FIFA Soccer 10
	Genre: Sports (Soccer) Developer: EA Canada
Publisher Region Released Electronic Arts NA 10/20/2009 Electronic Arts EU 10/??/2009 Electronic Arts JP 10/??/2009 Electronic Arts AU 10/??/2009
AKA: FIFA 10 (EU), FIFA 10: World Class Soccer (JP)

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Staff Review

Review by Gary Hartley
February 03, 2010

It would be easy to tell you, my adoring public, that FIFA 10 is essentially FIFA 09 dressed up in a new layer of finery and with updated team rosters, and, to be fair, it wouldn’t be completely untrue. It would also be like telling the most informed of you that the sky is blue and the majority of people in a SquareEnix game have a horrific, tragic past. Is there a world of difference between this year’s title and the lasts? No. Has that stopped me from playing the game on an almost nightly basis? No.

After years of fiddling around with their formula, EA Sports have finally managed to make a football game so open to interpretation that it’s more like a grass-covered blank canvas for the player to do with as he pleases. There’s no limit to the styles of play or interlinking tactic to be learnt, abused and mastered, from playing boring early-90’s Wimbledon route-one long balls, to early 2000 Arsenal chain passing, the game will lend itself perfectly to your style of play. Strangle the midfield with an extra player and leave a lone striker; throw in a sweeper to protect your defence; steal a defender away to give you an extra player up front -- these are not new options in the grand scheme of football games, but they’ve never been executed better.

The above not only describes this year’s FIFA, but last year’s effort also. The changes are subtle, not overly obvious, but vital in rounding FIFA ‘10 out as being top of the pile. Players put under pressure don’t always pull out the perfect shot, pass or cross like they were wont to do in last year’s rendition, meaning that a beaten defender doggedly chasing a striker has some worth, while, last year, as soon as he was passed, he was obsolete. It’s a small change, but a significant one; last year, I scored a lot of goals by running down the flank and looping perfect crosses into the box that I could then head in at ease. This year, I need to work harder for such chances; it’s no longer a given that my cross won’t be hooked out of play or into the goalkeeper’s waiting gloves. Other aspects such as player collision have been reworked too. Not only can free kicks be given away for barging players off the ball now, but the ball behaves more realistically, bobbling between shins and able to end up anywhere instead of just sticking to the defending player’s foot. An unlucky defender can see an unfortunate bounce change a well-timed tackle into a more advantageous attacking option for the player he was trying to halt.

Updated, too, are the showboat options that allow you to pull off a number of fancy tricks should you feel like rubbing your opposition's nose in it. Which is something I quite enjoy. Ask the guy whose ‘keeper I beat last week by flicking the ball up over both our heads with my heel then tapped it nonchalantly into the net if I’m ever going to let him forget it. The ability to drag the ball away, fake a pass or a shot or just plain show off may not always work in your favour, but they’re there to abuse.

Not content to just update the core of their title, EA have also added more meat to many of the extra options, such as the management mode and the thoroughly enjoyable “Be a Pro” mode, that lets you create a player from scratch, include him in any team of your liking with woeful stats, then start his long climb up the ladder to competency and, eventually, superstardom. My own character now sits on the subs bench of Manchester United where a dejected Michael Carrick has to wear the no. 32 shirt since I pinched 16 off him. This year, completing set goals such as scoring a hat-trick or making a number of assists sit side by side with other tasks like covering so much ground in a single game or tackling a player who has previously fouled you three times to not only bolster your statistics, but add to a checklist of challenges ticked off with a virtual recreation of an old-school sticker album.

Everything from the already stellar FIFA ‘09 foundation has been built up and improved for the new title. Everything from the already commendable size of the commentary’s database of phrases and comments (complete with new moans about how hard Drogba finds it to stay on his feet and why Scholes even bothers trying to tackle people anymore or look surprised when he’s booked shortly thereafter) to the vastly shortened load times. The action on pitch is faster, the tactics more viable and very little is left unexplored. The referee will even miss fouls, be inconsistent with bookings and red cards, and make incorrect calls of offside from time to time and, while that annoys the hell out of me when it doesn’t go my way, I can’t help but hugely appreciate the way EA have shoehorned an element of human error into their computer-controlled official.

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