In addition to the 16 trick moves and first touch ball reception introduced to the game engine with the earlier entries in the series, FIFA Soccer 07 includes enhanced ball and player collision physics and additional player animations. This is an improvement on the engine introduced with the game that served as the official video game for the 2006 World Cup. Players choose two lengths for each half of the game: two or ten minutes, three different game speeds, and four different difficulty levels. The game features authentic representations of more than 510 other teams. Twenty-seven leagues from 20 other countries are represented in the game, along with a “Rest of the World” category for the top teams from championships that were not featured in the game and overseas groups.
Additionally, second divisions can be found in Spain, England (with two of them), France, Germany, and Italy. In the game’s manager mode, players can create two clubs, personalize their club’s crest, jerseys, and home stadium, select players from any location in the game, and set their beginning budget. The player creation mechanism has remained mostly untouched, allowing users to fully personalize every aspect of their characters, including their faces (with a comprehensive range of customization options, ranging from jaw width to eyebrow shape), look, and playing abilities.
The game engine was the primary focus of this year’s annual update; however, the Manager mode was also improved. Players’ playing abilities now improve based on whether or not they are active members of the squad, which compels the player to decide whether or not to keep his celebrated stars who are close to retirement in the starting eleven or whether or not to give the benefits of the youth system a chance to shine. The ability to watch the game in a text-based form that is more simplistic is another new addition to what is now the primary mode of the series. Players will still have the option to take part in the game at any time to affect the outcome of the events. A less abstract currency model (with the opportunity to pick between British Pounds, Euros, or American Dollars) has replaced the previous points system. Challenges and Tournaments are two additional game modes that can be played. Tournaments can be created according to the player’s specifications. The player can earn points to spend in the Fanshop on items such as new teams, a unique overhead camera, new balls from Adidas (including all of the original World Cup balls from 1974 to 2002), stadiums, third kits, and special celebrations for created players by completing challenges (this mode is very similar to the Global Challenges mode in World Cup 2006).
At long last, a new gameplay option called Interactive Leagues was introduced to online gaming. These virtual leagues can only be played online and are modeled after real-world equivalents (the English Premier League, the French Ligue 1, the German Bundesliga, and the Mexican 1st division, respectively). After that, users compete against their favorite teams in an online head-to-head match, with each victory counting as a vote for the player’s preferred team. After the week’s conclusion, the group that received more votes is deemed the week’s winner and is awarded three points. In this mode, the maximum number of weekly matches that a player can compete in is uncapped at 100.
