Every fourth summer a strange sense of déjà vu descends on the world of International football. All of a sudden the Germans begin desperate attempts to thaw out Lothar Matthaus from the cryogenic freezer they placed him in about eight years ago, with the hope he can shore up their defence for at least one more game. At the same time, the Dutch squad are meeting up for a get together meal five minutes into which they realise the reason they haven't spoken for so long is because they all hate each other and the resulting fight completely trashes their local Pizza Hut. Meanwhile, the English press are going into schizophrenic overdrive, one day stating that their team has a great chance of victory and the next calling for the manager to be sacked. While all this is going on the, Brazilians' air conditioned coach pulls up, the squad get off looking relaxed and casually flick a ball around whilst some infectious samba music, laced with a subliminal message to buy as many Nike products as possible, plays in the background. Yes, if you hadn't guessed, it's World Cup time again, and these days as much of a certainty as any of the above is a tournament tie-in game from Electronic Arts.

There's no denying that EA are the daddies of sports games; if there's an even moderately popular physically competitive activity, chances are they've either made a game of it or probably are in the process of doing so. Together with the incredible depth of knowledge they've gathered over the years, the hub of EA Sports games, especially football titles, has been the fact that the company has never been scared to fork out the dough to secure the official licences for players, teams and competitions. Some other developers who pride themselves on making their games look as realistic as possible continue to be very slow to realise that no matter how true to life the action is, the shine is somewhat taken off proceedings if you've got Griggs weaving down the wing for Manchester United or Bokham captaining England. It's like buying one of those fake imitation football shirts when you go on holiday; from a distance it looks fine, but when you get up close there's something obviously not right and it's easy to see where the money's been saved. There're no dodgy seams with this game however, as what EA are offering is your own, official World Cup in a box. The question is have they succeeded in providing a great game?

When you initially load up 2006 FIFA World Cup, the first thing you'll be reassured by is the fact that EA have once again done an amazing job with the front end presentation and options. The amount of choices you have are overwhelming, including a training mode to help hone your skills, the facility for online play and the ability to just take part in a penalty shootout. There's also FIFAWorldCup.com, which features a selection of videos of the various cities and stadiums hosting matches in the tournament, which are interesting to view before the event begins but are probably of limited appeal once it's over. Finally, there's the Global Challenge, which comprises a large selection of match scenarios, each of which has a set objective to complete, such as helping Croatia fight back from 1-2 down against France with about twenty minutes to go. Not only are these tasks enjoyable to play, but they provide a bit of variation from the standard matches and there are enough of them present to extend the appeal of the game well beyond the 9th of July.

Even with all these choices, the most obvious thing that stands out straight away is the official World Cup Tournament itself, and when it says official it means official, as not only do you get the finals themselves, but also all of the qualifying groups to involve yourself in if you wish. You also, of course, have the option to select personally or randomly which countries will be pitted against each other, if you decide you didn't like the way Sepp Blatter and friends handled any of the draws.

No matter where you start on the road to 9th July and Berlin, once you've selected your nation of choice you get to meet your team for the first time - and this is when you run into the a problem. Unfortunately for EA, due to the deadlines required to get the game completed and in the shops, the squads had to be confirmed before the various International managers announced their final decisions. With some countries this hasn't caused much of a problem, but when you've got the likes of Sven and Tord apparently choosing names using a blindfold and a dartboard there are some noticeable omissions and mistaken inclusions. Even though you do have the options to rectify the situation by editing the players manually, there are no club teams or a wider database of players to draw on and it's a bit of a shame for a company who pride themselves on the accuracy of their data, especially as it doesn't help the air of realism they have tried so hard to create.

Whichever eleven players you decide to name on your team sheet, the chances are you'll be able to fit them into a realistic playing system, as EA has included the usual wealth of basic formations and variations on these, which make it clear that if something goes wrong tactically then you've only got yourself to blame. It's also likely you won't find it hard to work out who's who, due to the generally fantastic facial likenesses. All of the major superstars are instantly recognisable, but things do get slightly more hit and miss as you go down the order; for example, Wayne Rooney has those same instantly recognisable features that only a mother, or perhaps grandmother, could love, while if Michael Carrick returned home after the competition looking the same way he does in the game, his parents may have no idea who he is.

