2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Review

26 Apr 2010 at 14:21:26 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (360)

As we established in our preview of EA's latest footie title, there will be some cynical souls who will cry “cash-in” at the publisher over 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (or World Cup as it will be known for the duration of this review). They will, however, be wrong. See, it's a well-established fact that EA is no longer king of the cosmetic annual update and it now uses its major-event titles (like UEFA 2008) as a testing ground for future gameplay enhancements. As such, World Cup not only offers the best game of football in the series to date, it also proves that EA is keen to address some of the weaker aspects of the franchise.

Of course,  there have are what the critics might call cosmetic enhancements. Player likenesses are vastly improved from FIFA 10 (Peter Crouch, for instance, no longer looks like he was reproduced from the imagination of a child), the commentary is much, much better (Tyldesley-Townsend > Tyler-Gray), the pitches appear to have some texture and there are some new player animations on offer. While some will undoubtedly argue that none of this really matters, I'd contend that it does. It all feeds into the notions of immersion and authenticity. If I'm playing a game based on a major real world tournament, I want that game to feel authentic; I want to feel like I'm taking part in that tournament. And this is something that World Cup does better than any other FIFA game to date.

Despite the myriad improvements to the FIFA franchise over the last few years that have seen it overtake its main rival, Pro Evolution Soccer, one enduring criticism has been that the presentation falls a little short. For instance, while the Manager Mode and Be a Pro Seasons are undoubtedly compelling, their major downfall is that you never really get the sense that there is a footballing world going on around you, unless you start digging into the statistics section. World Cup goes some way towards rectifying the problem by way of some clever presentation. In the World Cup and Captain Your Country modes, for instance, you'll get tournament headlines between games keeping you apprised of significant results and events (like one-match bans etc). Another nice touch is the way the commentary team report on scores from other matches from your group during your own games. While, this may not be a huge leap forward (a tournament highlights/goals reel would be welcomed), it's definitely a step forward for the series.

In fact, it's clear that presentation was something of a priority for the dev team as World Cup attempts to capture what the pundits like to call the “carnival atmosphere” of the world's greatest footballing competition. As such, you'll see team-specific crowd shots during matches, firework and confetti displays as well managers pacing their technical areas. With regard to the latter, don't expect to see coaches for all the teams – only the big names like Capello and Maradona appear, but EA has done a good job of capturing their mannerisms. It all adds to the authenticity of the game and, as was clearly the intention, the matches look more like TV broadcasts than ever before. However, presentation alone isn't enough to warrant a full price release and, accordingly, EA has also implemented a number of new gameplay improvements that make World Cup feel like it has moved on since last year's FIFA 10.

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