FIFA has long been the undisputed champion at retail when it comes to football/soccer games but this year has seen a slight change in scenery. Ubisoft have released a contender, albeit one which was roundly criticised, and Konami’s PES series has vowed many improvements and a more directly competitive release date.
So are the champions complacent or will they strengthen their squad and regroup for another successful title defence?
This year’s iteration of the world’s most popular sports game doesn’t have any massive changes to grab headlines. The biggest addition to the bullet-point list of features is the option to play the Be a Pro mode (now replaced as an option in the new “Career” mode) as the goalkeeper. This is a welcome inclusion and it works well (although you do often feel a little solitary, stood at the back) but it’s hardly a big departure for the franchise.
FIFA’s development since ’09 has been all about refinement and this year is no different. The game plays in much the same way as FIFA 10 with updated kits, rosters and slightly improved visuals. That has been the FIFA recipe for success for as long as I can remember and it has always served the franchise well. When the base you’re building on is this good why do you need huge innovation year on year?
The menus have been overhauled to make them quicker and simpler to navigate. This is a very welcome change but it still doesn’t fix the slight lag in selections that has been evident in FIFA titles for a few years. As you would expect, the visual and audio presentation on the front-end is outstanding. The ability to slot your own music (or crowd chants, if you have them) in to the situational music rotation is a joyous inclusion too.
Player likenesses are a vast improvement on last year’s game and the kits are more realistic and adapt differently in different weather situations (which also have a big effect on the game-play). Key players have distinctive styles of motion that further pick them out from the crowd and the new crowd chants make the game even more immersive (if you can ignore the still-terrible commentary).
Some of the biggest changes to this year’s FIFA come in the form of minor game-play tweaks. The slightly improved crossing and corners of the World Cup version have been further tuned so that balls in from the flank are no longer mostly useless. It’s still not perfect but it does work a lot more often than previously. When the ball does arrive in the box your strikers are now much more likely to try different things to get some contact too. It’s no longer a case of a failed header attempt if the ball isn’t at the right height, they’ll try overhead kicks, bicycle kicks, volleyed flicks and diving headers far more often than in previous iterations.
The passing system is different too, with weighting of passes being crucial to the success of that pass. It’s not a new feature in the series, rather an existing control option that has now been set as default but it makes a huge difference to the difficulty of the game from the outset.
Player positioning, body shape and pass strength all have a very real effect on how successful your short game will be. This makes for a more testing and often more frustrating game of football. With player positioning more crucial than ever it would be nice if attacking teammates were more prone to making AI-controlled runs rather than edging around your midfielders, leaving little option but to play it sideways while the defence consolidate their positions. This can be instigated manually but some more intelligent automatic movement would make the game far more free-flowing.
The opposing AI has also had a summer at soccer school with a seemingly enhanced ability across the board to perform 360 degree spins and drag-backs. This is frustrating when you’re playing against lower league teams who regularly embarrass top-flight defences with tricks Ronaldo would be proud of. It also highlights the fact that performing these tricks yourself is still fiddly and tricky to get the timing right, to the point where it is much simpler and more successful if you just run the ball around opposition defences and shoot across the box at forty-five degree angles.
The advantage rule is still hugely weighted in favour of the opposition too, with advantage for your team being a quickly-expiring luxury that is only ever reversed if the opposition wins the ball. For the AI controlled teams the advantage rule often seems to be ten seconds or two passes meaning that going in for those 50/50 tackles is essentially penalised with a brief period of non-participation.
So FIFA 11 is far from perfect, there is plenty of room for improvement in next year’s inevitable release. When it does all click, though, it’s magical.
A series of well-directed one-touch passes, when you get the strength of those passes correct, are extremely satisfying. Tie that in to a flat-out run down the wing and a perfectly timed step-over and you will be grinning from ear to ear. Finish the move with a pin-point cross from the by-line and a powerful header into the back of the net and you will need to pause the game and run around the house with your shirt over your head. When you fulfil your side of the bargain, FIFA 11 is simply brilliant.
Tactically FIFA has stepped things up a notch too. Player’s strengths now play a much more important role in how they perform within the team. You can effectively mark the opposition’s star players out of the game so playing hard and tight on Steven Gerrard makes Liverpool all but impotent going forward. Transversely, this means that you will actively try to involve your own star players whenever possible (and suffer the same problems if they’re marked out of the game).
The online modes work in much the same way as previous years. You still have ranked and unranked matches, a lobby mode and that award for playing in a fully human online team. There is still no method of reprisal for sore losers who disconnect rather than lose a game and the matchmaking doesn’t seem to care all that much if you’re not very good at the game. It’s welcome for those moments when you want human opposition but don’t have friends in the room but FIFA is still at its best when played against a human opponent on the same sofa.
Pros:
- Masses of licensing makes for the most “finished” football game.
- Presentation is unmatched.
- New tweaks to game modes and game-play are improvements.
Cons:
- A refinement rather than a big improvement.
- Some issues with supporting AI and opposition skills.
- Online modes still don’t discourage abuse.