When you finally confirm all your crucial decisions and press the button to proceed to the action, the game takes over. The loading screens haven't been ignored, as each provides you with a fascinating fact about the country you are just about to take on. Unfortunately, there only appears to be about one fact per country and this makes them less fascinating each time you see them, and you can't help feeling that EA have missed a bit of a trick here as, instead, these load periods could have been used to create Nintendo DS Trauma Centre style mini games centred on the England squad and covering a broad range of different medical professions. For example, one level could have you as a surgeon attempting to repair Wayne Rooney's broken metatarsal, another could see you as a paramedic risking your life driving the ambulance carrying Alan Smith through the streets of Liverpool, or how about a level where you have to play a psychologist and help Sol Campbell recover from his personal problems?

After the loading screen, the game does that thing that EA games have always been great at doing - creating the right atmosphere. Just like on Match Of The Day, the first thing you're treated to is the camera swooping in from space onto the specific World Cup stadium in Germany that your game is to take place in. This is a brilliant idea and really helps to begin things on a high note; it increases the feelings of realism and importance and gets anticipation levels rising straight away. It's also backed up by the fact that the next thing you see is the players walking out onto the pitch, in a near perfect recreation of whichever ground you're competing at, as the crowd roar and showers of tickertape fall from all sides. The highest praise that can be given to all this build up is to say that it is about as real as things are probably going to get on the Xbox.

The excitement of the occasion isn't let down at all by the standard of the commentary either. The ever excitable Clive Tilsley is at the helm, assisted by Andy Townsend, who as in real life provides about as much depth as a dried up puddle, and whilst after a few games you'll start to notice some of the set phrases being repeated, it's a joy to listen to description and basic analysis that keeps pace with the game and flows along without noticeable cuts. The impressive nature of the commentary is helped by the fact that Clive appears to have spent about a year in the recording studio, reciting the names of just about every player in each of the World Cup squads, something that doesn't go unnoticed in helping with the official feel to proceedings. All of this verbal cut and thrust also plays along to a background audio of country-specific fan noises. These days you may think that's nothing special, but it's the accuracy of the recreation here that EA must be applauded for. There's a very believable rise and fall to the crowd noise, instead of a monotonous low roar for the whole ninety minutes, and the shouts, songs and musical accompaniments are all spot on; for example, you can't see them in the crowd but the England band are definitely there when Sven's lads play, because you can hear them so clearly.

So it looks like a major football tournament and it sounds like a major football tournament, but does it play like a major football tournament? The answer is yes and no. On the positive side, in single player mode EA has done a wonderful job of recreating almost exactly the playing styles of every international side; choose to compete as England in the World Cup and you'll experience group games against the Paraguayans, with their possession dominating, slow build up style of football that is hampered by their limited attack, or Trinidad and Tobago, who have a surprisingly potent offence but are fragile at the back and the Swedes, with their strong, quick, aggressive play. Also, although the players appear quite small during the game, their animation is so crisp that it's a joy to watch and gives a real air of quality to matches. Other brilliantly realistic touches are small things like the fact that when a player is shooting whilst being pressured by a member of the opposition, the quality of their shot will be much poorer than if they have a clear run on goal and the way that, whoever you chose to control, during your last group game you will get updates from the other game going on simultaneously in your group, and not just ones that flash up on the screen, but ones that get a mention from the commentators as well.

Another welcome feature is the great idea of having players' energy bars above their names at the bottom of the screen, so you can automatically haul someone off when you see they're struggling, rather than having to pause the game and go into the team management menus to find out. There's nothing wrong with the set up of the controls either, with EA providing a number of pre-programmed options, at least one of which you will almost certainly find to your taste that soon becomes intuitive to use. With some practice it's also easy to begin to master some of the more complex moves in the game, such as the one two, that requires the pressing of a number of buttons in sequence. These not only add depth to the play but are also reassuringly difficult to pull off correctly, in complete contrast to the one button press trivialisation such skills receive in the FIFA Street series, and they often bring an appropriately high reward for your efforts.

On the negative side, however, whilst there's nothing actually wrong with the controls, the way that the game's mechanics relay your commands into on screen actions creates problems and, unfortunately, the biggest of these is with probably the most frequently used piece of play, the passing options. That's not to say that these are a complete disaster; the long pass is reliable to use and allows you, if you're skilful enough, to search out and hit open areas of the pitch with balls begging to be latched onto by one of your players and at least fifty percent of the time there's also no real problem with the short pass, and in these moments when things are going fine you begin to think that perhaps you're being slightly to harsh on the game. But then, all of a sudden, you try to knock the ball to one of your team mates who is standing no more than ten yards away from you and for some inexplicable reason, the ball instead goes off to a different player or, more frequently and more frustratingly, to no one at all. Even though this happens less than fifty percent of the time, it's infuriating when it does, especially when you're attacking and have committed a lot of men forward, only to suddenly be facing a dangerous counter attack, or when you're playing a team who like to keep possession and, as a result of one of these sloppy moments, you don't get to see the ball again for the next ten minutes.

