On a quest for new ideas, they threw away a lot of good ones...
There are some things in GS's official reviews system I don't quite get. I'm a huge fan of the FIFA games (my first one was FIFA 98), and after being let down by my good old PES, I was pleasantly surprised to find FIFA 10 a good game, a pretty good game indeed. But when I see a game like Alpha Protocol, an RPG, get a score of 6.5 due to bugs, poor graphics and gameplay issues (things that, while important, aren't really the main aspect of an RPG), I find it odd that the new FIFA, that, while it has some beautiful player graphics, is filled with bugs and glitches, has a broken friendly AI, a broken offside system, a poor targetting mechanics, bad game modes, or in essence, core elements in a football/soccer simulator, gets a 9.0...
Alpha protocol had problems, really bad ones, let no one deny it. Yet let's not cover this game in praises, for much of what was good in FIFA 10 has been f-ed up in this one. It had a, not perfect, but smart offside mechanic. In this one, many times if you call for the ball in Career mode from an offside position, and the ball flies over your head to one of your teamates, it's still given as offside. FIFA 10 had excellent graphics... The players didn't look perfect, but at least they didn't glitch at many yellow card scenes, and the arena mode didn't start with a loading of you and the goalkeeper next to each other on the center of the pitch.
And why, EA, did you fix the overhead (or Tele) camera, on the new 'Virtual Pro' mode, on the damned player? Many times you don't get to see what's going on...
The goalkeepers are better, and the passing and shooting all seem very slick, though lacking in the precision department. The commentaries are the same, the song list is in the same mould (but, in my opinion, with worse songs), the menus are terrible... Just about everything about this game screams of UNFINISHED...
To me, the purpose of Gamespot is to recommend good games and warn players about bad ones. I've just spent a good deal of money in order to get updated squads, kits and new graphics, while bugging up most of the gameplay that made FIFA 10 fun. Had I been 'warned', I wouldn't have bought it.
I hope this review serves as one...