Customer Reviews

FIFA Soccer 09

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been playing this game pretty steadily for the last 6 months or so. Here's a quick summary of what I'm going to say at greater length below:

Overall: 4/5

Fun: 4/5
Difficulty: 3/5
Learning Curve: 4.5/5
Computer intelligence: 2.5/5
Physics: 4/5
Appearance: 4/5
Manager mode: 4/5
Extras: 3/5


Now by topic -

Fun (4/5): The gameplay has kept its charm for me after about half a year, even though I'm winning 95% of the matches I play at this point. The game has a flow that gets passably close to the flow of a real soccer match, which will make it engaging for players and fans of the sport. Getting to control a whole team as they try to win possession, keep it or break down another side is a fantasy experience only available to video and computer gamers, so realism in the flow of the match is a make or break quality for these sorts of games.

Difficulty (3/5): Once you've mastered the game controls and figured out the most effective means of scoring, the game becomes pretty easy, even on the unlockable, 6th difficulty level. That said, it's important to note that there's a high learning curve.

Learning Curve (4/5): It took me about a month and a half to get good enough to beat the computer comfortably, consistently and on the highest difficulty level. My last PS2 soccer game was Winning Eleven 8 (2004), and the controls are much more involved in FIFA 09. Probably the most difficult and most important controls to master involve through-balls, which can be played on the air and on the ground and are extremely sensitive to your control of them via the analog directional stick. This means that, as you begin to try to play through-balls, they'll go all over the place. But it also means that once you build up some competence with the analog stick, you'll be able to play much more precise passes than you otherwise would have. Another difficulty to overcome is learning how to score. As with all of the previous (and much older) FIFA games I've played, there are some magical spots in and around the penalty area from which you can score with much more frequency than from other spots that might look like better candidates. It took me about a month to figure out where and how to score - notably, you can take 3 kinds of shots in FIFA 09: driven, controlled (inside of the foot, curled) and chip. Learning when and how to use which one is key.

Computer Intelligence (2.5/5): This is the game's real weak spot - the thing that makes me most likely to yell four-letter words at the screen. In general, teammates you don't control are morons. Attacking players on your team are woefully ignorant of the offside rule - if one of the last defenders abandons an attacker to double-team the man with the ball, the attacker inevitably runs offside as fast as he can, giving the defense an unrealistic advantage. On breakaways, supporting attackers will sprint ahead of the dribbler, leaving them offside if you try, for instance, to pass around the keeper for a one-time shot. There are 11 in-game tactical options a player can turn on. This is a great idea but doesn't work out well in execution (even though I still use them every game). If your opponent is killing time playing possession, for instance, you can tell your team to press them while on defense - sounds great, but your players are slow to react to passes and generally don't press the other team's defenders, which leaves the player more or less helpless in the face of this sort of strategy. Switching between players on defense is a problem - you can control it manually with the right analog stick but it's pretty clumsy even then. Defenders also tend to run into one another fairly often, disabling both of them and allowing attacking opponents to dribble freely through them. Very annoying.

Physics (4/5): The physics is decent for a PS2 game. Players muscle one another off the ball, smaller ones are punished more in collisions and the players' balance on and off the ball is relatively realistic. Shots aren't nearly as hard as they should be - if a defender is hit in the head with a driven shot, say, from the top of the box, he has no problem directing it more or less where he wants it to go.

Appearance (4/5): Again, for a PS2 game, it looks pretty good. Much better than Winning Eleven 8, for instance. Full array of real teams and players, nice looking stadiums and pitches, pretty good animations for in-game moves.

Manager Mode (4/5): This has some fun features but is a bit less wieldy and a bit easier than it need be. It's impossible, for instance, to sim more than one game at once, and if you sign free agents and immediately sell them, you can make Barnsley's budget look like Manchester United's very quickly. There are some nice features in this mode, though, like scouting, stadium improvements, medical staff, etc. This mode has kept me entertained and has high replay value.

Extras (3/5): The most important unlockable extra is the 6th and highest difficulty level - this takes shockingly long to unlock - I unlocked it after about 4 months of steady play. And it's not too much harder, but enough so to make a difference to someone who, for instance, is more or less unbeatable because he's spent 4 months unlocking it. Other than this, there are pretty standard extras - 3rd kits, different balls, stadiums...you get the picture.

I'm pretty happy with this game overall. Glad I bought it. But playing it on a nicer system seems like it would make a huge difference.

