By Oo Gin Lee

FREE to play, FOL2 is a free download and you can, as manager, run a dream team without paying a single cent.

True, there are special in-game items which you can buy only with real cash. These help you reach your goals faster - like players getting their experience points increased at a rate 20 per cent faster and outright purchases of random star players.

However, with patience and skill, you can build the same dream team without forking out a cent. Fifa 09 costs $50.90 for PC.

Updated teams database

When you buy the standalone Fifa Soccer games from retail shops, like Fifa 09, you get the latest teams and new game features which are different from the earlier versions like Fifa 08 and 07. The actual players' career changes and team switches are not updated within each game.

FOL2 is different. Although based on the Fifa 07 game engine, it is a perpetual universe where players' career moves and new teams' databases are updated to parallel the real events occurring in the real soccer world. That is why Ronaldinho plays for Barcelona in Fifa 07 but for AC Milan in FOL2, even though both tap on the same game engine.

Form your dream team

The standalone Fifa soccer games let you choose one team and stick with it. You cannot sign players from other teams. The only thing you can change is to create one single customisable fictional player and add him to your team.

With FOL2, the world is your oyster. As a manager, you can switch teams and bring along your star players from the previous team (or teams) to form the World's Best XI.

MMOG elements

The main draw of Fifa 09 is to play well on the field and beat your opponents. FOL2 is different in that it is, in essence, an MMOG.

Whenever you complete a game, you gain new players in the form of tradeable cards called 'uniform cards'. If you draft the player into the team, the uniform card is used up. However, if you do not, that card can be sold to other gamers.

Also unlike Fifa 09, each of your players' statistics improve over time as they level up, just as your Tauren Shaman gets more hit points when he dings (gametalk for hitting a new level). Again, better play means your players get more experience points and level up faster.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 17 December 2008.

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