Kotaku: fifa 10

Two Big Outlets List FIFA World Cup Edition for April

Owen Good — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:00:00 MST

EA Sports has not yet announced a date for its 2010 FIFA World Cup version, but both Amazon and Gamefly have it listed for April 27. World Cup 2010 begins June 11 in South Africa.

EA has produced a dedicated version in every World Cup year going back to 1998; Pasta Padre notes the most recent was released in late April as well. And April 27 is indeed a Tuesday. Sounds like a good bet to me.

I've emailed EA Sports but I've got a better chance of a fat elf in a red suit poking his head out of my fireplace than hearing back on Christmas Eve. And I don't have a fireplace.

2010 FIFA World Cup Release Date [Pasta Padre]

Here Are Your FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Screens

AJ Glasser — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:40:00 MST

To go with its announcement that FIFA 10 sold more than 4.5 million units so far this year, EA also announced that downloadable content FIFA 10 Ultimate Team is on its way in February 2010.

The DLC is priced at 400 Microsoft points for Xbox Live and has yet to receive a price listing for PlayStation Network. Here, have some screens:

FIFA 10 Sells "More Than" 4.5 Million Worldwide

AJ Glasser — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:00:00 MST

Based on internal figures, EA says FIFA 10 has sold 4.5 million units worldwide since it's launch in early October. This is in addition to FIFA 10 being the fastest-selling game ever, mind you.

Besides that, the company also announced that the first downloadable content pack, FIFA 10 Ultimate Team, will be available in February 2010 on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

Producer Paul Hossack details in the press release what you're getting with Ultimate Team: "We now have over 7,000 players from 27 leagues available, from which gamers will craft one or multiple squads to show their mastery of the revamped, more realistic chemistry system, and compete in tournaments with exciting requirements and rewards. On top of that, we'll release new tournaments and other updates regularly to keep the experience fresh and exciting."

Back to the sales figures, EA says FIFA 10 sold 26 percent better than FIFA 09 did in the same time period last year (and said nothing regarding last year's lousy economy compared to this year's optimistic economy). EA also says that FIFA 10 is breaking franchise records with an average of "3 million games played daily and over 113 million total online games played on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 over the past two months."

Talk about keeping the ball rolling.

Turning The Beautiful Game Into A Video Game

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:00:00 MST

As I've said, FIFA 10 comes as close as any sports game I've played to being just like the real thing. Begging the question: how do the developers actually turn a sport like football into a video game?

After all, football is not like most other sports represented in video games. It is not a game of inches, of innings, of lines, or mechanical plays. It is, as die-hard fans of the game will tell you, more than a game.

It's an artform.

Few, if any sports on earth are so free-flowing, so open to an individual player's interpretation of how the game should be played, and how they'll go about playing it. It's why arguments over who is the "best" player in the world are often pointless; Pele and Maradona are incomparable, as are Best and Beckenbauer, Figo and Zidane. It's like arguing whether Picasso is better than Van Gogh, or Mozart sharper than Beethoven.

What makes the game such a joy to watch, and gives the players the freedom to express themselves individually, should make a video game adaptation a nightmare. In American Football, for example, things are very structured. There are self-contained plays, there are limitations on what is happening at any one time. It's very mechanical. A lineman blocks, within a small area of the field, and that's that. A field goal is from a fixed point on the field, with the kicker making the same approach every time. You see where I'm going with this.

But football is all over the place. Ten of the eleven players could be anywhere on the pitch at any given time. The ball can go anywhere, in any direction, in the air or along the ground. Possession can change hands ten times in two minutes. It's a playground, a well-manicured sandbox.

None of which seemed to matter while playing FIFA 10, which both looks and plays as close to the real thing as any sports game I've ever played. So how do you model a video game, which by its very nature is a long string of pre-determined actions and reactions, on something so free-flowing and unpredictable?

The answer is both simple and very, very complicated: you go and bury yourself up to your neck in the sport.

After all, it's hard replicating something if you're not intimately familiar with it. So we caught up with the brains behind FIFA 10 to see how the team go about turning what for the developers is a lifelong obsession into something millions more would call the same thing.

MATCHDAY PREPARATION

According to FIFA 10's producer, David Rutter, it all begins with the development team's diversity. "We're in the process of building a ‘team wall' at the studio with pictures of all the guys showing where they're from and what teams they support", he says. "At last count we had people from 18 different countries, speaking 10 different languages".

And the variety doesn't end with the developer's passports. The teams they support reflect the corners of the earth from which they all hail. Being a Western studio means support skews heavily towards the English game – not just Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs fans, but also less glamorous sides like Leicester and Queens Park Rangers. There's plenty of international support as well, from Barcelona to Inter to the…Vancouver Whitecaps, the studio's local team.

Being, you know, important to the job, EA Canada staffers are able to indulge that support in a number of ways. Live games from all the world's major leagues are broadcast both on TVs in the studio and streamed to the developer's monitors, while for more real-world research they also have a number of season passes to the aforementioned Whitecaps (who, interestingly, engage in an annual showdown with Microsoft fanboys the Seattle Sounders). And that's just the local stuff; with members of the team always travelling across the globe, they also take in games across more prestigious competitions, like the Premier League and Champions League.

For a more hands-on approach to studying the inner workings of the game, the team can draw on the knowledge of some former players. One of FIFA's gameplay producers, Aaron McHard, was a former member of the Jamaican national team's youth squad, while Kantcho Doskov, an animator, is one of the best "tricksters" (think juggling, balancing, etc) in the world, having been a finalist at the Red Bull Freestyle Championships.

For everyone else — the team's Sunday league superstars — EA Canada have built the developers their own football pitch on the site, so they can pop out and do some "research" whenever the urge takes them.

THE GAME PLAN

In order for the game to play like a realistic game of football, the actual players on-screen needed to do a decent job of mirroring their real-life counterpart's abilities and performance. After all, it's no good to anybody if Wayne Rooney can't shoot, Lionel Messi can't dribble or David James suddenly learns how to keep something out of his net.

To make sure FIFA's players act like real players, then, EA have gone Roman, managing their "scouts" in multiples of ten. So, there are ten core database managers at EA Canada. Those ten then supervise another 100 "football experts", who are the ones actually inputting each player's individual attributes into the game. Then, below those 100, there are another 1000 or so hardcore fans from all over the world, who go over each stat with a fine-tooth comb and provide feedback.

And if that's not enough, Rutter also says the development team are constantly receiving "feedback" from Premier League stars themselves, satisfied (or dissatisfied!) with their numbers.

With the attributes in the database, it's then over to the animators, who have an equally important task ahead of them; just as it would stand out if Wayne Rooney wasn't scoring, so too would it stand out if he ran around all legs and arms like Peter Crouch, instead of all shoulders and potato head like he should.

Every year, professional players are invited into the studio to perform motion capture work on every aspect of the game. Dribbling, free kicks, shooting, tackling, throw-ins, penalties, slide tackles, you name it, it has to be captured. Sometimes, these are "professional" in the sense they're local players. Other times, they're "professional" in the sense that they've captured moves performed in the studio by the likes of Ronaldinho, Miroslav Klose and Sergio Ramos.

