Games of 2009: FIFA 10

By Tom Bramwell Published 23 December, 2009

For me Andy, he didn't even need to be there!

Scoring a goal is the path to many celebrations... some would consider unnatural.

There's no worse feeling than conceding a goal, so when you do score one in FIFA 10 it's imperative to be magnanimous. Don't run around in circles spinning your arm like a windmill. Don't slide along your stomach into the goalkeeper's legs. And definitely don't line up that celebration where you jump and punch the air so that it looks like you're smacking the goalkeeper right in the face. Be dignified. Hold the right trigger, flick the right analogue stick to the right and then to the left. And then stoop down, pick up an imaginary baby, and cradle it.

Do the baby. Do it in the back of the net for maximum sportsmanship credibility.

One of the byproducts of this year's Brave New Christmas is that while pretty much every game we're covering is someone on the staff's game of the year, not everyone gets to write about their actual game of the year. Otherwise you'd be reading a dozen articles about Uncharted 2, a few more about Batman and Demon's Souls and a couple of others about Plants vs. Zombies.

I do get to write about FIFA 10, however, because nobody else on the editorial staff seems to care about it. It's my game of the year, despite the undoubted charms of Uncharted 2 (which I gave 10/10!) and countless others I've spent far too much time playing when I should have been defending our reviews against the machinations of evil publishers, or developing social marketing strategies, or whatever the hell it is I'm supposed to do when I'm not playing FIFA.

'Games of 2009: FIFA 10' Screenshot 1

Special Eurogamer FIFA 10 tip: The Beast! Julio! Baptista! Seriously, give him a run-out.

This is in spite of the fact that, rather like my beloved Liverpool FC, sometimes I can't even bear to look at FIFA 10 again after a defeat. Still I always come back, and it's for more than the mere warmth and comfort of familiarity and expertise. I may know that when I'm through on goal with a bit of space the best thing to do is time a chipped shot, because the goalkeeper is about as well equipped to deal with a flying object as Gatwick Airport during a mild downpour, but if anything that's a drawback rather than a boon. The thing that draws me back to FIFA 10 is its unpredictability, foremost, and the manner in which games are won.

It's relatively easy to make a game where being good is enough to conquer all. What I like about FIFA 10 is that while it often is, it very frequently isn't. Even people who stick with it for months can still be upset by the endeavours of relative amateurs, because a great deal of it is played in the head and not simply a product of muscle memory.

It's something that's usually only true of the very best games. As the best person in the world at Street Fighter explains, mere gaming proficiency is nothing if you can't analyse an opponent's mental weaknesses as well. The best football games - and FIFA 10 is the best football game, and I say that as somebody who swore by Pro Evolution Soccer for nine years - are just like that.

It's for this reason, I suspect, that Eurogamer's long-serving, increasingly hirsute and lovely designer Martin Taylor, who doesn't even like football, has taken to FIFA 10 like an Asari consort to a charmless space marine with a stupid face in Mass Effect: not very inevitably, but with wicked results. Even though I know how to score free kicks almost every time, and even though I know not to rush my defenders towards the ball because it leaves big gaps, he can beat me because I make stupid decisions. He likes that.

I like using the right stick to flick the ball past people, which doesn't work very well if they're sliding into my legs and I've forgotten the button combination to hurdle them. And I may know not to rush my defenders towards the ball, but that doesn't mean I have the discipline not to do it. As a result my defence frequently has more holes in it than a Dan Brown story treatment. Similarly, I can predict that Martin will forget Eurogamer Rule No.1 Of Football: you can't play football back there. He always tries to pass it out of his own half, and more often than not I tackle him and set up a shot. Yet on and on he goes, just as I will not give up on my beloved right stick.

There are a few exploits - the long-range shots and chips in particular - but there's nothing that seems to work with certainty like FIFA 09's elevated through-balls and fast strikers. That only works in FIFA 10 when the opposing player plays a high line with sloppy defenders and defends suicidally. The looping, elevated through-ball out to the wing is often useful to bolster an offensive - owing a lot to the game's newfound ability to deal with fast-moving aerial passes - but one of FIFA 10's many checks and balances prevents a speedy player from controlling a long ball without losing momentum. Similarly, crosses are seldom converted unless the receiving player is in space. There's artificiality in this, but it's not impossible to score from crosses - just improbable - and until there's a better solution that allows for subtle skill-based determinations it's not the worst prominent tactic to blunt.

