Thoughts on FIFA 10

I just realised it has been a month since the release of FIFA 2010. And having played it a bit, here are a bunch o' random thoughts that have struck me whilst playing

• The way player shout to each other is so cool. In the actual game you can hear faint cries of “man on” and “pass it!”. So awesome, and actually kinda useful.
• My God! Cristiano Ronaldo is just so very, very awesome.
• Using Left Trigger defending is so important! Yaaaay! Something I have being doing for years in PES is now vital!
• You can turn down commentary volume, but not change commentary frequency. WHY!? I like to have Andy Gray speak occasionally, but not every other second...
• All the goals feel like goals. Very rarely do you bumble through, after the defence has parted magically, and then only score because the keeper was 10 feet to the left of the goal and still forgot to dive. This was the worst thing about old school PES, and it is so wonderful to have it fixed.
• Celebrations are not actually that much fun. I want to turn this custom crap off...
• Refs are better. They let things go; let the game flow. Sometimes far too much tho’, and people get away with preofessional fouls.
• You have to pay money in the EA Store for foreign language commentary... I am not gonna pay for it, but if it was on the disc or free I would use it every now and again for a change/laugh. Kinda lame that they charge people for it.
• They call Kuyt – Kite. Just as I was assured we should before he became a 'Pool player.
• Teams that play with a single striker suck. If you have a guy on his lonesome, it is far harder.
• When you play in rain, you get raindrops on the lens for set-pieces... and replays! Lovely!
• When you win a cup or a league, you get no trophy presentation. The commentary declares you the champion, only few players run about, and then you see a title screen saying “champions”. There is no trophy room, no reason really to collect them. In PES you would get a huge buzz from seeing the medal and trophy ceremony, and then that cup would be added to your trophy room for all to see. Here you get nothing, and that is a huge downer. Heck, even in FIFA 1996 you saw fireworks when you won. What happened to my fireworks!?