KICK OFF

During FIFA 10's initial marketing push, much was made of the introduction of 360-degree dribbling, something that sounded minor but actually promised to revolutionize the way the game controlled. Once the game was released, however, things turned out a little differently. Sure, the 360-degree movement was a big improvement over previous years, but it wasn't the best part of the game's controls.

No, that went to something intangible. Something you couldn't really put on the back of the box. It was like the Force, all around you, binding everything together.

"I do think a lot of the fluidity of 10 came, not just from 360, but from improvements to our trapping system which is the system that controls how the player moves and controls the ball", says Gary Paterson, the game's creative director. "This system was improved in lots of different ways to ensure that it was as fluid as possible and this I think made a big difference to the feeling of fluidity."

The other key aspect of gameplay is the ball physics, which determines how the ball reacts to things like player contact and weather. For a game built entirely around the movement and collision of a round ball, it's obviously very, very important.

"The process we go through is like this", says Kaz Makita, executive producer on the game. "We will build a foundation of how we want the ball to behave in different situations, then test the different situations in game. We focus our testing on how we want the ball to behave and we go through a process where we refine it until looks, feels and plays authentically.

"The big challenge is how the ball interacts with a player because these interactions are limited by the number and variety of animations, something we are constantly updating each year. We make huge improvements each year with ball and player interactions but sometimes the variety of animations do not enable us to satisfy realism. We built a new animation engine so we could create a much deeper library of player behaviours, which enables us to create deeper, more authentic ball movement, but the challenge remains to build animations to fit with ball physics that look and feel authentic."

Patterson adds: "I guess the ball physics has two components: the physics formulae and the variable constants that we pass into those formulae... We have some very smart guys here who have been able to provide us with accurate ball physics formulae, but getting the constants for how a football passes through the air is very tricky. So much so in fact that we contacted a Physics Grad at a local university to help us define them. I'm pretty happy with the results but I think we will continue to tweak and tune."

Realism, however, only goes so far. "Once you have the ball physics, you have to use it authentically, and this part is just as tricky", Paterson says. "For example how much spin should be on a cross, what does a shot look like when the player miss-kicks it? All these things obviously affect the authenticity of our game and this is perhaps where we bend the rules a little to try and ensure we get a fun game. For example, in real life, crossing the ball is very inaccurate, many crosses go too far, or out of play, but in FIFA this would be very frustrating and upset the balance of the game (as you would be discouraged from crossing), so yeah, we have to bend reality a little bit."

NEXT WEEK

While FIFA 10 is currently king of the sports games, both in terms of sales and critical approval, the "10" after its name and the fact it's from EA Sports means it will only remain so for another ten months or so. Once FIFA 11 rolls around, changes have to be made. After all, just because it's the most realistic sports game on the market doesn't mean it's perfect.

So, what can we expect from next year's game, as the developers continue to strive towards presenting us with the perfect game of football? "We have been having a lot of conversations this year around game speed and game difficulty, as some of our gamers want slower and harder gameplay, more simulation" says Paterson. "This is a tricky one as it would mean we would have to alter one of the core gameplay concepts that we have built the game on thus far…"

The PlayStation 3 Buyer's Guide

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:00:00 MST

With at least one potential game of the year exclusively nesting on the Playstation 3 and a price drop under its belt, the PS3 has had a pretty darn good year.

My favorite among the games listed is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which probably isn't surprising. What is yours? Anything we didn't review that you would suggest?

Remember, the games listed aren't all recommendations. Instead we're providing this as a quick reference guide to help you decide if a game is a good gift or not.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Third-person hip-hop shooter
Subject Matter: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand tells the unintentionally(?) amusing tale of rapper 50 Cent as he struggles to reclaim his diamond encrusted skull from a Middle Eastern bad guy. He's assisted by his G Unit hangers on and some laughably outlandish moments.
Value: An adequately long adventure, made seemingly longer by endlessly looping 50 Cent songs. There are much better games to give this holiday season.
Buy it for: someone as a gag. Or a die hard 50 Cent fan fresh from a six month coma.
Read the Full Review

Assassin's Creed II

Price: $59.99
Rating: M
Genre: Free-running platforming adventure game
Subject Matter: Assassinations and conspiracy spent mostly in 15th century Renaissance Italy.
Value: Lots more content than the first game had, probably lasting gamers at least double the time they spent with the first Assassin's Creed.
Buy it for: People who were let down by the first game, people who like history, beautiful scenery, dynamic platforming, solving mysteries and games that might be the Game of the Year.
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Batman: Arkham Asylum
Price:$59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Action/Adventure
Subject Matter: Join one of comic books' most iconic heroes on an adventure in Gotham City's insane asylum, where The Joker is on the loose.
Value: With character ability customization, bonus challenge maps and tons of riddles courtesy of The Riddler, Arkham Asylum offers at least three playthroughs' worth of fun.
Buy it for: Batman fans and anybody jonesing for a Mark Hamill voice over fix.
Read the full review

The Beatles: Rock Band
Price: The stand-alone game sells for $59.99, the Limited Edition Premium Bundle sell for $249.99, the Rickenbacker 325 Standalone Guitar and the Gretsch Duo Jet Standalone Guitar sells for $99.99.
Rating: Teen
Genre: Rhythm music game
Subject Matter: The Beatles: Rock Band is a musical journey through the history of one of the world's most popular bands.
Value: For those new to the Rock Band phenomenon and fans of The Beatles, this 45-track game is well worth a purchase because this is the only way you'll play The Beatles music in a Rock Band game. If you're not into the band, give this a pass.
Buy it for: huge Beatles fans.
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Borderlands

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person shooter RPG
Subject Matter: Borderlands targets the loot-hungry region of the brain, offering four classes with which to stalk the planet Pandora, shoot things and level up, acquiring cool guns, sweet armor and totally rad superpowers. As role-playing games go, it's shallow, but offers a constant stream of junk food gaming.
Value: Seeing all that Borderlands has to offer could take hundreds of hours. But the real value comes in the form of being able to play with friends on PlayStation Network or via splitscreen.
Buy it for: the loot glutton with an itchy trigger finger and a history of playing Diablo.
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Brutal Legend

Price: $59.99 Rating: Mature
Genre: Action Adventure
Subject Matter: Brutal Legend is a heavy metal-themed action game that combines racing, shooting, real-time strategy, and hack and slash into one slightly disjointed mix.
Value: Brutal Legend is a game from Tim Schafer, one of gaming's greatest comedy minds, and the absurd humor carries the game a long way. It's the story of a roadie who gets transported to a heavy metal world where he must raise an army to free the oppressed inhabitants. There's plenty to do, though the odd mix of genres might be too much for some players.
Buy it for: Anyone with a strong affection for heavy metal music or sa twisted sense of humor.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Price: $59.99 to $149.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person military shooter
Subject Matter: Lead a team of elite commandoes in Modern Warfare 2 as they try to prevent a Russian invasion and global thermonuclear war. Then take the action online, going head to head against other well-armed gamers. It's loud, violent and a hell of a lot of fun to play.
Value: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's single-player storyline may be short, but the package more than makes up for it with ample cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. Near endless replayability will be stoked with future downloadable content.
Buy it for: the Michael Bay action movie fan who likes his shooters bombastic and nearly devoid of a comprehensible story, one who doesn't shy away from ultra-violent fare.
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Critter Crunch