'Games of 2009: FIFA 10' Screenshot 2

Bonus caption tip 2: Atletico Madrid.

Football in real life is a game of skill, subtlety and tactical acuity. And of dodgy officiating. (And, apparently, of unofficial £10,000 guided tours of the training facility with your friend "Tony Ticket"). It's these things that draw us back again and again, and it's these things in FIFA 10 that retain the interest of the more than half a dozen of us at Eurogamer playing together regularly, who also make it the most popular office multiplayer game of the year as a result of their numbers and persistence (Modern Warfare 2 lasted about one week).

But it's not just that - it's also the fact that unlike the FIFAs of old, these days the game has a personality. The commentary may be dreadful and repetitive - an insurmountable problem, presumably, given that most of the things the sound designers can select for Martin Tyler and Andy Gray to speak about are precisely the things neither of them would ever commentate on - but it has a certain charm. Robinho with his dribbling skills! Tevez with his bulldog-like approach! DIMITAR BERBATOV! And if you don't have 25 shots on target, the only good thing Andy Gray will be able to say about that half is that we did see a goal (undoubtedly scored by the opposition, by lobbing the goalkeeper). And did you know Andy Gray is always optimistic about football?

And while we once mocked the decision to let you choose your goal celebration in FIFA, it's tempting these days to view it as the full stop on the argument that EA Canada understands how we feel about football better even than ourselves. In a game that gets heated, even played among friends, there is surely no finer way to draw matters back from the brink of a physical altercation than sliding the ball underneath the goalkeeper, running towards the camera, and doing the baby.

All hail the baby, and all hail FIFA 10, my game of the year. Even if the Manager and Club Modes are broken, and it doesn't punish quitters properly, and the menus are so bad they initially prompted the reaction, as I settled down in my Liverpool PJs to play the game for the first time, of "WTF". Happy Christmas everyone. Do the baby.

Check out the Editor's blog to find out more about our Games of 2009.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (59) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AHiFi #1 2 years ago

    I got FIFA 07 the other day for £1. Hate it. Menu sucks, lack of teams and plays poorly compared to PES 6. Figured it would do me over until I can afford '10 or '11. Bleh. Despite the plaudits here, I think I'll wait until '11. Seems like it's getting better every year.

  • rotmm #2 2 years ago

    Peter moore will be pleased ;)

  • y2rich #3 2 years ago

    And not one mention of the Online Clubs feature? Best bit in the game this year. Even the EG Forum team is hanging around the top 10 in the uk/top 100 in the world.

  • xandoodle #4 2 years ago

    I maintain the delay between button press and action is far too long. We're talking treacle slow here.

    Renders it unplayable for me. Here's hoping 11 fixes that.

  • wizlon #5 2 years ago

    Hi Peter, hope you're happy now :p

  • MyAfroAndMe #6 2 years ago

    I found FIFA10 quite disappointing and overrated. Way too many bugs and the football whilst excellent in some quarters (physicality, passing) was poor in others (crossing, shooting). Nowhere near GOTY material for me. People and their opinions eh.

  • Jonny5Alive7 #7 2 years ago

    Really good article, its interesting reading about people's thoughts on a game after everyone else has had a chance to play it as well. Usually you read a review in anticipation of playing something.

  • bliprunner #8 2 years ago

    Peter Moore should read this bit again - "Manager and Club Modes are broken"

    Gameplay is fantastic but seriously, don't promise lots of guff about manager mode and then release the same old broken game.

  • El-Dev #9 2 years ago

    The gameplay is good for some of the basics, but a football game where the midfield is not needed is failing to grasp some of the basic fundamentals of football.

  • Eurolamer #10 2 years ago

    Still haven't got the stats right.

    Still haven't got player individuality right.

    Still have input delay.

    Still have Leyton Orient defending as well as Man Utd.

    Still have melted plastic gorillas as player models (seriously, who actually looks like that?)

    Single player modes are broken, no other word for it.

    Overrated, rushed pale imitation of the great game. 7/10.

