Xbox 360 owners felt pretty ripped off by EA after the universally loathed Road to World Cup was offered as a launch title. Why they couldn't have simply made FIFA 2006 backwards compatible is beyond me as that was a fantastic game and easily the best in the series in a long while. 2006 FIFA World Cup for Xbox 360 improved greatly, providing a solid title that promised further greatness for the future releases of EA's soccer franchise. Although it used the same FIFA engine as the Xbox version, it featured brilliant presentation and atmosphere, a whole heap of options, and a gameplay system that somewhat refined the way FIFA has played in the past.

Enter FIFA 07. EA has actually listened to gamers and redesigned the FIFA engine from the ground up for the Xbox 360. Here we have a brand new game for our money rather than a rehash and this can only mean good things, right? Unfortunately a lot of what was looking promising in the old engine has been trashed, and I found the more I played the more I longed for the old version as I discover things that at first thought were cool suddenly become very annoying.

Like the brand new independent physics on the ball. Finally the ball is completely untethered from the players and has its own identity, which used to be a common complaint about FIFA. It bounces freely and is deflected off various body parts in a natural and realistic manner. If you hit the ball with the edge of your player's foot, it will shoot off at an odd angle and spin plus velocity can obviously also influence its direction. I have seen it spin under the cross bar and into the goal which shows me that EA really worked overtime getting the ball physics nailed. However, at the same time you never feel as though you have complete control over the ball. It can receive a glancing blow from another player and scurry out of dribble range, or bounce off the back of players' head.

Sure, this is supposed to provide some degree of unpredictablity as in a real soccer game, but combined with the A.I, this gets quite frustrating. Many times you lift the ball in a pass to a player and they'll be running forward and the ball will hit them in the back of the head. Players also have the new game physics and fight and jostle for the ball in a much better fashion than in the past, however, sometimes they can smack into each other and both simply stop, and the ball rolls onward. It's a jarring experience that stops the flow and momentum of the game completely.

In addition to this, when on a run forward, players never seem to turn around fast enough. It's like players are on tracks, and won't deviate from their runs, so if a ball bounces funny because of a deflection or interception, it takes too long for the game to catch up. There's also the age old issue of your players just standing still or not pushing forward with the ball quickly enough. Breakout runs on the counter attack are useless because you never seem to have support, even playing with one of the better teams.

This sense of being somewhat behind the play appears to affect the whole game. Playing with a friend who is a long time PES player it was immediately apparent to him. In fact, it's so noticeable the commentary actually apologises for it! "Commentary isn't an exact science” quips Clive Tyldesley quite often as the players scrap over the ball because they're moving this way and that in response to your joystick movements and the ball bouncing of body parts. At first I thought this was funny and clever commentary, but after the 10th time in a match I realised it must have been included because this flaw!

Speaking of 10th time, I know soccer is a sport known for seemingly soft tackles and frees, but when you get your 10th foul and you've never hit the button to slide-tackle, it becomes incredibly frustrating. Players will push and jostle each other when running for the ball and pressing the A button makes your player attack the ball with vigour, but if you tackle from any position other than slightly in front of the other player, you're issued a foul. Now, given your player is running on a track and will often run past the play because the response is slow, your player will be nearly always be behind the player on the ball, so you'll nearly always cause a foul when you tackle. Moreover, I've also had frees awarded against me when between the opposition player and the ball for god knows what reason.

Some may argue that this is realistic to the game of soccer, especially after the atrocious refereeing at the World Cup, but for a computer game it just doesn't feel natural. You get worse at tackling and give away more frees the more games you play. If it was a realistic play device it would work in such a way that the more you tackled the better you became as you'd figure out better strategies and a better way to play. I've played many, many games of FIFA 07 and am still not any better at tackling. I'm better at passing and scoring, but this is an obvious flaw in one of the basic mechanics of the game.

Another gripe I have is about the free kicks, corners and throws. All of these just seem to be hit and hope. There's no way to aim or position the ball properly, it all seems to be point in the direction, hit a button and hope for the best. I realise this may be because it has been too easy in the past to score goals from free kicks with aiming aids, but removing them completely misses the point. You do become better at placing throws and corners, but I am still yet to score a goal directly from a free kick and don't think that I ever will.

The presentation of the game is superb of course. The interactive loading screen with a keeper and your favourite player is great fun, and the option screens are very slickly designed and moving between them is a breeze. Graphics are much better than in World Cup, and players no longer look like ghouls on close ups and replays. Stadiums are a little lacklustre though, and while during night matches the lighting looks great, day matches lack the visual flair of a real life stadium. 2006 FIFA World Cup seemed to capture the excitement perfectly, but this time around there's something missing. Here we get the static shots of the crowd, whereas in World Cup the camera went into the stands to try and really immerse you through some great cut-scenes but the ones in FIFA 07, and also the replays after scoring are really dull.

All the usual modes are present, and the Manger Mode is becoming really good. The ability to change not only team but an individual's play style and level them up with skills is a very welcome change allowing those who like the simulation side of soccer to tweak to their hearts content. You can also look at the stats a player has for an individual game, essentially checking their performance on the fly; their tackles, their main areas of play, where and when they commit fouls and it has a greater impact on the field than in FIFA 06. Changing your formation or pinpoint the space a player should run when in attack can have a greater impact on the game.

Where the presentation fails is in sound. Overall the sound quality is good – the usual commentary, stadium sounds including announcing lost children, lost car keys and so on, plus a decent selection of EA Tracks to listen to after matches. However, whenever there's a substitution, the sound stops completely for a brief period of time. Sometimes the channels clash, so the commentary will sound muted but all other sounds will be fine.

Another area that is neglected is the amount of teams and leagues that are missing. This is one of the most disappointing aspects of the game and is totally inexcusable. In my opinion if EA are going to license all the teams and prohibit any other game from using them, they need to supply ALL the teams and as many leagues as possible in their games. What's even more puzzling is that on other formats, the leagues and teams are available to play!

On the PS2 and Xbox version of the game there are over 500 teams from 28 Leagues including Mexico Primera Division and Scotland Premier League. On the Xbox360 there are 6 leagues and about 130 teams, so unless your favourite team is from the top divisions in Spain, England, Italy, France or Germany, you can forget about playing them. Likewise with the Stadiums, there are 50 to play on the PS2 version, but less than half that on the Xbox360 version. Sure, EA may offer these as downloads through the Xbox Live MarketPlace, but when the game is cheaper on PS2 and Xbox and has more content to begin with, you've really got to question EAs decision making process, and the ‘value' of next-gen gaming.

Online the game plays pretty much exactly as the offline version. All the complaints I have about feeling the game behind the play apply online too. It's still a frustrating exercise to play the game, but at least online I know it's not just me. There is a slight bit of lag at times, but overall my experience is a positive one, but other people at XBW have had bad lag, so your mileage may vary. The usual matchmaking and ranking and leagues are online, but I do get annoyed with EA's servers scheduled downtimes which always seem to be happening when I want to play.