If you live in Europe, and looked on with considerable envy back in August when the day synonymous with all American men who never “made it” in the sports world, your day will soon be here – and for those who were lucky enough (me not included) to pre-order a copy of Fifa 11 your time may already have come. North Americans have wet dreams about the release date of Madden NFL Football, whereas the Europeans pine longingly after Fifa Soccer. Fact.
In terms of the amount of excitement one game can generate this is pretty much the pinnacle for men in the UK who don’t sit in the dark, talking trash to little kids on the other side of the world. If there was a game that is “ok” to be good at and like, then Fifa’s it. It puts C.O.D. where it truly feels like it may belong…in the dark.
Nonetheless, when it comes to video games, most people treat them like the popular sandwich delicacy Marmite – you either like them (or in some cases love them enough to make them your wife), or you utterly detest their existence. The period in the run up to Christmas then, will most likely not be a particularly enjoyable time for those in the latter camp. Although it’s questionable as to whether the people who actually endorse the games themselves have many good things to say about them.
It’s long been thought that a curse exists linked to the popular Madden franchise of games, and you can even place wagers on this years cover star, Super Bowl winning Quarterback Drew Brees, failing miserably like many of his co-players have in the past – step forward Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander, Vince Young, Troy Polamalu…the list goes on. There’s plenty more on that curse here, Fifa, however, doesn’t seem to live up to this stereotype, this year’s offering could well be different though.
As far as sports go, soccer is different to football in that a star who’s a star in one country could well be an unknown in another. This means the game has a whole wealth of cover stars, Kaka being the only one who is a “global ambassador.”
Lets look at Kaka then – last season was a very disappointing one for the Brazil star, who also failed to sparkle at the World Cup, and has been injured for the start of this season. Cursed? Maybe. Looking beyond Riki Kaka, you can see a trend though. In the UK we’ve got the womanizing, and devilishly handsome, Mr Wayne Rooney. Injured, not anywhere near the form we know he has, and embroiled in scandals all summer involving anything from him smoking, having the audacity to go on holiday, and his earlier mentioned indiscretions, it shouldn’t be too long until we are talking of a Fifa curse.
For now though, it’s almost the weekend, Fifa’s almost out, and there’s a weekend of being a geek for to look forward to for the millions of soccer fans all over the world who’ve picked this up. Just need to hope the red-light of death curse doesn’t arrive inside Microsoft’s lovely, enigmatic XBOX-360 console doesn’t arrive at some point this weekend. Might actually have to socialize then!