  • Mortey #11 2 years ago

    ??????????????????????????????????????????????
    Thats just so wrong.........
    A football game without Villa in the picture????

    /Is now confused and wonders if this is really Eurogamer...

  • roz123 #12 2 years ago

    So none of the other editorial staff are interested in it....was the top 50 list dropped then so this could be put as one of the games of the year?
    Edited by 2 at 23/12/09 @ 10:07

  • Granarythorax #13 2 years ago

    Top article - not a fashionable choice but this is probably my most played of last year. Only quibble: I don't think the manager mode qualifies as 'broken' since the patch - I've played about about 100 games & not had significant problems.

  • Raymeister #14 2 years ago

    Good article. Couldn't agree more that this is one of the games of the year. A multiplayer gem.

  • rodpad #15 2 years ago

    Not the baby!

  • pinebear #16 2 years ago

    Thanks, Tom. Nice to read part of a "writers' favourites" and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the series takes shape.

    Well done on trying something new. Marvellously, it looks like it's working - I probably would have ignored FIFA10 in a listing, but this longer form has warmed me to it slightly more than otherwise.

    HC&aMNY

  • manuel_garcia #17 2 years ago

    Our online club is eating so much of my time at the minute I can barely think about anything else. Bloody thing.

  • Onelove1867 #18 2 years ago

    Tom, have you ever tried writing a football related article without making cringe worthy statements about your "beloved Liverpool FC"? It's very predictable and yes, we get the message; you're a plastic scouser.

  • Drpwnage #19 2 years ago

    Do the Baby indeed!

    I agree with y2rich, Pro-Club Championship is amazing fun and my favourite co-op game this year. It does have it's faults, but the mode is a huge step forward in Fifa 10 with the persistent ranking and season ranking team score.

    The sense of team elation and shared hilarity you have coming back from 4-0 at half-time to win 5-4, or watching a shot strike the cross bar and richochet into the goal via the back of the keepers head or the satisfaction from stringing together a stinging counter attack with one touch passing from 5 team members.

  • Mkwone #20 2 years ago

    @AHiFi

    Fifa didn't turn the corner till 08 so thats why you're probably not enjoying it. you can't argue about the number of teams though. Aside from Sensi i don't think anygame has had more playable teams.

  • andyc1980 #21 2 years ago

    well i'd like to see what the fuss is about the online clubs mode but i'm still waiting for my request to join to be accepted.PLEASE.

  • jackinov #22 2 years ago

    Nice paean to what is definitely the best football game ever. I played this game more than any other this year so I think I'm qualified to say that the game of football in FIFA is indeed unpredictable, with the exception of (as was pointed out in the article) the fail-safe chip when one-on-one with the goalie. Too flawed to be game of the year, but its great value for money

  • jimmyhill11 #23 2 years ago

    For me, this is the most painfully overated game this last year

    Quite apart from the bugs, and the fact that there is still an immersion destroying latency between button pushes and game response, I would still say the gameplay is ok but not any better than ok. Most of the goals I score still seem to completely bypass the midfield, and the crossing / direct shooting from a cross model is just broken. It has been broken on all the next gen Fifa's, which is a mystery to me as EA got it pretty good with Fifa 2007 on ps2/xbox.

    There should be an exciting wiff of danger when a ball is crossed with pace, but in Fifa 2010 the excitment is sucked out as the AI (when playing on auto or semi auto) invariably directs the ball not at space but towards whichever of your players is being most closely marked. You try to get around this by switching to manual crossing, but then find that you can't have a player run at pace towards the byline whilst crossing laterally (which in real life good wingers can do), but instead you have to interupt your wingers progress and face them towards the penalty box, so losing momentum and giving defenders time to get back.
    Edited by 1 at 23/12/09 @ 11:58

  • Sonic_D #24 2 years ago

    This game would not click for me. As others have said some areas were excellent adn you could really feel the attention and quality lavished on the game, but others (namely shooting & crossing) were not up to scratch. I traded it in.

