Good adition to the series with small new features and tweaks which add up to make a great FIFA game.
FIFA 11 has some cool new personalisation features which should really have been addressed in FIFA 9 or 8. The ability to add your own tracks to the game is a great adition as you now don't have to repeatadly listen to tracks you don't like. You simply add the tracks you want to the console and it's as simple as that.
Perhaps FIFA 11's best update to the series is to the Manager Mode. The menu has been done up with much nicer asthetic appeal and seems to be easier to gain access to information such as player's stats, teams, transfers etc. Career mode has also been updated where you can choose to be simply manager, a player or both in the same menu which adds to the new 'easy access' feel to the game. there is no longer the 'form' of players in career mode which i think is a positive as it meant good players could be drastically worse just because the game decided it wanted them to. Their actual form seemed to never impact what the game decided it was. This year this is gone to a much more subtle way where a players form only goes up or down a few numbers. The manager reputation seems to have been sorted out as well which is also a bonus as in FIFA 10 you could easily reach 4/5 stars in one season, but it would take another 3 or 4 till you actually reached 5 stars. this year you go up a star or a star and a half depending on whether you met all of the club's goals or not. Another cool feature of manager mode is the ability to determine the ratio between the transfer budget and player's wages which just adds to the realistic feel as well.
FIFA 11 has also seen some improvements in the gameplay. Perhaps the most significant addition to the whole game is the ability to play as the goalkeeper, even being able to play a career as one. However, this isn't actually that fun and I seriously doubt if anyone even completes one season as a keeper. But it is fun to try a couple of times and is best played when online in a 12 v 12 match. Another large addition to the game is what EA have called "Personality +" which is actually very good and once again adds to the realism of the game. It is how each player carries out a move or how good his touch is or how good they are at shooting based on how the player is in real life. For example, Ronaldo when reciveing a lobbed pass will have a closer touch than a bad player. The players also run, dribble and behave as they do in real life which is very good and must have taken some time to put together, as I haven't found a player who is misrepresented in the game.
Another new and great feature is the addition of player's being given special atributes if they are good at a certain thing. For example, in the squads menu when a player is highlighted, you will be able to see if a player excells in an area of the game. Say, Pyol, who has "strength" and "tackler" and Ronaldo has "speedster" and "dribbler". You can easily see how good a player is just by looking at these icons, gold ones being better than silver.
Pro Passing is another feature first seen in FIFA 11. it is a new passing system where the gamer's own accuracy with the control pad, as well as the situation and skills of the players on the pitch, determines the accuracy of each pass which is easy enough for a new-comer to master quickly. If not, along with many other assists, it can be easlily accessed in the in game menu as well as the main menu.
Celebrations have been simplified and there are no longer separate cutscenes. Instead the in-game camera is used but doesn't affected the overall presentation at all, if anything adding extra realism again.
360 degree fighting for the ball is also seen for the first time which is a great featurewhich really shows off a strong player's ability to push people off the ball as well as how poor a weak one is for fighting for the ball.
Online is much the same as previous years except easier and quicker to hop into a game with friends or another player who has similar experience as you.
There are no real flaws in FIFA 11 except for occassional glitches where you won't see a player for a second during a cutscene, but these are rare and shouldn't put you off buying the game. If you are a FIFA fan, or someone looking to try the franchise for the first time, you can't go wrong with FIFA 11. It will have you playing for hours on end and coming back for more the next day.