Did anyone else see this coming: another year, another FIFA game? If there is one thing we can rely on EA for, it’s to release the same game with a new digit at the end and a new hero on the cover. They do it year in and year out and still the punters buy it. They used this strategy to become a juggernaut in the industry, so no surprise that they did it again! And sure enough, this being a world cup year, they will find a way to squeeze the same game out with a “World Cup” in the title somewhere. Now imagine my surprise when I played FIFA 10 and found it to be the best sports title I have ever played, let alone the best football title! Soccer never stood a chance.

Sports titles are funny beasts. Most titles replicate a sport that is pretty easy to get into, and if you can afford the hardware and software to play the game, you should really be able to afford the real thing outside in the real sun with real people. So in order to be successful they need to add more. They need to add a feeling of being a real professional at the chosen sport. It needs to put you in the shoes of heroes, in front of thousands of people and give you the skill of those heroes. It needs to be more fun to play than it is to watch. And FIFA does it brilliantly.

From the very start the game is slick and easy to get around in. You have the now standard first screen which is your chosen hero in your chosen venue, practicing against a lone goalie. Without having to push any buttons you can start dribbling a ball and shoot it into the net. You can immediately feel like a sporting hero. The actual menu appears simple, yet has a lot of depth to it. It is easy to use and very logical to find your way around it. The usual EA Trax plays in the background and the song choices create an atmosphere of anticipation of what is to come. You can feel the butterflies building in your stomach.

FIFA 10 is loaded with features and gameplay modes. You have your standard quick play, which can be customized, and is just as the name implies: a quick game between two teams of your choosing. You can find training videos which teach you a lot of different moves and tactics and is worth a second or even a third watch to grasp some of the controls. Just like most other sporting games you can create your own player and stick him into any team you want with any attributes you deem him worthy of. You can also edit any team, and create your own tournaments.

Manage à trois

The bulk of your time will be spent in the Manager Mode. This allows you to take any team from any of the leagues available and manage them all the way to the league title. It does not have the same amount of depth as the football managing titles available, but is deep enough to keep you busy for hours. You choose who starts and who is on the bench, who takes the penalties, who is captain, how much for ticket prices and how much to pay for players during the transfer window. You can send out scouts to look for promising new players that you can take through a couple of seasons and see them grow into stars. You can choose to play every match or you can simulate every match. You choose how much involvement is required. Be careful how you manage though or the board will get impatient and put your lazy bum out on the streets if your team does not perform.

Another big time vortex is the Virtual Pro mode, where you control one player throughout a season, or online in the Pro Club Championship. You do not switch between players, but play as the chosen player throughout. This is a real test of your patience and skill as your player must stick to his role for the team to reach success.

In the choices of leagues available department, FIFA certainly trumps every other football (or soccer) game out there. More than 30 different leagues are available, with all the clubs from the leagues and all the real players’ names, if not their appearance. If you need your football game to have an accurate roster of players with names that you recognize, then you need FIFA. You can even choose Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs to duke it out for silverware of your choice.

The Main Event

This brings us to the main event: playing football. FIFA 10 has improved the way the game is played to a point that it feels as accurate as the game could possibly feel with the current control scheme. I cannot imagine it being more realistic unless the new Arc Controller or Project Natal does something that will improve the controls. Your player moves around smoothly, and the animations are so effortlessly transitioned that you can never tell it happened. Often in other games the player will jump from a running animation to a shooting animation, without any form of transition. This jumping can break the sense of being there and being a football hero. The use of both sticks are intuitive and easy to get into. Just like kicking a real ball though, it’s only easy to kick it, but hard to bend it like Beckham.

The passing game is often an area where football games have lacked in accuracy, and it’s almost as though the outcome of the pass relied on a dice being rolled behind the scenes. Now it feels as though your skill determines the outcome. The opposition can intercept the pass. The passing player can kick it too hard or too gently and the pass can be ruined. Passing into space is also a great skill to master using the right stick. Reading your teammates’ gestures and even postures allows you to see their next move and plan where to pass. Set pieces like free kicks and corners are probably the weakest part of the game, with it often being a hit and miss affair. No matter how many times I play the tutorials and watch the videos, I simply struggle too much to score from them.

Overall the gameplay is much more simulation than arcade game. It does not mean that it will take hours to get into. It simply means that you have to work hard to get really good at it. You can win a few games with the basic run, shoot and pass commands, but up the difficulty and you will need much more. You will need to know how to mark certain players, how to call in more defenders, pass into open space, how to jockey an attacker and maybe even do a few show-off moves to get past a defender. Just like the real thing, practice makes perfect.

No hole in this atmosphere

The atmosphere while the game is being played is electrifying and superb. The crowds will chant clubs’ songs and sometimes even their favourite player’s name. When the visiting team is in the lead and simply play to run out the clock while keeping possession, they stand a real chance of getting booed by the crowds. Score a home goal and the crowds go wild. Score an away goal and the reaction is much more subdued. In the pre-match rundown of the teams you can hear the stadium announcer going through the list of players and their numbers.

Commentary is accurate and on cue, unlike other games where the commentator calls a goal before it’s even scored. It also never gets tired and feels more natural than ever. The commentators will chat randomly about the good old days, a player’s previous performance, the referee’s accuracy in calling a foul, the current stadium’s history and even get emotional about the privilege of working with each other. In so many sports games I have to turn off the commentary because they end up detracting from the experience, yet in FIFA their omission will greatly affect the atmosphere in the wrong way.

Player likenesses are for the most part spot on. They might not be as good as PES for their licensed players, but when the more popular players take to the field you can instantly recognize them. Drogba is the tall skinny guy with a beady dreadlock mullet. Rooney is the balding chap with big ears. Their height also has a real effect on the way they play, where a taller player will have a better chance of scoring a header than someone as short as Lionel Messi. Going online you can download the players’ current performance on a weekly basis to ensure that their in game behavior mirrors that in real life.

Replays are very television-like in their presentation, and the little touches, like rain droplets on the lenses during bad weather, adds extra realism. However, there seems to be a bit of slowdown during these replays when all sorts of blurry depth of field is added. Thankfully this never happens during game time itself.

In line with online trends

Online is becoming the buzz word in more and more games of late and FIFA does not let up in that regard. Transfers, performance and league results are all available online and update your playing experience. You can take your team online and play against your arch nemesis, or you can meet up with up to nine friends to play in a 10 vs. 10 online championship. This is turning into the connected age!

The football market only really has two contenders for the cup title. You will most likely have bought FIFA 10 already if you are a FIFA fan, and if you are a PES fan you would have bought that instead. Comparing the two is a bit less fair than I initially thought it would be as they seem to cater for different fans of the genre. FIFA is much more simulation and strives to be accurate in its player and team representation. PES is the arcade game and aims to gratify the playing experience over the accuracy.

In the end, I have to side with FIFA. The atmosphere and sleek controls make this the must own sports title of the year, best served with a second controller and a friend. It’s complete, accurate and fully up to date. EA Sports, it’s in the game!

The good: The beautiful game.
The bad: Very, VERY hard on realistic mode.
The ugly: Has David Beckham ever looked good?

Purchase: