FIFA World Cup 2010 Gamespot Preview

With the 2010 World Cup in South Africa just a few months from now, an official World Cup game from EA Sports was a virtual certainty. After all, the publisher behind the tremendously popular FIFA series has produced the last three licensed World Cup games, beginning with World Cup 98 on the original PlayStation, the first WC game produced by the company after obtaining the license in 1997. For the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010, EA is throwing a good deal of its development muscle behind the online features; the game will feature an online World Cup that will let you play as any of the 199 nations that participate in the FIFA, taking on other players around the world to claim sports' most prestigious prize. Game will be released on April 27 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ... bye bye PC?

Gameplay Improvements : 

Responsiveness:

• New chest traps that allow you to chest the ball in the direction you want to go rather than having to take midair touches after a chest to change direction.
• The ability to let a ball drop over your shoulder and move off in the direction of ball travel. Great for preserving momentum with lofted through balls.
• Improved the problem of trapping the ball too far and being "stunned," then taking too long to go and dribble the ball.
• Defensively players will now clear an aerial ball rather than do a chest trap first when you are asking for a clearance.

Goalkeeper:

• Improved the "narrowing down the angle" logic so the keeper doesn't come out so soon and so far, making him vulnerable to the chip shot.
• Ability to change his save direction if there is a deflection.
• Added variety to punching, which results in punches sometimes not clearing the ball out of danger.

CPU Teams:

• Added more skill moves for the CPU to use depending on a player's flair attribute or trait.
• Better understanding of game context and situation, resulting in more intelligent changes of tactics/mentality.
• Manager now looks at who he has as subs and will attempt to give star players on the bench some playing time (i.e. Fabregas for Spain; Pato for Brazil). Previously he would rely solely on match rating and fatigue, leading to unrealistic substitutions or the same one over and over again.

Positioning:

• Teammates will now take more factors into account when looking into space inside the box when they are making a run for a cross to be delivered. I can verify how exciting this is having seen the way that Emile Heskey bulldozed his way onto the end of a cross in Andorra the other day.
• Improved marking for when the CB pushes up to the ball possessor when he shouldn't, leaving the team vulnerable to an easy through ball and 1-on-1 with the GK.

Shooting:

• Improved the realism of where players strike the ball to give more off-center strikes leading to more swerve and variety in ball trajectory.
• Changed the chip shot to make it more challenging and also to improve the feel of it--more backspin, better trajectory.

Passing:

• Added personality to crosses to allow better players to put in more driven crosses into the box.
• Added chest and shoulder passes.
• Lowered the amount of power you can get on backwards crosses and backwards lofted through balls, forcing you to roughly have to face the way you want to pass it to for these types of kicks to succeed.

Set Pieces:

• Ability to trigger a teammate run on a quick free kick.
• Lowered the likelihood of the CPU scoring from FKs--they were too good.
   

Read the whole interview with producer Simon Huber
CLICK HERE