Synyster Graves

2010 FIFA World Cup™

by on Aug.09, 2010, under Xbox 360

After downloading the demo on Xbox Live, I really wanted to get this game. Yeah ture that FIFA 11 is just around the corner in October/November time but after playing the demo between Italy and Spain, I really liked the smooth improvements to general gameplay which are incorporated within the game. The match is fluid and the physics have been greatly improved. Granted this is like the review of the demo, then I went out and bought the game.

There are several modes which you can play in the game which are similar to the format in FIFA 10, there’s the Be A Pro mode called Captain Your Country as well as the usual World Cup Campaign of which you can lead a team through qualification or just do the finals. There’s also an Online World Cup which you can play other human players on Xbox Live in a World Cup format.

Captain Your Country has been received with mixed opinions by myself, my initial reaction was a good one whereby you can import your Pro from FIFA 10. This however becomes almost immediately meaningless as your stats are reset to default stats as soon as you port him in. This then begs the question as to what on earth is the point of actually importing your hard earned character if all the game does is remove their stats? Anyways, being of Chinese descent, it was only right that I join China’s world cup campaign. Straight away the frustration felt in the Be A Pro mode in FIFA 10 was felt as the rest of the team never actually pass to you and your match rating plummets unless you actually pick up the ball and take on the entire opposition yourself. Only controlling one player is good as you can make some very decent runs only for the CPU team mates to completely ignore you. The match rating system is almost like that ridiculous Capello index and it constant berates you if you stray out of your position. As a centre forward I kept getting minus points for coming back and helping my midfield in a defensive situation, which of course is bollocks as strikers often come back and help defend corners and free kicks. The second screw up with the scoring system is that trying to get your pro to get a rating of 8 or above you need at least an assist and a goal, and as a non-attacking player, this is almost impossible. Several times I had a blinding match scoring a hat trick to get a match rating of 9.6 only to find I’d been denied my Man-Of-The-Match award by a defender on 9.7 who had done bugger all. Plus the rating helps you climb the CYC ranking leaderboard in your squad to get yourself to being captain of your respective country. The amount of times I had been “stripped” of the captaincy was stupid especially seeing that after the qualifying campaign, I had scored about 47 goals. The system is flaky and inconsistent and doesn’t merit you in any decent performances.

The gameplay is however a lot more fluid than FIFA 10. The physics have been greatly improved with deflections actually making more of a difference if defenders throw themselves in the way of a shot it can totally change direction very realistically. The refereeing is very realistic too like in the World Cup, what I mean by that is its totally inconsistent and ridiculous. The CPU continues to get away with bloody murder and you will find yourself conceding a barrage of free kicks for rather innocuous tackles. The offsides are consistently wrong and your players will get sent off for the same tackle a CPU player won’t even concede a free kick. Should you actually manage to win a penalty, the penalty system has been completely revamped meaning that its far too easy to send the dead ball into Row Z with the new “composure meter”. The goalkeepers have been given a massive upgrade, by which they will make some unbelievable saves on a regular basis. Makes a good challenge I agree but scoring one goal in seventeen chances against a team like Zimbabwe gets rather irritating after a while.

The Online World Cup can be summed up in one word. Bollocks. You get matched up against other players on Live and play in a World Cup format. This in theory works but in principle, doesn’t work at all. It makes you represent a region so being me, I thought I’d represent China as a nation. It makes you think that it only helps you make an online world ranking if you will but actually means you have to play as that country. What’s worse is that you can’t change it until you finish the world cup. Playing as China which are a 2.5 star team you’d think that it would weight your opponent in the group stage. No. Everytime it “searches” for an opponent I’ll end up with a player who immediately seeing that I’m a shit team, will then go and choose Spain. Why on earth does this Online World Cup manage to have 3 Spains in the same group stage? How can they allow this? It’s banking on the fact that gamers will want a bit of variety in their teams like I do. I often experiment with different teams but every single person I’ve played online is always playing as Spain! Plus all the fucking achievements for this game are in this Online World Cup mode, which is just stupid. If I want to play football with a bunch of  douchebags, I’ll just go down my local park where it won’t cost me the price of an Xbox game.

In summary this game is better gameplay wise than FIFA 10, but falls over with poor implementation of the Online World Cup. The graphics are the best in any FIFA to date but it just makes you think with all the glitches and badly done parts in the game, EA have had enough chances to iron these out, but just choose to ignore it instead.

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