FIFA 10 - The best football game ever?
I'll start off with the controls. If you've played the previous games then you will be immediately at home with the controls, but the sheer depth of controls is amazing. It is worth learning all the controls to excel at the game, but if you can't learn all the controls you shouldn't worry as a basic knowledge of the essential buttons will win you matches on Live and offline. The game is probably a little easier than FIFA09, and so you may want to turn your difficulty up to semi-pro or professional before you start playing. A number of key improvements have been made, the most obvious of which are tackles and 360 degree dribbling. In the previous games, if you made a tackle you could fight for the ball but one player would have control the whole time, or then have it taken off them immediately. Now the players can charge for the ball, and it will switch between them, back and forth, for maybe 10 seconds. This might sound bad, but if you use a player like Heskey or Drogba then they will be obviously stronger than someone like Jermain Defoe. The 360 degree dribbling is very well implemented too. Rather than be limited to 8 directions, you will go in exactly the same direction as you move the left analogue stick. Someone like Theo Walcott and full pelt can nudge the ball just 10 degrees left and beat the defender. It truly feels like football. Speed and strength are important, but neither is more important than the other. They're balanced perfectly.
In terms of modes, there's two new – one offline and one on. Offline is Virtual Pro, and online is Pro Club Championship. I'll start with Virtual Pro. When you load the game up, you go onto Virtual Pro on the menu for the first time and you will create your player. You can design his face down to the last detail, or you can upload some pictures to the internet and download your generated 'Game Face' into the game. After creating your player, you will have a kind of virtual sticker book, and each sticker provides a boost to one of your attributes, or will provide you with some more kit. Pull off all of the 1* skill moves and you'll unlock the 2* skill moves. Playing games generally unlock achievements, so the more you play the better you get. If you can't get to the game, you can buy a 'stat boost' from the store for 80 points for five matches or 160 points for twenty matches. Your form will change as well. If you have a bad game, expect to have to work hard to get out of your bad form. Play well and you'll breeze through the game. The other new mode, Pro Club Championship is the same as Online Clubs last year – only this time using your Virtual Pro. Then two go hand in hand. Manager Mode has been improved a lot – the transfer market is getting there, teams will make transfers although some values are off and some transfers are unrealistic – and tables will be realistic. Expect the top four in the Premiership to be in the top six in your first game. It's still limited to 15 seasons, but, to be honest, you can't really play much more. That's plenty of time. Be A Pro has improved as well – you can use your Virtual Pro and you can dribble past defenders slightly easier this time around. Unfortunately it's still limited to four seasons, which is a letdown.
The sound is an interesting one. The commentary is the best yet in a football game, but the crowds still lack atmosphere. You can hardly hear chants above general crowd noise, and they still take a few seconds to react after a goal. The music is obviously down to personal preference, but most of the music is unheard of before this game came out so you might not enjoy it. The graphics have improved, and they're up there with the best. Some player faces are incorrect, but they are definitely recognisable at the very least.
If you're a football fan you'll play this a lot. I mean A LOT. Maybe a couple of games a day. You'll keep coming back to it. Unfortunately though, it lacks the addictiveness of FIFA 09, so you won't be having any all-nighters. You see, by making it more realistic it seems a bit more boring, more bland. But you'll still play.
This is definitely a great buy for football fans, although for others you're probably best sticking with last year's game.