Futbol, football, and soccer fans around the world - along with videogamers - wait every year for the annual installment of EA Sport's soccer game, FIFA 11. With a slew of new features that will impress even the most traditional fans, this year's offering doesn't disappoint.
The biggest addition to this year's game, and the one that I was most looking forward to, is the Personality+ system. The system uses approximately 1,700 scouts from around the world to evaluate and update each players' skills as the year progresses. This is a remarkable undertaking, but could prove to give the game a greater replay value than it normally possesses.
After first putting the game into the system, there is an immediate difference in the initial set-up from previous iterations. The first thing the game does is look for save data from FIFA 10 to try to make sure that the difficulty settings are the same. Should it fail to find such data, it brings up a list of four questions that, after they are answered, set up the game which then promptly drops you onto the practice field so you can get a first-hand feel for how the control's work before braving the pitch in a real game.
Playing an actual game is just like riding a bicycle, and if you have ever played any of the previous 18 versions of the title you'll know what to do. The control scheme is very easy to grasp, the teams are balanced and judged in a fair manner, and the commentary is very well polished, per usual with this series.
I found the pick up and play-style of this game especially helpful. As somebody who was switching consoles with this game, I love how EA made the game very easy to learn if you were on a lower difficulty level, but if you want a challenge, you can easily step it up and go with a much higher setting. I know that most games do this, but EA Sports titles have always been rather balanced. With a little practice, almost anybody can be scoring goals and blocking shots in no time.
One of the changes over previous iterations of the game is the new design for career mode. When you enter this mode, you now have the option of choosing whether to be a player, a manager, or a player-manager. This mode combines the Manager mode and Virtual Pro modes from last year's version.
Article comments