I've spoken a lot about graphics in the gameplay section, but this game is worth this treatment.
The soccer players are wonderful polygonal models and their animated faces, even if they lack something in realism, are the exact copy of the real players. The animations are fluid, thanks also to the motion capture technique used to realize the game. The players don't seem a series of clones thrown in field just waiting to be controlled by you; every soccer player stirs and otherwise acts, according to his own peculiar characteristics and to his own constitution. The uniforms are excellently realized and they add a lot of realism to your virtual heroes.
The stadiums have been designed with an amazing richness of details. Next to the grass field there are ball boys, referees, TV cameramen, and the benches with substitute players. There are animated advertising posters, just like in real stadiums and the light effects are gorgeous. The crowd in the background is good too, even if I would like to have seen a higher level of detail in a 128 bit game. Overall, the stadiums look real thanks also to great weather effects.
In the next versions of the game we will surely see some improvements but at present Fifa 2001: Major League Soccer is, no doubt about it, the best looking soccer game available. The game also supports 16:9 widescreen mode, if you have one of those nice new TVs, and it constantly runs at 60 frames per second in high resolution.
