[Munkey Boy]

Another year, another FIFA! Is this the best yet? Shallow or over-complex? Online any good? How do the new features feel to you? Please vote in the poll when you've played enough to judge the game, and leave comments in this thread.

[Yubious]

Packed full of features, but not sure thats enough to keep you playing for months. The game on many occassions seems scripted, too easy to score one on ones, too hard to score pretty much any other way!
Some big bugs that will put many off, but i'm still enjoying the game.
7/10

[steviebwoy]

8/10 for me, but if you'd asked me yesterday it would've been a 5.

Some days I love it, some days I hate it. It's not perfect by any means, but it's the closest we've had in a long time..

[Thekop]

I'm playing this game quite a lot because I think it's just fantastic .. The subtle improvements over Fifa 08 has made it the near perfect footy sim for me .. 9/10 ....

[aardel]

I rate this game as 9/10 and thats after being a konami fan since ISS 98 on the N64, i've owned every one upto PES2008 and this is the first Fifa i've purchased and not returned within a week.

It's just a much more complete game than PES is nowadays. Anybody who believes PES has moved on since PES 06 is just fooling themselves, where as Fifa has improved now to the point it has overtaken PES.

[ScarySquirrel]

9/10.

For me FIFA has improved SO much in the last few years, so much so I will not be buying PES this year which is a first for me.

I love almost everything about it, a few niggles but nothing that ruins the game for me. I LOVE IT!

[1LeeDenton]

It's a solid 8/10 for me. No, it isn't perfect. Yes, there are things that could be better. But as far as playing a fairly realistic football game/sim, with real kits, real player names, some real stadiums, with playable online options, then this has to be the footy game of choice.

[featherhall]

A solid 9/10 from me. This is without a doubt the best football game released thus far on the current generation. Excellent gameplay, graphics, commentary, all the licenses, and a TON of game modes.
I couldn't be happier

[rio1981]

"Excellent"

For me it's the best football game on this generation of consoles so far; so it'll be quite a challenge to follow this up...

It's not going to come naturally to a lot of people and requires some work, to both establish the right difficulty level, assistance level and the "right" way to play. Some people don't or won't invest this time, for these people I think PES will be perfect as it's always been a case of "pick up and play".

Physics on this game are great, the variety of goals I've seen are superb (deflected goals, scrappy ones, some lovely passing moves, a couple of belting volleys, etc) and there is more depth there than most football games (verging on too much depth, perhaps?)

Haven't played a huge amount online so far but responsiveness seems good and games are miles better than my last online football experience, which was PES2008.

I think FIFA09 is a big achievement, I'll only be buying one football game this year and for the first time in years it's not PES.

[sdb123]

Still a very frustrating game IMHO....much improved gameplay from previous versions though.

[hotchilidamo]

This is an excellent game. I thought 08 was way ahead of PES last year, but this year its left it eating dust.

I love playing as a Pro, i think this has fantastic opportunities for future development. The manager mode is ok but its nice to have the option, and the league modes are great.

My main niggle is that the difficulty rating is a bit awkward when you are winning a lot on one level but the next level up seems to be too big a leap. Still much better than previous effors though

Overall the game offers a very complete football experience which will have me returning time and again

[WillieCocker]

9/10 for me.

Would have given it 10/10 if it hadn't been for the messers who like to ruin the game.
And on that point , i've noticed 2 of them have voted here already.

[Meadsy4742]

I'll start by saying I am an avid FIFA fan, if I play ANY football game, it has to be FIFA.

Football games have trouble 'getting things right' in my opinion, the smallest thing thats wrong stands out like a sore thumb. As with all FIFAs, 09 has some niggles. Some new niggles and some carried on from 08.

I'll start with difficulty levels, they are TOO obvious, I play at professional level, and I know before I start a match, I will slaughter the opposition in the first half and then the tables turn the next half, why didn't EA mix things up, at the moment, its seems like the matches are pre-determined, if the opposition are set to score a goal, they score. To try this out I hogged the ball for a 4 minute game. Passed back to the keeper, went to kick it out and the oppositions striker somehow got hold of the ball and scored from at least 40 yards.

Secondly, say for example I am running with the ball in CDM, hit LB to set my FWD on a run, LB and Y to get a lob through ball on the go, the ball will land perfectly in front of my FWD, yet he slows right down, dosen't touch the ball and makes himself prone to being easily tackled, at least knock the ball on a little.

Thirdly, and I'm not sure where the hell this came from, I was playing an exhibition match, came straight from defence on the attack, the same player had the ball the entire length of the pitch, took the shot, the keeper saved and it went out for a throwing, as the ball went out for a throwing, one of my midfielders that didn't have a touch on the ball whatsoever got a yellow card. I had a look at the replay, he didn't touch the ball, didn't come anywhere near any players. It was just a plain yellow card out of the blue.

