This is a review about why FIFA is still a mediocre game, despite being praised so massively.
For a football fan I believe FIFA 10 is probably the best game you can buy. For a football fan FIFA 10 is a true winner and indeed the best game ever made. With so many modes, licenses, teams, players and customizability, FIFA is indeed a huge game.
But if you are a gamer, FIFA is just absolutely frustrating. I haven't played all the modes, I haven't build a Virtual Pro and there is a reason for this - the gameplay simply lacks so much in basic control.
I believe that when a game is made, the basics should be at place at first, before modes and stuff I added. I don't care if you have every football player in the world licensed; I don't care if you have all the modes in the world and the best soundtrack, if the game still lacks basic gameplay tuning.
I have played hundreds and hundreds of hours of Pro Evolution Soccer with my friends. It is a true involvement of passion and, despite being just a game for fun, being a real intern competition.
The reason why we have played so many nights and so many hours, is because PES truely is a great GAME. Maybe PES lacks a lot in content, but in gameplay, there are no other winner than PES. PES 06/07/08/09 for Playstation 2, that is. We are hardcore fans, but only when a game is good. The newer versions of PES for Playstation 3 are, still being better than FIFA, all terrible and nothing compared to the gameplay standards of the Playstation 2 series.
So what is actually wrong with the FIFA gameplay?
The biggest problem is the unresponsiveness of players and the very slow paced action. It is nearly impossible to dribble in FIFA 10. Yes, there are millions and trillions of tricks, but they simply do not work, because by pressing the button for "pressure" with your defender, makes him take the ball away from the attacker.
If a dribble succeeds, then it is most likely just luck and has nothing to do with skills. My point here is, that even though dribbles do occour some times, it is not a matter of skill, but just a lot of luck. Give a newbie a pad in PES 09 and I will dribble past him again and again and again with ease; because I have played the game and gone good at it.
Give a newbie a joypad in FIFA 10 and he will press "X" and take the ball from you most of the time. I am not skilled in FIFA, but in online games, I have absolutely no problems with any opponent. No one has proven to be good enough in dribbling to pass my tactic of pressing the X-button and leaning back.
Another thing is the skills of each player. They simply do not matter a lot. Pick a team with 2 stars and play against Barcelona; the defenders will be just as strong and the game will look just like a game between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Maybe there is a small difference in pass/shooting accuracy, speed and balance, but the difference is, indeed, slight.
In PES there is a difference between a great and good player; and a HUGE difference between a great and bad player.
If I play Messi in FIFA 10 vs the Danish team Brøndby, he will have just as much difficulty passing the defender as passing any other. It is simply too hard to stay on the ball and too easy to defend the ball.
My friends and I have spent hundreds of hours picking random teams in PES and tweaking the line up based on individual skills for their position, their mood at the time and their role on the pitch. In FIFA I just pick Barcelona and press "ready". Why spend time on making chances, when all players are basicly the same, anyway?
I can go on for hours. But the fact is that FIFA is a great, great football merchandise with alot of content. But it is simply not a very good game. It has great graphics, a BRILLIANT online part and excellent animations, but it is still a mediocre game.
PES is going in a FIFA direction and that is where the money is; but that leaves my friends and I with no new football game, as 'the best football game ever made' praised by critics, FIFA 10, has evolved into somewhat a very boring simulation of 'real' football. Real football is actually boring, if you think about it. Those few moments that make live football great to watch, is what the game should be about all the time. FIFA 10 and PES has actually, over the past few years, managed to take the boring parts of a full 90 minute real life game and put it into a 10 minute long video game.
Stop being something you are not, FIFA and PES; be a game, because when it comes to realism, the real world always win.