Tech Blog

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I don’t know about you but that hand ball by Thierry Henry that sealed Ireland’s fate and put the French through to this year’s World Cup made me a little sick. Hence, why it was the first scenario I played when I cracked open FIFA World Cup 2010 on my PS3. Picking up right after the controversial play, I had about 16 minutes to win the game and change history. I did manage to score and win 2-1, pushing the Irish through, which felt great — almost like justice had been served.

As is usually the case, EA has launched a soccer title in advance of one of the major tournaments. Since the World Cup is the greatest sporting event of all time, playing the game should make you feel like you’re guiding a team a step closer to the big prize each time you hit the virtual pitch. What struck me about this game was that it didn’t change much from what we’ve become accustomed to with EA’s annual FIFA series — and it didn’t really have to.

The game looks and plays nice, for starters, and new gamers might appreciate that they can play and compete by using a simple two-button configuration. The AI has been tweaked to provide different tactics for teams when they’re home or away. The one big change is the new penalty kicks system. You can stutter towards the ball to fool the goalie, and rather than just picking a side, you also have to be accurate with the shot. If you created a Virtual Pro player in FIFA 10, then you can import him into this game’s Captain Your Country mode.

One cool thing about the online side of things is that EA is offering user-controlled goal celebrations as part of a partnership with Coca-Cola. Get codes from Coca-Cola products and the company’s website widgets to unlock the celebrations, and then use them whenever you score. The other online gem is that you can compete as your favourite country in the group stage just as it’s set up in real-life, so you can play scheduled games and try to go all the way. This is in addition to the Battle of the Nations mode, which is basically just standard online play with all the leaderboard trimmings included.

But I can’t help but go back to the scenarios again. I even played one where Canada was up 2-1 against Mexico in a qualifier in Edmonton. The idea is to win the game, naturally, but you have to hold off a furious Mexican assault and keep the ball out of your net. Between the World Cup 2010 qualifying campaign and the 2006 World Cup, there are over 50 scenarios to play. It just gets sweeter that EA will actually offer new ones during the tournament that can be downloaded for free. So, if there’s a controversial play or a stunning loss, expect EA to deliver something that offers an alternate history.

I’m excited about the tournament as it is, but the idea of playing scenarios that might only be days old while the real-life guys are playing is more than a little intriguing.