Price: $6.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Puzzle
Subject Matter: A puzzle game with bug eating, cute critters and sorta cut, sorta gross tecnicolor yarn.
Value: The good puzzle game mechanic is strong and addictive — add to that beautiful graphics, a lengthy adventure mode and super fun multiplayer and you have a good time. With barf.
Buy it for: Gamers with a strong like of puzzle titles and no fear of cute puke.
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Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Price: $39.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person shooter
Subject Matter: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a Civil War era first-person shooter.
Value: With an engaging story, wide open maps and plenty of mulitplayer options, this game will take up quite a bit of your time.
Buy it for: First-person shooter enthusiasts, fans of the Wild West and Civil War buffs.
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DJ Hero
Price: $119.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Rhythm
Subject Matter: DJ Hero is a rhythm game featuring a replica DJ turntable so players can mix and scratch to the beat of original music mash-ups.
Value: DJ Hero features upwards fo 100 different DJ-driven mash-ups featuring songs from the 70's on up to present-day hits. Unlike the latest Guitar Hero or Rock Band games, however, it's only good for one or two players, so the party element just isn't there. The innovative turntable-based gameplay makes it a breath of fresh air in the currently band-centric music genre, but it certainly isn't as social.
Buy it for: Fans of eclectic music mixes and lonely Guitar Hero fans.
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Dragon Age: Origins
Price: $49.99
Rating:Mature
Genre: Roleplaying
Subject Matter: An epic action roleplaying game set in a world besieged by evil inside and out.
Value: Dragon Age: Origins packs more than 100 hours of gameplay into this action RPG, with branching story paths that encourage multiple play throughs in order to experience it all. BioWare designed the game so it can be played by RPG gamers of any skill level, but mature content and strong sexual situations mean you might want to keep it in the high teens.
Buy it for: Anyone who has ever conversationally mentioned hit points.
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EyePet

Price: £20 game only, £35 with PlayStation Eye (game currently only available in PAL territories)
Rating: E
Genre: Virtual Pet Management
Subject Matter: Using the PlayStation Eye, "directly" interact with a digital pet on your TV screen.
Value: Smaller kids won't mind the game lacks any real direction, they'll be happy to play it every few days just to check on their pet.
Buy it for: Kids who think Tamagotchi is so 20th century.
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Fallout 3: Broken Steel

Price: $10 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: M
Genre: Post-apocalyptic role-playing game
Subject Matter: Fallout 3 expansion involving missions with a high-powered fighting force.
Value: High because it extends the level cap to Fallout 3, changes the game's ending and allows the adventure to be played infinitely once the story has "ended"
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans who want to play more; essential for anyone getting any Fallout 3 downloadable content
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Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta

Price: $10.00 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: Mature
Genre: Still a post-apocalyptic RPG
Subject Matter: It's Fallout 3 in space!
Value: Mothership Zeta gives the Fallout 3 player an entire spaceship to explore and make their own, some futuristic new weapons, and tacks a good five hours onto the regular campaign, making it a relatively fair value for your money.
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans.
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Fallout 3: Point Lookout

Price: $10 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: M
Genre: Post-apocalyptic role-playing game
Subject Matter: Fallout 3 in microcosm, set on a spooky island.
Value: Tons of content, and widely seen as the Fallout 3 downloadable content that best shares the strengths of the base game.
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans.
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Fat Princess

Price: $14.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action
Subject Matter: Capture the flag? No, capture the princess. And feed her cake, so she's fat and hard for enemies to cart her off.
Value: Single player weakness aside, the main draw here is multiplayer. That, and cake. Cake's always a draw. Always.
Buy it for: Gamers with a sweet tooth for multiplayer.
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FIFA Soccer 2010

Price: $49.99
Rating: E
Genre: Round-Ball Football
Subject Matter: The best football game on the market.
Value: Almost endless. There are so many leagues and cups, and such a deep singleplayer experience, that it can be played to death until FIFA 11 is released. And that's before we even get to the 10v10 multiplayer…
Buy it for: Anyone who has even a passing interest in the world game.
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Fight Night Round 4

Price: $59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Boxing
Subject Matter: Boxing
Value: Tons of fighters, good online options and no real competition.
Buy it for: Boxing fans or people looking for a fighting-based game that has longer-lasting fights.
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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Price: $49.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action
Subject Matter: A arcade-style shooter loosely based on the live-action G.I. Joe movie.
Value: G.I. Joe is a movie tie-in strangely reminiscent of Konami's Contra series. One or two players take control of their favorite Joes from the movie and take on Cobra across multiple levels of run-and-gun action. There are a few unlockables catering to fans of the old cartoon series, but other than that this is strictly a movie-lover's affair.
Buy it for: Really, really big fans of the G.I. Joe live-action movie.
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Guitar Hero 5

Price: $59.99 for the game, $99.99 with a guitar controller included
Rating: Teen
Genre: Music/Rythym
Subject Matter: It's Guitar Hero. You play a quintet of color-coordinated "notes" as they scroll downscreen to a new selection of music.
Value: Guitar Hero 5 offers a great suite of single and multiplayer modes, the most robust options yet for the series. What it doesn't offer is the series' most attractive soundtrack, despite an 85 song strong line up. Good for the new Guitar Hero gamer, but that money may be better spent on downloadable songs.
Buy it for: for Guitar Hero noobs who have extremely eclectic taste in music.
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inFamous

Price: $59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Open-world action game
Subject Matter:Gritty adventures of an electricity-based super-hero from the makers of the Sly Cooper series.
Value:Designed to be played through twice to explore two distinct moral paths.
Buy it for: Super-hero fans and folks who like Grand-Theft-Auto style open-world games.
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Katamari Forever

Price: $49.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Planet-building action
Subject Matter: Katamari Forever offers a greatest hits style package of the Katamari Damacy series' more memorable levels. Players will roll the titular sticky katamari over objects, building bigger and bigger piles of stuff to replace the universe's missing stars and planets and ultimately please the King of All Cosmos.
Value: At $49.99, Katamari Forever is the most expensive entry yet, a high price for a game that's largely rehashed content. But the content is vast and offers plenty to play. Sadly, there's no online component to help extend the experience.
Buy it for: the fan of quirky games who somehow missed every other Katamari Damacy game or the kid that longs to make snowballs in the summer time.
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Killzone 2

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Single-person shooter
Subject Matter: Killzone 2 takes the fight to the Helghast, with an invading force landing on Helghan.
Value: Even though this game landed back in February, you would be remiss if you forgot to check it out. Next to Uncharted 2, this is one of the top games for the Playstation 3. The chunky single-player experience backed by 32-player multiplayer matches makes this a very good deal as well.
Buy it for: Anyone with a Playstation 3 who some how missed this title when it first hit.
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The King of Fighters XII

Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighting
Subject Matter: SNK Playmore's latest entry in its King of Fighter series is a return to its roots with 2D fighting and hand-drawn graphics.
Value: The game feels largely unfinished — though, the parts which are done should please the hardcore fans.
Buy it for: Die-hard SNK fighting game fans.
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Madden NFL 10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: The only video game licensed by the NFL, covering the current season.
Value: For the first time on the current console generation, Madden earns its must-own status among sports gamers. The fine-tuned action is slightly slower, creating greater big play potential on both sides of the ball.
Buy it for: Any sports gamer who doesn't yet have it. Madden is a no-brainer gift that any sports fan will enjoy.
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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action RPG
Subject Matter: Tons of Marvel heroes take on tons of Marvel villains
Value: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 may not quite live up to the thrill of the original, but it is a more cohesive package overall, with a storyline ripped from Marvel's Civil War storyline and a good dozen hours of heroic fun for 1-4 players.
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Marvel VS. Capcom 2

Price: $15.00
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighting
Subject Matter: Marvel characters. Capcom characters. Fighting.
Value: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 contains one of the largest roster in fighting game history, with 56 Marvel and Capcom characters to choose from. The sheer amount of variety plus online multiplayer makes this one downloadable title well worth the price.
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Mini Ninjas

Price: $49.99
Rating: E
Genre: Juvenile Bush Disguise/Phantom Removal
Subject Matter: Play as one of a band of adorable child ninjas on a quest to kill a bad guy and free the adorable little forest animals.
Value: A somewhat short singleplayer game, but the ability to play as one of several ninjas means there's plenty of replay value.
Buy it for: Anyone. Everyone. Kids will love the straight-forward combat, adults will find there's a great stealth and combat system lurking under the hood.
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Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller Camo

Price: $49.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: This wireless controller features programmable buttons, better triggers and a Modern Warfare 2 theme.
Value: It's a bit pricey, but if you're a big fan of the game and like the idea of programmable buttons, it's probably worth the $50.
Buy it for: Fans of Modern Warfare 2.
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Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller Camo Faceplate

Price: $14.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: This faceplate snaps onto your Playstation 3 controller.
Value: For $15 it's not bad, but not a great deal. Consider it a cheaper alternative to buying a new controller.
Buy it for: HUGE fans of Modern Warfare 2.
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Modern Warfare 2 Combat Wireless Headset

Price: $39.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: This wireless headset gives weak lip-service to Modern Warfare 2.
Value: The painful design and static-filled connection makes this a bad deal.
Buy it for: Someone you hate.
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NCAA Football 10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: The tradition and pageantry of college football's 115 teams, plus any schools you might choose to create.
Value: NCAA Football 10 is the deepest simulation of a sport, on and off the field, of any currently available sports title.
Buy it for: Any sports nut with a serious helping of school pride or leftover nostalgia for college days gone by.
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NBA 2K10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NBA 2K10 celebrates the 10th anniversary of 2K Sports' best-in-class basketball simulation.
Value: NBA 2K10 offers a much more varied set of gameplay modes, both single- and multiplayer, than its challenger NBA Live 10. Its season simulation lacks the aspect of playing in this year's league but is deeper in all other regards. My Player, in which you create and control one player on his journey from prospect to all-star, is tough but a rewarding experience.
Buy it for: Serious basketball fans with some exposure to the sport in real life, either as a player or a devoted fan.
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NBA Live 10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NBA Live 10 is EA Sports' current title covering pro basketball's upcoming season.
Value: EA Sports has poured a ton of effort into resurrecting the franchise. New controls enabling you to move players off the ball on offense and defense are easy to learn and a real plus. Dynamic DNA allows you to run your season simulation as if it were taking place among current league events in real life.
Buy it for: Basketball fans who prefer singleplayer sports gaming, want a very accurate league simulation, and an easy-to-comprehend control set.
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NHL 2K10

Price: $39.99
Rating: Everyone 10+
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NHL 2K10 is 2K Sports' current title covering professional hockey's latest season.
Value: NHL 2K10 is still a runner-up to EA's NHL 10, but it is not without merit. It features the same robust multiplayer package as its NBA cousin. The action's a little arcadey, but it also is the only NHL title with the league's popular outdoor classic venues.
Buy it for: A casual-to-moderate hockey fan who enjoys lots of scoring action.

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Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Realistic military first-person shooter
Subject Matter: Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a relatively open-world tactical shooter that has players trying to take the fictional island of Skira from China.
Value: Plagued with problems this shooter doesn't deliver much for the premium price you pay.
Buy it for: hardcore fans of realistic shooters that offer no chance for mistakes or do-overs.
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Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

Price: $59.99
Rating: E
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: Football title encompassing international and club tournaments, manager modes and online play.
Value: Pro Evo's "Master League", a time-devouring game mode incorporating RPG and strategy elements, is the one area fans remain devoted to this series ahead of its rival, EA Sports' FIFA.
Buy it for: Football fans who like to not only play a good game, but also roll up their sleeves and get lost in a sea of statistics and growth charts.
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Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time
Price: $59.99
Rating: E10+
Genre: Third-person shooter (Ratchet sections); Third-person time-manipulation puzzle-platformer (Clank sections).
Subject Matter: The third PS3 Ratchet is still an action game, but has a stronger than normal narrative, as Ratchet discovers he's not the last of his species, while Clank discovers his origins.
Value: A bombastic single-player campaign full of spectacular cartoon visuals is designed to be replayed, with new content and missions available only after the first play-through is complete.
Buy it for: Jaded Ratchet fans who were waiting for the series to feel special again; fans of cartoon visuals who don't mind their entertainment feeling like a fun all-ages sci-fi adventure.
Read the Full Review

Resident Evil 5

Price: $39.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Survival Horror meets third-person shooter
Subject Matter: The latest iteration in the famed survival horror game ditches a bit of the slow pacing and fear for a bit more of an action feel.
Value: A worthy addition to anyone's library, but perhaps not the sort of game you'll keep around after it's completed.
Buy it for: fans of Resident Evil and those interested in the premise of the franchise but not in the steady pacing of the gameplay.
Read the Full Review

Street Fighter IV

Price: $29.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighter
Subject Matter: The next iteration in the storied and fabulous fighter brings with it a dynamic new look and a death grip on classic mechanics.
Value: Packed with playable characters both old and new and a mechanic that is timeless, the online play and in-room versus mode make this a great deal..
Buy it for: fighting fans, Street Fighter fans.
Read the Full Review

Tekken 6
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighter
Subject Matter: Once you've mastered the moves of your favorite character, Tekken 6's 3D fights are all about timing and tactics.
Value: With 40 playable characters and a seemingly endless single-player campaign, Tekken 6 is a good deal for fans of the franchise willing to put up with some online issues.
Buy it for: fighting fans, Tekken fans, and maybe as a taste of something different for Street Fighter IV fans.
Read the Full Review

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action adventure third-person shooter.
Subject Matter: A well-crafted story and pithy dialogue is backed by solid third-person shooter action, stunning Himalayan backdrops and a smattering of puzzles to solve and things to climb.
Value: The story-driven campaign will only take up about eight hours of your time, but the plentiful and creative mulitplayer modes are sure to be a lasting time drain.
Buy it for: anyone with a Playstation 3. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is destined to be one of the best games of the year.
Read the Full Review