There is a lot to like about FIFA 11 and fans of the series will no doubt fawn over the multitude of minor improvements. It would be dishonest to ignore the, mostly minor, flaws that are definitely present though. Not that those flaws will spoil many people’s enjoyment of the game, they just give the franchise room to improve next year.
jonny_bolton
One thing I hate about FIFA is that I can’t hit any high balls. I play as Bolton and I’ve got the ball at the back I want to get the ball in the air to Kev’s head for the flick-ons. However, everytime I press circle (changed it to PES controls) the ball is always really flat and drilled. Anyone know how to do a floaty ball out from defence without pressing the shot button which yields no accuracy…
cc_star
X is short pass along the ground
Circle or Square is long pass (in the air) depending which one you’ve set to shoot
Triangle is through-ball and L1 & Triangle is lofted through-ball
jonny_bolton
Cheers mate! I know the bloody buttons! :P
What I mean though is when I play a long ball it’s always drilled and really flat meaning that Kevin Davies receives the ball at his feet or shins rather than his head which obviously is where I’d want it for the flick-ons.
So what I need to know is whether there is any way of getting some kind of height in long balls out of defence. I know on PES a couple of games ago a shoulder button press would modify whether the long ball was flat or high.
colossalblue
L1 and the long pass (circle in your case) plays a deep cross, it might be worth trying that. Now you mention it, there is a propensity for long balls to be a bit flatter although I think you’re suffering from an extreme case.
jonny_bolton
I’ll give it a go. I’ve been hanging onto PES controls for the last couple of year now so I’ve a;ways assumed L1 and cross means “early cross” and it does seem to have that effect. Though I never try it from the back so next time I’m on I’ll give t a whirl.
Loxstokk
I’d pretty much agree with everything in this review. Spot on.
I would like to add that the manager career mode (were I spend 99% of my time) has developed a little further. Money is now allocated by the board as opposed to generated on a per game basis, a bit more like real football clubs. The news system is a bit more interesting and actually can be useful, such as when you short list a player for transfer they can sometimes appear in the news saying ‘they welcome the interest’. The email system also sees info such as tips on players performance via the assistant coach which is a nice touch. Things such as stadium and training facility upgrades have gone, as well as the ability to send out a scout, although i dont miss them too much. The transfer system could be easier to use too. Maybe something to compare player stats easier? The new scout picks is a nice addition
Not much else to add really…
COME ON YOU REDS! (a-hem, Nottingham Forest…)
Loxstokk
@ jonny_bolton
I think its L1 and long pass your after. I may be wrong. I think L1 allows you to do lofty pass,through balls and shots.
BigCheese
Pretty much agree with all of this review, very unbiased. I agree with the comment about star players through personal experience. As an Arsenal supporter, and I naturally play as Arsenal, when Cesc Fabregas is being marked by Mikel, Lamps and the might Essien, creating an effective attacking move is incredibly hard, with Arshavin out-played by Terry 9/10 times, and van Persie and Chamakh proving as useless as a choclate teapot. But when I get a life-like, free-flowing pass and move attack converted, it makes shouting at the ref and lashing out with career-ending tackles all worth it :) Stil first-time control/trapping errors occur too often and that is frustrating, especially now the passing requires thought
Roynaldo
I would like to have heard more about the online modes in this review.
I have played one game and got quit on after i scored. There is also the issue of being cut out of the PSN which both me and a few friends experience fairly often when playing this (and only this) game.
Apart from this its a very good review of the minor yet significant updates this years has to offer the FIFA fanbase.
Jimster71
I played a few games of this with a friend who has it. He wasn’t too sure about the improvements but I prefered it to FIFA 10. I thought the game seemed more realistic, spending a lot of time battling for possession in the midfield.
Saying that, I’ll be waiting for it to drop in price before I pick up my own copy.
OnlineAssassinUK
I picked up both fifa last week an pes today i like fifa but sometimes it just feels wrong and what is with the big pauses during matches which has plagued fifa over the past few years there don’t seem as regular as before but it should have been sorted by now. Also im not the wizard i once was with through balls there tough this year and i wish my teams ai would keep up with me on brakes upfield an make runs but all in all still a good fifa but for me this year pes has made the biggest improvements its the best pes in years it feels more realistic of the two for me despite fifas bells and whistles and a bit more fun out of the two but both good footie games.
Gizmo210688
Well, for the first time in quite a few years I have picked up both FIFA 11 and PES 11. And after playing about with them both for a few hours, I can honestly say that so far, I’ve had more fun with PES.
However, I think that the acid test for me will come when I have a few friends round. Before 2008, it was always PES, then we preferred FIFA. This year, who knows?
Agree with the AI though, they just seem to be a little bit TOO good, especially when playing against lower league teams. Annoying, but hopefully as I get more used to the game (i.e. better at it), it won’t be as frustrating.
crit10
Man this game deserves at LEAST a 9. It’s a huge improvement, not a mere refinement, it’s far superior to Fifa 10.
Sure, people may play as Real Madrid too much, but you just need to do the same and if any nasty PSN messages are sent, at least we can grief report. :)
Still we’re faced with the same scenario: the better you are at fifa, the higher you rate it. People will NOT persevere with it.
Good review. :)