  • HandOfBeadle #25 2 years ago

    This is ludicrous - FIFA 10 was a crushing disappointment, and I genuinely can't see how anybody could be satisfied with it more than a month on. How can you take a football game seriously when your goalkeeper can trap a high ball as confidently and consistently as your midfield magician? When your clumsy lumbering centre back is able to hit a pinpoint 40 yard reverse pass first time off his weaker foot from a 60 yard crossfield pass? When Accrington Stanley are able to play it around Man Utd (yes, with their first team defence) as if they're Arsenal?

    The AI is atrocious, especially when defending. I grew so dispassionate about the game when it became achingly clear that EA chose to code the defenders to stand 6 yards off the strikers regardless of custom tactics and irrespective of where the striker is. Therefore world class defenders will be standing well off of known threats who receive a simple pass to them around the penalty spot, and because the defender doesn't seem to have a concept of preventing the shot on goal he is off to te side looking to cover the pass out of the area. EA's way of preventing this from being exploited is to make shooting at an angle hopelessly impotent so the defender has several minutes to get back in position before there is a genuine threat on goal.

    Luckily Eurogamer seem to be the exception, not the rule. EA have had new one torn for them by forum goers, and not just fir MM or other bugs but for fundamental gameplay flaws. The key issue is that all players are perfect controllers and passers of the ball, even with semi passing. If Lucas can pass the ball 60 yards through a needle's eye then who cares about players who actually have high passing stats? If John Terry can control the ball like Zidane then who needs technical wizardry? If shooting is going to be hopeless in all situations but dead on then why should we try forany type of attacking move that results in an angled shot (e.g. the vast majority of real life goals)?

    I think football games are going to have to be something where I accept that Eurogamer aren't really looking at the gameplay with any significant sense of depth..

  • jimbo118 #26 2 years ago

    Tom's enjoyment seems to come solely from the MP side of FIFA. SP is quite tedious.

    @HandofBeatle: agreed about the defender postioning, particularly in the box.
    Edited by 1 at 23/12/09 @ 12:22

  • Mark1412 #27 2 years ago

    Lovely little article. Would like to read what other staff members consider to be their game of the year! There isn't a multiplayer game for me (sat in the same room as my flatmates or buddies) that ever lays so much on the line as FIFA 10 and I don't know why. All I can say is no amount of screaming/jumping/crying/anguish/hate can ruin it when you score a blinder in the 90th minute and force extra time with weary players. Brilliant fun, despite its flaws.

  • tiredoldandy #28 2 years ago

    To be honest I only bought it/play it so I can play as my own team, we're outside the Prem and Pro Evo don't have us covered. I think both football games are shite in SP this year and both just as bugged. In MP they're still great fun though, although the downside of Pro Evo is that you need two players about the same level to enjoy it properly, FIFA seems to bypass all that and still be fun even when you're at opposite ends of the spectrum.

    I wouldn't dream of giving the game as much praise as EG does though, it's still got a long LONG way to go.

  • sebsal #29 2 years ago

    PES 10 is far better than FIFA, seriously, it is

  • tiredoldandy #30 2 years ago

    Oh, and the referee is completely useless. ;[

  • Eraserhead #31 2 years ago

    I'd quite like to be able to play more than one season of Manager Mode without:

    a) going into £2 billion debt when switching to another club
    b) playing games in the snow in July and in the rain/at night 99% of the rest of the time
    c) suddenly having some players lose their names
    d) players disappearing from the squad altogether
    e) having the game simply freeze up when you try to load an MM save
    f) all of the above.

    I know, I'm just SO picky...

  • El-Dev #32 2 years ago

    The player animations are good. Everything else isn't. I still play it quite a bit though.

  • TheGoose126 #33 2 years ago

    PES10 is loads better trust me. I'm not a PES fanboy I had FIFA10 as well as 09,08 and the euro one. The master league is amazing it plays really well and looks the biz. Only let downs are the harsh refs and sometimes dodgy keepers.

  • CalmBlueOcean #34 2 years ago

    Worst thing about this article is liking that bloody awful baby goal celebration.

    1) It is the WORST piece of animation that has ever been shipped in a game. Jerky, wooden, unnatural, no sense of momentum or weight to the motions... its truly dreadful

    2) It is, without exception, the sole preserve of chavs, sploiters or the other subhuman breeds of scum who infest Xbox Live like a cancer. As a result I strongly urge that under no circumstances should you ever EVER do the baby, unless you are celebrating another shot from the halfway line goal, or a "block the goalkeepers kick out of his hands ha ha ha" goal, or the one where you do a long throw against the crossbar, or the goal direct from a corner...