WET
Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Third-person acrobatic shooter.
Subject Matter: Rubi Malone is a leather-pants wearing, wall-running, pole-spinning death machine. She can shoot two shotguns while flipping through the air, slide under tables to hamstring and gut with her sword, and regains health by swigging liquor.
Value: The single-player only game has a sizable campaign, fantastic music and troubled controls and camera work. It's sort of a mixed bag.
Buy it for: fans of Kill Bill and fast-paced action noire games.
Read the Full Review

Wolfenstein

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Subject Matter: World War II First-Person Shooter with Occult Tendencies
Value: While Wolfenstein is an excellent first-person shooter from a technical standpoint, the story is a bit far-fetched and the multiplayer is disappointing, especially in the face of games like Modern Warfare 2.
Buy it for: First-person shooter fans looking for a little something different.
Read the Full Review

WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010
Price: $59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Pro wrestling
Subject Matter: WWE wrestling, with deep customization options allowing players to create and share their own characters, moves and — the big new addition — storylines.
Value: High value for those who will take advantage of the online play and content creation/sharing.
Buy it for: WWE fans, even those who don't like current WWE programming, since those disgruntled fans can create the WWE of their own liking using the game's deep editors.
Read the Full Review

The Xbox 360 Buyer's Guide

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:00:00 MST

New Halo, new downloadables for Mass Effect, Fallout 3, and Grand Theft Auto, new Forza. It was a pretty good year for Xbox 360 owners.

Pick through the list to decide which games to give and get and leave a comment to point out any you would add that we didn't review.

And don't forget, this is more reference material than it is suggestion. Just because it's on the list doesn't mean we're saying you should get it.

Axel & Pixel
Price: 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Adventure
Subject Matter: A point and click adventure game about a man and his dog escaping a dream world with small doses of action.
Value: Axel & Pixel is a good couple of hours worth of relaxing adventure gaming, with a few action / racing segments tossed in to keep things interesting. It's very simply, extremely easy, and once you are done there isn't much reason to go back through it.
Buy it for: Adventure game fans and older parents, to show them that consoles have something for them too.
Read the Full Review

Borderlands

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person shooter RPG
Subject Matter: Borderlands targets the loot-hungry region of the brain, offering four classes with which to stalk the planet Pandora, shoot things and level up, acquiring cool guns, sweet armor and totally rad superpowers. As role-playing games go, it's shallow, but offers a constant stream of junk food gaming.
Value: Seeing all that Borderlands has to offer could take hundreds of hours. But the real value comes in the form of being able to play with friends on Xbox Live or via splitscreen.
Buy it for: the loot glutton with an itchy trigger finger and a history of playing Diablo.
Read the Full Review

Brutal Legend
Price: $59.99 Rating: Mature
Genre: Action Adventure
Subject Matter: Brutal Legend is a heavy metal-themed action game that combines racing, shooting, real-time strategy, and hack and slash into one slightly disjointed mix.
Value: Brutal Legend is a game from Tim Schafer, one of gaming's greatest comedy minds, and the absurd humor carries the game a long way. It's the story of a roadie who gets transported to a heavy metal world where he must raise an army to free the oppressed inhabitants. There's plenty to do, though the odd mix of genres might be too much for some players.
Buy it for: Anyone with a strong affection for heavy metal music or sa twisted sense of humor.
Read the Full Review

Fairytale Fights

Price: $59.99
Rating: M
Genre: Action
Subject Matter: A quartet of cutesy fairytale characters set out to regain their fame by beating the beejesus out of other cutesy things.
Value: With two-player cooperative play and a four player battle royal mode, you can really let out you violent side in buckets of cartoony blood.
Buy it for: People who need a healthy way to blow off steam after a bad day at work. Just don't be standing next to them if the game happens to crash and they need an immediate alternative.
Read the Full Review

Forza Motorsport 3

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Driving simulation
Subject Matter: Forza Motorsport 3 takes the driving simulation in a new direction, making it easier than ever to get into a car, upgrade it, tune it and take if for a spin. For more advance driving game fans, there's plenty of hardcore driving simulation to enjoy as well.
Value: Hundreds of cars, dozens of tracks, thousands of upgrade possibilities and an increasing amount of user-generated content available via the game's storefront, all purchased with in-game credits, not real money, make Forza Motorsport 3 a great driving value.
Buy it for: the Xbox 360 owner who likes to go fast.
Read the Full Review

Gears of War 2: Dark Corners

Price: 1200 Microsoft Points (about $15)
Rating: Mature
Genre: Third-person tactical shooter
Subject Matter: This downloadable add-on for Gears of War 2 lets players run through The Road to Ruin, a campaign level original cut from the game.
Value: With a new single-player level, seven new multiplayer maps and director's commentary, you can't go wrong for $15.
Buy it for: Owners and fans of the original Gears of War 2.
Read the Full Review

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Price: $20 if downloaded through Xbox Live Arcade (requires a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV) or $39.95 if purchased as one half of the Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes From Liberty City disc (GTA IV not required; Episodes disc also includes the similarly-sized first GTA IV expansion, Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned.)
Rating: M
Genre: Open world, third-person shooter.
Subject Matter: Over-the-top modern crime drama set in a fictional New York City.
Value: Offers more content per dollar than just about anything else downloadable on the Xbox 360, a 13-hour-plus campaign, numerous side activities and returning multiplayer challenges similar to what was offered with GTA IV.
Buy it for: People who thought GTA IV was too tame and wished their lead character would be asked to parachute off skyscrapers, steal subway cars (with a helicopter), dance in a nightclub and cross paths with the last two protagonists in the GTA IV saga.
Read the Full Review

Halo 3: ODST

Price: $59.99
Rating: M
Genre: First-person shooter
Subject Matter: Daytime sci-fi military action interspersed with noir-inspired nighttime sleuthing.
Value: Varies depending on one's Halo experience. A seven-hour campaign and the offline Firefight mode can be played with up to four players and is all-new, but only three of the game's 24 multiplayer maps haven't been sold — and possibly purchased by the prospective ODST consumer — before.
Buy it for: Halo fans who either never bought Halo 3's bonus maps or wouldn't spend $60 of their own for ODST because they did.
Read the Full Review

Left 4 Dead 2

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person horror shooter
Subject Matter: Four Survivors fight their way through a gory zombie apocalypse in the Southeastern United States, decapitating, dismembering and generally destroying every walking dead human in their path. Cooperative multiplayer is at the core of the Left 4 Dead 2 experience.
Value: Left 4 Dead 2 is a multiplayer game with a massive amount of replayability, but requires cooperative gameplay and reliable friends to fully enjoy. There's very little here for the lone, single-player gamer, so make sure that Live subscription is all paid up.
Buy it for: the grown-up Xbox Live Gold subscriber who believes there's no "I" in team and may be disappointed with the body count in Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3 ODST.
Read the Full Review

Lucidity

Price: 800 Points
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Platform/Puzzle
Subject Matter: Little girl Sofi wanders through her dreams, looking for her lost Nana.
Value: While the puzzle gameplay element is average, the art style is superb.
Buy it for: Tim Burton fans.
Read the Full Review

