FIFA 10

It’s that time of year again: the fall.  The time when every Starbucks order I make is for a Pumpkin Spice Latte and I go through sixers of Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale faster than you can say “Autumn.” Most importantly, however, it’s the time of year when a new version of FIFA comes out. For football fanatics like us at MMOMFG.com, the all-too-brief time between summer and winter has become synonymous with EA’s launch of their new FIFA Soccer title. Each year, as we count down the days leading up to release, we wonder what will be changed and tweaked, what new features will we see. But most of all, we wonder “Is it any good?”

If you’re wondering just that, read on. Yesterday, FIFA 10 hit the shelves. Today, we review it:

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What’s Good

Gameplay me a tune: Without a doubt, the best part of FIFA 10 is the way it plays on the pitch. The much-hyped 360° dribbling and enhanced Artificial Intelligence, as it turns out, are way more than just marketing messages. These improvements make FIFA 10 feel light years beyond last year’s iteration. There’s a feeling of control in your hands like never before. On-the-pitch play has achieved a level of realism that in the past, gamers had to turn to Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer- I chalk this dramatic improvement up to a combination of the 360° dribbling capability and the highly-improved AI. For many more details on the gameplay improvements in FIFA 10, check out the FIFA 10 Demo First Impressions we posted a while back.

Virtual me: FIFA 10 unveils a new mode called Virtual Pro. You basically create a pro you can play across any game mode in FIFA. The real differentiator here is how your Virtual Pro improves.  The only way to raise your stats is by satisfying in-game or in-Arena achievements. The stat boosting awards given for these are relevant to the achievement itself – for instance, curling in a free kick gives a bonus to your Curl stat, beating a player with a skill move increases your Dribbling – meaning that your pro progresses and improves at what you do best or most often.

Ho ho, what’s this?: FIFA 10 includes a new online game mode called Pro Club Championship. In this mode you take your Virtual Pro online to compete against and alongside friends.  This is a MASSIVE addition to the game. Not only is it quick and easy to jump into a game with 10 or 20 strangers and get your feet wet, but you can form a club with your friends and easily find matchups against other clubs of similar size and skill level.  This game mode is like, for all intents and purposes, a potent little crack rock sitting on a disc.  It’s that addictive; we absolutely love it.

Master and Commander of the Pitch: This year’s Manager Mode has seen a drastic face lift. This is a mode that’s been plagued by bugs and design flaws in years past, but it seems EA has really listened to user feedback this time around.  Some of the welcome changes include a more realistic transfer system,  the addition of hot and cold streaks that affect your lineup, and improved tournament scheduling.  With the latter, EA has fixed the bug wherein sometimes a league match and a cup match are scheduled on the same day, something that has driven us crazy for years (it would never, ever happen in real life).  Manager mode now helps with your lineups too: whether playing every game yourself or simulating them, the computer conveniently shifts your lineup so that valuable players get the rest they need and youth/reserve players get some playing time.  This is significant, as micro-managing lineups due to fitness had to be done for each and every game in years past.  Lastly, Manager mode offers new visuals through the initial menus providing the manager with all the info they need to appropriately run a club and get ready for each week’s game.  Did we mention that you can also name your club’s stadium correctly instead of using the generic stadium name?  Very nice.

Dead ball buffet: This year’s Arena Mode contains some new options – you can play the generic one on one, as well as new stuff like Create A Set Piece and full team practice. Create A Set Piece is very intriguing – in years past the player has often been forced to blast a free kick from 40 yards out because the computer never tended to be very creative near the box.  That’s all changed now as you can use a recording system to time runs, leave defenders back to defend the counter, and even place dummy runners in the mix. EA went above and beyond placing control in the player’s hands this year. The only gripe, is that you can’t use the set plays online; however, this likely is to avoid any glitch set pieces that may weaken online experience during games.

