The first thing you will notice if you are familiar with last years game is that the main menu has been improved allowing you to navigate to different modes faster. Accompanying the menu is a virtual scoreboard which collects a range of stats from you and your Xbox Live friends then displays them for you to compare. These vary from fastest goal to most earnings in career mode, if your competitive you might find yourself putting in extra time to beat a friend’s record.
Heading pitch side, the core mechanics have been tweaked building upon the success of Fifa 10. The main change is the improved physicality, players will constantly battle for possession and there are no guaranteed tricks or tackles. For example when defending timing and positioning are now more crucial than ever, go in for the tackle too early and you will be left playing catch up, pick the wrong angle and you’ll concede a foul. Passing has received an upgrade after complaints last year that users could exploit “ping pong passing”, this basically meant you could play the ball up to attack quickly without much skill. The new “Pro Passing” system eliminates this without making it overly difficult to play an accurate ball, the direction you hold on the left analogue stick will direct your pass while power can be controlled with the length of the button press. It takes a little while to master but that is the point, mastering anything worthwhile takes time and effort. With these changes each match is hard-fought and plays as a much better simulation of the real life sport. This won’t be to everyone’s taste however, for those of you that are looking for a fast paced goals flying affair then this may not be the game for you.
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| You will have to constantly fight for possession. |
Two completely new additions to Fifa 11 are “Personality Plus” and the ability to jump between the sticks and don the gloves of the goalkeeper. The former is about making players you control more like their real life counterparts. You will see Cristiano Ronaldo’s stance and fancy footwork, Wayne Rooney’s aggression and ability to muscle his way past defenders and John Terry’s rock solid defensive presence to name a few. It’s hard to appreciate until you see it in action but it only really affects the world class talent. The latter gives you the chance to play as the goalie for the first time. This can be done in exhibition modes as any team or your own created Virtual Pro. This feature can be boring in one match then great fun in the next depending on how much pressure you are put under. To try and make it more interesting you are given the ability to direct your teams play, highlighted button symbols will appear at the players feet when they are in positions to receive a pass or to shoot. This is more of a distraction than being of any genuine tactical use and I spent most of my time forcing errors on my team so I could warm up my gloves, that said it makes a nice change of pace every now and then, plus it allows for 11 vs. 11 online play.
Offline aside from exhibition matches and tournaments you can hone your skills in career mode. This year you can play through 15 seasons of club football as a player (virtual pro or existing), a player-manager or manager. Lead your team or player (or both) to glory winning silverware, secure transfers to boost your squad and move to other clubs when you want a fresh challenge. This mode can eat up hours of your time, you will feel a sense of accomplishment when you drag a league two club like Cheltenham Town into the premiership and clinch the title. There’s not really anything new here but it is as good as ever and now everything is in one place which is a welcome change.
When you are ready to compete against the best the world has to offer then take you skills online and battle it out. Play in head to head matches and get yourself on the leader boards or take control of one player with ten others in online team play. Pro clubs allows you and a group of friends to start your own team and compete against others using your virtual pro’s and this is one of the best modes. It is unfortunate however that this mode seems to be plagued by a few problems such as latency issues, crashes which require returning to the dashboard, glitches causing you to change team and results not being recorded. This is the only mode that I have experienced problems in and hopefully EA will resolve these issues swiftly.
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| Personality Plus gives players like Rooney an edge. |
The visuals have received some polish with top flight teams and stadiums looking fantastic, zoom in on a replay and you can see the high level of detail on players faces such as Lionel Messi. While this is great it is disappointing that the lesser known clubs still haven’t received enough attention. Commentary is provided again this year by Martin Tyler and Andy Gray who do a great job, you will be pulled in by the facts about the teams and the general banter between them.
In Fifa 10 EA provided on their website “Game Face” a tool to get your mug onto your virtual pro, this worked by creating your face on a PC then downloading through your console. They have gone one step further this time around by giving you the “Creation Centre”, using this you can create your own team complete with kit and players and add your own crowd chants to your game.
Fifa 10 was something special and Fifa 11 manages to improve upon that with tweaks to the engine, new customisation options and the ability to be a goal keeper. If you love football games that stay true to the real thing, have deep tactical ways to play and are rewarding then look no further.
Review score 9.0 out of 10
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