FIFA 10 (2010)

FIFA 10 (2010)

FIFA 10 gives players new levels of control to experience the beautiful game like never before.

• Innovative Player Control - 360º Dribbling

  The first-ever true 360° dribbling system in a football game gives you precise control to skillfully play spaces between defenders that previously were not possible.

• Innovative Player Control - Skilled Dribbling

  Advanced animation warping technology lets skilled players face defenders and maneuver around them with highly-responsive lateral dribbling, just like the game's legends.

• Gameplay Features - Physical Play Freedom

  Wider dribble touches and new collision sharing allow for a less predictable yet extended fight for possession, resulting in more realistic battles between the dribbler and his defender .

• Gameplay Features - Player Urgency

  Improved Urgency AI logic, with over 50 new movement cycles, delivers more responsive positioning so your players stay focused on the ball and move at a speed appropriate to the action.

• Gameplay Features - Improved Trapping Intelligence

  Players now have a better awareness of where the easiest, most natural trapping position is so they can get the ball on the ground and under control easier and earlier.

• Gameplay Features - Advanced Positioning

  Defenders multi-task and play the pitch more intelligently by covering dangerous spaces left by out-of-position teammates. In attack, players analyze space more effectively, curve their runs to stay onside, create.

• Gameplay Features - More Accurate Passing

  Players better analyze space, resulting in pinpoint passes that give their receivers more options and time to outrun defensive pressure.

• Gameplay Features - Authentic Shooting

  Refinements to the shooting system and tweaks to the ball physics create a wider, more realistic variety of shots that enhance the exhilaration of scoring.

• Gameplay Features - Varied Defending Options

  Slide tackle targeting has been improved so good players have more reach and avoid tackling through the dribbler. Better effort clearance logic gives defenders more options when attempting to get a foot on the ball before an attacker. Effort, such as sliding to block crosses and overhead kick clearances, will give the defenders more tools in order to prevent goal scoring opportunities. Balanced by less forgiving standing tackles, defending is now a more tactical skill in FIFA 10.

• Gameplay Features - Refined Goalkeeping Intelligence

  Various improvements mean that goalkeepers now have a better perception of where to intercept loose balls and how urgently to do so, resulting in a more responsive and powerful rushing system. New animation warping technology provides game-realistic goalkeeper positioning and momentum, allowing for more variety in scoring. Refinements to the current goalkeeper behaviours, adding some new behaviours (like swatting the ball from the goal line) and general AI enhancements will improve his effectiveness across the board.

• Gameplay Features - Responding to Gamer Feedback

  With over 250 million games played by the FIFA community, listening to the feedback and addressing gamer frustration has become a key part of the FIFA strategy. Better balance on lofted through balls; improved goalkeeper intelligence; more realistic shooting physics with less shots hitting woodwork; realistic sprinting and movement animation; refined off-side and advantage rules; and a more immersive football experience through continuous play and quick free kicks are just a few of the issues raised and addressed in FIFA10.

• Authentic Manager Mode

  With over 50 improvements, FIFA 10's new Manager Mode is as close as you can get to running a team without actually being named to the job.

• Authentic Manager Mode - Match Realism

  Calculated minute-by-minute, Manager Mode lets you make decisions based on your team's strengths and weaknesses including player performance, strengths of lines and strategic formations.

• Authentic Manager Mode - Authentic Transfers

  Truly realistic transfers are made using logic based on multiple decision factors including finance, prestige, career prospects, other players' involvement and competition from AI clubs.

• Authentic Manager Mode - Believable Player Development

  Just like on an actual team, the growth curve of your star players is based on multiple factors such as their playing environment and the demands placed on them.

• Authentic Manager Mode - Immersive Football World

  Manager Mode takes you deep inside the world of football with formations and squads determined by match importance, real-time week-by-week transfers and transfer event summaries that promote bidding wars.

Competition

Order FIFA 2010 before 2nd October for your chance to win a 09/10 Season Ticket!

