The main ambition of David Rutter and his EA Sports team was to improve the game as much as possible on and off the pitch, whilst also keeping most of the core features that FIFA 09 had – and I think it’s safe to say it was a success. FIFA 10 concentrates on the tiny details, and rather than making any huge changes from FIFA 09, it has tweaked what needed to be tweaked and nothing more. But these small changes do make a huge difference.

360-degree dribbling is one of the many changes that make FIFA 10 – it gives you much greater control over your player’s movement. It’s such fun to use, and you’re able to beat your marker in a heartbeat if you play your cards right, and this is without using any skills at all. There’s also the skilled-dribbling feature that you can use (by holding L2 and running), which allows you greater ball control, and if your player is particularly skillful (i.e. Messi, Torres, Ronaldo) then your opponent will have a very hard time getting the ball off you.

Be A Pro (BAP) has also improved greatly. With the new game sub-mode called Virtual Pro, you’re able to create yourself down to the very last detail – or even upload your own face to put on your player if you don’t feel like tweaking any of the many customisable features. Once you’ve created your Virtual Pro, you can get on with trying to achieve your targets, which in turn will add to your skills, or unlock certain items for you (new boots, shirt untucked, long sleeves). You can achieve these targets by completing relatively simple tasks – there are some which require you to simply bury a laces shot in the arena, or others which require you to take the ball past your man 5 times, or play 200 VP matches.

Virtual Pro also has a major influence on the online Club Mode too. Rather than playing as the normal players of your team, you and your friends’ VP players will be playing instead. If you don’t have 10 people playing, then FIFA will randomly make up 10 players with a 60 overall stat to fill in the gaps. This may sound harsh, but it’s definitely a masterstroke by EA. By doing this they’ve eliminated the problem that was everybody picking 5-star teams with elite players. Now people can go the team they want to go rather than the team they have to go, and everybody starts on a relatively even playing field. Not to mention, if your Pro eventually earns an 85 or 90 overall stat, then there’s definitely a great sense of achievement knowing you’re one of the best on the field!

The regular online play has also had filters added to it – so if you don’t want to play a certain team, or want to play someone closer to your level in “instant” online ranked matches, this is now perfectly possible.

Manager Mode has also been improved in FIFA 10, and what will be most noticeable is the fact that the CPU tends to go for more realistic transfers, rather than far-fetched ones. That, and the ability to be able to pick your players’ numbers rather than have them auto-assigned, is a huge improvement in itself for the game.

Going on to the animations & AI, and they’re just incredible. The way the players wrestle for the ball side-by-side, or the way you have a much greater control over the way you slide-tackle just sends a chill down your spine. If there’s a player out of position when you’re in a match, the AI will respond and try to get someone back (or forward) to cover him. The goalkeepers have better positioning and a much greater reading of the game too – I’ve seen them make double-saves time after time … but that doesn’t mean they’re unbeatable!

Long balls don’t hang around in the air for half an hour before reaching their target any more, the passes are smoother, the crowds are more realistic, the stadiums look amazing, I could go on and on. But I wont, I’ll let you see for yourself!

So has FIFA 10 lived up to the hype?

Definitely – and then some.

Videos (10 v 10 Club Mode)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeci_MXvyGo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxxGufZ0nOg[/youtube]

The aim of the game is simple. Blow people/objects/insects in to oblivion. The G-Con 3 gun which arrives with the game is our first disappointment. The old PS3 G-Con looked fairly cool – it even looked remarkably similar to the gun the characters toted on the outside box of the machine. This new gun doesn’t. It’s bright orange. Speculation is that the colour was chosen to avoid the possibility of police forces worldwide mistaking it for a real gun. There is definitely no dange of that now.

The sleekness of the PS3 is shattered pretty much before you even load the disc. The gun, disappointingly, connects via a usb cable. That dirty dirty ‘cable’ word. In a world of wireless controllers, Nintendo Wii remotes etc this simply isn’t good enough. Next out the box comes the screen sensors. And another wire. The screen sensors (x2) simply fit on the top left and top right corner of your television.

Okay, so not a great start, let’s whack the game in.

The graphics are good, but don’t push the PlayStation 3. This is no Call of Duty 4. The cartoon style is still evident although it is a substantial notch up from the old PS2 versions. In regular arcade mission mode you have the choice of either of the two characters – each character having a different viewpoint on the action. There’s collectable machine guns, handguns, shotguns, mini-rocket launchers and the game works well and provides a reasonable challenge.

Back to the characters, Giorgio and Evan, both trapped in the 1980′s in terms of hairstyles – you almost feel like they deserved it when you eventually die in this game. Namco has improved the features of Time Crisis but when you start off in an airport (again) then you know originality wasn’t top of their agenda.

The missions however are varied, you can change your gun as you ‘hide’ and there is an element of moving the character thanks to the analogue stick on the gun. There are missions such as in a helicopter, and trying to snipe a truck’s tyres with a sniper rifle from a helicopter is no easy task. These are the missions we want and the game frequently delivers.

There is also a new First Person mode, in which you do move freely as in popular FPS such as Call of Duty and Resistance. It’s a decent feature but graphically this is not Call of Duty or Resistance. If it were this game could be big league.

Overall fans of Time Crisis can be reassured that this is a step forward for the series. The new gun, you will probably never love, but it works well. The graphics are significantly better and aspects of the gameplay are much improved. At around £60 including the G-Con 3 it isn’t cheap.

You’re either in to these games or you’re not. If you’re not, then Time Crisis 4 probably hasn’t got enough to make you fall in love, but if you’re an addict then it’s a cracking little blaster.

Screenshots

The story is set in a fictional not too distant future war between the United States, United Kingdom, and a group of Russian Loyalists who are fighting against Russian Ultra nationalists and Middle Eastern rebels. The game is set over many locations ranging from the Middle East to Russia, and players will find that this game is much more slower paced than the games that preceded it.

Weapons are varied and now include the M203 grenade launcher, M4A1 carbine, an MPSSD sub machine gun and my personal favourite, the FGM-148 javelin portable anti-tank guided missile. When you have a tank in your sights and press the trigger, the missile shoots off at speed, but goes straight up into the air. The first time you witness this you may think to yourself, what the ????, but a few silent seconds later you will hear it coming down on its enemy, like a wife who finds out that her husband forgot their anniversary, yes it is that lethal.

One other cool weapon that you get to play with is the AN/PEQ-2 Target pointer, which you can also use with your night vision goggles, yes you can now enter a dimly lit room and see that enemy soldier crouching in the corner just waiting for you. The entire game is done with a cinematic feel to it, with the introduction after the initial Tanker raid being more akin to a James Bond movie than a video game.

The main selling point however, and the one that will keep players coming back for more, is the multi-player aspect that the game provides. As players accumulate points from defeating each other, the game will progress your rank which requires a set amount of points to obtain. The player is also rewarded, with a larger variety of weapons, weapon extras such as laser sights, and other game modes to play in. This really is the game that just keeps on giving and giving. The more you put in to it, the more you will get out of it.

FINAL WORDS

Call of Duty 4 is a must have title in our book. Since it’s release, we here at PS3 Pad find it hard put the game down, and even after completing it multiple times, it is the multi-player that seems to take over our lives. The game play, graphics and story have all been done to perfection, and whatever game comes along next branding the name ‘Call of Duty’, will have to be pretty special to improve on an already perfect game.