It’s that time of year again folks, the sun is starting to warm up the southern hemisphere and Electronic Arts roll out their annual refreshments, but is FIFA10 another must have or just an annual upgrade?
Sports games can divide gamers quite easily, some gamers love them with a passion, others like to play casually and there are others that stay well away. I like to think that I am one of the casual admirers, I do enjoy a well simulated game of soccer – sorry, football, but it will not become an obsession.
There are longer term gains with a game like FIFA10, because the more you play the better you get, even someone like myself that never moves beyond the basic moves and game dynamics. I know there is much more on offer, but I have enough fun passing, lobbing, knocking on through balls and occasionally scoring. So much fun that I don’t need to understand how and when to perform a ‘flip-flap’ or dummy a shot, although I would seek some comfort in the knowledge that one day this century I will be able to score from a free kick. Also, as a gamer that grew up on classic one-button soccer games, even the custom goal celebrations are lost on me.
There are new features and rest assured I’m sure the developers have evidence of extensive behind the scenes tinkering, but on the surface you might be forgiven for thinking that you popped the old disc back in.
Create a Virtual Pro – taking the popular ‘be a pro mode’ one step further and giving you the chance to create a persistent player character that can be used across game modes, the player can grow and improve as you use them and becomes your online avatar in league and club games. From my understanding the player is active across different game modes at the same time too, so he is not locked into any particular campaign. Also worth a mention is the option to map your own face to the player model, the download software is still Beta and no doubt promises some fugly players.
Live Season – For the princely sum of 400 MS points you can sign up to one of a selection of real world leagues, this league data is consistently updated to your profile keeping you abreast of weekly results, transfers and injuries. Then you pick your favourite club and get your chance to change their fortunes, by having one chance to re-play their real life fixtures and hopefully do a better job. The interface tracks both clubs progress and it is satisfying to have something to measure your performance against, but assuming there are achievements attached to the mode you might want to pick a club that your skill level can match or improve. It is an interesting concept and one that will keep me popping for at least one game a week until May next year. Of course there will be an outcry against the points cost per league, and to be fair you could get at least one league for free last year, but I think it’s reasonable.
Manager Mode – This mode has seen some improvements too, there is a much deeper and sensible transfer system, and the presentation has had a lick of paint too. As a function of a title like FIFA10 the Manager Mode will always be a bolt on and nice to have, but will never satisfy the hardcore soccer manager wannabees that live for dedicated management titles.
There has also been some work improving and developing the online league and club set-ups. It’s a great idea, but I imagine it’s hard enough to get 20 people together in real life for a kick about, let alone getting them together online.
The front end of the game is not vastly different from FIFA09, there is a similar eclectic mix of background music and built in access to the online FIFA Store. The EA strategy to encourage players to value add to their game through MS Points is shamelessly obvious. Even being able to buy time limited boosted stats for your Virtual Pro, this may be a good investment for the obsessive that needs a win, but not something I can see myself using.
Graphically the game has probably had some tweaks and polish, perhaps Rooney is a bit chubbier and Beckham probably has a new earring, although there were times when I found myself wondering if FIFA09 looked smoother in the animation department. The stadiums and weather effects are as good looking as they were last year; one nice feature is the option to rename stadiums if you feel like it – it might look like Stamford Bridge, but it’s Villa Park to me.
Gameplay wise, there is still a familiar learning curve for casual players that haven’t had a run-out for a few months; goalkeepers and general AI are obviously stepped up. One improvement that I noticed whilst watching FIFA10 in action a couple of weeks ago was the intuition and response of players off the ball had been improved. After a few games I can safely say that there have been significantly fewer moments when my players stand around zombie-like staring at a loose ball, that’s not to say I do a better job at making them run in the right direction.
FIFA10 does exactly what it says on the tin, it will sell in plentiful droves because of the circular nature of this type of game. Bear in mind You will be buying FIFA09 version 2.0, no leaps and bounds improvements, but keeping the game moving in the right direction and will probably convert the final fence sitters that stayed with PES last year.
Expect an upgrade and you will be happy with it, expect the reinvention of FIFA09 and you will not.