    Wow there's a lot of glitch goals in FIFA 10....
    Edited by 1 at 23/12/09 @ 13:39

  • HandOfBeadle #35 2 years ago

    Don't forget a free kick. Nemanja Vidic was a lethal free kick taker for me.

    My God this game is fucking awful now that I think about it. EG, what are you smoking/getting paid to call a spade a Super Future Digger Upper 3000?

  • Power_n_Glory #36 2 years ago

    If Pro Evo's gameplay didn't suck so much, I'd trade Fifa 10 in. The Manager Mode is a disgrace. I've seen the new Pro Evo Master League mode and it whoops Fifa's. Player of the year awards, players get unsettled if rival clubs make bids..all the stuff Fifa 10 should be doing.

    The gameplay on Fifa 10 is great but the defending is really poor. You can't play the offside trap and as HandOfBeadle said, defenders will always stand off attackers and it's annoying.

    I think I've tried to play MM 6 or 7 times already and I keep getting fired for complete nonsense. The last MM froze up on me and I had to delete my profile and start again. The game is broken!

  • curtlikesmeat #37 2 years ago

    I think that was a fairly positive article considering manager mode was basically a beta.

    Flop of the year IMO and the fact that EG didn't mention the bugs in their review pissed me off no end. FIFA 11 definitely won't be an automatic purchase.

  • Drpwnage #38 2 years ago

    I would agree, if you will excuse the pun that Fifa 10 is a game of two halves. The SP experience is shonky, buggy and dull compared to the Pro-Club Championship.

    Alot of the issues with Crossing / Player AI etc vanish online when you have human players in control of their Pro's running into space, mind you that is not always the case if you play in the Online Teamplay mode...

  • HandOfBeadle #39 2 years ago

    It's quite shocking that 1up were the only reviewers to properly lay into EA for doing such a shit job. Even then they neglected to mention that the gameplay is balanced atrociously.

    If EA made passing very dependent on the passer and the state of the ball as it was being passed then everything else would fix itself in turn. At the moment all the imbalances stem from the inch perfect ping pong passing and control. Heading and angled shooting is so piss weak because defenders stand off because physicality is so overly important because control is so flawless. If I wasn't on my phone typing this I'd go into a hell of a lot more depth but Ive yet to see a remotely credible argument against Silvestre being as good a passer as Fabregas.

    Still, good thing EA are bringing out Ultimate Team and a World Cup game, eh?

  • superdelphinus #40 2 years ago

    i think i had this as my 2nd favourite

  • El-Dev #41 2 years ago

    The glitches don't really bother me if the truth be told. It's the fact that the gameplay is so drastically wrong. Even if you play a few hours online you will see how every opponent exploits every fault, it's very frustrating especially when you play against someone using the good old 5-0-5 formation. What made PES5 and 6 so good was that the gameplay was brilliant, back then it's a bit dated now, even though though they had a couple of flaws the gameplay covered them.

  • Turrican #42 2 years ago

    I suppose if you're into multiplayer then this could be a game of the year for some people, but seriously, Eurogamer and many other review sites should hang their heads in shame at the state of the game that they launched, patched a little, and refused to fix until fifa11.

    To make it clear, NO ONE should purchase this franchise on day one, wait to see the reaction before buying it. Yes they are passionate about their game and clearly work like buggery to get it finished, but this yearly 'update' tripe needs to stop and EA must give them a 2 year cycle to release a properly finished product. They are bolting fixes and features onto a messy codebase because they never have time to re-write it.

    Rant over.

  • JahB #43 2 years ago

    @Turrican

    not entirely so. if you look at Madden 10, which came with some revolutionary tech ("pro-tak";) that creates animations on the fly and allows joined animations for multiple players at once, it's obvious that a one-year span is enough to make radical improvements to a franchise.

  • jimbo118 #44 2 years ago

    To be fair to EA they made a big step forward with FIFA 08, rewriting the engine from scratch and building upon it. The problem is they risk going into lazy mode again.

