A question about FIFA 2004 and playing an EPL season...

[lagalaxyfan]

I just bought FIFA 2004 for PS2 today thinking that I would be able to play a regular EPL season with my favorite English club, Liverpool. Boy, did I make a mistake. I assumed (probably foolishly) that since it's licensed by FIFA and the EPL, that you could play a whole season, complete with an authentic schedule from this past year (like you can with Madden or NHL 2004). Instead, all you can choose are the "FA Cup" and "League Mode", which all include every team from the EPL to the 3rd Division. There seems to be no way to play just a regular EPL season, limited to only the 20 teams in the top division. Is there something I'm missing here? Can there really be no way to do that? And if not, what game can I buy that can do that? I've already tried Winning Eleven 7 (an awesome game, by the way), but you can't play a regular season there either as it doesn't have every EPL team. Thanks for the help.

[Sluggo12]

It includes all the divisions in order to simulate relegation/promotion. If you start a season with Liverpool or another Premiership team, you play through a regular Premiership season, along with UEFA Cup and League Cup and so on. At the end of that season, the bottom three teams get relegated, and are replaced by the top three teams from Division 1, and the same applies to Divisions 2 and 3. You can just completely ignore the other divisions if you want while going through your season. The only time I've paid attention is to FA Cup pairings, and occasionally I've gone bargain player shopping in the lower divisions.

So I'm not sure what you're looking for. If you're doing career mode, why would you want ONLY the EPL to simulate seasons? Then there's no way to know what teams get promoted to replace the EPL teams that get relegated. It's not like if you're controlling an EPL team that games against Division 1, 2, and 3 teams are included in your schedule or something.

[lagalaxyfan]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I was expecting to see a regular "Season" option under Game Modes. I was thrown off by having only the "FA Cup" and "League Cup" options. So is what you're saying that if I play the whole "League Cup" option, I'll be playing a regular season plus all FA and UEFA cup ties? If that's the case, then I guess that makes sense. When I went to the team menu and saw all the teams from the EPL through the 3rd Division, I thought you had to play one big season where you play all those teams. I guess it was just sort of confusing for me...

[Sluggo12]

Correct. It lists all the teams from 1st through 3rd division, you pick whatever team you want to lead through a season, and then they'll have a normal season schedule, with games against only those teams in their respective division, plus the UEFA Cup/FA Cup/League Cup pairings, which will be the only times you'll play teams out of division.

[prk166]

I finally borrowed FIFA 2004 from a friend. I was drooling over it after hearing that EA had beefed up the management side of the game. Even though I patiently looked through the instruction book before poppin' it in, I still found the whole career / profile / league / season thing (saving one, playing one, etc, etc) a bit confusing. Even after playing it a bit, I still haven't fully figured out the use of all that. Overall, I do like some of the directions they've taken the game with the manager reputation thing, player training, the l2 thing for controlling off ball players for runs, and other new features.

One minor complaint, when managing AC Milan I shouldn't be able to buy Greg Vanney as a clear replacement in the starting lineup for the likes of Kaladze.