As close as it gets to the real thing!
First of all the game is very realistic, it's hard to score and you can't fly past the defenders as easily as you used to. Which is a good thing. You have to time your jumps, passes and shots in order to get good results. Also for PES players; as if EA knew that more PES players were going to get FIFA, you can assign the exact same button configuration as PES, so you don't feel uncomfortable with the controls. (a nice detail I wanted to share)
The movements seem very lifelike and you don't see anything out of the ordinary as far as the movement goes. The player drops according to the direction of the impact. The tricks are fairly easy but in the tension of the game I think more experienced players would remember to do these. The graphics are beautiful as always with FIFA. The gameplay is not as fast as WE games which I think adds to the reality, seeing open players waving their hands for open spaces, choosing the way of goal celebrations are but little details which takes FIFA even closer to the real game.
The licensing is once more taken very seriously by EA. I don't think they have left any unlicensed league in the game. And they are very up to date with the recent transfers, news etc.
There seems to be little problems with online play though. You can find random matches quiet easily, but if you want to create a custom match you keep getting (well that's what happened to me at least) "the EA servers are not available right now" or " the max. amount of lobbies are reached" I think EA will sort that out shortly because most of the world wwill be playing this game in my opinion.
Saying this makes me a bit sad but I've never played a PES game at this quality. Being a former PES fan FIFA has won over my heart and I don't think I will be getting PES this year since you have got everything the sport has to offer in FIFA 09.
I would really recommend to all the lovers of the game if they want to experience a real thrill of a football.