The best football game of this generation, despite not being a massive leap forward from FIFA 09.
FIFA 10 is the latest annual update to EA Sports' world-leading soccer franchise and this year the gap between FIFA and the competition is bigger than ever before. The front-end setup has been maintained from the last 3 versions of the game, but huge changes have been made to the controls and game modes and the result is a version of the beautiful game that is completely peerless.
The biggest of the alterations made since FIFA 09 is the new 360 degree dribbling control. In all previous soccer titles players have only been able to turn in 8 directions; forward, back, left, right and the 45 degree angles in between. This made animations look robotic as players could only turn in diagonal directions. In FIFA 10 players really can "turn on a sixpence" for the first time. Any subtle movement you make with the left stick is perfectly represented on screen by your player. It makes the possibilities endless when running at defenders with the ball.
Lobbed passes have also been noticeably improved. They are now much more controllable and players make more intelligent decisions about when to hit driven passes to cover larger distances faster. In previous versions lobbed passes often hung in the air far too long and where hit unnecessarily high. No such worries exist in FIFA 10.
The final major gameplay change on the pitch is that the goalkeepers have been significantly improved. It's now much harder to easily beat rushing goalies with lobs and even if you think you're successful in doing so, they'll often run back to their goal line and scoop the ball away. General shot-stopping has also become much better on the lower difficulties. My only issue with the keepers is that they very occasionally fail to trap back passes, resulting in some very embarrassing own goals. Though in the 20 hours or so I have played this only happened once.
"Changes to Manager Mode."
While there have been significant changes to the on-pitch action, EA Canada has also introduced a raft of new developments to Manager Mode. The results of simulated AI matches are now much more in keeping with their real-world form. This also makes league tables much more realistic. You won't often see Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal outside the top four in the English Premiership.
Transfers are now a significantly more involved process. Players will refuse to sign, regardless of how much money you offer, if your team doesn't have good prospects in continental competitions (like the Champions' League), or if there is too much competition for places in your first team.
You'll also be pleased to know that players' fatigue is now much less of an issue in Manager Mode. You should be able to play your best starting line-up in the top teams much more often. Gone are the days of players like Wayne Rooney needing to be rested after two matches.
The other modes you expect, such as kick-off, custom tournaments and Be-A-Pro are all there in FIFA 10 and they're also joined by a few new ones. Practice Mode enables you to practice specific in game scenarios and design custom set-pieces which you can assign to teams and then trigger in-game at corners and free kicks. It's terrifically simple to use and adds yet another level of gameplay customisation for the hardcore.
"Become a Virtual Pro."
The new Virtual Pro mode is an enhanced version of last year's Be-A-Pro, where you play as one player in a team. This year you are encouraged to design a player from scratch to work up the ranks of your favourite side. You earn experience to improve your attributes by playing well and completing "Accomplishments" during matches, such as scoring a certain number of times. This mode also marks FIFA's first use of EA Sports' GameFace technology, which allows you to download your own face into the game to apply to your Virtual Pro. Unfortunately, due to overwhelming demand, the ability to upload a photo of yourself to EA's servers has been completely broken since the game came out.
Online you'll be able to play all of the modes you're used to from FIFA. The most interesting of which is the ability to create leagues with your friends, where playing against each other is tracked in a points table, though there are limited slots in a custom league and you must be invited to one by a friend. Most people will likely stick to the always competitive ranked matches, which remain as lag-free as ever. Unfortunately , these matches were also overloaded at launch, resulting in frustrating disconnections. FIFA 10 has been another example of EA's failures to properly prepare their online modes for big releases.
" Weird design decisions."
Of course, it wouldn't be a new soccer game without its fair share of weird design decisions. New kit options (such as under-armour) are not available in the customisation options despite being visible on some players by default. If you play in the English Premiership in manager mode almost every match is played in rain at night, which is ridiculous when all Premiership games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and it doesn't rain at every single game! You'll find that stadiums aren't always full in Manager Mode, even if you're playing as a side with a huge fan-base such as Manchester United, whose stadium is filled with 76,000 fans every week in reality. Also, menus in Manager Mode run very slowly when displaying lists and the music selected for the menu soundtrack is unusually poor for a FIFA title.
"Presentation."
Graphically FIFA 10 is stunning. The player likenesses have improved yet again and the TV style presentation just gets better and better. The framerate issues from FIFA 09 when large numbers of players are on screen haven't been completely eradicated but they're much less noticeable. The commentary remains second to none as well, with even more conversation topics than before. Even in dull spells in matches, the commentators will just chat to each other, all in a very convincing manner. No other sport game, soccer or otherwise, can touch FIFA in this area.
"Verdict."
FIFA 10 certainly isn't as significant a leap for the franchise as FIFA 09, but it represents a refinement of everything that was thought of last year. Yes, 360 degree dribbling has revolutionised the way people will play attacking football, but the rest of this year's game is clearly much more to do with padding out the feature set and re-balancing in areas complained about by series fans.
That said, while the leap isn't huge, EA Canada have managed to come close to perfecting all of the features and modes from last year. This is definitely more than enough to keep on growing the gap between FIFA and PES. If you're looking for a new soccer game this year then there really is no contest. FIFA remains comfortably ahead of PES for the second year in a row.