FIFA 10 Review - Xbox 360

9

Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 10
Audio: 8
Multiplayer: 9
Innovation: 9

The FIFA games get churned out more than Call of Duty games and James Bond films, but still fans love them every year. We’ve been playing them every year for as long as we can remember here at Sliced, and I personally used to be hooked on FIFA 99 on my very first PC (As in one that actually belonged to me. I was 14!) The series has taken some hits, and it’s great to see a fierce competitor in Pro Evolution Soccer. The PES games have become a real contender for best soccer game, and therefore the FIFA developers have been pushed to their limits. Enter FIFA 10, the greatest soccer game you’ll ever play.

Gameplay

Some of you may argue that we just threw a pretty big matzo ball out there, but FIFA 10 is arguably the best there is, was and ever will be. Better than Pro Evo 5 and Sensi, you say? You betcha. Soccer fans are in a golden age, and may it never end. FIFA 09 pushed boundaries and was a massive leap from FIFA 08, but FIFA 10 has smoothed out all the creases from FIFA 09 and added some great new gameplay elements to make this year’s iteration a necessity to any soccer fans library.

From the kick off, you’re presented with your own superstar in an empty park, it’s just you, a ball, a goalie, and a goal. Feel free to kick the ball around a bit as you’re going to want to. New game modes include Virtual Pro, where you can create a superstar that looks like you and use him in a lot of the different modes in the game. EA Game Face is back and more accurate than ever, so no longer do you have to spend hours fiddling with the custom settings of a create-a-superstar menu, you can just take a few quick snaps with your Vision Camera until you look like you. You can also use your PC to do this if you can’t take that perfect snap on your 360. Another great new feature of FIFA 10 is Set Play editor which allows you to set up a shot from anywhere on the pitch. It’s a bit fiddly, but allows the pros to repeat and practice any tactic they may want to perfect before their next big match on LIVE.

An interesting new mode EA have thrown in is Live Play mode which you have to pay extra for. This mode allows you to follow your favourite team, whether it be A.C. Milan or Millwall F.C., and check their results as they happened. The mode is so well set up that you can actually play the game yourself if you want, to see whether you’re better than your team. With live rosters and weather conditions, we can see why EA would ask a bit extra for this mode, and it’s definitely only for the hardcode supporters. Be a Pro mode has a minor change where it will level up ...