The demo for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil video game is now available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Now is a good time to get into the World Cup mood, and to get a feel for the game before purchasing it’s released this week in North America and Europe.

The demo allows you to play as Mexico, Brazil, Australia, England, Ivory Coast, the United States or New Zealand.  The only stadium that is unlocked is Estadio de Maracana, which is the venue that will host the World Cup final this July.

So, how does the demo stack up?

Presentation

Those looking for glimpses of what may be in store for FIFA 15 will be disappointed as almost all of the elements from FIFA 14 are in the game.  The menus are brightly colored in the colors of the host nation and the menus, with very slight changes, are pretty much the same from the past FIFA iteration.  As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Thus this may also answer why there will be no Next-Gen version of the World Cup.  The demo itself does allow for a full game with most of the similar looks and sounds from previous FIFA iterations.  Also in the demo, the commentary is given by Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend.  One small noticeable difference is that there is more fan interaction and cutaways in combination with the festive atmosphere.

Graphics

Again because this is a demo, I won’t knock it too much as things may change in the final version but I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the graphics. The FIFA engine is really showing its age on the Xbox 360 and when the game intro comes on, it really shows how much. But in my opinion, for a game that only comes around every 4 years, I think it’s an honest assessment to say that EA isn’t breaking out all the stops to make the Beautiful Game all that beautiful on these aging systems.

Gameplay

As stated earlier, because EA is relying on a FIFA 14 build, it plays pretty much the same as past iterations.  While EA may be touting improved dribbling and passing, I am still seeing a few spots where I feel like there is no overall improvement in the gameplay.  The one issue I still seem to have is there is a weird AI glitch where if you sometimes mark a player and then double team him, the AI dribbles the ball all the way back to the opposite side of the pitch.  Another annoying issue is when you have a shot that misses and is either volleyed or rebounded back into play, the AI rarely ever makes an effort to make a play on the ball for another shot.  Otherwise, in my personal opinion, there isn’t that much change in gameplay.

Conclusion 

Thankfully it’s a demo that gives players a chance to decide whether or not they really want to make a full blown purchase.  Not that this is a bad game but if there is one thing that disappoints me with EA it’s that with a fully realized FIFA game, instead of integrating the World Cup into the game itself (like PES does), they put a haphazard version in the game and then hope that customers will spend yet another $60 for what should be an add-on similar to how the Euros were done a few years ago.  If you are a diehard footy fan that wants the full World Cup experience, then this is your game. If not, there is no harm in skipping this.

The demo for the EA Sports 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil video game is available as a free download in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation stores.