Mad Catz Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator

Price: $29.99
Rating: NA
Genre: NA
Subject Matter: This throat communicator is meant to replace the need for a standard Xbox 360 microphone.
Value: The throat communicator does a great job of cutting down on room noise for your friends and feels pretty comfortable. If those things are important to you, you should pick this up.
Buy it for: Modern Warfare 2 enthusiasts, online gamers and friends who play in noisy settings.
Read the Full Review

Madden NFL 10
Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: The only video game licensed by the NFL, covering the current season.
Value: For the first time on the current console generation, Madden earns its must-own status among sports gamers. The fine-tuned action is slightly slower, creating greater big play potential on both sides of the ball.
Buy it for: Any sports gamer who doesn't yet have it. Madden is a no-brainer gift that any sports fan will enjoy.
Read the Full Review

Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station

Price: $5 (requires a copy of Mass Effect)
Rating: M
Genre: Bonus missions for third-person shooter/role-playing game
Subject Matter: Mass Effect gets a battle simulator to allow goal-based shooting challenges.
Value: High for those looking for something new in the original Mass Effect while awaiting the January sequel; low for people looking for what made the first game popular.
Buy it for: Mass Effect completists, though you'll only be able to buy them download points for this game or give them a small check.
Read the Full Review

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller Camo

Price: $49.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: This wired controller features programmable buttons, better triggers and a Modern Warfare 2 theme.
Value: It's a bit pricey, but if you're a big fan of the game and like the idea of programmable buttons, it's probably worth the $50.
Buy it for: Fans of Modern Warfare 2.
Read the Full Review

NBA 2K10
Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NBA 2K10 celebrates the 10th anniversary of 2K Sports' best-in-class basketball simulation.
Value: NBA 2K10 offers a much more varied set of gameplay modes, both single- and multiplayer, than its challenger NBA Live 10. Its season simulation lacks the aspect of playing in this year's league but is deeper in all other regards. My Player, in which you create and control one player on his journey from prospect to all-star, is tough but a rewarding experience.
Buy it for: Serious basketball fans with some exposure to the sport in real life, either as a player or a devoted fan.
Read the Full Review

NBA Live 10
Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NBA Live 10 is EA Sports' current title covering pro basketball's upcoming season.
Value: EA Sports has poured a ton of effort into resurrecting the franchise. New controls enabling you to move players off the ball on offense and defense are easy to learn and a real plus. Dynamic DNA allows you to run your season simulation as if it were taking place among current league events in real life.
Buy it for: Basketball fans who prefer singleplayer sports gaming, want a very accurate league simulation, and an easy-to-comprehend control set.
Read the Full Review

NCAA Football 10
Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: The tradition and pageantry of college football's 115 teams, plus any schools you might choose to create.
Value: NCAA Football 10 is the deepest simulation of a sport, on and off the field, of any currently available sports title.
Buy it for: Any sports nut with a serious helping of school pride or leftover nostalgia for college days gone by.
Read the Full Review

NHL 2K10
Price: $39.99
Rating: Everyone 10+
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NHL 2K10 is 2K Sports' current title covering professional hockey's latest season.
Value: NHL 2K10 is still a runner-up to EA's NHL 10, but it is not without merit. It features the same robust multiplayer package as its NBA cousin. The action's a little arcadey, but it also is the only NHL title with the league's popular outdoor classic venues.
Buy it for: A casual-to-moderate hockey fan who enjoys lots of scoring action.
Read the Full Review

South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!

Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Rating: Mature
Genre: Tower Defense
Subject Matter: South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! has the South Park kids big towers to fend off enemies that range from gnomes to old people in an 11 mission campaign.
Buy it for: Fans of South Park, fans of tower defense games, and fans of both.
Value: The game features unlockable characters and challenging maps (especially the later levels), co-op and online. There are also unlockable clips from the show.
Read the Full Review

Trials HD

Price: 1200 Points
Rating: Teen
Genre: Racing/Puzzle
Subject Matter: Trials HD is a twist on motorbike racing: Players must navigate trick courses and tricky in-game physics as fast as they can.
Value: The game features over 50 tracks and seemingly simple, yet deep game play — offering replay value as your skills continue to get better and better. A level editor lets players make their own courses. It's the Excite Bike of the 21st Century.
Buy it for: Those who want more from their racing games than speed.
Read the Full Review

Maybe the Greatest of All Time, but not In Its Time

Owen Good — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:00:00 MST

Of the major game-of-the-year awards given out each year, no sports title has ever taken top overall honors. And yet five years later, there is one still talked about in ways that year's winners are not.

That would be ESPN NFL 2K5, the last and best of an uncommonly good crop of football games in the first half of the decade and, perhaps not coincidentally, the last one before EA Sports inked its exclusive license with the National Football League. Certainly, the stupefyingly good value 2K5 delivered on an unheard-of $19.99 price tag moved the needle on its high regard. But reviews of the game still said things like "the best-looking football game ever made," and "the most entertaining show in video game football."

This coming week will see the last glut of AAA releases in the autumn sales cycle, and then it will be on to the question of Game of the Year. Sports titles are like the offensive lineman in modern Heisman voting. Just being mentioned would be honor enough, because the prize is completely inaccessible to your class of performer.

Maybe 2K5 did the best of any sports game, judged among others, in its year. It's impossible to say definitively. I dialed up Brandon Justice, a producer on the 2K5 team to ask him where that game fit in the larger context of 2004's top titles. Five years later, you can still hear the pride when quotes the game's feature set, as if he was back on the team going head-to-head with the Madden franchise.

"People are out there, today, talking about whether Madden 10 is overall a better product (than 2K5)," said Justice, who later worked on Madden and now is the director of design for Quick Hit Football (profiled Sept. 19.) "Five years later. They're just now doing features that 2K5 did first - and not doing them as well. They now have online franchises; we had that mode. We had SportsCenter presentation with a highlight reel; they're just now doing that kind of thing."

But the feature-packed game wasn't put out there to take home a statue, Justice said. It's not to say that is the sole motivation of any past game of the year, but such artistic recognition is at least in the mix for your typical AAA adventure. Not so with sports titles, which seek a more product-oriented recognition, Justice said.

"Ironically enough, trophies matter little to the sports crowd," he said. It's very much focused on sales and beating direct competition where it exists. "Our main mission in 2K was to beat Madden's score. Whether it wins sports game of the year or not, Madden's still going to sell millions of units every year. More than anything else we just wanted to make a good sports game. And having worked on the Madden team as well, those guys have the same spirit. You want to crush the competition, and make the best product out there."

In 2004, NFL 2K5 couldn't afford to think about taking on Half-Life 2, Halo 2 or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That year's Madden also went out to wide acclaim; just beating it would take best-in-class effort.

But it's also a little pointless, Justice said, for a sports game to shoot for anything outside best-in-class accolades. A former games writer himself, Justice said the criticism operations of major opinion leaders just aren't set up to give sports titles the same exposure as shooters, RPGs and other traditional genres.

"Every magazine I've worked for, they have a sports guy," he said. And, working for IGN, he remembers plenty of sports copy being handed off to freelancers. "Everybody plays Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Gears of War, but you really have to find someone who's into baseball games, and then he always reviews it." Inevitably, when that outfit polls its staff for game of the year, few voices speak up for a sports game because few have played them.

