Price: $59.99| Release Date: October 20, 2009| ESRB: E (Everyone) 

5 Stars - If I could it would be 4.5 but its definitely more 5 than 4 so buy it!  

If baseball is the national game of America, then soccer is probably the game of the world. It is played on every continent, nearly every country has some sort of professional soccer league, and since the late 1980s soccer has been represented in a videogame form (Sensible Soccer, Kick Off, and Matchday Soccer all came out before the first FIFA). However it wasn’t until 1993 that the first of EA’s FIFA series graced games consoles worldwide. The series has come a long way since then having as many ups and downs as a rollercoaster but with FIFA 2010 EA may have finally cracked it, producing one of the finest soccer games ever made, it’s not perfect but its close; here’s why.

The game play in the new FIFA is fantastic. It is a joy to play and for once it is also a joy to sit back and watch others play it. The movement that you see on screen is so representative of real soccer that you can almost see why it is called “the beautiful game”. This is due to the fact that EA have now implemented full 360 degree movement, meaning that whatever direction you press your players will run. This doesn’t sound like much but when you compare it to last year’s 8-directional offering it really makes a difference. Thanks to this feature players move realistically demonstrating a high amount of computer A.I. in the process, wingers will run down the wings, into space, more frequently than would have happened in old FIFA’s and players will jostle and wrestle for the ball with big defenders often winning against the smaller striker. On top of player movement the ball has also been captured realistically, for example in wet and snowy conditions the ball will skid across the surface if passed along the ground, but will stop and hold up as it bounces. This makes the game play full of realism with tempo and style being controlled by more than just the skill of the players involved.

The presentation of FIFA 10 is largely the same as last year, with the menus remaining as easy to navigate as ever. In fact the only problem that the menus have is that they are sometimes slow in responding, especially when the game is auto saving. The greatest thing about FIFA’s presentation though has to be loading screen. Strange comment I hear you say, but once again EA have incorporated the FIFA Arena into the game, this means that rather than waiting for the game to load in a boring fashion you can practice your skills and take some shots at the goalkeeper. In fact if you are not careful you’ll end up spending hours just on the loading screen!

As mentioned the presentation is largely what you can come to expect for the FIFA series and this can also be said about the graphics. All the team licenses are in there, from the highest echelons of the Premiership to lowliest realms of League 2 (highest and lowest professional leagues in England), all teams are represented with full kits, names and team sheets. The one drawback of having so many licensed leagues though is that in the lower regions player likenesses go out the window with many players looking like they come from one large family! However for the best teams, the likenesses are spot on, and whilst the game is in motion the graphics are fantastic. Unfortunately though when you zoom the camera in during replays etc. the players all look a be Neanderthal like, which is a shame.

Realism is a very important factor in judging how good a soccer game is, and this is because people want to believe they are actually playing soccer. If the video game doesn’t come across as being realistic, no matter how fun the game is, people will not keep coming back. Luckily FIFA 10 is probably one of the most realistic soccer games ever made. For example the goalkeepers are just as likely to pull off a string of fantastic saves and then let in an easy goal as their real life counter parts are. On top of this the officials in the game are also very realistic allowing the play to flow like a human referee would, unfortunately though, there are still some mistakes surrounding some of the finer aspects of the game. Offside decisions are as infuriating as ever, with as many giving incorrectly as they are correctly and handball decisions are only noticeable by their absence (maybe this is realistic? See France vs Ireland World Cup Play-Off to understand). The final realism gripe being this, there are still too many occasions where a striker will hit the post than the back of the net, striking the post or bar in real life is very rarely done; however in FIFA strikers seem to do it all the time.

Finally the multi-player aspect of the game is always fun, with a great pick up and play feel to it, and with the great FIFA lounge mode it means that experienced players of the game are not always going to win, due to numerous handicaps that can be imposed. The one drawback of the multi-player experience is that it can sometimes be difficult in obtaining an online match with people leaving games all the time. However this could be a player specific problem rather than a problem that EA should be dealing with.

Overall FIFA offers an excellent representation of a soccer game. It provides a very realistic insight into the world of soccer giving the player total control of a football game, and as I said at the start the game is no means perfect and there  are still some areas where EA could improve. The inclusion of handballs would be nice, and a better replay editor would be great, however until next year this is the game that every soccer fan must own.