FIFA 2001 really shows its stuff once you get to the pitch, where it exhibits the culmination of a complete visual and practical makeover that'll satisfy anyone who can appreciate the accuracy of a sports simulation. Now, the players move and groove with more realism than ever before, as they stop and plant before changing direction, take a reasonable amount of time to gather in passes, and move at a decidedly measured pace even during speed bursts. Though the players in FIFA 2001 are still a bit faster and more capable than their living counterparts, these players aren't swivel-hipped supermen - they generally move just as you'd expect them to.
Nevertheless, they're still capable of executing a stupefying variety of actions. FIFA once again takes full advantage of every aspect of your ten-button controller, so much so that you'll probably still be practicing new moves even days or weeks after you first play the game. You'll want to work on advanced moves such as 360-degree spins and double stopovers, and you'll get to control a full roster of in-game team management decisions and set piece decisions. Though the game won't let you reconfigure gamepad buttons, the default controls should prove to be highly accessible.
Unfortunately, the gameplay does have some minor problems. For instance, goalkeepers are capable of occasional gravity- and physics-defying saves. Virtually any player can execute implausibly long-distance sliding tackles. Lob goals are made possible only if you lob "pass" toward the opposition net when no teammate is positioned in front of you. And when you play on the more challenging difficulty levels, the computer-controlled rearguards become unnaturally effective. Even so, such problems are all but completely overshadowed by all the great features in the game.
In general, computer-controlled team and player actions in FIFA 2001 are much better than those in the previous version. Lesser defenses play for the offside. Talented offenses work the "give and go" and feed looping timed balls to bursting strikers. Defenders slyly monitor ball carriers and don't commit until the time is right. Even if you prefer to play FIFA 2001 as more of an action game by cranking up the gameplay speed and selecting the lenient officiating option, computer-controlled FIFA players are always smart players.
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