"You've got one or two voices voting for a sports game," Justice said. "A lot of time it's a question of volume."

Could a sports title ever win Game of the Year? My gut feeling says the opportunity has passed. Criticism of video games is increasingly considerate of a game's narrative, and a sports simulation fundamentally has none. And sports deal with creative limitations specific to existing rules of a game, plus the veto authority of a licensor who may not buy into daring creativity.

David Littman, a producer on EA Sports' NHL title - taking 19 different sports game of the year awards in 2007 and 2008 - points out another basic limitation of sports games. "These big action games have huge worlds to explore, while sports games take place mainly inside a confined stadium," he told me.

Plus, he said wryly, "Sports games don't have guns. People seem to like guns."

True. Shooters also don't have to outdo themselves every year, lest they be branded as just a prettied-up roster update. The innovations in a sports game, year-to-year, may seem small, but comparing versions three years apart, the way one would Halo 3 to Halo 2, or Grand Theft Auto IV to San Andreas, and maybe a sports title's advancement would look more profound.

"NHL 10 and FIFA 10 are two of the highest-rated sports games ever on this console generation, but FIFA 09 and NHL 09 were also among the highest scores," he said.

Littman's right. This year FIFA 10 and MLB 09 The Show became the first sports titles in the current console generation to post a Metacritic score of 90 or better. (NHL 09 and 10 both got 88.) From 2000 to 2004, every single Madden and 2K football title on every console got at least a 90.

But it's not to say that we'll never see a truly revolutionary sports game again, or that when it does come, its excellence will go unrecognized. There's no way NFL 2K5 could have won Game of the Year five years ago. But it still enjoys a fame that's outlived those that did.

"Do you really think, five years from now, you're gonna hear ‘Is Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation 4 as good as Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation 3? Will Halo 6 people really say, ‘Is this as good as Halo 1?'" Justice muses. "I don't think so."

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain time.

Do Sports Games Offer Truly West - Japan Game Industry Competition?

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:20:00 MST

EA Sports exec has stated that the company is working to appeal to Japanese gamers. That works appears to have paid off: FIFA 10 is a hit in Japan. But could that be for a deeper reason?

A piece running on Yahoo! News Japan (translated by AltJapan) summed up the difference between Western and Japanese games: "There is a big difference in the way emotion is handled in Japan and abroad. Abroad, hero characters tend to be portrayed as powerful males, but in Japan squashed and cute little boys are the norm. The Japanese preference for see small-statured pretty-boys wielding big swords seems to be greeted abroad with a resounding 'no way.'"

This paradigm does not hold true to sports game, the article notes. So when Japanese developers depict real teams and real players, the only option is to depict them realistically — and the vast majority of professional athletes are not small pretty boys!

Thus, Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer franchise is a big hit in the West, and ditto for EA Sports title FIFA 10. Neither title carries the cultural baggage pervasive in other genre games.

Fantasy and Football [AltJapan]

FIFA 10 Is The Fastest Selling Sports Game Ever

Mike Fahey — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:40:00 MDT

EA celebrates the biggest European game launch in the company's history today, as more than 1.7 million copies of EA Sports' FIFA 10 sell during the first week of release alone.

EA is rolling out the review scores and posting big numbers as it celebrates the success of FIFA 10 in Europe, calling it the fastest selling sports game of all time. Italy's Official Xbox Magazine calls it "the best football game ever." ConsolPlus Germany is calling it "the best football game the world has ever seen." Our own Luke Plunkett said it "comes close (damn close) to both feeling – and, for spectators, looking - like the real thing." While our U.S. readers try to figure out why they keep calling it a football game, we turn to EA Sports president Peter Moore.

"We were confident that FIFA 10 would be a hit, and this week fans across Europe have shown just how much they love this game," said Peter Moore, President of EA SPORTS. "We are incredibly proud of FIFA 10 and this kick-off for great, authentic football competition."

Since the game launched, more than 10 million sessions have been played online, with more than 155,000 players online simultaneously during peak hours. Quite impressive!

FIFA 10 hits North America on October 20th, with sales numbers that are sure to be far less impressive.

FIFA 10 Review: 30-Yard Screamer

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:30:00 MDT

Last year, EA Sports' FIFA finally managed to surpass long-time nemesis Pro Evo and emerge as the number one football game in the world, both critically and commercially. Let's see what it's managed to do in the 12 months since.

Superficially, it appears it's done very little, especially when compared to the drastic overhaul that's been made to Pro Evo's visuals. But then, superficially doesn't count for squat around here.

Loved
Loose as a Goose – For the first time ever in a FIFA game, your players aren't restricted to eight-directional movement. There's true, 360-degree recognition of where you're pointing them, allowing for incredibly fluid control over where your player is headed. It sounds like your standard back-of-the-box bullet point, but in reality, it's as fundamental and impressive an improvement as a new graphics engine.

Ball Control – The same fluidity now carries over into ball control as well. When receiving the ball and running onto it, it no longer appears pre-programmed to simply attach itself to their feet. It truly has a life of its own, making the whole game flow naturally, and appear almost lifelike. Another plus is that, aside from a single routine where the keeper punches a corner to the same spot every time, there's no sense that the ball is following a pre-determined route. It just feels... random. Unpredictable. Just like a football on the loose should be.

Jumpers For Goalposts – FIFA has long had the finest commentary of any sports game on the market, and FIFA 10 is no exception. Remarkably, Martin Tyler and Andy Gray have been dragged back into the recording studio and, atop lines we've heard in previous examples, recorded a ton of new chit-chat as well, bringing the volume and quality of commentary closer to that you'd expect from a real broadcast than any sports game I've ever seen. Well, heard.

Training Days – The training ground makes a welcome return to FIFA 10, allowing players to get a handle on certain settings and concepts while fine-tuning tricky moves like set pieces. It was a nightmare trying to learn all this in-game, where some games you may not even get a decent set piece to practice, so having the chance to test it outside of game day—it's activated on the main screen's "arena mode"—is appreciated.

Role-Playing Game - You remember that stuff I was on about in a recent feature, talking about sports games incorporating RPG elements? FIFA 10 doesn't incorporate elements, it is an RPG, thanks to the new "Virtual Pro" mode. There's now an option to create a player that is "stuck" in the game's roster database, and can be used in "Be A Pro", single-player, season, multiplayer, the works. Every game you play, every goal you score or tackle you make in any game mode improves their stats, with progress milestones rewarded with attribute upgrades and trinkets like celebrations and better boots. It's a captivating addition to the game, and one which will surely become the focal point of the entire thing for many people.

Hated
Fix Up, Look Sharper – While significant improvements have been made to the nuts and bolts of the game, FIFA 10's more visual aspects are starting to show their age. There's been little improvement to the cartoonish stock player models (which are trumped this year by a resurgent, gorgeous Pro Evo), and it's a shame to be stuck with the same menu system for what is at least the third year running.

You know, when you play a team sports game, you're expected to lower your expectations of what you're about to see "simulated". That what you're about to experience is a game based on a sport, and not the sport itself.

