IGN: FIFA Soccer 10 Preview Glory, glory EA Sports.
by Martin Robinson, IGN UK
UK, June 3, 2009 - Last year was a pivotal moment in the ongoing duel between FIFA and PES, with EA Sports conclusively taking the spoils with FIFA 09 – arguably the greatest take on the sport to date – while Konami continued to struggle to bring its series in-line with the current generation. Backing up 09's success is an impressive set of figures; 250 million games played to date online with the equivalent of 300 full Premier League seasons played every day, some 4,038 years of consecutive football played out on Xbox 360 and PS3 and a Metacritic score that's a clean thirteen points clear of its rival.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that EA Sports would be happy to rest on its laurels now it's good work has definitively paid off. You'd be quite wrong; before we're given an inexplicably early play of this year's contender at a glitzy press event in the heart of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, a typically assured Peter Moore takes to the stage and delivers his hit-list for FIFA 10. Having reached a Metacritic rating of 87 last time out – no mean feat for a yearly sports franchise – Moore has set FIFA's Vancouver development studio the daunting goal of breaking the mythical 90 barrier.
It's a tall order, but that's not even the most impressive figure that Moore and EA Sports are chasing. 'FIFA will tell me when I go to Zurich that there are 2 billion football fans,' says Moore, 'and yet we only sell 10 million copies of FIFA.'
Anyone who sees sales of 10 million as an underachievement is clearly not short on ambition, and it's this same ambition that's propelled FIFA to its current status as cream of the football crop while its rivals tread increasingly stagnant waters. Since its debut on the current generation, FIFA has steadily become nothing less than the definitive article, the Vancouver team refining what's become an almost eerie facsimile of football which EA then garnishes with a multitude of official kits and league licenses.
Breaking the ninety barrier will be no easy task, a fact acknowledged by Moore; 'We're bound by the rules of the game, the players, the stadiums the leagues and the federations – we don't have a lot of leeway to innovate and come up with boss characters and fantasy levels.'
Without any such leeway, the answer comes in more authenticity, something that FIFA continues to strive for step by step. This year's improvements are all about iteration – there's no bold claims about the number of changes as there was for FIFA 09, and rather a focus on what's been refined. Fan feedback has dictated many of the improvements on the pitch, resulting in a game that feels like a considerable improvement over last year's effort.
From a distance it's admittedly hard to see the difference – though with the code we're witness to only 45% complete, expect to see more bells and whistles strapped to the game's visuals come release – but going hands-on reveals where the adjustments have occurred. There's a multitude of small details that enhance the feel; players off the ball behave in a more realistic fashion by displaying more urgency, trapping and close ball control has been improved significantly while player collisions now have more heft and depth – but the real change is born from one single feature.
360 degree dribbling makes its debut to the series, freeing players from the confines of eight way control. On paper it might seem like a small adjustment, but on pitch it lends the action a whole world of added fluidity, making past FIFA games feel incredibly rigid. Returning to FIFA 09 for a quick game after the press event felt like a genuine step back – which is not an indictment on last year's game, rather a commendation of how effective the new feature is.
Off the pitch, it's a similar tale of new features nestling with FIFA mainstays that reflect the Vancouver team's approach to the game, with 70% of their time committed to refinements leaving 30% to spend on innovation. The changes are evident from the very off, with extra options now available in the game that prefaces FIFA's menus - it's now possible to practice free kicks and set plays, ensuring the mode is now much more than a neat way of hiding loading screens.
Most of the changes have been reserved for the Manager Mode, which has undergone such an overhaul that it's almost a new feature in its own right. 50 improvements have been made, making what felt like an afterthought in previous iterations is now the most comprehensive part of the single player game.
Transfer logic has been heavily improved - no longer will star players be found making bizarre decisions to leave big clubs, with decisions now made using a combination of both club and player prestige - subsequently, the transfer market will be a much more believable place.
There's still more to come, with details about the game's online mode and it's popular Be a Pro option still being kept under wraps; today's hands-on has just given us a taste of what to expect of the next FIFA, and it's a tantalising one at that. But with that target of a 90 score on Metacritic, we can't help but think that it may take a little more to edge FIFA 10 into that fabled zone.
The game's producer David Rutter is understandably weary of such questions; 'We're doing a lot of stuff that matters to people, and it worries me that what matters to people doesn't necessarily matter to a reviewer, or isn't sensational,' comes his passionate response, 'What I will say is when people buy the game and play it, they will get a brilliant game.'
He's right; when it's released it's looking highly likely that FIFA 10 will be the best football game on the market, and it's going to take something quite spectacular from Seabass and the PES team to oust FIFA from its recently won throne; and if today's evidence is anything to go by, it's well on course of fulfilling at least one of Peter Moore's big aspirations.
IGN: FIFA Soccer 10 Preview 
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
The FIFA10 Thread 
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by HunsingerUK 
