Brutal Gamer

Fifa ‘10 (Xbox 360) Review

By Leigh - October 9, 2009 - 22:46 UTC

Brutal Gamer’s review of Fifa ‘10.

Fifa ’10 is the latest (believe it or not!) addition to the Fifa football series which have been published by EA Sports for quite some time now. Year after year the titles have improved on what the previous ones had accomplished, but whether or not Fifa ‘10 will follow that tradition is a totally different matter.

The Fifa football series is known for adding new and unique game modes to its titles which the fans have asked for. The latest addition ‘Virtual Pro’ is something which the fans have wanted for quite some time and EA have finally decided to add it into Fifa ’10. Virtual Pro allows you to create your very own football player as well as his skills, attributes and generally how he looks. Once you’ve created your footballer and named him, you’re then able to take him through you’re Manager Mode, plus other things like The Arena and Lounge Mode.

Be A Pro lets you take your virtual pro through their very own legacy, you’ll take control of just your created character in the football matches. Once you’ve decided the team you want to play with, you’ll be set different challenges per match by your manager and if you win them you’ll earn more reputation points which help you get recognised by the first choice team and by your national team. This is the most entertaining and time consuming game mode of the bunch, although at the same time it’s one of the most frustrating. As it heavily relies on the AI to play offense and defence as you only control the one character – the AI isn’t perfect by no means, half the time ignoring you (the player) and trying to take a goal shot from behind the half way line.

One of the best things about Fifa ’10 is the atmosphere which is created during the Be A Pro matches, it’s the one game mode in-which you can see everything come into play, ranging from the fantastic commentary by Martin Tyler and Andy Gray (might I add: numerous times family members came into the room asking what football match I was watching due to how real it sounds and how incredible the game looks) to the roaring football fans chanting for their team to win. I can’t even count how many times during the in-game season I found myself cheering at the TV screaming “fuck yes, the winning goal!’”  Then ten minutes later, discovering that I can call the referee a cunt nearly 100 times in under 30 seconds due to the ridiculous yellow card he just gave.

If you’re a fan of the Football Manager or Championship Manager series (and the previous Fifa games – obviously) Manager Mode is going to be something you’re going to love. You become the manager of your favourite football team. There are over 30 different leagues and 500 teams in total, ranging from the English Premier League to Turkish Super Lig – so it’s almost guaranteed that your favourite team will be in there somewhere. When you take up the role of the manager of the team of your choice, you’re then in-charge of everything; the budget, the training, the stadium, yeah you get the idea. And as it’s down to you to how you run your club, you can also decide whether or not (per match) if you’re going to play it; playing the actual match (Fifa style) or simulating the game (Football Manager style).

I know from both close friends and my own experience, that one of the most popular features of Fifa ’09 was the online competitive and co-operative game types which are still in Fifa ’10, but have been even more improved upon from the smaller things like; making the networking between players better to the even more noticeable changes to the games matchmaking system. If you loved it before, it’s going to be like triple-layer fudge cake to a fat person – that’s how much you’re going to love it.

Final Thoughts

I can safety, hand on my heart say that Fifa ’10 is the latest and by far the greatest football game that has been released. They continue to perfect their proven strategy of using the last Fifa game as your base, then improve and add to that one. I wonder how long it’ll be until they perfect the franchise? It’s definitely looking like it’ll be soon once they sort the kinks out of the AI which are about as useful as Derren Brown at a £5,000 roulette gamble.

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