First look at FIFA 11 shows this time it’s personal

Right now, soccer should be on your brain. The World Cup is only two days away! Well, if you’ve somehow kept isolated from all the tournament hype, EA has a reason for you to devote a couple brainwaves to the sport by unveiling some details on this fall’s FIFA 11. Oh, and there are some pretty HD screenshots too.

EA’s announcement gives us some info on the new features and changes to 2011′s edition of my most-spun Xbox 360 disc. These new features are few though, so here’s to hoping EA is keeping the deets on other improvements and tweaks under wraps for now. Until EA releases that giant blog post with 77 bullet points of every development tweak and nerf, here’s what they’ve let us know.

FIFA 11 will debut something called “Personality+” – a system of reflecting players’ real-life traits and characteristics within the game. This attempt to “reinvent player authenticity,” as EA puts it, will try to translate the specific skills of real-world stars (based on their style, size, shape, etc.) into the game. We’ll see about that. “Personality+ is the evolution of individual distinctiveness that sees a footballer’s abilities on the pitch mirrored authentically in our game, creating individual personalities in FIFA 11,” said Executive Producer Kaz Makita. “We have reached a level of sophistication within our game engine where footballers in our game will behave and perform as true individuals.”

The other change mentioned in the announcement (ahem, the ONLY other change mentioned) is a new passing system coined Pro Passing. Something EA tweaks each and every year, we’ll let them explain how passing will differ in FIFA 11: “FIFA 11 introduces new Pro Passing where pass accuracy is determined by a gamer’s ability on the control pad, and player skill, situation and urgency on the pitch, yielding a deeply rewarding passing system. Poor decisions or over/under striking the ball will mean error-prone outcomes. New types of passes such as swerve passes will enable players to make a safer and more effective play.”

EA’s official announcement can be found here. Keep scrolling down for a gallery of FIFA 11 screens as well.

[nggallery id=181]

Got a news tip? Send it to press@mmomfg.com and we'll shower you with love!