We were present at the FIFA 09 Global Community event in the EA Sports studio in Canada. We spent 2 days playing different versions of FIFA 09, and as a result we have a very in-dept hands-on, in the versions which are the most popular ones.
Day 1…
FIFA 09 PC After the initial and impressive studio tour, FIFA 09 PC Producer Paul Hossack, gave us a presentation of some of the new changes we can expect to see in FIFA 09 for PC. First off and as most of us know, this FIFA will feature the same graphics engine as the Next Gen version. This translates into an extremely beautiful and detailed game.
They also spent a lot of time re-writing the collision engine, and added over 350 new animations just to support collisions. There were also new skill moves added to have a total of 32 skill moves now.
The presentation menu also received a huge overhaul and it looks slick and professional, not only does it look great but they also added new interactivity, and widgets that can be moved around and placed in the order you desire.
These widgets will bring you information you want to your FIFA Menu, One of them is a news feed from ESPNSoccer and will give you the current league standing, next match, and previous match of your selected favorite team. You can always click on it to get more details. Other will give you your online and offline stats, and also the number of people currently online playing FIFA 09.
The most intriguing innovation this year is the addition of the mouse to the gameplay. This adds 3 different ways to play with only your keyboard and mouse.
First Impression
After the presentation we decided to hit the pc and get down to business, I wanted to try the new control schemes that include the mouse. Advanced Mode – Mouse and Keyboard, I decided to start off with the advanced mode and see how it really felt like to play FIFA like a FPS. You control the player movement with the A,S,D,W on your keyboard, with the mouse you control the player actions and the direction in which you want the player to execute it.
Easy enough right, Think again! These controllers will definitely take some getting used to and they do require a high level of concentration during the game. In compensation you can setup some amazing plays and runs never before possible, which will keep your opponent guessing.
Controlling the player with the left and keyboard was not too difficult to get used to and to do the passing, shooting, tackling with a mouse click was also difficult to get used to. The challenge started when I needed to know where my mouse was at all times, I found it difficult to decide exactly where to place my mouse in situations where I was under pressure by my opponent and often times, I ended up passing or clearing the ball to a completely different area than what I was intending to do.
This is completely my fault because I would lose sight of my mouse and when my rival was about to challenge me for the ball I would panic and try to find the mouse in the screen then, realize I had no time left and just pressing pass or shoot without really looking where I was looking at.
Changing players now is a breeze when not in possession of the ball you simply click on the player you want to control and away you go. No more frantically pressing the change player key until the computer selected the one you wanted. Skill moves are not also difficult to execute as all you have to do is press the scroll button on your mouse and then move your mouse as you would on the gamepad.
Passing is realistic and not because you pointed and click on a player/area the ball will be delivered there, this is where your players attributes come in play don’t expect a clumsy defender to be able to perfectly achieve a long cross or a pass with any level of difficulty. Even very skilled players like Kaka will not always deliver, the position, speed and opponent pressure will play a key part in how well you execute these passes. Same goes for shooting, and to control de power of your pass/shot you leave the action’s corresponding key pressed.
Of course with this FPS controller style, this sacrifice comes as when you’re playing with friends locally on your pc they will see where your mouse is pointing and can potentially read where you’re shooting and passing. However after a couple of games I found, it I can use it to my benefit as I can start setting up a run point my mouse in that direction and of course the person playing with me will try to go and cover that zone, he leaves spaces in others so I would quickly move my mouse and play the ball in the open space and I would usually get a pretty good result as my rival didn’t have time to reach and cover the new zone.
Now your rival can only see where your cursor is pointing at in a local PC match, if you play via direct IP, or online on the ea servers, your rival cannot see your mouse.
Easy Mode – Mouse only, if you played the Wii version of FIFA 08 you will be familiar with this controller scheme. You basically only control passing, shooting and tackling. Everything else is controlled by the AI. Obviously this game mode will not fit most of us who consider ourselves hardcore gamers. This is more for kids who are not familiar with Soccer games but would like to play it.
Classic Mode – Keyboard, Of course if you don’t like trying new things and would rather stick to the basics, you can still do that using your keyboard as you always have. Nothing changes here, you move your player with the arrows and execute actions with the A,S,D,Q,W,E etc.. keys.
Using the gamepad has not changed much either, we played FIFA 09 with the XBOX 360 controllers and everything worked perfectly, as if you were playing on the console. With this large variarity of controller styles, there’s for sure one that will fit your playing style. If there isn’t, then worry not, all keys and actions are remapable to another key or button.
You’re no longer tied to A if your key for slide tackles and lobs, You want to keep lobs on A but if you want to change your slide tackles to another key you can go ahead and do it. Offensive (when you have possession of the ball) and Defensive (when you don’t have possession of the ball) controls can be remapped individually from each other.
The animations are unbelievable collisions have shown to be much more realistic and improved well worth the time they spent creating the new 350 animations. The non interactive scenes just look completely gorgeous, sweat and kit textures are just amazing.
The game speed has been modified and now the game runs and moves faster, Also the 3 game speed settings were also re-amped so now you can actually tell the difference between slow game speed vs fast game speed. We were able to find an exploid when finishing where if you were to shoot from a 45 degree angle the ball will almost always go in. When we brought this up to the attention of the producers they quickly said this bug had already been found and it was now corrected in the current build of the game.
This FIFA 09 for PC looks and plays great, I had already abandoned FIFA PC and moved on to FIFA NG, now after seeing and playing it. I’m really excited and really looking forward to playing FIFA PC again.
FIFA NG (XBOX 360, PS3) After taking a quick break for lunch we came back for FIFA NG, Producer Dave Witts’ presentation highlighted some of the innovations for this year as well as some of the gameplay enhancements.
As well as the PC version the Collision system has been completely re-written and also created over 350 new animations to support the new system. The end result is that you end up with a far more realistic reaction to collisions, tackles, etc…
Be a Pro 10 vs 10 The be a pro mode will come out of the box with the 5 vs 5. And there will be a download update to 10 vs 10. This means it supports up to 20 players online!
New in FIFA 09 is the Be a Pro Career Mode, where you have the opportunity to create your own player or take an existing player and turn him into an international legend. During the length of the 4 year Career mode you can switch Clubs and aim to form part of your national team’s in a World Cup style Tornament. Thus Becoming an international Legend which is the ultime goal in the Be a pro Career mode.
There also has been done a lot of work done to make your FIFA experience more regionalized, You can now tell the difference when you’re playing a game in the Premier League vs the Mexican League. To also enhance this experience there has been 5 different scoreboards used in the game. 4 league specific and 1 generic one.
You get the regionalized experience right from the arena as there are now 5 different arenas, which are based in 5 different regions of the world, ranging from a beach like arena in Brasil to a Metropolitan one in Tokyio.
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Comments (1)
1. Written by Rayo Rossonero on 09-08-2008 18:58 - Registered
