FIFA Soccer 11 Updated Hands-On

If you've been following our previous coverage of FIFA 11, you might already be familiar with some of the improvements that have been announced since the release of the last FIFA. For starters, passing has been improved to the extent that you have to be much more aware of how much strength and finesse you put behind a pass. If you put too much leg behind it, a downfield player might have trouble trapping or handling the ball, whereas if it's too weak, it will almost always be intercepted. We found that simply trying to ping-pong the ball around the field didn't work as it might have in previous iterations.

Individual player personalities also factor into the equation, since players generally behave much as they would in real life. For example, a player who is agile is probably going to feel quite a bit different from a teammate who's a bit slower and brutish. This emphasis on individual players also extends to the player models themselves. The development team has gone to great lengths to ensure that the majority of players look just like their real-life counterparts in terms of build and stature, so it should be easier to point out the more well-known players almost immediately. Likewise, improved AI is another major focal point in FIFA Soccer 11--the AI players are capable of learning trick shots and other moves and adding them to their repertoire when appropriate.

Most of those improvements are gameplay related, but there are a lot of mode enhancements and additions as well. FIFA Soccer 11 will have a FIFA Theater mode where you can save, view, and even upload replays from your matches for other players to see. Additionally, customization plays a huge role across the board. Not only can you add your own soundtrack to the game, but you can create entirely new chants for your team. Simply record the audio file to a compatible storage device of some sort and upload it to the game.

But perhaps the biggest change, in terms of modes, is the Career mode, which now represents the Be a Pro mode and Manager mode from previous games. In this mode, you can either progress through the options of player, player manager, and manager or select an individual option and move from there. The development team has also been working hard to rework the simulation engine for this mode so that you can progress from day to day instead of from game to game--not to mention that results for individual matches should be more accurate and realistic. This allows for greater opportunities to participate in the nuances of managing a club. EA has also reworked much of the interface, making it easier to get to and process information as the season advances.

Finally, we learned a bit more about FIFA 11's Creation Center. Much to the delight of fans of lesser-known teams, this mode gives you an opportunity to create an entire team via a Web interface. Representatives were quick to point out that since this is the first year that FIFA is attempting to do this, you won't necessarily be able to edit smaller items like patches, but you can create your own team (as well as its logo), complete with rosters, names, individual attributes, and kits. You can also upload these custom teams so that other players can rate and then download them. While we didn't get to see some of these changes in action quite yet, we're excited about the possibilities they present. We'll have much more on FIFA Soccer 11 as its September 28 release date approaches.