More FIFA 10 Details Emerge

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

EA Sports has today put out a FIFA Soccer 10 fact sheet detailing some of the changes and enhancements in the next installment of the world’s most popular EA Sports title. And who better to distill this information than I, your humble football fanatical servant?

There aren’t many groundbreaking new bits of information in the document released by EA today, but there are plenty of juicy details into the changes that have been hinted at so far. We know the franchise was going to refine dribbling with a 360-degree dribbling system, but now we see that more refinements to attacking play are coming in the 2010 version. FIFA is now touting something called Freedom in Physical Play, allowing for a much less predictable process of attacking defenders 1-on-1.

Another aspect of FIFA 09 that some (including our very own Dustin) yearned for refinement was the Practice Arena. FIFA 10′s Practice Arena can be used to work on set pieces (even the capability to script out your own designs) and can include more than just one outfield player and a keeper. Dustin should be happy. I swear he spends more time dicking around in the Arena than in actual games…which is probably why I beat him so often.

EA is also touting upgrades to FIFA’s AI, citing improvements in player urgency, trapping intelligence, advanced positioning, and goalkeeper intelligence. To be honest though, they talk about upgrading AI every year and never get it totally right. I’ve accepted this as inevitable.

If you read my last FIFA post on the cover athletes, you know that FIFA’s Manager Mode can sometimes drive me up a wall (FA Cup games are MIDWEEK, never on the same day as a Premiership match!). Thankfully, EA is making noise about a total revamp of Manager Mode, citing 50 major upgrades to this game mode. Some of them couldn’t have come at a better time as they are issues that have been plaguing this series for years:

Player Growth – with enough money player development can be upgraded to the point where you can turn any young player into a superstar within a few years. It cheapens the experience a bit. But EA says they’ve changed this to better reflect important factors in a players development like age and environment.
Transfers – YES! Thank you, EA. Player transfers have been out of control in the past few installments of FIFA. As long as you’ve got the money, a crap team like the New York Red Bulls could buy Kaka or Robinho. That just aint right. But EA says that several factors will weigh into the process of aquiring players in FIFA 10: club prestige, availability of similar players, and competition from other clubs.

All in all, the fact that they are updating Manager Mode so robustly and adding 360-degree dribbling will likely mean last year’s superb game will be even better. I can’t wait to dish out a few online beatdowns to the other staff members here at MMOMFG, despite their cries for mercy.

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