Electronic Arts does a nice job on all of its sports titles, but the number one third party publisher in the entire world does its best work under pressure, and its FIFA Soccer series is a perfect example of this. While Madden NFL sells millions of copies each year and most NFL fans flock to it the same cannot be said of the company's soccer franchise, which faces serious competition in the form of Konami's Winning Eleven games. Refusing to be outdone, FIFA's developers continue to tinker with what's already a successful formula, and their latest creation, FIFA Soccer 2006 should turn out to be the best EA soccer title yet.

New sports games have to do something better than the titles that came before them and FIFA Soccer 2006 has several interesting gameplay additions beginning with Pace Control. By tapping the Xbox controller's black button your selected player will slow down, which allows you to choose the smartest play option, but that's not the only new move you can execute.

If you want to make your opponents look bad you'll elect to dummy the ball by tapping the White button. Doing this will enable you to pull off some sweet maneuvers where you'll look like you're about to perform a predictable move and then suddenly pull the swerve, leaving the opposition flat footed. It definitely comes in handy for when you're just about to attempt a goal but need to shake that final defender.

You can also make use of the Right Analog stick, which EA has dubbed the Skill Stick. By rotating it in various directions you'll be able to bust out step overs, pull the ball back, and perform a very handy 360 spin. Lastly, you can make tactical changes on the fly simply by tapping one of four directions on the d-pad.

FIFA Soccer 06, much like its predecessors, is quite option heavy, something that will no doubt please you if you're a fan of the series. There's a 15 season Manager Mode, a FIFA Lounge, a Tournament Mode, Tournament Creation, Xbox Live Play, and Team Management, where you can edit players, kit numbers, squads, and other assorted cool stuff. There's also a wealth of special features including interviews, classic player bios (many of which need to be unlocked), previews for upcoming EA games such as NBA Live 06 and FIFA Street 2, and a short feature entitled FIFA Games Retrospective, a brief look at all of the games in the series.

Out of all the EA sports titles the FIFA series has always had the best presentations and this game continues this tradition. The commentary, crowd chants, and music is quite impressive yet at the same time sounds very much like previous FIFA Soccer games. However, the same cannot be said of this game's visuals, which make FIFA 06 the best looking soccer game that I've ever seen. Player detail hasn't been significantly boosted, but the developers have encased the character models within this heavenly glow, the byproduct of standing underneath large fluorescent lights.

What I really like about this game is its aural component. Most games have weird and inconsistent crowd noise, but the myriad of chants sound great and the thousands of fans realistically react depending on what's going on. If I'm just messing around at mid field they'll just do their own thing and root for their favorite team, but as I near a goal the crowd will begin to swell because they're anticipating a shot.

The new gameplay features certainly make things easier and more interesting, but when all is said and done FIFA Soccer 2006 feels like last year's game only slightly improved, though that's not a bad thing. Having tons of players and teams at your disposal as well as a bevy of cool modes makes for a quality soccer experience unless you bleed Winning Eleven 8, though after messing around with FIFA I think both games deserve a place in your home. Prepare to challenge the world when FIFA Soccer 2006 is released on September 28.