Terms and Conditions:

- Every customer who purchases a copy of FIFA 2010 before 2nd October, on any console will automatically qualify for the competition.

- Maximum price per season Ticket £600.00

- We will of course try to purchase the ticket of your choice for your team requested however we cannot guarantee this due to availability. If the team of your choice is totally sold out we will advise and you may select another team.

- 1 entry per person.

- This competition is only available to UK and ROI residents.

- Season Tickets are for Season 09/10 only.

- Draw will be made within 7 days from close.

- ShopTo’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

- The prize is non transferable and offers no cash alternative.

- All offers and subject to availability

How to claim your winning season Ticket:

- The 3 lucky winners will be selected totally at random.

- The winners will be notified by telephone or email where they can discuss with a member of ShopTo about which clubs and tickets they would ideally like. ShopTo will then endeavour to purchase the season ticket of you choice.

"So that was why you could only turn 45 degrees," FIFA producer Dave Rutter tells me, brow furrowed, while sliding two mobile phones around a table. He's trying to explain - aided by whatever was in his pockets - how the animation system had to change to accommodate the introduction of 360-degree control.

"It was a limit in our own animation engine, so we rewrote all of it for this year. When we say we're going to do something we do it," he adds, somewhat unnecessarily. But this sums up the mentality of the FIFA team. Desperate to impress, reeling off figures, bullet points, feature lists, improvements almost apologetically, in the hope that we'll like their game a little bit more this year.

Dave, old chap, do calm down. We love FIFA 09. It's the best footy game of this generation. Not that you'd think so listening to the man in charge. "It's horrid," he cries, describing his experience of going back to it from FIFA 10. "If you play it and you go back, it's horrid." I did. It really isn't.

But, yes, what he's getting at of course is: when you first play FIFA 10, 360-degree control may not smack you around the face with a stick of obvious. It's only when you go back that you notice. "It's like getting a good haircut," Rutter suggests. I wouldn't know. "If people haven't noticed, great."

Anyway, back to FIFA 09 slamming. What else wasn't good enough, Dave? Manager Mode, set-pieces, lofted through balls, goalkeepers and more, apparently. There's a serious point here. Having overtaken PES in both critical and sales success, the biggest threat to the continuation of FIFA's hegemony is complacency. You can argue that complacency is what's done for PES so far this generation. But there's not a shred of it in evidence here; nor cockiness; nor arrogance. Just a desire, tinged with possibly hard-wired paranoia, to be better.

This is Eurogamer's second kickabout with FIFA 10, having been treated to a practice match at the Emirates a few months back. The code is more advanced now, naturally (75 per cent complete), but most notably there's a New Feature Announcement: Create A Set-Piece, an editor that allows you, amazingly enough, to design your own free-kicks and corners for use in-game.

The inspiration for this, apparently, came from Tomas Brolin's sneaky goal for Sweden against Romania in the quarter-final of the 1994 World Cup. Sweden's move was straight from the training ground. But it was impossible to replicate in FIFA 09. So they've built an editor to do just that and more.

Accessed in the current build by hitting the back button during the pre-match practice sequence, the editor splits the final third of the pitch into a number of square zones, covering the corners, and the outskirts of the 18-yard area. You can create set-pieces for each zone (up to four), with a maximum of 32 that can be saved to your profile.

It works like this. Highlight a player you want to move with the right stick, hit record, and then manoeuvre him in real-time exactly where you want him to go during the move. His motion is tracked by a thick bluey-white line as a visual aid. You can repeat this with as many players as you like, slowly building up the set-piece to your exact specifications. All the while you can test it out against an AI defence at the push of a button, easily delete and re-record anything that's wrong, then save it to the d-pad for easy access in-game.

You can, of course, still take free kicks the regular way, but for the perfectionist, the tools are now in place to create elaborate works of choreography. Or, as I discovered within moments of trying it out, a giant white-line pair-of-testicles-and-penis shape in the penalty area (two players performing a mirrored semi-circle then parallel charging towards goal. Completely ineffective, but delightfully immature).