But thanks to the greater sense of fluidity in FIFA 10, both from the players and from their control and movement of the ball, FIFA 10 comes close (damn close) to both feeling – and, for spectators, looking - like the real thing. And there's no higher compliment for a sports game than that.

FIFA 10 was developed by EA Canada, and published by EA Sports for the Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC & iPhone. Released in Europe on October 2, in North America on October 20. Retails for $59.99. Played all game modes in single-player, and several matches in multiplayer, both locally and online.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

FIFA 10 Trailer Shows Where EA's Money Went

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:30:00 MDT

FIFA is the biggest of EA's many big franchises. Indeed, it's one of the biggest-selling series in the world. So when it comes to making ads for the thing, no expense is spared.

For those who aren't fans of the beautiful game, know that this is full of famous, world-class players. Who, yes, do a little foot-to-ball action, but spend most of the time grinning, playing FIFA and shouting at people.

It's a neat continuation of last year's theme, which did something similar, only without made-up numbers.

FIFA 10 Demo Hits This Week, And Next Week

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:00:00 MDT

It's that time of year again. Singing in the stands, jumpers for goalposts, and the impending release of yet another version of EA's annual football juggernaut (and single biggest-selling title), FIFA.

To give you a taste of the changes included in this year's update - most important of which is full 360-degree dribbling - EA Sports will be releasing in Europe a demo of the game on Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and PC later this week (September 10).

North Americans, you have to wait a week, as your demo will be here on September 17.

You'll have six teams to choose from, those being Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Marseille and...Chicago Fire. What, no Villa? No Sydney FC? Disappointing, EA, disappointing.

Sense of Urgency in FIFA 10 Latest Vid, Screens

Owen Good — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:40:00 MDT

The latest trailer for FIFA 10, going out today to coincide with the title's GamesCom appearance, highlights the raft of new features you can expect this year. One I just like the sound of is "defensive urgency."

More authentic manager modes, a different practice set-up, and 360-degree dribbling - because I didn't suck enough with just 45 degrees of it - also go into FIFA 10. Looks like you can customize set pieces too.

In addition, they put out three screenshots featuring Frank Lampard and Chelsea cavorting on the pitch with Barcelona and Xavi.

FIFA Game Updates [EA Sports]

FIFA 10 Delayed A Few Weeks [Update]

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:30:00 MDT

EA Sports have announced that the North American release date for FIFA 10 has been kicked back a few weeks, from October 2 all the way back to October 20.

The date pushes it perilously close to the release date for the series' arch-rival, Pro Evo 2010, which will be out in North America on October 23.

There's as yet no word on whether any other versions of the game will be affected. Europeans are no doubt hoping that's a big fat nein/non.

Alongside the delay EA also released the North American cover art, pictured above, which swaps out Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott in exchange for the much-harder-to-pronounce Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Sacha Kljestan.

FIFA 10 bumped to October 20 [GameSpot]

UPDATE - EA Sports dropped us a line to let us know that FIFA 10 has always been in line for a slightly later release in the US, so this is less of a delay and more of a...confirmation of a staggered release? Either way, the rest of the world's versions will still be out on October 2.

EA Unveils FIFA 10 Box Art, Release Date

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:30:00 MDT

Many Americans care deeply about who appears on the front cover of Madden. Many Europeans, on the other hand, do not. They instead care about who ends up on the front cover of FIFA.

And this year, for the first time in a little while, there are new people! For the past few years now, the cover (at least, the British/Australasian cover) has featured Wayne Rooney and Ronaldinho. But with Ronaldinho on a fast track to mid-career oblivion, EA Sports have binned him in favour of a couple of new players.

So, as you can see, the cover has now all gone all-England, featuring Wayne Rooney (centre), Arsenal's Theo Walcott (left) and Chelsea's Frank Lampard (right). As noted, however, this only applies to the title sold in English-speaking PAL territories. Other regions - like Germany, Spain and the US - will feature different stars (Germany's edition, for example, will feature Bayern star Bastian Schweinsteiger alongside Rooney)

Alongside the cover reveal, EA Sports also announced that all versions of the game - on *gasp* 360, PS3, PC, PS2, DS, PSP and Wii - will be out in Europe on October 2.

Madden, FIFA Coming To iPhone

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:30:00 MDT

EA have quietly, perhaps even accidentally, revealed that their two biggest sporting franchises - Madden and FIFA - will be coming to the iPhone "soon."

Buried at the foot of a press release for the iPhone's "Spore Origins" is mention that both FIFA 10 and Madden 10 are "coming soon" to Apple handheld.

Wonder how they'll swing this? Obvious answer is some awful attempt at actual versions of the respective games. A pleasing answer would be that, via your EA account, both handheld titles are accompaniments to your console experience, and let you mess with management, tactics, player signings, etc. while on the road.

FIFA 10 and Madden NFL 10 are coming to App Store 'soon' [PocketGamer]

Football Game Sponsoring Football Team

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:00:00 MDT

We've seen video game publishers sponsor a football team before. Sega & Nintendo have been doing it in Europe for years, and even the Xbox 360 is in on the act. But I can't remember ever seeing a game sponsor a team.

Yes, Pro Evo sponsored Lazio for a game last year, but that was a one-off. A stunt. They weren't the actual sponsors of the team. But for the 2009/10 season, English club Swindon Town will be sponsored by EA Sports' FIFA 10, with the game's title splashed across the front of their away kit.

Sure, Swindon Town aren't exactly a continental power in the game - they play in England's League 1, which is actually the nation's third division - but it still leaves us pondering a very important point: will purchasers of FIFA 10 boot up their game to suddenly find lowly Swindon Town have been transformed by their sponsors into a digital footballing powerhouse?

Because it'd be kind of cool if they were.

FIFA 10 "Gameplay" Trailer

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:30:00 MDT

Here's your first trailer for EA Sport's annual juggernaut FIFA 10. Curiously for EA Sports, aside from the depth of field effects going on in the background, that really is "actual gameplay footage".

How FIFA Became The Biggest Sports Game In The World

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:00:00 MDT

Madden is fine, Americans, but there's one sports game that towers above all others, and that game is FIFA. Once the laughing stock of the football world, it's now the biggest-selling and in many's opinion the best sports game on the market. Here's why.

Speaking with Edge, the two men most responsible for the series' turnaround in recent years - designer Gary Paterson and producer David Rutter - explain the formula for taking a mediocre but cashed-up franchise and turning it into the most professional and best-reviewed sports game on the planet.

And it's all down to hating FIFA. See, both men are relatively recent hires, and both joined the company loving everything about former soccer game powerhouse Pro Evo, and hating everything about FIFA, which at the time was EA's laziest annual cash cow.

So they set out to do what Pro Evo did - namely, make the player feel like they were playing a game of football, and not just watching one - only do it better. Which with FIFA 09, they managed.

This story was a cover feature in the latest copy of Edge magazine, but if you didn't manage to see it there, you can read the whole thing below.

FIFA 10: Championship Managers [Edge]

FIFA 10 Screenshots Emerge From The Tunnel

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:30:00 MDT

FIFA 10 is new. You knew it was coming, but still, new is new. And after reading our impressions of the game, why not sink your studs into the soft, fleshy shins of these screens