Bugged out.
Billed as the football game to end all football games, FIFA 11 offers tantalising glimpses of what could have been but falls down in a number of areas.
First the good: Sharper graphics. To the point that you could do a double take and actually believe that a real game was in progress at times. Customisable audio, giving you the option to keep the in-game menu fresh with your own sounds throughout the year and -best of all- the chance to import crowd chants and entrance themes.
Now the bad: Broken gameplay. Don't confuse hard with good. The difficulty has been ramped up by downgrading the AI of your teammates and increasing the pressure of the opposition AI. Your own players will rarely make the correct run if you take a position out wide to cross the ball and will forever get caught offside if you try to slide a ball down the channels. The opposition -in a nod to Gridiron- believe the best way to attack (or defend) now is to simply run straight through you.
This feels fraudulent, and results in turgid, attritional games that are effectively stripped down to shoulder barging contests. So whilst the scores are probably more in keeping with real football, the solution to create that illusion is far from satisfactory.
The new Career mode is a downgrade on similar offline modes in recent years. It would be interesting to get a breakdown as to the budget and team assigned for the online and offline modes. Online is where the future of the gaming industry is, so it's understandable that more emphasis is placed on that facet of the game.
However, the Manager mode feels shoddy and unfinished. From the cutscenes pre match, to the player growth, to the inaccurate and inconsistent transfer system, the whole thing is a major let-down. Before you even get into the odd messages and actions from the board, who reward you for meeting a seasons objective (even if you haven't) but who also sack you for having games in hand due to European progress if you're not at the top of the table. You also have no impact on player growth anymore, cannot assign areas to work on and can't upgrade the coaching or commercial set-up at the club.
Personality+ was the big gimmick in this years release but in truth -outside of the very elite players- there is precious little evidence of it.
For the next release EA would be well advised to give gimmicks the swerve and concentrate on core gameplay. The graphics are now pretty much unrivalled so it's the gamplay that is still the sticking point, as per tradition. A shame, as FIFA 09 and 10 were positive steps in that regard. In contrast, this instalment feels like two steps back.