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What’s Bad

My Recorded-At-An-Earlier-Date Season: FIFA 10 introduces a game mode called My Live Season. It builds off last year’s Adidas Live Season (called Live Season 2.0 in 2010), an add-on that gave players weekly stat updates for all players in a given league, reflecting their current real-world form. My Live Season integrates this with a manager mode-like setup where you play a club’s season as it is scheduled in real life. This sounds like it could be cool, especially for a Liverpool fan like me who can’t believe we’ve lost four in a row. However, you have to buy the Live Season for the league of your choice from the FIFA Store before getting started. As of writing this, the FIFA Store has been down since launch so I’ve been unable to download or play this game mode. It sounds like it could be cool – but it’s busted, so it gets negatively reviewed. Simple as that.

This looks familiar: I was really hoping for a revamp of the wallpapers and menu aesthetics with this game. The standard translucent black panes of info with a slowly panning image of an empty practice arena behind it hasn’t changed in 3 years. Sure some menu screens now have images of players lighting up on side of the screen, but this is not a major change. On the other hand, at least we don’t have to look at a close up shot of Ronaldinho’s pock-marked horseface on the home menu screen anymore. That man is just straight ugly.

Be the same: The Be A Pro: Seasons mode in FIFA has not changed one bit since last year’s edition. While they’ve introduced the Virtual Pro which can be played in this mode, the Seasons campaign for Be A Pro is woefully light on features. The four-season cap followed by a generically named cup tournament that’s supposed to resemble the World Cup is still in there without change. The seemingly arbitrary transfer options that pop up between seasons hasn’t changed.  Club seasons don’t account for any club tournaments like the Champions League or FA Cup. This is pretty weak, if it weren’t for the fact that Virtual Pro is distracting me from this lack of improvement I’d be throwing chairs on to the pitch.

Global shrinkage: FIFA 10 doesn’t contain nearly enough national teams. This has been the case for a few years now, with only slight changes coming to the lineup of countries represented each year. This year, however, there has been zero change to the number of national teams you can play as. This is pretty disappointing. Where are African powerhouses like Ghana, Egypt, and The Ivory Coast or my favorite eastern team, Japan? What about big players on our side of the pond like Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica, and Honduras?

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Worth Remembering:
Playing online with your virtual pro alongside a group of friends is freakin’ awesome. This brings a new level of both teamwork and competition to FIFA. The possibilities for online tournaments and leagues with this mode give me goosebumps. If you and your friends have started a team, let’s play.  Look up the official MMOMFG.com team – The Fark City Farkers – on FIFA’s Pro Club Championship mode and challenge us, or join us!

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Worth Forgetting:
FIFA’s new GameFace option has fallen flat on it’s…game face. GameFace lets you upload a real picture of your face to EAFootballWorld.com, import it into the game, and apply it to your Virtual Pro. I can’t take advantage of this option, as the photo uploader on the EA site doesn’t work for Macs – super duper. But, if you check out some of the in-game results of GameFace uploads, you may be better off skipping this as a whole. Check out the forums for some pretty funny results and MMOMFG staffer Justin below:

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FIFA 10 is the best version of the series yet. Sure, that’s said every year – but we definitely think that this year’s improvements are bigger and better than the change over from 08 to 09. In fact, the addition of 360° dribbling and a much higher computer player IQ are two of the biggest innovations FIFA has seen in years. These do more for the realism of the game than any new game mode or feature can. These two improvements also bring FIFA head and shoulders above Pro Evo. You simply can’t argue that Pro Evo features better gameplay/controls than FIFA anymore. There’s a reason why FIFA 10 is setting records for EA Sports titles, it is that good. Whether you’re a football fanatic or a casual fan of the franchise, FIFA 10 is a must.

*Images via EA Sports

Related posts:

1. More FIFA 10 Details Emerge
2. FIFA 10 Demo – First Impressions
3. FIFA 10 Ultimate Team – Impressions
4. Check out FIFA 2010’s Virtual Pro: Direct from EA Sport’s Mike Takla
5. Left 4 Dead 2 MMOMFG Review