The problem with the short pass is made even more annoying due to the fact that as soon as you get close to the edge of the opposition's area, the defence gets so tight and compact that it's enough of a challenge to pick your way through without having all your hard work undone through no fault of your own. It's also strange that shooting, even from twenty or more yards out, is extremely accurate, especially with the higher skilled players. Very rarely do you have a shot that will end up, as is often the case in real life, spooning miles wide of the goal. Obviously EA have decided that, at international level, players are sufficiently talented to ensure that this doesn't happen, and yet the same players often can't make the most simple of playing field passes to someone wearing the same colour shirt.

In any event, all of these difficulties with the short pass are rendered pretty much irrelevant due to the ridiculous ease with which the through pass can be employed. Whenever you're attacking and get to within about forty yards, and sometimes even further, of your opponent's goal, simply look for one of your own players in front of you and by tapping one button you will release a defence splitting ball down a channel for your man to run on to. On many occasions this leaves you in a one on one with the keeper and it causes much of the realism built up in other areas of play to take a complete nosedive, as it removes the need for any more intricate passing, tactics or complex skill moves to win a game.

As well as these gripes with the way the game plays, there are some other problems too. The first of these is the fact that sometimes, when things start to get a bit end to end, the camera struggles to keep up with the play and starts to judder a little, although this doesn't last for more than a few seconds and will not raise more than a passing grumble. Secondly, whilst the player movements are very well done and the facial likeness impressive, there are no striking details or individual animations for any of the footballers in the game - not even the superstars. In the Pro Evolution Soccer series although not all of the names are correct, you can recognise Beckham, for example, simply by his unusual run and the manner in which he takes corners and free kicks. It's the same for almost all of the big names and some of the smaller ones as well, and the fact that this is missing from EA's offering means that no matter how accurate the players' faces are reproduced, almost all lose their identities as soon as they get onto the pitch. The third problem is the fact that when you play through the official World Cup finals, the same things seem to happen in the computer generated matches a lot of the time. The same teams win, the same players are even sent off and all of this reduces the replay value with the same team and, as a consequence, forces you to try and guide different nations to the ultimate prize.

FIFA multiplayer matches have always been great fun and this new instalment is, thankfully, no exception. It's probably here, with you and at least one friend experiencing the rollercoaster ride of international football, that the game comes closest to recreating that authentic World Cup experience and the fun can be enhanced further by the use of the returning lounge mode that keeps a record of players' scores and adds extra game options and variables to contests. It's also here in the multiplayer games when you get some freedom, away from the shackles of having the computer in charge of one of the teams, trying to control the way the game is played, that after a number of matches you'll start to try and think exactly what it is that makes you enjoy the game but, at the same time, conclude that it just doesn't feel quite right. The answer may be that for a long time FIFA always offered an arcade type of pick up and play, end to end, ten-goal thriller football. As the popularity of the simulation style of PES has grown, it's obvious that EA have tried to adjust their franchise to compete. What we currently have, therefore, is a game stuck in limbo, with elements of both arcade and simulation play and it's where these two grate against each other, such as with the through pass, that the uneasy feelings are thrown up.

For a number of years now, FIFA has often lost marks in reviews simply because it isn't PES, but as time passes this may not be such a bad thing. PES has been tweaked and refined so much for its latest instalment that at some points it tries so desperately hard to rigidly recreate real football that it loses some of the unpredictability and personality that makes the actual sport so engaging. There's definitely room for FIFA to move in and it would be great if EA could channel their indisputable skills in this field to create a game that, like many cars these days which at the push of the button can switch from a normal driving experience to a sports one, could have the option for both an arcade mode and a simulation mode, both of which, while based on the same basic parameters, gave completely different and satisfying experiences.

There will be some who criticise 2006 FIFA World Cup for being nothing new, just the existing FIFA game with a big fat licence bolted onto it in an attempt for maximum profits. People seem to forget, however, that we live in a consumer economy and a soon as the World Cup comes around, thousands of different companies, who normally don't care one jot for the beautiful game, suddenly declare their undying love for football and/or the England team in a blatant attempt to push their standard products or tonnes of tacky, branded merchandise upon us, and guess what, most of us buy at least some of it. The least you can say for EA is that they've been heavily involved in football titles for many years now and with FIFA World Cup 2006 have produced a solid game of their usual quality. They're not trying to deceive anyone, they're not saying any more than "this is FIFA 06 visits the World Cup, if you like that idea buy it and if not don't bother" and for these things above anything else, they should be applauded.

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).