If you were to combine your favorite sports hero with a plastic action figure, and then dunk him into a vat of olive oil, you’d have the characters of EA’s next-gen soccer game, FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup. Basically, each of the players looks way too shiny, in both their skin and their clothing, making them quite unrealistic in nature. While a little specularity can go a long way, too much detracts from the overall look and feel of one of the best soccer titles on the market. The grass in the stadiums looks great during close-ups on replays, but the stadiums themselves are relatively basic in nature.

As far as audio goes, the music in FIFA 06 is actually a pretty good mix that will please fans of all backgrounds. Whether in Spanish or English, the background tunes have a relatively light approach, yet keep a good beat. In-game, the announcers are, well, boring. Sure what they say is accurate and to the point, but there is also a lot of dead air time. Yes, I am actually asking game announcers to talk more -- weird, huh?

There are two types of soccer fans out there, those who love EA Sports’ FIFA series, and those who love the Winning Eleven series. With FIFA 06 for the Xbox 360, I think the line (in terms of gameplay) between these two great franchises is beginning to become thinner. FIFA has always had some pretty great gameplay, but many saw Winning Eleven as a better overall game. FIFA 06 delivers excellent control over your players on the field -- or at least I feel that way on offense.

What I still have issue with, however, is that I can (still, after all of these years) never take control of the exact player that I want at all times on defense. There are many occasions when I’ll click the "switch" button and end up with a player that has no chance to make a play on the ball. Maybe it’s time that the FIFA franchise adopt that of NBA Live and allow for precise switching of players.

So the name of the game, FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup, is there for a reason. The "season" mode is now a race to the greatest cup in the world of sports. Along with that, there are basically only a few modes of play, including creating Tournaments, a Practice mode, and of course, the Friendly match. The addition of Xbox Live is the only thing that saves FIFA 06 from utter boredom.

With the computer aside, all great sports games play great multiplayer competitions even better. FIFA 06 allows for up to 4 players to compete offline, and you can challenge your buds online via Xbox Live. The pace of the game over the network seemed a bit slower at time, but overall wasn’t bad. The action is more or less the same offline or on the Internet. I did, however, crash quite a few times while trying to connect to other players. The difference is that unlike your buddy’s gameplay style, online you will have to learn to defend a new style every time you play.

The computer-controlled players on the field are, for the most part, spot-on. Whether you’re swinging the ball or on a mad dash toward the goal with a teammate across the way, the A.I. is predictable enough on defense that you can, as an offensive force, anticipate most of their moves and use that to your advantage. On the other side of the coin, however, since the A.I. is relatively predictable, your job on defense seems a bit easier as you can often see just how and where the computer guys will pass the ball. So of course, this makes for a lot of up and down the field action, which keeps the scores low. There are five difficulty settings, so newbies and veterans should both be able to join in the action equally.

The players on the field are controlled flawlessly on offense with the setup that FIFA 06 has. All of your basic moves are easy to perform, from simply speed-bursting down to passing and kicking the ball toward the goal. Performing special moves is relatively easy as well, but here it may take a bit of practice to actually know when and how to make real good use of them, or to combine them into one great move. Once you do, you’ll be juggling the ball across the entire field with ease. I still tend to have a problem with my shooting accuracy, but that’s probably just me, as I’ve always struggled with that one.

If you’re into soccer (or should I say "fútbol?"), then it may be worth your time to check out the 360 version of FIFA 06. For those who may appreciate Winning Eleven’s gameplay more than that of the FIFA franchise, you will probably want to rent this one first. In all, FIFA 06 has never looked better or been more smooth. Unfortunately, the lack of game modes hurts this title greatly. Maybe a few mini-games wouldn’t be all that bad. Do you hear me, EA? Unless you’re really into soccer, FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup may just bore you to death.