. Though EA sports were having football personalities to endorse the game, the faces hardly resembled them.

The later versions that came out after 2000 had the same problem with the resemblance of the players' faces. The 2003 edition was a superb one with the wishes of a soccer fan coming true, it had an ultimate game play and features of the players were almost similar to those of the real ones. The turning point for FIFA came with the release of this edition, the teams were up-to-date which was advantageous when coming to the sales aspect. It was from this edition I managed to finish every level with ease and moved on to the next level in every edition.

The best part of the newer versions of FIFA is that of the Manager Mode, where in the gamer has a managerial role to play with the team he has chosen. The interesting part of the Manager Mode itself is the transfer season where we can buy any player from any club with the funds we have. Me and my friends boast about our transfer records and about the world class players we buy during the Transfer Season. I envy two of my pals who are damn good at it and they have some of the best players in their roster. It is so addictive that we keep on playing the game just for the sake of entering the transfer period.

Currently I am playing FIFA 09, I have spent and spending most of the time playing it. It has indeed become an hobby to play FIFA nowadays for me and my friends. We even thought of adding it as a detail to be specified in our resumes. During my post graduation, my pals and I have spent enough time playing FIFA on LAN and it is one of those things we cherish the most.

Many people tell that Pro Evolution Soccer is anytime better than FIFA, I fail to agree with them. Call me a stereotype or whatever, I am a FIFA Fanatic forever and would continue to play that beautiful game. It has become a part of my life.