Did you like Fifa 10? You'll love 11!
First and foremost, EA has integrated something in their games: EA Online Pass. It's a unique code found on the back of your instruction manual that you *must* enter in order to play any of the Xbox Live Modes. This pass costs ten dollars, and comes free with the purchase of the game. When I entered in my code, it said the code had been redeemed. I then restarted my xbox, and the problem was solved.
So now, the gameplay:
It's more realistic. Harder to pass and like shooting, it actually takes skill to pass. While all players in the game have an actual passing skill of course, the gamer will still need to be decent at it as the passing is a bit more manual than the assisted passing in the former years of Fifa.
You also won't find it as easy to score. In the former years of Fifa, I found it easy to score goals. In this title? Not so much. The scoring is equivalent to real life. Instead of multiple games finishing at a 7-0 throughout the season, I'm seeing more games in Fifa 11 finishing up at a 3-1 score, or a 2-1 score. I've even lost a match and consider myself a fairly skilled player. Of course, this is on the World Class difficulty level. I'm not kicking the difficuly up to Legendary until I get a bit more comfortable with the playing style.
All in all, the playing style is smooth, realistic, and takes a bit more skill. Showboating is a bit more difficult in Online Team play, leave your Ronaldo attitudes to your offline game modes!
And the Game modes:
While Virtual Pro has pretty much remained the same with an added position of Goal Keeper, the career modes have had a huge Overhaul which condenses the "Be A Pro: Seasons" and "Manager Mode". You now have three options to choose from under Career Mode; Player, Manager, and Player-Manager. With Player, it's just like the previous Be A Pro Seasons. As a player manager, you control both your player, and the team. And as a Manager, it's a more involved version of the other two versions.
While I was a bit disappointed that the scouting option was removed from the manager modes, some other additions have been made. The user interface is different. Some little adjustments like adding an option where you can move money from your budget to your wages, and vice versa. Players can also be injured for longer periods of time. For example, when I started with Manchester United, the news brief had mentioned Anelka was out for the season.
The game has made some great improvements on last year. If you like Football/Soccer, and you enjoyed the former Fifa titles, or just want a game of this type of sport, you'll love this game.