Forget PES being the number one football game. Say hello to FIFA09.
I have been a hardcore PES fan since PES 3 back on the PS2. But minutes after playing the FIFA09 demo, I was converted to a fully fledged FIFA man. So much infact, that I have only played about 20 matches on PES2009. There are countless amounts of great things I could say about FIFA09, so lets start from the top. Licensed teams, leagues and stadium. I am English therefore i care for the Premiership a lot more than any other league in Europe, nay, the world. FIFA09 has the full licensed rights to the entire Premiership. Teams, Players, Stadium and Leagues, whereas this season PES had Liverpool (boo) and Man United (Yay). not even a comparison really. now I'm not writing this review as a 'what's better PES or FIFA' but it is starting to look that way, so I'm gonna stop mentioning PES. I am now going to break FIFA09 down into 3 aspects. Graphics, Sound and Gameplay and i will be giving each aspect a rating out of 10.
Graphics 9/10
Fifa09 has un-rivalled graphics and animation. Graphics where you look at Wayne Rooney's Videogame counterpart and you actually know it Wazza. As for the animations. If you were to go into a tough tackle you would see the opposition on the floor writing in pain, and even your player could stay on the floor in pain. the animation on the player control is something else worth writing home about. using the right camera angle and no HUD, the game could be confused with a actual football match being broadcast on TV. The one bad thing I can say about the Graphics is the Crowd, the crowd still looks very bad, and in some ways doesn't even resemble a crowd. but when the game is based on the pitch, the crowd doesn't matter. The last thing id like to touch on to do with graphics is the Menu's. The menu's haven't really changed in FIFA over the years, but they have all been to the highest quality. easy to navigate, and very clear text.
Sounds 10/10
The crowd on FIFA09 are amazing, if your playing a local derby lets say Man United vs Man City, the crowd makes it feel like your actually at the game. If a bad tackle occurs you can hear the crowd booing the player who committed the foul, and the crowd continue to put the player under pressure throughout the game. After buying the full game on release date, I went into my first match, obviously being a Man United fan i decided to do Man United vs Liverpool. I picked my team, i watched the intro, watched the team line ups come in and listened to the commentators introducing the game. It got to kick off and they had it. I got in control of the ball and i could hear Glory Glory Man United coming from the stands, I couldn't believe it, Nothing i had heard before in any other football game i had played previously. to put it simple. the crowd noise in the game made the game feel like a real match. another great aspect of the sound in FIFA09 is the commentators. Now I'm previous football games on any consoles the commentary has been very basic. players names might have been said in 2 maybe 3 different ways, which in the end, ended up killing the feel of the game. Not in FIFA09 my friends. The commentary is truly amazing. In the same match i mentioned earlier (my first match Man United vs Liverpool) Robbie Keane (Liverpool) took early shot and tested my keeper (Edwin Van Der Sar) and the commentator started to comment on how Robbie Keane was a boyhood Liverpool fan and that he had been granted his dream move to his favourite club. Nothing like that has ever been heard in a football game before.
Gameplay 10/10
As you can probably tell, I love FIFA, so maybe I'm bias, but I honestly think that the gameplay mechanics are amazing, almost perfect. the passing is smooth, the shooting, although it is tricky to master, is truly fantastic. The skill stick is something that football games have been missing for some time now. Other football games have boasted many different tricks that you could pull off with your controlled player but nothing like the skill stick in FIFA09. Once mastered it can be used to great execution. beating defenders and lashing a shot at the goal has never felt so satisfying. The game modes on offer with FIFA09 are all very extensive. My personal favourite is Manager Mode. I have always been a big Championship Manager and Football Manager fan, so the Manager Mode was very appealing to me, OK it is nowhere near as deep as either management sims, it is still satisfyingly complex. The Be A Pro gamemode is very good also. it allows you to create you and put yourself into any team of your choice and work up through the ranks and become a top star for club and country. it isn't, however, to everyone's taste, I did enjoy the Be A Pro but for me it isn't as good as controlling all 11 players. There is also all your generic Tournament and League Modes to keep you busy for a long time.
Overall 9.5/10
Sum it up in one line - FIFA is back and its demolished all competition.