It was a Thursday.

I was getting into some footy action on last years iteration of this much loved franchise, when I decided it was time to say my goodbyes to the outdated rosters.

I popped over to my nearest gaming retailer and managed to pick up the last copy of FIFA 11 on the shelf.

Lucky days.

Cracked open a brewsky once I hit home and loaded the scratchless disk on my BOX.

Finally Kaka appeared on the screen and the grin on my face began to widen.

So, 10 minutes into Barce vs Madrid and a few changes were immediately evident, the first being ball control.

CONTROL

As with last year’s game, FIFA 11 allows the player to either be assisted with passing, man marking and shooting or do it all themselves like the real sex crazed Rooney would.
Taking full manual control in ’10 was a challenge to say the least, but once perfected it alleviated any nasty little CPU hiccups from affecting your badass skills.

With FIFA 11, even when playing with the control assist set to full auto, it felt like the equivalent of full manual control in the previous game.

The slightest slip of the thumb when trying to lay down that perfect through ball sees the ball rolling out into touch for a throw in.

Needless to say they have raised the difficulty bar yet again and you will need to improve on that accuracy if you hope to emerge the victor.

SPEED

It is very clear from the beginning that the overall pace for each speed category has been slightly decreased.

Normal mode felt similar to the Slow setting of the previous game and I found myself opting for Fast in order for the game to have a balanced pace.

HANDBALLS

Ah yes, the long awaited ability to stick your hand out and stop your opponents cross mid flight. Amusing at first, this new maneuver quickly losses its cool factor and just becomes downright annoying.

As you would expect the player cannot perform a handball offense at will. Generally it boils down to you miss-timing your slide tackle and being very upset that you just conceded such a stupid penalty.

PENALTIES

If you played the World Cup: South Africa improvement on FIFA 10 then you will know all about these bad boys.

You have the usual strike power bar and of course you need to determine your shot’s direction. There is however, a third factor which now comes into play.

A colourful line at the bottom of the screen requires you to hit your shot in the green sweet spot, or your shot becomes a flop.

Seriously, these penalties are motherf***ing frustrating and they are going to drive me insane.

Anyway, moving on.

You have now also been given the ability to play the entire match and career as the goalkeeper which opens up a brand new gameplay avenue in the series.

The Personality+ behavioral system has also been applied to all characters (including CPU) giving each one a unique style and identity on the field.

OFF THE PITCH

So let’s have a look at some of the other changes that have been made.

FIFA 11 sees Manager Mode being replaced by a new Career Mode which keeps some of the old and introduces something fresh.

The player career allows you to either select an existing football star or create one of your own. You will then be given the opportunity to further your player’s career by playing sessions and cups to increase his worth during the transfer window.

Unlike Manager Mode you will not be able to make any decisions or alterations concerning the squad as a whole, but regular Manager Mode has been made available for those who wish to do so.

For anyone who likes to do a bit of both, these two modes have also been merged into a third career option which will see you going from rookie footballer to accomplished manager by the end of your run.

Other worthwhile additions include the ability to finally review all highlights at the end of the game, as well as save up to 5 replays for offline and online viewing pleasure.

Thank you EA and its about time.

Then there’s the EA trax listing which have featured in many other EA Sports titles before, but has been missing from the FIFA series.

VERDICT

This years FIFA fix is more of the same without being lame. Throw in some nice new touch up features and the all new Career Mode and you have a another good season to look forward to.

Now if I could only hit that ref square in the face…red card that biatch!

RATING

8.5 out of 10

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