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This Is Football 2004 for PlayStation 2
This Is Football 2004 for PlayStation 2 combines football matches with building your own team. You choose from clubs, national sides, historical teams and school teams, arrange the line-up and look for space to pass or shoot during the match. The ball moves independently of the footballers. You therefore need to consider the direction from which a player approaches and the space where a teammate can receive the ball.
A single match takes you straight onto the pitch, while cups, leagues and seasons provide longer-term goals. In Career, you start with a school team and try to progress through semi-professional football into a professional league. You can customise names, kits and players to give that team its own identity. In season play, you negotiate transfers, look for reinforcements and manage finances. Other clubs may also show interest in a player you want to sign.
Matches call for a combination of passing, finding space, defending and shooting at the right moment. When shooting, you also determine the power of the attempt. You can play against the computer or share the pitch locally with others, assigned to one or both teams. With two PS2 Multitaps and a controller for each participant, up to eight people can play simultaneously. Two controllers are enough for a normal two-player match. The historical network features do not imply that online play still works today.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
This Is Football 2004 for PlayStation 2 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of This Is Football 2004
Sony released This Is Football 2004 for the European PlayStation 2 in March 2004. Development was handled by SCEE London Studio, which continued expanding the football series after the earlier PS2 instalments. In North America, the same instalment appeared as World Tour Soccer 2005. The higher year on that American packaging therefore does not refer to the European sequel This Is Football 2005. These different names make this game's position in the series less obvious.
For this instalment, the studio focused on actions involving the ball. Passing and shooting were reworked, players gained different ways to receive a pass and the ball played a more independent role in movement on the pitch. Sony also retained the broad selection of teams that distinguished the series: alongside clubs and countries were school teams, semi-professional sides and historical line-ups. The Timewarp cup used those historical teams in a separate football competition.
The aspects beyond the pitch remained important too. Career connected creating your own team with promotion from school football into professional leagues. Season play added a transfer market where availability, bids and interest from other clubs mattered. Progress therefore involved not only winning matches but also making decisions about the squad. The European release also formed part of Sony's early network football on PS2. That belongs to the release's history; local matches and standalone season play are separate from it.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
This Is Football 2002 shares its interest in school teams and historical line-ups with This Is Football 2004. Both games therefore offer more than the familiar clubs and national sides. The older instalment marks the series' first step onto PS2; 2004 develops ball control and the connection between a custom team and a longer career in particular. Comparing the successive instalments reveals familiar team categories within a more extensive framework of seasons and transfers.
With its Career path from a school team to professional football, This Is Football 2003 lays the foundations found again in This Is Football 2004. In both games, a custom team gains significance as you take it through several competitions. Differences in 2004 include reworked passing and shooting and a ball that moves more independently. The expanded transfer market also connects matches to bids and interest from rival clubs, rather than merely choosing a new player.
This Is Football 2005 builds on the same combination of matches, seasons and a school team that can progress. Playing together with a large local group also remains a familiar element. The sequel places greater emphasis on new animations and differing playing styles among computer teams. You can also capture a face for a custom player using a separately sold EyeToy camera. This Is Football 2004 has extensive team customisation, but not that specific photographic face feature.
Pro Evolution Soccer 3 likewise lets you perform passes, tackles and shots yourself, and links matches to developing a team. The Master League gives this its own structure through assembling and strengthening a squad. This Is Football 2004 stands out through Career's school-team starting point and its separate historical sides. The starting point and setting of the long competition therefore differ most, even though both games let you work towards better players and results.
Pro Evolution Soccer 4 on PS2 also offers club football, national sides and a longer Master League in which you keep building a team. Those who like making their own decisions on the pitch have direct control of matches in both games. PES 4 further develops player growth, ageing and retirement within the Master League. This Is Football 2004 emphasises other aspects through school teams and historical line-ups: the custom team's starting point and the unusual opponents particularly shape the atmosphere.
