If there's one thing you can't fault This Is Football 2004 on, it's scope. While other PlayStation 2 football titles are happy to concentrate on national and international teams, here the beautiful game is taken right down to grass roots, allowing you (if you wish) to seize control of a local team.

You do that as part of the best feature in the game: the career mode. Here, you really can go from the very bottom to the very top, and it adds a challenging long term goal to the proceedings. It's just one example of where the game differs from the opposition, and there are plenty more. For instance, you can also try and blatantly blag a penalty by diving in the area. You can get penalised for handball. You can even take it online and test your skills. In short, there's plenty going on.

TIF 2004's downfall though is that it's simply not as slick, fluid and downright playable as the competition. Both FIFA Football 2004 and especially Pro Evolution Soccer 3 offer a much more succulent marriage of gameplay and presentation than This Is Football 2004 can muster, and that does cloud its otherwise welcome merits somewhat.

A mixed bag in all then. What This Is Football 2004 lacks in polish and style, it does compensate for when it comes to ideas and innovations. And if nothing else, it's testament to the quality of choice gamers are presented with that a perfectly good and enjoyable game such as this struggles to find a foothold. As it stands, This Is Football 2004 is certainly worth a try, but shouldn't be your first port of call. --Simon Brew

This was the first PS2 game I ever got, as I got it with my ps2. I was sceptical at first, as having played one of the playstation versions I was disapointed. However, when I played this I was not disapointed at all! Admittedly, this is not up to the standard of Pro Evo, the greatest football game of all time, or the Fifa series, but it is a good game all the same, and can be found for up to half the price of Pro Evo and Fifa.
The game has many addictive modes to play including net play. You can play cups, leagues, and even whole seasons in any European league. There is the opportunity to take a school team from the lower leagues all the way to European glory in the fantastic Career mode, and of course the incredibly difficult Challenge mode, in which after hours of practice I managed to score 39000 points!
There are 4 levels of game play: Amateur, Semi-Pro, World Class, and Master Class, for the true professianal. You also earn points for winning matches and leagues and cups, which you can exchange for things in the shop such as new grounds and teams.
There is also the opportunity to create your own team of you and your friends. You can fully customise 8 teams, kits, name, manager, stadium, the lot.
The overall gameplay is good, with the potential to score amazing goals. Passing, goalkeeping, and shooting have all also been improved. The only thing I will moan about is the replays, I would much prefer to have replays you can control like on Pro Evo. However, the replays after chances and indeed goals, as well as the entrance and ending sequence, do contribute to an extremly lifelike match. The comentry is also very good, although can becoming annoying at times.
Lastly, the graphics. The graphics are fantastic. The players look lifelike and realistic, as do the kits. So to do the stadiums, reproduced in incredible detail. All this contributes to a more realistic match.
Overall a decent game that will have you hooked for hours. Not quite on the same level as Fifa or Pro Evo, but getting there. Very Addictive.

Graphics 9/10
Gameplay 8/10
Realism 9/10
Addictiveness 10/10
Game Modes 8/10

Overall - 88/100

TIF 2004 is a good game but.....
It does not have the graphics and gameplay of Fifa or Pro Evo but it still is a good game. The career mode is well worth a go but the other tornuments aren't that good. The point of the matter it is to easy!!!! Only buy if you got all the other latest titles.

this is a game for the fans of football although i would still rate fifa better overall, there a fantastic range of teams although not every single one but well more than you would ever use and the controls are very good and easy to use, there are however little glitches and problems in the game, when you want to create a custom team half the time when you finally finish it you end up having a repeated player which deletes a real player and when you play the team you get combinations like sol cambells head on Larssons body, some faces are completey wrong e.g. most of the potugese players (maniche is a white man with blond hair) and Milan Baros is bold and tall.
There seems to have been some licesing problem with nearly all dutch players (no Ruud van nistleroy no Van de sar no bouma no davids although it does have bergkamp) another big criticism i have of the game us that it is way to easy to get block tackled you can very rarely make a break and when you play long balls 9 times out of 10 you give away possesion, although the AI goalies make perfectly good saves when it comes to your goalies time to shine (which is rare) he never saves it (although that just might be me).
it would have been nice to include national anthems and proper flags of clubs but it doesnt detract from the good play quality.
Features
world cup
euro cup ( with correct nations qualifying in correct groups)
All continental cups
national sesons
ability to create own custome teams (even including past players like pele)
timewarp international club teams
extra sounds/cheats

I too have played almost every football sim on the market and to be honest every one of them has fallen short in my opinion. They all have their good points (and their bad ones). TIF2004 has an excellent grass roots career mode, but has naff gameplay and graphics. FIFA2004 has excellent graphics but I feel has naff gameplay. And PRO EVO3 has fantastic gameplay, decent graphics but no licensing. WHY OH WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE GET THEIR HEADS TOGETHER AND MAKE THE ULTIMATE FOOTY SIM:
This is FIFA Evolution!!

I have to just say congratulations to Sony on making what has to be the WORST football game I have ever had the misfortune of playing on the PS2, there are so many bad things about this game I could never list them all - but the atrocious game play has to be top of the list. If I can pass on any advice to anyone it would be don't waste your money on this game - it's dreadful.