2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Posted 3 years ago By - Marko Djordjevic

With the biggest sporting event on the planet just a few weeks away, EA Sports is getting Footy fans ready with their latest soccer title 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. After the success of FIFA Soccer 10 last fall, there’s a lot riding on this title and the guys over at EA Canada have made some minor adjustments, offered some new stuff and have managed to give fans of the series yet another reason to pick up a controller and play the “Beautiful Game”

Gameplay

As you would expect with a World Cup Title, 2010 FWC puts the focus on taking the nation of your choosing through the grinds of World Cup Qualifying, and then reaching the ultimate stage with the hopes lifting the trophy in Johannesburg. The two main World Cup modes include your standard qualifying and/or playing of the Finals. If your country failed to reach the finals, you have the ability to start from scratch and re-write history or if you just want to take control in the main tournament, you can do so as well.

The other main WC mode is the return of Captain Your Country, which was introduced back in 2008 for their UEFA Euro title. Similar to that mode and the Be a Pro mode, you can take an already established player, or your own created one, and start from your International B Squad to hopefully being the Captain of your nation in the finals. Those who loved previous renditions of this mode will once again be pleasantly surprised with just how much enjoyment can be had here. Unlike Be a Pro in FIFA 10, where before each game you had specific accomplishments your Manager set-out for you, here the focus is on playing a great game in every way. Everything is tracked in real time and there’s even an up-to-the second rating score that changes as you play. Complete more passes, score or assist on goals and that rating will quickly go up. But ,take foolish shots, cause too many fouls or play poor defense, and you will also see it drop just as fast.

Another interesting aspect to the mode, which also borrows from Be a Pro, is the Accomplishment system. Once again, your performance on the pitch unlocks achievements which improve your player’s overall rating. On offense, assist on five goals and your ratings improve; while your defense will improve when you finish multiple games with clean sheets. As well as having your own star play well, managing to get your teammates to finish matches with high ratings will also benefit you greatly in the long run.

In terms of on-the pitch action, subtle changes have been made from FIFA 10’s already great product. The two most noticeable changes include player fatigue and the new Penalty system. For the former, altitude now plays a very important factor into each game. Certain stadiums in South Africa are located over a kilometer above sea level and with the thinner oxygen available, players now get tired significantly quicker than when closer to sea level. This new strategy will most certainly force people to be more cautious with the use of the Sprint Button. And even if you play more conservatively, you’ll still be inclined to substitute players in the second half.

The other change to the gameplay comes in the penalty department. In the past, EA soccer games have had a fairly straight-forward penalty system. You aim and then shoot making sure not to put too much power into your shot and hoping the keeper doesn’t save it. This time around, they have added an invisible aim reticule and each players’ composure plays a huge part in the success of the shot.

The way it works is, when performing a penalty, before you even shoot, you need to first land a marker in the green zone of your player’s composure bar. If you hit the green then your success of scoring is significantly greater. Land on yellow or red ,and the chances of the ball being saved or going wide are increased.

Once you’ve set the your marker on the composure, it’s time to wind-up and to aim. Shooting is still performed by hitting the respective shooting button but as you wind up, you need to begin aiming with the left analog stick. Unlike in the past where you just had to point in one of the eight directions on the controller, there is now an invisible target which begins at the center of the screen then moves depending on the amount of pressure you apply. If you leave it straight, then the shot will go in that direction, start sliding it around and the shot will go travel in a different direction.

Finally, you now the ability to also stutter step and change your decision at the last second. Again, by taping the shoot button prior to shooting, your player will stop in the hopes of misdirecting the keeper. At this moment if you want to try to change the direction of your shot you can.

The penalty system ends up being a nice improvement to the game, but it’s also one that definitely has a learning curve. Thankfully, EA has brought back the Penalty Shootout mode which also has a tutorial and a practice mode. For serious FIFA fans, taking 5-10 minutes to learn the nuances of the new system is practically mandatory.

Even with all these improvements, 2010 FWC still shares a few of the problems that were visible in FIFA 10. AI keepers still tend to make foolish mistakes and will often gift goals. On more than one occasion in Captain Your Country, my keeper would throw the ball directly to an opposing player leaving the net open for an easy goal. Also, when catching balls along the back line, there were many occasions where they would step out of bounds to allow for a corner. These types of mistakes don’t happen too often, but when you’re in a must-win match and the keeper costs you the game, it can be extremely frustrating.

Graphics and Sound

Other sports games should take notice at how EA Canada does their presentation with their titles. 2010 FWC is probably the absolutely closest thing to actually watching a real match. From start to finish, the game feels like a real broadcast. Stadiums look fantastic, shots of fans either celebrating or in dismay with the performance of their team and even cutaways showing the frustration of a coach after a goal all look top-notch. On top of the fantastic looking stadiums, player animations continue to be extremely fluid and true-to-life. You won’t be disappointed with the way the game plays in this regard.

The strong presentation continues with the audio. Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend take you through the proceedings with incredible commentary which includes a lot of discussion on specific players, coaches, teams and even the cities and sights of South Africa. The soccer titles have always done a great job in replicating a real match and this still holds true here. Complimenting the commentary are the sounds inside the stadium itself. As interesting addition to the game, the sounds of the Vuvuzelas can now be heard. These plastic horns are a staple at South African soccer matches and they’re loud and clear here. Those who crave more authenticity with their games will welcome this addition, but thankfully for those who get irritated by those horns, which are very often banned at sporting events in North America, will be glad to know you can turn them off.

Value

2010 FIFA World Cup’s options don’t just end with Captain Your Country and your standard World Cup mode. EA has a lot of extra features, both for those who like to play online and off.

The biggest online feature this time around is the Online World Cup. Battle of the Nations is back, although it’s been expanded to an international level. Represent the country of your choosing and participate in the global World Cups happening all the time. In this mode, you’ll have your own personal World Cup tournament running from your system.

What this allows you to do is play against random people from around the world in the same format as the World Cup. You will play three round robin matches against online opponents and if you advance, you continue to move forward until you hopefully reach the the finals. This mode definitely has promise and thankfully you don’t have to spend a single session in the hopes of winning the tournament. You can easily log off and return to your “tournament” later on. The only downside to this is that the likelihood of playing the same team more than once along the way is extremely greater.

Offline, the extra mode available for you to enjoy is Story of Qualifying. Here you will be put into specific scenarios in the hopes of replicating events from the qualifying sessions. These can be simple requests from ’coming back from a goal down to win’ to ’scoring a certain amount of goals in set amount of time’. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this in a FIFA game but added this year is the ability to recreate moments from the finals in June. With this feature, if a great match occurs in S. Africa, you will be able to download the parameters and try to play out the same conclusion. Since the WC is still a few weeks away, this option is not accessible yet, but it should most certainly give you more reason to continue playing down the road.

Conclusion

For some, 2010 FIFA World Cup might be viewed as nothing more than a stop-gap between the yearly series. In truth, there is a lot of enhanced content available here and at no-point will you feel like your being cheated out of your hard-earned cash. It’s still a solid sports title from head to toe and the new additions will keep you occupied for a long time (or until FIFA 11 launches).