For the soccer lover this version of fifa 2009 you gonna loveit, amazing movements, incredible graphics, more options, good soundtrack. Its my favorite fifa game

I bought this for my boyfriend who had fifa '06, and so this was a much improved version from then. The graphics are so fantastic, you have to see it to believe it! We also had a lot of fun making our counterpart graphic players. Highly recommend it to soccer fans and girlfriends who even dont like sports, a lot of fun is had!

what i dont (or didn't) like about EA's Fifa is player's stiffness and all-round laws of physics of the game, thats why i never bought the game since - well i can't remember but i guess since first winning eleven games were out. used to be no matter how a player body is positioned or wherever he looks the ball can be passed around just as accurate or as quick as if the player passes the ball forward. this has changed. added to the game is the super excellent graphics. arguably FiFa 09 is better than konami's winning eleven/pro evolusion 09.

I have played this game since Fifa06 and it keeps getting better each year. The game play is great and the stadiums are realistic. I only wish they would have Champions League tournament.

It's a videogame that any gamer lover of sports games and the soccer, i'll play. Nice graphics and easy to play

I bought this game for my son who had been asking for a soccer video game for some time. The price was right and the delivery great (good packaging and timing). The game was in great condition when it arrived as was the OEM Playstation packaging. As far as the game itself, well this is my first and only purchase at this point of a FIFA Soccer game and I am very pleased. The amount of buttons to push on the PS2 controller are minimal so even a 4 to 5 year old can play. It's challenging enough though that my 10 year old is addicted. I, not being a big gamer, have also found myself loving the game with the moves etc illustrated on the game. Long story short, if you're looking for a budget friendly FIFA Soccer game for the PS2, this is a good bet.

...You stop seeing them for a while, then you see them again and they look great and you wonder why you ever stopped seeing them. Then you see them again for a week and you remember ALL of the things you hated.

As far as soccer games go, this one is pretty good. The scoring is kept to a reasonable low, goal scoring is usually consistent with a true soccer game (meaning you know what a good shot is without playing the game for weeks), and the default game lenth is excellent. The controls are simple enough to turn on the game and go.

That being said, this suffers from many of the problems I have always experienced in all soccer games:

-The computer always has an advantage because there are 11 people on a team actively moving to improve their teams position. The same can be said of American Style Football, but the break in play, the fact that lineman cannot catch passes, etc, makes the game so that a human has an idea what is going on with each and every player. When the computer switches you on defense, you are often runnign the wrong way, because you were below the ball and you get swtiched to a player above the ball. One step in the wrong direction is all it takes to get beat in soccer, and in this game.

-Offsides - I love offsides and I know why the rule exists, but my teammates are continually going offside - and they stay there! It's not like they made a run and I poorly timed my pass. I usually have to either bring the ball up the field with a striker or, if I am using a midfielder, take the ball almost to the end line to make a pass into the box - by this time the defense has caught up and the passing lane is blocked.

-Computer cheats - The computer cannot play smarter, so at higher skill levels, it cheats. At the semi-pro level, my guys routinely get taken down from behind by a defended two steps behind, and there isn't even a free kick given. Some games my striker can outrun the defense, others he can't -- and the guys are the same speed! It is as if the computer predetermines that you are going to have a good game, or a bad game, even before you kick off!

-Dumb moves - The game clearly needs an anti dumb move intelligence added. One example - on a corner, I go up for the header - press 0 to head - the ball goes over his head to be eventually touched by another attacker in the corner, who immediately shoots the ball out of bounds (also controlled by the 0 button). Another time I was trying to pass the ball out of the goalie box and my guy kicked it into the goal! There was no teamate even near the goal.

Most of these problems probably would not matter too much in a 2 player environment, but this is something I play as a destresser after the kids go to bed, and it doesn't destress. Buy another football, baseball, or shoot 'em up game. Skip soccer - it just can't be done well in a computer game.

I love this game! It has alot to challenge the novice to advanced gamer...I love the tournaments, leagues from all over the world, and the international selections. I just wish they could have put the Paraguayan futbol league on the game!

Let me begin by saying I haven't played a soccer game made by EA since around 2004, when I first played games from the Winning Eleven series (also known as Pro Evolution Soccer). After I read reviews for the latest offerings from Konami and EA, I opted to purchase Fifa Soccer 09.
The good:
- Graphics and animations
- Official teams, kits, stadia
- Wealth of game modes and in-game moves = good replay value

The not-so-good:
- Overall physics
- Lack of European Cup tournaments (Champions League, UEFA Cup, etc)

I think that this game is good, but I expected to be more 'wowed' by it. I have just as much (or more) fun playing my Pro Evolution Soccer 2007, and that game is more than 3 years old! The realism of the ball physics and animations in PES2007, in my opinion, is just as good as Fifa 09. Fifa 09 is just a more polished game.