"Well done. I applaud your creativity," Rutter deadpans at my creative flourish. Well, he brought up nob-drawing in his presentation, I suggest. "I said you could draw funny pictures, I didn't say that!" Nevertheless, it's official: FIFA 10 lets you draw massive nobs. I digress.

Sadly, it's looking unlikely you'll be able to unleash your set-pieces against the real world. "Will we let people use them online? I'll be open about that, it's up in the air at the moment," he concedes. "[With] custom team tactics last year, we didn't anticipate the levels to which some individuals would go to exploit the systems. I think I was probably a little naïve about some of our fans. And I'm not so naïve now. So I don't want people to exploit this feature and then ruin the game for the vast majority." Exchanging set-piece data with friends, meanwhile, is completely ruled out for this season.

That's the surprise out of the way. Now, having previously been promised improvements to Manager Mode, some details. It's the "most popular mode outside of exhibition," says Rutter, but last year was "marred by a number of authenticity issues and wasn't particularly engaging". More bashing. Take that, FIFA 09! Moreover, in private the FIFA team will tell you the one aspect of PES they fear the most is the depth of Master League. "It's about time Manager Mode got some attention, really," Rutter notes. And so it has.

Predictably, the focus has been on improving authenticity. Transfers have been overhauled to reflect a player's "ambitions", so it's no longer just a case of the bigger and richer the club, the more attractive. If a team's already cheek-by-jowl with midfielders, it's harder to buy another, however much cash there is to throw around.

Additionally, AI matches are resolved on a per-player basis for greater realism, and player development has been tweaked, so precocious youngsters aren't guaranteed stardom "just because they play for Man United". Elsewhere, you can now get a game of five-a-side going in practice mode, which is now also multiplayer should you wish to share in such fleeting larks. No loading, no fuss.

And if you're wondering about Ultimate Team, well, carry on wondering. "Not talking about it at all," insists Rutter. And then proceeds to do just that, adding: "What I will say is we were very pleased with the success of Ultimate Team this year". It'll be back, then.

The final pieces of the FIFA 10 puzzle will be revealed at Gamescom next month. "Everything will come out in Cologne. An all-singing, all-dancing FIFA show." A figure of speech rather than a new feature hint, one hopes. Which leaves time to reflect on the latest build with a few quick matches.

Rutter's right about 360-degree control. Having the full range of movement at your disposal is subtle, yes, but offers a distinct, refreshing sense of liberty. Which, yes, only truly becomes apparent when I return to 09. Critically, it just feels right. And the bulletpoint "freedom in physical play" the game is said to offer evolves from this. The ball, as Rutter explains, is "never 100 per cent under the player's control". And with players now darting in literally from all angles, it's now possible simply to take it off the player without even tackling if timed correctly.

Other changes are harder to gauge over a short playtest. Finesse shots seem tougher to pull off, and the refs are needlessly punitive, with far too many questionable fouls disrupting play. "Refs aren't fully figured out yet," Rutter reckons. Nor yet are the players, all of whom are currently undergoing final tweaking and balancing.

Berbatov, for instance, is slower in FIFA 10 than last season's game, after his impeccable turn as the can't-be-arsed striker. Ronaldo, meanwhile, is still with Man United in this build, though his greedy Judas bags are doubtless being packed by EA Canada coders as I type.

I am also delighted to report that the absurd, irritating and completely unnecessary spectacle of that monstrous EA Sports logo that exposed itself like a corporate flasher during every replay has also been toned down considerably. "There is a lot of that that goes on at EA," Rutter nods, with as much diplomacy as he can muster. "It's a little bit more tasteful."

Right now, FIFA 10 is solid, smooth, satisfying and scoring in all the right areas: an already stellar experience getting a smart makeover in all the right areas, with appetising new features and the promise of more to come in Cologne. I'm excited. Even if Dave will probably hate it this time next year.