One of the best soccer games I have ever played!
-Fantastic graphics and animation:
When I was playing, my wife entered the room and she thought I was watching football. When she looked me sitting in the chair with the controller in my hand, she was shocked! About the reality of fifa.
I was too. Not ever have I seen such fluid animation of the players and such beautiful graphics for a football game. The only letdown is that the game shows some slow-down on the field at times. This happened not too often, but when it does, it is a bit annoying. And I am talking about offline play.
Most players look very realistic, but the less known clubs have players that do not look that good, and some don't match at all. I wished EA had spend a little more time at that.
Be a pro: This is a great feature I have not seen before (I didn't play fifa 08), but I must say I like it. Creating your own player (eg yourself) and trying to make it to a worldclass team after starting at reserves is a nice idea, I just think that it will be boring for some gamers. That is because you don't have the ball all the time, but you spend more time finding some free space, taking your position etc. I personally like it though!
Gameplay: The gameplay is the real gem in this game. The speed is not too fast, which was the main problem with PES 2008, and the players move very fluidly. If you master the controls, you really feel that you control the situation. Also, the ball rolls very realistic as well. The main action will be played on the midfield, you can't outrun your opponent, so this is a game for the patient player. Especially with the fact that scoring a goal is very difficult!
The new custom-tactics feature is a nice addition to the more than complete gameplay, as it lets you customize the behaviour of your team, such as pressing, agressiveness and the number of shooting attempts.
Conclusion:
good points:
-fantastic graphics
-crowd effects
-gameplay, especially the pace
-many customizing options
bad points:
-some slowdown from time to time (offline)
-very hard to score goals
-less known players are badly detailed.
I'm sorry that I didn't write anything about the onlineplay, because my connection has some issues at the moment. But Fifa has so many features offline, it is clear you can't go wrong with this one. As I mentioned before, I played PES 2009 with a friend, and the difference in quality is very clear. Go FIFA!