FIFA 09 the best yet?

User Rating: 8.5 | FIFA 09: World Class Soccer X360
By Gamer-900 | Review Date:
The last couple FIFA titles have been gems, but it wasn't until UEFA Euro 2008 was released that we knew FIFA 09 would be something special. It was Euro 08's gameplay that showed signs of finally being on-par with the depth of the FIFA licensing, and, more recently, the depth of modes and features off of the pitch. EACA took that juicy pill and ran with it for FIFA 09, as the gameplay shows some real maturity. Characters display nary a stutter as they move from animation-to-animation-a result of reworked coding technology that plays like the better last-gen soccer games, but still carries the visual weight of an HD affair. This new animation tech has made pretty much every aspect of individual player control more authentic. Passing, dribbling, headers, traps and even shots are pretty close to having that organic feel; the user's inputs via the controller resulting in a production that looks a lot like soccer on the tele.

The near-60fps action of FIFA 09 is made sweeter with tweaked player- and ball-physics algorithms. This affects nearly every in-game frame in a positive way, with players carrying more "heft" in proportion to their playing weights, balls that die in open space depending on the spin that's been imparted (which can be tweaked post-shot, by the way) and player-to-player collisions that no longer feel or look like something out of a fighting game. But it's the jostling over airborne balls that benefits the most from these enhancements to the physics engine. The on-screen reticle gives the "jostlers" an idea of where the rock will land, of course, but the pushing and shoving-not to mention the result-is more realistic and, more importantly fairer. Big boys can move little boys out of the way, but skilled players can get airborne more easily and steal the possession in mid-air with a properly timed face-button mash. The revamped jostles pay dividends in both human-vs.-human and human-vs.-CPU contests, but the experience is especially rewarding against the competitive AI since it actually makes the confrontations fairer, as opposed to CPU jostlers that could win any clash they wanted to in games past.

AI on both sides of the ball is quite polished, which, again, gives FIFA 09 an organic, true-to-real-match feel. There's still a bit of bias towards individual playmakers (on both O and D), but for the most part, you'll have to control the pace, build momentum and use most of your eleven players to beat the stingy goalkeeps (more on them in a sec). A new team-tactics system enables users to do what they can to match their playing styles with both the team's "default" (what stance they normally take in competition) and what the CPU tendencies ultimately are. Much of the aforementioned individualism can be tuned out with the eleven tactical sliders available in the Team Management tab. The Custom Team Tactics system is still probably a bit basic for Total Club Manager mavens, but it's worlds above what has been offered in any of FIFA 09's predecessors.

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