FIFA'09 Review

So after having a couple of days to digest FIFA'09, I think that the 8 out of 10 it recieved on Eurogamer is very harsh. Last year's offering also recieved 8 out of 10 and to say there has not been enough improvement to warrant at least a 9 out of 10 score is crazy.

Firstly, the gameplay is significantly improved on what was already a very solid base that was delivered last year. The gameplay is slightly faster so build up is the perfect pace to reflect real life, you can attack as quickly or as slowly as you would like using the vast amount of sliders for customising tactics. The small things are also a significant step forward, from the A.I making intelligent off the ball runs and pointing where they want the ball so you can deliver a killer through ball (through balls are much, much more effective than before), to the fact that players will actually leap off the ground in a number of increidbly realistic, new animations for heading the ball. Players will actually try to climb, jostle and land awkwardly.

The tackling has been reworked also. It feel's a lot more like tackling in UEFA 2008 in wet conditions, where the players will slide for long and take longer to get up. The physical part of the game is also more realistic, Ronaldo is likely to fall to the ground when jostled, Nemanja Vidic is likely to push a smal forward like Sergio Aguero off the ball pretty quickly, but expect him to be left for dead in a straight face against Aguero. All in all, very realistic!!

Shooting is very similar to last year's version which in my opinion, was absolutely perfect. It is significantly difficult to score a 35 yard thunderbolt, but it can be done with some skill (or luck!). The tricks don't really seem to be very effective, especially against the CPU, but the rainbow flick can work a treat if you can perfect it.

The achievements list seems very easy for the most part, although the sheer volume of them makes it a challenge to complete all of them. Mostly they are worth 5 or 10G, which is fair given their difficult.

One the coolest things I've ever seen in any game happened last night while playing on XBOX Live, a few weeks ago, Guille Franco of Villarreal hit the post against Man Utd with a back heel flick from a low cross with his trailing leg which is incredibly difficult but, my low cross from Ronaldo brought the virtual Berbatov to do the exact same thing.

The only negatives are that the UEFA Cup holders, Zenit St. Petersberg aren't in the game which is a bit of a disappointment as if there were included they should be a four to four and a half star team. Apart from that, I don't like how the unranked quick match is buried so deep in the menu structure, while ranked quick match is at the very top. I generally like to have one unranked game after turning on so I get into the swing of things and don't get my ass handed to me.

Another minor annoyance is the attacking/defending pattern online, I always seem to be controlling the game, pushing forward leaving absolutely massive gaps at the back making it much easier for you're opponent to build attacks. Thankfully I've perfected my tactics (well, still needs a little tweaking) so I'm hard to break down but still get to push on quite a bit!

Overall though, this game is class, I'd easily give it (at the very least and being stingy), 9/10. The bar for Pro Evo (October 17th) has been raised!!