REVIEW: ‘FIFA 11’ provides personality and pleasure for gamers
“FIFA 10” was a crowning achievement for EA Sports’ soccer series when it was released last fall. It took massive steps forward in gameplay, and while “FIFA 11” doesn’t quite pack the same enormous steps forward, it still is a bomb game.
FIFA has always been about delivering the most realistic portrayal of the sport of soccer. “FIFA 10” brought us 360-degree dribbling for the first time, instead of the 45-degree turning axis in all games previous to it. We also got Virtual Pro, a feature that allowed you to create a player, put him on a team and then watch him progress as you used him in any of the game’s modes. Bringing the physicality of soccer to the forefront on-screen is another longstanding tradition for the series and one that “FIFA 11” takes to the next level with something called Personality Plus.
Personality Plus doesn’t mean that players are going be emotional, it’s more about how players that you know and love will look, run, shoot, dribble and react to physical interactions authentically. What is the best part of Personality Plus? Personality Plus works for the big name guys of the sport like Messi, Ronaldo, Kaka and my favorite – Robben. Some of the lesser-known players don’t get the same treatment and I’d love to be able to develop or assign traits to my created player, but for now Personality Plus impresses. If you’re a mainstream soccer fan who only tunes in for the World Cup every few years, the benefits of Personality Plus might be lost on your lacking knowledge of the prominent soccer stars of the world.
More impressive is that “FIFA 11” ratchets up the physical play and allows for even more jostles, bumps and slide tackle variations than the series has ever seen. You’ll see guys get knocked off the ball by big defenders and smaller, quicker forwards can pull off some impressive moves even without the skill moves mechanic.
You will also notice a new passing system that allows you to hold the pass button to target a comrade further down the field. Also with the new passing system, you have to be more accurate with your direction pad and you have to be more aware of your players body positioning to make sure you get connected passes. This is nice for the more experienced FIFA clientele, but will take some getting used to for any newbs.
Overall, the core gameplay on the field is extremely solid, but much of it relies on the past accomplishments of “FIFA 10.” None of the new touches hurt the gameplay experience in any way, there just aren’t the same number of innovative steps forward. “FIFA 11” still has some of the annoyances that have hurt past games, but the touch-ups to players’ personalities reap cool benefits on the field. Plus, there’s no denying that FIFA presents some of the best flow you’ll find in a sports game.
“FIFA 11” still has all the great game modes, like Be A Pro, Manager Mode and Player Manager Mode. I enjoy playing Manager Mode with my team Olympique Lyonnais and going through year-after-year of winning the league and Champions League with my boys. The Be A Pro mode is extremely fun and addicting when you’re trying to get yourself to the next level. In Be A Pro you create yourself and put yourself in your favorite position and try to progress through the lower rankings of clubs to make it big in Europe. This is great for playing yourself on the best team in North America, Real Salt Lake, and then hopefully getting signed to a big European club. All the modes are fun and will keep you busy for hours on end.
The graphics of “FIFA 11” are top notch on the pitch and on replays. It’s amazing how far the game has come in the graphics region, you can recognize all your favorite players with ease. There is also more goal celebration this year to add on to the astonishing amount of celebrations they had in “FIFA 10”. A new feature to the game is player badges which show up in the team management part of the game. Badges show what players are good at or known for in their playing style, like dribbler, tackler, playmaker, strength, heading and so on.
– billy.harlow@aggiemail.usu.edu