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Review: FIFA 09

GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!

FIFA kicks off this season with a squad of new features, and some great ideas, but does it hit the back of the net like a Geovani freekick, or is it languishing in the bottom three?

Now before I dive into the review, I just though i’d let everyone reading this exactly what i had to do to buy this game. Heading to the local game store, i had in a gruby shopping bag; Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii), Top Spin 3 (Wii), Animal Crossing (DS), Lego Star Wars (360) and Viva Pinata (360), now the game cost £40, and I’ll give you one guess about how much I got for my unused games…

Anyway, my initial disappointment aside, i now had my hands on FIFA 09 for the Xbox 360.

First Impressions: The first thing you notice is that if you happen to not have an HDTV, then you will struggle to read any of the writing. I spent the first couple of minutes, with my face almost pressed against the screen, I was having a ‘Dead Rising’ moment all over again. Cursing my lack of finance once again i made my was through the extensive menu system to my first match. Naturally I selected AC Milan, and I picked my opponents (victims) – Chelsea.

Selecting the tactics, and changing players was fairly natural, after years of playing FIFA games, but again the writing is tiny, and the menu’s seem to sprawl off forever. The load times are swift enough, and I was in the tunnel watching my players in great detail get ready to give Chelsea the hammering they truly deserve.

Gameplay: This game is so smooth. I was instantly at home with the intuitive control system, pulling the left trigger and moving the right stick to perform tricks is a brilliant touch. The power bars drives me insane though, as if you play as a low level team its near impossible to score a goal. The passing system is fluid, the through ball manouveres come off well, and the heading sytem has improved so that you have a chance of connecting with the ball.

Graphics: The game looks brilliant. The ‘Be a Pro’ mode offers one of the most fun aspects of the game. As your player bears down on goal, the camera drops don behind the player, and shakes dramatically – imagine the Gears of War shakey-cam. It adds to the intensity of the matches, and makes scoring a goal really quite exhilarating. Goal celebrations are fun too for a while, as you get to run around and sort-of make your own celebration moments. However, after doing this maybe three times, I’ve just skipped it everytime since.

Online: Right, as i bought this yesterday, I’ve had one go online, not to mention the fact i played the single player ‘Be a Pro’ campaign all night last night. I’m taking Darlington to the top baby! The one match i did play seem me get totally destroyed 3-0 by a guy who picked Inter Milan, after i had picked Bolton. Online flowed great, and i can’t wait to get stuck into it even more, but it looks like i can kiss any kind of a life goodbye.

Overall: This is an enjoyable update of the series that’s been going strong since 1996. The advancements in graphics, playability, and the career mode have made this in to a thoroughly enjoyable affair throughout. Yes the menu system will drive you mad, and the tiny font will force you to buy glasses you never knew you needed, but you’ll be jumping around the room when you bury that goal in the 90th minute of the World Cup final.

Score: 9/10

Tags: FIFA 09, Football, Reviews

Football Results: Sat 28th, Rob Styles Causes Chaos

This weekends football action was pretty decent. Good matches, some terrible refereeing, players seeing red, and a potential goal of the year.

I’m going to start with the worst thing about today: Rob Styles giving Manchester United a penalty (and the win) for a perfectly executed Bolton challenge on diving git Ronaldo. Bolton were doing well in the match, they are a tough side to play against even for the ‘top 4′ teams. If they can’t beat you in skill levels, they’ll have a go at determination.  After 61 minutes of holding down the reds, Bolton defender Jlloyd Samuel slid in to block Ronaldo’s weaving run just inside the box, meeting the ball perfectly and barely touching the prancing fool. Rob Styles – not ten feet away – saw his hero fall to the floor and awarded a penalty to the bemused Manchester Utd team.

Such an utter bout of incompetance is expected at a badly organised pub football match, but in the Premier league you would expect some degree of game rule knowledge. Even my missus knows that if you get the ball first, its not a foul. But Styles has done this before, he’s a known idiot in the game. Even pundit Alan Hanson had a go at his idiocy, and I think he should be banned from refereeing games in the Premier league.

To me this just enforces the fact that we need video evidence for ref’s, nearly every other sport uses it, but football league organisers are just to stubborn and don’t want to damage the beautiful game. Newsflash: the beautiful game was damaged the day billionaire playboys were allowed to buy over clubs and lavish insane sums of money on players.

The other huge upset of the day was Hull City’s 2-1 dumping of Arsenal. Brazilian Geovanni scored what will definitely feature in the goal of the season awards on Match of the Day, his stunning strike from over 30 yards out is what football is all about. A belter.

Other bits and pieces;

Newcastle are totally screwed.

Fulham lost to the Hammers after letting their emotions get to them. Andy Johnson got red carded for being a twat for the whole game.

Chelsea brushed Stoke City aside, Anelka Finally did something useful.

Liverpool owned Everton in the Merseyside derby, Torres is back on form.

Results:

Arsenal 1 – 2 Hull City

Stoke City 0 – 2 Chelsea

Aston Villa 2 – 1 Sunderland

Middlesbrough 0 – 1 West Bromwich Albion

Newcastle United 1 – 2 Blackburn Rovers

Manchester United 2 – 0 Bolton Wanderers

Fulham 1 – 2 West Ham United

Everton 0 – 2 Liverpool

Tags: Football, Results, Sport

Are Newcastle out the Woods yet?

So the apparently doomed Newcastle United have taken on ex-Wimbledon, Nottingham Forest and Luton Town reject Joe Kinnear on a match-by-match contract, until club owner – and one time saviour – Mike Ashley finds a buyer.

Is this the answer? I’m going to say no. Newcastle are properly doomed to relagation. They’ve had a three game humping since Keegan left, and with players handing their heads this low, is their any point trying? Is the answer  liqudating the whole club? Right now its losing fans by the hundred, and pretty soon it’ll lose players and staff.

Kinnear thinks when Ashley sells up Keegan and Shearer will be back: “if I can get in there and get a few results together until obviously the two main people are named, I assume from the new people coming in they will be Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer.”

Doubtful. First of all it could be a while before Newcastle find a buyer, they have loads of debt and morale is dead in the water. By that time, Keegan could be snapped up by another club – he’s a decent manager after all. And Shearer? Would you go back to the club that f#cked you about so much?

They play Blackburn this weekend, and they desperately need a win, but with Blackburn having a ok-ish start to the season so far, i doubt they’ll offer the toon army any quarter.

Anyway, here’s the matches for the 27th, and my totally unscientific predictions:

Everton v Liverpool
My prediction: 1 – 3

Stoke City v Chelsea
My prediction: 1 – 1

Manchester United v Bolton Wanderers
My prediction: 3 – 1

Fulham v West Ham United
My prediction: 2 – 2

Aston Villa v Sunderland
My prediction: 2 – 0

Middlesbrough v West Bromwich Albion
My prediction: 0 – 0

Newcastle United v Blackburn Rovers
My prediction: 1 – 4

Arsenal v Hull City
My prediction: 3 – 1

Tags: Football, Newcastle United, Predictions