Realism, meet FIFA 09.
When I first saw a gameplay trailer for FIFA 09, I was impressed by how it resembles a real-life soccer match more than any other soccer game ever. A lot of what atracts people to purchasing a sports game ( or any true-to-life game) is the games realism and accuracy to real-life events, and FIFA 09 does this exactly.
I've been a soccer fan for many years, and i have purchased every EA's FIFA soccer game since FIFA 2003. But 09 is the one I've been impressed by the most. EA has done a great job using the advances in technology to improve every game in the series, and they bring 09 to the edge of realism.
GAMEPLAY
As I said before (and sorry if I have mentioned it too many times) the game's realism is the main attraction. Controls are pretty much the same as FIFA 08, but they are much more responsive in 09. There's still a little trouble with passing, since sometimes it's a little inacurate and troubling, but it's a minor problem.
Also the pace of the game has been improved. It's even more real than the pace of 08. With 08, EA was experimenting with the pace so that FIFA 09's could be better and would be the end of that fast and sometimes easy pace of FIFA 07. and, if you're not satisfied with the game's rhytm, you can change it in the game settings screen.
One of the most notable things in 09 is scoring. If you've played 08, you probably remember how difficult was to score a goal, since the realism they were trying to give the game made many FIFA 07 players have to get used to the change of difficulty at the time of scoring a goal. Now, it's different. the improvement made at the time of shooting has been very satisfying. When shooting, the ball takes that pro effect that may give you a beautiful, impressive goal, or a really disastrous miss.
A few new modes have been added. One of the most entertaining is Be A Pro: Seasons, where you control a professional player ( or create one of your own ) ant take him through a four-season career in which you have to gain experience and ve good enough to make your team's first squad or even your national squad.
GRAPHICS AND VISUALS
You think FIFA 08 had the most real and beautiful graphics in a soccer game? NOT ANYMORE!! FIFA 09 takes the graphics to another level. This time, stadiums,players,fields,crowds and other things have been improved with these little details that make them almost the same to the real player or stadium. Take for example Ronaldinho, sure, he still looks like a monkey, but even more alike to the real Ronaldinho.
Another thing that is vital in a soccer match is the sound of the crowd. There si no emotion or excitement without a good crowd. The crowd in the game looks and sounds great. When you score a goal, they go crazy ( but in a good way).
PRESENTATION
Really good presentation. As always, it features a lot of important ( and licensed coff coff PES coff ) leagues throughout the world featuring every team in that league, with licensed players and kits.
There's also this online thing where you can update squads and players performance according to how they did on their last match.
In resume, it's one of the most realistic ( it's the last time I'm using this word, I swear) soccer games ever made. If you're a soccer fan, you should definitely try it. If not, well, at least you know what the game is about.
