The keeper AI can also result in some frankly baffling scenarios. While clearly human error will result in the odd goalkeeping howler in the real life game, we’ve witnessed a few too many in FIFA 10. They tend to occur from crosses that come in towards the keeper’s front post where, if anything, he should have no problem keeping the ball out of the goal. Perhaps we’ve just been unlucky but seeing your goalie hopelessly dive across goal to let in a goal at his front post – from a cross, not a shot – is pretty frustrating. Nevertheless, on the whole, the gameplay refinements are very welcome and EA Canada has done a good job in making FIFA 10 play a more realistic game of football than anything else on the market.

But what about the 30% of innovation we were promised? Well, there are definitely some new ideas at work in FIFA 10, none moreso than in the new Virtual Pro mode. This allows you to create your own player, like Be a Pro did in 08 and 09, only this time there’s a more rewarding progression system at work. Not only can you take your Virtual Pro online, you can also use him in any of the offline game modes and, depending on your performance in matches, you’ll be treated with skill advancement and unlockables. There is an Accomplishment system which rewards you for different types of play. For example, beat a defender in a match and you might be rewarded with an accomplishment and an unlockable accessory (so long as you’re playing on semi-pro difficulty and above). Unlockables also include traits like Crowd Favourite which alters how the crowd react to you when you’re on the ball or Long Throw which, surprisingly, gives you more power on your throw ins. It’s a nice, well-implemented system which is also well-presented with the Accomplishments listed in a Panini-style sticker album, which any football fan who grew up in the 80s will immediately feel at home with.

However, while EA has made incisive forward moves in some areas, in others it’s still knocking the ball around aimlessly. One of the main problems with the last game’s Manager Mode was that it never really felt like you were taking part in a realistic footballing world – you were simply playing game after game and keeping an eye on the league. It’s something that EA has addressed to an extent, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement. You’re less likely to see Man Utd and Chelsea languishing at the bottom of the league and you shouldn’t expect to see Wayne Rooney going on a free transfer to Sunderland but more needs to be done in terms of the presentation. We want to see which teams are on the rise and which are on the fall, we want to see highlights from the week, we want to see which players are in form and, most importantly, we want to feel the tension when we play the biggest games of the season. It may be a little churlish to criticise such an excellent football game for not making huge leaps forward in every area, but Manager Mode has been stagnating for the past couple of years and it would be nice to feel a little more involved in the season.

But, even though it’s more refinement than innovation, this is not an EA Sports annual update of old. The numerous gameplay tweaks are, in the vast majority of cases, very welcome and there’s no doubt that FIFA plays a game of football unmatched by anything else on the market. With solid online gameplay – and of course, the wonderful 10 v 10 mode to boot - FIFA 10 is clearly the best football title EA Sports has produced and we look forward to seeing where the franchise goes from here. 

Comment

Add a comment using your Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google or OpenID accounts.
blog comments powered by Disqus