2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa – “What a Screamer!”

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2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa - Review

With the world cup finished and the entire planet recovering from World Cup fever, we felt it was high time to get a review of EA Sports’ latest footy game done and see if it is a goal scoring phenomenon or a talentless waster to be left on the bench. With a host of on and offline features, live updates throughout the tournament and a tweaked and improved gameplay engine, it certainly looks as though it could be very tasty indeed...

Gameplay

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most fluid, realistic and playable football game EVER released. Considering how impressive FIFA 10 turned out to be, that’s high praise indeed! There are some subtle changes to the gameplay, like the ability to chest the ball to other players, and the improved control of players which allows you to collect the ball from a pass and move with it at pace and with tighter control of direction. These tools alone are an improvement but there are others, small changes that you barely notice but improve the gameplay to make it a faster more competitive game. I say more competitive because the AI of your opposition has been improved too. This is most notable when playing the ‘minnows’ of the football playing globe on their own turf. Bring the Faroe Islands to Wembley and the chances are you’ll whip them up and down the park and win by a few clear goals. Play them in front of their home fans however and you’ll find them a different team, as you would in real life. You may still win but it will be more of a challenge, the opposition will appear better organised and motivated and therefore be harder to break down. It’s cleverly done as while it doesn’t feel as though you are playing a more talented team it does feel as though you’re up against a more resilient and focused one.

Penalty’s have had a total vamp up as well, and now are the tension filled nerve racking moments they should be. You must first steady your players’ nerve then pick your spot carefully. There is an invisible crosshair that you move around the goal and you must be very careful not to put the ball way over or wide. Saving these game changing shots is a little different too, you now use the right analogue stick to dive nut your timing determines how far and fast you move. The shootouts truly are great moments and victories will see you dancing around the room with your shirt over your head whilst defeat will leave you weeping into your controller or possibly putting your foot through your T.V.

There are a host of options and game modes to try your hand at offline, from regular exhibition games which as you would expect is where you select your team and your opposition and go at it, World Cup mode in which you can lead your ream right from the qualifiers, through all the friendly’s and then to the tournament itself in search of glory. ‘Captain Your Country’ allows you to control one player and attempt to get to the top of the teams tree, starting in the B team and friendly’s then progressing into the first team and finally to captain with you created character or real player. A new mode that has been introduced is ‘Story of Qualifying’ where you can attempt to re-write history and undo any tragedies that happened to your nation in the real qualifiers. This is very entertaining and pretty difficult as you are usually thrown into the games with virtually no time left and at least a goal of two behind with the objective of trying to win. You can also use the Practice mode to hone your technique and a Penalty Shootout game to get in some practice for those late stages of the Cup. These game modes are all good and all worth playing but I don’t feel that the game has the same amount of life in it that regular FIFA’s do, it just lacks the management mode that allows you to build a team and play season after season, but there is still plenty to do and lot’s to keep playing for.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are, as you would expect of a FIFA, sensational. The lighting has undergone a change for this outing and it really shows, with inch perfect shadows on player faces and the turf beneath them. The players themselves look devilishly good too, with shirts and hair that whip in the wind and emotional responses to goals and cards that couldn’t look better (except Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t scream like a girl and collapse if a member of the opposing team comes within 10 yards of him). The menu’s feel more like surfing a website and team selection can be performed by spinning a globe and selection you nation of choice which is a nice little touch. The player movements and animations don’t seem too much changed (apart from the couple of new ones mentioned earlier) but they are still lovely to look at and incredibly fluid. The crowds and managers get a little more focus now although I was a little disappointed that they have a very limited number of animations and they quickly get boring.

The commentary is great; Townsend and Tilsley are represented well with interesting things to say about the tournament, its grounds and players and they keep up with the play well, very rarely do they slip far behind it and miss action. The crowd effects are exceptional too, with the ebb and flow of the crowds volume mimicking how well the team are performing and at times it does feel as though the crowd are right behind you as you go for glory. Certain stadiums seem to be louder and more passionate than others which is a nice touch. Unfortunately (although I suppose it’s authentic) Vuvuzela’s have made it into the game. Thankfully unlike at the real games and on our television sets you can turn them off here. The music is heavily African themed as you’d imagine, but if I’m being honest (and a little harsh) you’re not going to be dashing to HMV to pick it up on albums and singles. It get’s tiresome pretty fast.

Multiplayer and Online

As with the offline, there are a good few online modes to keep this title interesting and keep you coming back. Every general online game you play is in a league format, the more you win the harder the players it will try to match you against in your next league. This works pretty well and is a good one for you and your friends to compare and complain about. There is also an online World Cup taking you through from the group stages to the end of the tournament. This is a well presented idea although you do find yourself in groups with just the world’s best teams more often than not and can end up playing them again in the knockout stages more than once. You can keep tabs on how well you are doing with leader boards and check your nation’s position in the Battle of the Nations.

There are plenty of downloads and extra goodies too, and they are all free which is a real bonus! You get your basics like squad updates and extra balls as well as some tasty treats in the form of ‘Story of the Tournament’. As you’ve probably deduced this is a downloadable equivalent of the Qualifiers mode. Again it’s pretty fun to play the ‘what could have been’ games, and completing them is no easy feat meaning they have some replay value. If I have one complaint about FIFA online it’s this, people drop out of games all the time if they start losing. Whilst this isn’t a game fault as such, EA could throw in some form of punishment for those who are repeat offenders as it does spoil the online modes when you rarely get to finish a game.

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Details

Category: Football
Age: 3 Years and above
Publisher: EA Games

Scoring from range...

1. Tweaked gameplay for added realism and a few new moves and celebrations that are simply wonderful.
2. A benchmark in commentary for its content and delivery and its ability to keep up with the pace of the game.
3. The online cups and leagues are great fun as you strive to be top of the pile.

... Missing a sitter

1. Not quite the length of life and replay value we’ve come to expect from FIFA.
2. Vuvuzela’s. Enough said.
3. People quit left, right and centre online and it really is irritating.

Overall then

For pure football this game is the best. Stunning graphics that are delight on the eyes and enough game modes to keep you interested until at least FIFA 11, this is a good product. It helped build me up for the cup and now that it’s over I still enjoy it because it is just so damn good. It doesn’t have as much life as the regular game and in some respects is a bit of a cash in, but the gameplay is good and with the updated squads it’s going to be in and out of my console for the foreseeable future. Not perfect but close, bring on FIFA 11.

Written & Reviewed by Paul Riley

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