2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Developer: EA Sports Publisher: EA Sports Rating: 3 Buy it now:

Get set to take your team to the World Cup Finals with the new 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. Like previous FIFA games, you can leap straight in and play a friendly, choosing the teams and the players; but most gamers will want to plump straight for the tournament mode, where you can select one team, or go multiplayer, and compete through the qualifiers in the hope of reaching the knock out stages.

The menu screens are easy to navigate, and the controls are refreshingly simple. There’s subtlety to be had in controlling player movement, but unlike other football games, it’s still possible to effectively defend and, more importantly, score goals, using only a few simple touches, which helps to get into the game straight away. As you’d expect, the likenesses of the players and managers is very accurate, helping to increase the realism. The stadiums too look great, with nice touches of confetti on the grass, awkward shadows cast when playing in bright sunlight, and slower, sluggish grey pitches when it’s pouring down. You’re given the option of choosing the playing conditions (in fact you can choose all the details, from difficulty level to duration of game), but the automatic variety makes for a more interesting tournament, as you have to play ten games before you even qualify.

As on previous FIFA releases, Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend provide the commentary, which proves to be more varied and accurate than ever before. There are still a few glitches, such as when any old speculative effort on goal in which the keeper patiently gathers up the ball is greeted overenthusiastically by Clive, as if it’s a Herculean save. Andy Townsend’s empathetic comments about losing his head and doing something impetuous then getting booked will keep you company whilst you work out the subtleties of tackling. Sometimes pressing Y seems singularly ineffective, but if you go in for a sliding tackle you risk a straight red card. Awkwardly, X also changes player, but you can sometimes find your player lunging in for the sliding challenge miles from the ball, instead of transferring the current player.

Another minor gripe is the capriciousness of the refereeing. Iran was awarded a penalty against me for absolutely nothing. It’s true that this accurately reflects refereeing standards, but sadly don’t expect the same favours in return. Iran was also conspicuously hard to beat, yet Italy was a pushover. It seems that all your opponents can have on and off days. The post match news report of my draw against Iran ran with the headline “shock 2-2 defeat”, which was bemusing.

2010 FIFA World Cup is undeniably a lot of fun and very engaging. That you can repeat the tournament or start a new one gives the game playability, and there’s as much variety as a football tournament can possibly offer. You can view goals from any angle you like and for as long as you like, which is especially good when you score a peach (which I’m glad to see it’s now easier to do from outside the box), and the pace of the game is good too; only held up tediously on throw-ins, which insist on cutting to a crowd reaction shot, where continuing the game play would be preferable. With multi-player and online options, this release should leave football gamers more than satisfied, and help sate the long wait until hostilities begin in South Africa in a few months.