OLD: FIFA 09 review
Oh dear, Konami, oh dear indeed. For years, purists have hailed the Pro Evolution Soccer series as the true pinnacle of football gaming. It lacks the names and faces that EA has coveted for its FIFA series, but made up for it with slick, technical gameplay devoid of pointless gimmicks or broken features. This year, however, the spoilt, popular choice has come out fighting so hard, Seabass’ masterpiece appears to have sidelined itself with a self-induced franchise strain.
It was going to happen at some point, but the switch to this generation of hardware just slowed things a little. FIFA started off disastrously on the new hardware, only just managing to put together a competent and enjoyable game with last year’s title, while Pro Evo merely started to wheeze, a decent but unimpressive relic of its PS2 glory days running out of steam. EA’s gargantuan budget has finally shined through with FIFA 09, with a true evolution and return to form for a series that hasn’t had a truly great year for more than half a decade.
The key factor in why FIFA 09 is such an accomplished game of football comes mostly from all the details that usually only bother press releases. Improved player and ball physics, improved animations and a graphical update, the on-the-fly custom tactics adjustments and a realistic adjustment to the overall pace of matches: these and 244 other “core gameplay additions” all sound like the yearly update bumph we’ve all learnt to ignore.
At first, even in a quick match, the slower pacing can be rather distracting, but it’s soon replaced by a feeling of increased control and understated realism in movement. Where previous entries have suffered from awkward animation and a stilted, unbalanced difficulty curve, 09’s fluidity puts Pro Evo truly to shame. Players realistically cover the ball with their body, while larger players will barge smaller ones out of the way to take or keep the ball, which certainly helps as the AI is tenacious and determined to take possession no matter what.
Matches are pressured and all about opening up your opponents’ defence by pulling defenders out of place and paying attention to your teammates’ positions and tactics. Attackers signal with their hands where they want you to play the ball, one-touch passes are even more vital than ever and when timed perfectly, through balls can be utterly devastating – although goals aren’t quite as forthcoming as you might expect.
Despite the beautiful way in which FIFA 09 plays and looks, there are still plenty of kinks in its armour. Crossing isn’t nearly as effective as it should be, and corners are unnecessarily tricky, with keepers and centre-halfs turfing the ball out no matter how good your timing is. Players occasionally decide to abandon chasing a loose ball for no reason, and switching players can be frustratingly random at the most inopportune times, and if you’re a bit of a button masher the move stacking system can be a nightmare.
These problems can be few and far between, especially after a few warm-up matches. The most important thing to get used to is using the d-pad to change between custom tactics, whether you want to go on all out offense or keep the play defensive, play the offside trap or just about any specific orders you want. Each change makes a genuine, tangible difference in the pace and nature of a match, whether it’s for the best or you’re playing into your opponents’ trap. There’s nothing more frustrating than constantly being caught by the offside trap.
Making a return this year is the Be A Pro mode, which pits you Liberio Grande style into the shoes of a single player, rewarding you for keeping to your position, passing, tackling, scoring and just generally helping to get positive results. The Be A Pro: Seasons mode is a 4-year career mode, allowing you to take your custom player or real-life star from humble beginnings to eventually captaining their national team, no matter how daft you’ve made them look.
The Manager Mode might still not be up to the same standard as Pro Evo’s Master League, but it’s a perfectly playable and enjoyable distraction – even if matches are randomised and the transfer system weak. For players who want to keep everything up to date and realistic, the new Adidas Live System, an expensive weekly update system, which for 1600MS points (£12.99 on PS3) gives you statistical player and team updates for every league, or a smaller fee for individual leagues. It’s great if your team is getting stronger and stronger week by week, not so helpful if you’re a Crewe Alexandra fan.
Online play is as solid as ever, even if it suffers from some dramatic slowdown thanks to lag, and the new 10-vs-10 games are a brilliant edition and logical online evolution of the Be A Pro mode. Matches can get rather chaotic and if you’re not with friends it has a tendency to devolve into schoolyard rules.
Commentary is as vacuous and slow as ever while the soundtrack is pleasingly eclectic, and while the game features incredibly slick and detailed visuals, up close during replays even the most realistic player models look like vasoline-smeared zombies. Yet none of this matters, as Andy Gray and Martin Tyler can be ignored, and the animations are so stunningly detailed games are even more enjoyable just to watch.
FIFA 09 is by far the finest football game of the year, if not ever, but there’s still a way to go before the games can be classed as perfect. Hopefully next year’s version will feature a few more adjustments, the least of which should be Trophies for the PS3 version and improved crosses, but for now this is the most feature-packed, perfectly paced version of the beautiful game out there.
Scores:
Gameplay: 9
Presentation: 9
Value: 9
Mainstream Appeal: 10
Overall: 8.9
