FIFA 11 Review

08 Oct 2010 at 15:58:19 by John Robertson
Systems used to review this title: (360)

Having already cast our critical eye over PES 2011 we now have two games in which to compare FIFA 11 against; FIFA 10 as well as Konami’s offering.  It’s like this; FIFA 11 is a great game.  The combined manager and Be a Pro mode, improved AI, more realistic passing and the playable goalies adding up to an experience that trumps last year’s game and, if you’re looking for a realistic representation of the sport, outplays PES 2011.

It is, however, slightly disappointing that things aren’t even better.  Despite the improvements, FIFA 11 is only marginally superior to FIFA 10 and almost feels as though we’re playing a stop gap for something even better next year. 

Still, as was the case last season, almost everything on offer here is fantastic.  Most importantly the on-field action has seen a number of tweaks that enhance the realism and further increase the chance of it being mistaken for the real thing by a casual passer-by. 

Passing has been revamped and now requires considerably more thought and skill to executive effectively; ridding the series of the mechanical, guided missile feel it’s suffered from in the past.  You now need to be much more precise with your aiming and power, the ball no longer homing in on the tnks 9ou’veakd yowers toe$b aiming at.  The days of hitting every teammate with every pass and through ball are gone, creating a more dynamic, authentic flow to matches.

The improved defensive AI makes passing more of a challenge as the opposition are now more adept at identifying likely passing channels and blocking them off before you can take advantage of them.  This leads to you utilising the long pass option much more regularly which helps players such as Barcelona’s Xavi and Real Madrid’s Xabi Alonso come to the fore and impact the game in a way that’s much more closely linked to how they play for their clubs in real life.

This leads us on to the new ‘Personality +’ feature which promises to demonstrate player’s attributes and abilities more accurately.  This means that Messi is great at tricks and attempts them a lot when playing against him, Gerrard is fantastic at long shots and the aforementioned Xavi is an exemplary passer of the ball. 

Surely though this is the same as last year?  I remember scoring from 30-yards with Gerrard on numerous occasions last year, ditto when it comes to tricks with Messi.  Top players are still not truly unique or exuding ‘personality’, Messi feels almost exactly the same Ronaldo and Terry the same as Vidic.  Personality + is less of a new feature and more of a new marketing buzz-phrase.

Playing as a goalkeeper however is a genuinely new feature.  Thankfully the controls have been kept simple, diving assigned to the right-stick and sprawling at a player’s feet, rushing out to attack a cross and calling for a pass mapped to the face buttons.  This allows you to concentrate on your positioning and timing which are the keys to success. You’re given help in the form of a circle that darts around in front of your goal, indicating where the AI believes is the optimum position, and a line that traces out where the ball has travelled from and is travelling to (essential to see the ball from the behind the goal viewpoint).

In principal everything works great when playing as a goalie, it’s just a shame that the matches are incredibly dull when playing alone due to the frustrating lack of goal mouth action between AI controlled teams who seem more than happy to pass the ball around the middle of the park for 90 minutes. 

All ...

Comment