Review: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Developer: EA Canada

Publisher: EA Sports

Despite having a few bugs, FIFA 10 was astonishing. Its new and improved gameplay features, like 360° Dribbling made it feel amazingly realistic, far surpassing FIFA 09 and any other football game ever. 6 months later came the release of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, the official game of this year’s World Cup. The game boasts an impressive 199 national teams and the 10 stadium that will be used in the World Cup, as well as certain stadiums from the different regions of qualifying such as Wembley.

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, obviously, lets you play through the 2010 FIFA World Cup from qualifying through to the finals and to victory. Unlike the other World Cup-specific games there are a few different modes in which you can win the World Cup. The standard World Cup mode allows you to start from qualifying or from the finals with any of the 199 teams in the game. This is just your standard mode in which you control all 11 of your players and compete against AI opponents. If AI opponents are your thing you can now compete for the World Cup online in the cleverly named Online World Cup mode. This puts you and your team at the start of the World Cup finals in a randomly generated group with the goal to go on and win the World Cup. The national pride really shines through playing this mode, so expect many an abusive message from true patriots of other countries. There is also the standard head-to-head online matches. Scenario modes have been a regular feature in past FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro games and they make a welcome return in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. Story of Qualifying features 55 playable scenarios from this year’s qualifying stages and previous World Cup tournaments. Some scenarios require you to relive the actual match whereas others allow you to change history. It’s great, as scenario modes always are.

Captain Your County mode will be familiar to anyone who’s played Be A Pro mode in any of recent FIFA games, however it has had a few World Cup tweaks. You still play as your pro, which you can import from FIFA 10, make a new one or use an existing player, and try to impress your country’s coach in order to be promoted from the B team, to the first team and eventually be the captain. A few differences from past Be A Pro modes like having 4 player ratings visible in-game and a little icon telling you when you are currently Man of the Match make no real differences to the way it plays but it’s nice to see. One major difference, however, is that now once you are captain you do not get to select your team’s formation or squad, the only control you have is when playing a match. You can control the goalkeeper, select kick takers and set the team’s play style (attacking, defensive etc.). Overall it is a great, immersive mode, as with any of the other Be A Pro modes in past FIFA games, but is only really good for one playthrough.

Whenever a tournament-specific FIFA game is released it will play very similar to the next annual FIFA. If this is the case with 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa then FIFA 11 will be practically flawless as the gameplay is a huge improvement over FIFA 10′s. For starters you get the usual slight tweaks such as improved heading, more realistic crosses and improved goalkeeper reactions and animations, but 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa goes one step further by implementing a whole new penalty kick system.

The new penalty kick system requires a lot more skill and less luck. A marker goes side to side on your composure meter and you must stop it as near to the green section in the middle as possible. This will make your penalty accurate. You then have to aim your penalty by holding the analogue stick in the direction you want to shoot, however holding it too long will result in you missing the kick. You can still perform laces, precision and chip penalty kicks but the stutter shot has now bee added. This can give you an advantage as the keeper may reveal which way he is going to dive, allowing you to quickly change your shot direction, but can also allow the keeper to read which way you are going to shoot. Saving penalty kicks has also been revamped in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. You now use the right stick to control your keeper’s dive: high right, high left, low right or low left. You can choose to commit to a dive early, giving you the best chance of saving it if you guess the direction but can leave yourself vulnerable to the stutter shot which would reveal your chosen direction. Alternatively you can dive after the ball has been kicked; this will give you less chance of saving the ball but will not leave yourself vulnerable to the stutter shot. It’s a great improvement over past FIFA penalty systems as it is more realistic and adds a new level of challenge to those crucial penalty shootouts that make the World Cup great.

Overall 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is the best football game available at the minute but definitely is not flawless. The short life span and the fact goals are a bit too easy to score once you break clear of the defence keep this from being the perfect football game, but it is the best we’ve got.