    And I can't help but feel that EA care more about their US franchises than FIFA. NBA, NHL, NFL all have way more updates and downloadables than FIFA which has had what, 1 patch and 1 downloadable stadium?

  • mcwildcard #45 2 years ago

    Any particular reason for the snipe at John Terry?
    Typical classless scouser antics.

    I bet you're not even Liverpudlian, but I'm sure you've got some incredibly tenous excuse for supporting them that's nothing to do with glory hunting.

  • Physically_Insane #46 2 years ago

    FIFA 10 is extremely good. Definently the best football game in years. However I still don't think it's reached the heights of the Pro Evo with Adriano on the front. 5 I think.

  • El-Dev #47 2 years ago

    "Any particular reason for the snipe at John Terry?
    Typical classless scouser antics."

    JT could be a scouser, what with his shoplifting mum and drug dealing dad.


    http://ww w.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...

  • Rodchenko #48 2 years ago

    Most disappointing game of the year for me. Nice animations, great 360-degree movement and passing, but when it comes to the finishing end of the pitch it's a travesty. And I wish there was a way I could kick EAs lead programmer into the nuts every time I hit the crossbar/post in this game. That would be 3 nut crunches per match, on average.

  • Futaba #49 2 years ago

    Couldn't get into it at all.

  • septimus #50 2 years ago

    "Do the baby. Do it in the back of the net for maximum sportsmanship credibility."

    That is one of the most disturbing sentences I think I have ever read.

  • TonyHarrison #51 2 years ago

    I was so disappointed by the absolute shambles that is FIFA 10 on release that I've not even bothered downloading the patch that supposedly fixed a few of the bugs.

    A lot of people say that EA have stepped up their game recently, and if all you play is online multiplayer then you might be forgiven for thinking that, but no sane person can possibly think that way after spending more than five minutes on any single player mode. They're bug ridden, broken excuses of game modes.

    Truthfully, EA still have a lot to learn. PES may play the same as it has for years, but at least it's game modes work (the occasional pre-match freeze aside)....
    Edited by 1 at 23/12/09 @ 22:57

  • curtlikesmeat #52 2 years ago

    PES needs to get its wallet out and pay for the full FIFA endorsed team licenses - then there will be some serious competition. I refuse to play a game with Ristiano Conaldo up front.

  • HandOfBeadle #53 2 years ago

    Curt

    sounds like you have your priorities right.

  • lambtron #54 2 years ago

    PES needs to stop being the same tired old retread for 5 years running, the player names are at the bottom of the list of it's problems.

  • curtlikesmeat #55 2 years ago

    Peter Moore is a tool, there were loads of comments on his blog about the bugs in Fifa 10 the other day and he deleted them all.

  • romanista #56 2 years ago

    The baby was invented against us, the duch in wc94 by bebeto. It still hurts.

  • darth_paul #57 2 years ago

    personaly, i also dont agree that FIFA10 is a great game. I, like a lot of people, bought this game on day one, but since then, and after 2 months of solid play, i have to say this game is just broken. it does a lot of thinks correctly (the whole game feels very organic and fluid), but its just too unbalanced in the defensive and offensive department. Your goalies go from "defend everything mode" to "just look at the ball and do nothing". To defend with your centerbacks its frustrating, because they take ages to clear the ball, or just have the ball bumped off them (the ball always ends up in front of the opposing striker)
    and then when attacking, its just useless to go 1-on-1 with the keeper, he just defends eveything no matter what i do. i can do any kind of shot.

    in a word, this game is the most frustrating gaming experience in years, and will not buy FIFA11.
    anyway, this kind of article can only be written by someone who only plays offline against the CPU, or who wants to please EA. I doubt he plays this P.O.S of a game online.

    Ill go PES next time for sure. Maybe ill try FIFA12., but im definitely skipping "11".

  • Burton2000 #58 2 years ago

    The best football game experience ive had it really is an awesome game.

  • Placebo #59 2 years ago

    How on earth can this be GOTY? It's completely riddled with bugs, manager mode (the only mode I play) has dozens and dozens of bugs, many of which render the game completely unplayable at any point, the mode can freeze completely after matches ruining seasons of progress, or if you're lucky you can get the -2bn bug where that is your bank balance, Buggy Game of the Year.