Fifa 09 – First Impressions

Fifa 09

Well, where do I start? First thing I did was start an exhibition match, going for the London derby of Arsenal vs. Tottenham. After playing the first half, the score was still 0-0 but I was amazed at how much EA have done on this game in comparison with the rather poor Fifa 08. Everything now is so much more realistic, though at times it makes it incredibly difficult and frustrating as we are all used to the years and years of Fifa games being pants, loaded with glitches.

Appearance/graphics

As you can see from this screenshot, the graphics look a lot better than previous games, though as with the Fifa series, improving the looks of the game each time isn’t anything special. One thing though that I have just noticed, the modelling of the players in the lower league (specifically referring to Luton Town in Coca Cola League Two here) is great, they actually look like the players now! The menus and UI (User Interface) are very easy to use as with pretty much every game these days, very simliar to Fifa 08 as well.

Audio

Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix)
Caesar Palace – 1ne
Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin’ (Yuksek Remix)
Cansei de Ser Sexy – Jager Yoga
Curumin – Margrela
Cut Copy – Lights and Music
Damian Marley – Something For You (Loaf Of Bread)
Datarock – True Stories
DJ Bitman – Me Gustan
Duffy – Mercy
Foals – Olympic Airways
Gonzales – Working Together (Boys Noize Remix)
Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor (Soulwax Remix)
Jakobinarina – I’m A Villain
Junkie XL – Mad Pursuit
Jupiter One – Platform Moon
Kasabian – Fast Fuse
Ladytron – Runaway
Lykke Li – I’m Good I’m Gone
Macaco – Movin’
MGMT – Kids (MGMT Song)
My Federation – What Gods Are These
Najwajean – Drive Me
Plastilina Mosh – Let U Know
Radiopilot – Fahrrad
Reverend and the Makers – Open Your Window
Sam Sparro – Black And Gold
Señor Flavio – Lo Mejor Del Mundo
Soprano – Victory
The Airborne Toxic Event – Gasoline
The Bloody Beetroots – Butter
The Fratellis – Tell Me A Lie
The Heavy – That Kind Of Man
The Kissaway Trail – 61
The Kooks – Always Where I Need to Be
The Pinker Tones – The Whistling Song
The Script – The End Where I Begin
The Ting Tings – Keep Your Head
The Veronicas – Untouched
The Whip – Muzzle #1
Tom Jones – Feels Like Music (Junkie XL Remix)
Ungdomskulen – Modern Drummer

This list was extracted from the FIFA Soccer Blog

Unfortunately, as with all Fifa games, only a few of the tracks are good to listen to and they only play whilst paused and navigating the menus. So once again I am left to stream my own music from my iMac into the game and turn the commentary off. As for the commentary itself, I got bored/annoyed with it in one match so I guess that it was a lower priority of the massive list EA had to improve on Fifa 08.

Gameplay

The physics of this game are superb, if I remember correctly, each player has a number of stats for things such as balance, strength, sprint speed, jog speed, skill, etc. which then come into play for almost every action on the pitch. For example, you have a big beefy defender who is really tall but can’t run very fast, if you send a small and speedy striker (such as Theo Walcott) running straight into the defender, Walcott will go flying! This makes sliding tackles so much fun xD.

Video by Galatasaray4Sampiyon

Conclusion

Great looking game, most of the time it plays well too but some areas let it down such as the commentary. The gameplay is like no other football game that I have played before and a vast improvement upon previous Fifa titles. I’d like to buy the game, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it (luckily my brother and my dad did though so I won’t have to!).