The glorious sun is out shining today, reminiscent of what South Africa will hopefully provide during the 2010 FIFA World Cup when the tournament kicks off on June 11th. What better way to get us in the mood for the biggest sporting event in the world than a demo of the game which launches on April 30th? The question on everyone’s lips is whether 2010 FIFA World Cup is just FIFA 10 in disguise or whether EA have given us enough of an incentive to purchase a whole new game.
After you’ve downloaded and launched the 950MB demo, the first thing you will notice is the stellar presentation of the game. The menus are laid out in a beautiful golden theme and the games leading track K’naan – Wavin’ Flag blasts out, giving a festival and summer theme to get you in the mood. Only a standard exhibition match is available in this demo, but the menus reveal what game modes will be available in the full game. You obviously have the 2010 FIFA World Cup mode where you can lead your favourite nation to glory and lift the trophy, and EA have copied the “Be a Pro” game mode in the form of “Captain Your Country”. In Captain Your Country, you can create a player from scratch, import your FIFA 10 Virtual Pro or choose an existing top player and help them rise from the B-team to earn the captaincy of their country and lead their nation to glory in South Africa.
The “Story of Qualifying” will allow you to relive moments from the 2010 qualifying campaign and also the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals with over 50 scenario-based challenges, with more challenges being added via Xbox Live throughout the 2010 tournament. If you’re connected to Xbox Live, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in the first full and authentic FIFA World Cup online tournament. Playing as weaker teams will reward you with more points, and this could be key as you try to move up the gamer leaderboard. Battle of the Nations will also return to show which country has the best gamers. Everytime you win a match whilst representing a country, say England for example, England will earn a certain amount of points for their leaderboard. The country with the most points at the end of the tournament will win the Battle of the Nations and if you’re passionate about your country, this could be a nice incentive to play the game more.
The demo allows you to play as either Spain or Italy, two of the leading nations at this years World Cup. The pre-game scenes help set the atmosphere and really make you believe you’re playing in the World Cup instead of just another football match. Everything from the World Cup trophy close-up to the managers hand shake and the falling confetti coming to rest on the side of the pitch help get you in the mood. The graphics as a whole are simply fantastic and I can confidently say this is the best looking football game yet. The shadows on the pitch look brilliant, the laid confetti brings great atmosphere, the player models have great detail and the animations are silky smooth.
On the gameplay side of things and obviously the most important part of 2010 FIFA World Cup, you won’t be surprised to hear that the gameplay is extremely similar to FIFA 10’s. The gameplay does seem to be tweaked slightly though to maximise the experience, and I noticed the gameplay seems to be sped up a bit whilst being more fluid, allowing you to move the back and attack with great speed. The A.I also seems more brutal and potentially harder to score against, aswell as your own team-mates making some clever runs upfront instead of just standing their like lemons.
A new two-button control system has been introduced to make the game accessible for gamers new to the football gaming scene. With this system chosen, you can easily complete the full match by using only the A and B buttons. Pressing A will produce a short pass whereas holding A will result in a longer ball or a cross, which with the standard controls is produced via the X button. The game will automatically know when to make your pass a Through Ball to the strikers and therefore the use of the Y button has been eliminated. The B button will shoot the ball and win headers, and the game even knows when sprinting is necessary and therefore you won’t have to worry about using the RT to sprint. I myself will still be using the standard FIFA controls but for people new to the series or just having recently purchased an Xbox 360, the addition of this basic control system will be very welcomed.
The slight tweaks in game modes and gameplay long with gorgeous graphics, a brilliant soundtrack and a new control system for beginners makes 2010 FIFA World Cup a very tempting purchase this summer. With just enough variety from FIFA 10 to make the game worth buying, I expect many football fans will pick this game up when Football Fever begins this summer; I know I’ll be leading England to World Cup Glory! Looking forward to this one at the end of the month.
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Yeah right,
I just played the demo and I’m not impressed. The player’s faces are still ugly (although admittedly they have been redone), the gameplay is still very flat: in defense mark the free AI player, while building pressure with the blue button on the 360 and in offense just send the player in front of you with the “send player button”, or alternatively ping-pong your way to the opponent’s goal. Boring and definately not worth the 60 Euros it costs here in Germany.
The only things that seems to be new are videos of the boring fans dancing on the stands and of the stupid team manager being angry. As if that makes the game better or something.
I know the developers were saying that the full version of this game will give us a little insight on what we can expect with FIFA11. You may notice that the keepers don’t automatically come out and get easily lobbed anymore
I’ll check this out this evening when I get home. Looking forward to it 
chris K. typical German!!! hasnt got a clue what hes on about. the games is good grafixs have been improved a bit and also the game has been tweaked which adds to the experience.. a defo buy for me
Konami released an official statement on their Japanese site informing the world they have acquired the Copa Libertadores license for PES 2011 and beyond!