Those are my 3 main gameplay issues, other little niggles that don't affect the gameplay is things like the Adidas Live jobby, I hated GH and Rockband for their money grabbing ideas, looks like FIFA has gone the same way. They need to changed the theme of the whole game, it feels way too much like FIFA 08, and I got bored of that quick. Creation mode seems to have been vamped more, I do like the way personal names have been inserted for the commentary team to actually give your created player a name, yet some of the names are silly, my last name (Meadows) is quite a common last name, yet, and this isn't a racial thing, there are alot of foreign names on there, just makes me wonder how they decided what was common and what wasn't, names like 'Miller' are straight forward, but stuff like 'Naiygushi'...C'mon! Finally, the commentary team are the same, boring and drone. Euro 2008 commentary was different, with Clive Tyldsley you actually feel as though hes really commentating on your game, when you nearly score, you can tell the enthuasiam in his voice that it was really close.

These are all very small points, I've rated the game as Excellent, which it is, its also very addictive. Well worth the buy any day.

[kopchoir]

voted above average although it looks really good it plays something cronic imho

[steviebwoy]

Originally Posted by Meadsy4742

Creation mode seems to have been vamped more, I do like the way personal names have been inserted for the commentary team to actually give your created player a name, yet some of the names are silly, my last name (Meadows) is quite a common last name, yet, and this isn't a racial thing, there are alot of foreign names on there, just makes me wonder how they decided what was common and what wasn't, names like 'Miller' are straight forward, but stuff like 'Naiygushi'...C'mon! Finally, the commentary team are the same, boring and drone.

Er.. mate.. the names listed in the commentary section in the creation mode are all the names that are already in the game - ie. players that are real, and have been set up for inclusion in the audio samples - this just gives you access to them, and allows you to assign them to a custom player. There isn't a player called Meadows in the preset commentary names (as he likely doesn't exist in the real world), therefore he isn't available as an option. Have a look, you'll find Lampard, Gerrard, Scholes, and Ferdinand all there, that should be a clue

For info, Pro Evo is exactly the same..

[durera]

This is undoubtedly the best footy game ever made. Some people may not like it because it's not what they are used to, it certainly took me a while to realise I had to stop playing the way I was used to after a decade playing Konami's offering. Looking at it objectively the game betters anything done previously on any platform, on every measurable scale.

It's still far from perfect, but the series is going the right way to getting there.

I only hope that next years version can improve further on FIFA 09 as it did over FIFA 08. The FIFA Clubs system is a masterstroke, finally bringing the experience of playing football in real life to a console (Libero Grande is the only game I can recall even attempting this previously, and it failed miserably). I can't wait to see what they have instore for us next year.

If you love football and don't play this game you're missing out on something special.

[kopchoir]

Originally Posted by durera

This is undoubtedly the best footy game ever made. Some people may not like it because it's not what they are used to, it certainly took me a while to realise I had to stop playing the way I was used to after a decade playing Konami's offering. Looking at it objectively the game betters anything done previously on any platform, on every measurable scale.

It's still far from perfect, but the series is going the right way to getting there.

I only hope that next years version can improve further on FIFA 09 as it did over FIFA 08. The FIFA Clubs system is a masterstroke, finally bringing the experience of playing football in real life to a console (Libero Grande is the only game I can recall even attempting this previously, and it failed miserably). I can't wait to see what they have instore for us next year.

If you love football and don't play this game you're missing out on something special.

each to their own david each to their own im please your enjoying it though mate

[Jay]

Originally Posted by kopchoir

each to their own david each to their own im please your enjoying it though mate

You big puff

[shuzzbutt]

I ended up getting rid of both pes and fifa- fifa was good as it looks and plays is missing one thing in my opinion- FUN!

I just didn't get the buzz I got from scoring on pes including pes2009

Pes really annoyed me though as it's still broken online- I got this weird rf-like interference appearing on the screen whenver i played online which really annoyed me considering the slating konami have had

In the end, I will stick to pes6 as its pretty much perfect online and its still easy to get a game

[Dr Force]

Originally Posted by shuzzbutt

I ended up getting rid of both pes and fifa- fifa was good as it looks and plays is missing one thing in my opinion- FUN!

I just didn't get the buzz I got from scoring on pes including pes2009

Pes really annoyed me though as it's still broken online- I got this weird rf-like interferencew appearing on the screen whenver i played online which really annoyed me considering the slating konami have had

In the end, I will stick to pes6 as its pretty much perfect online and its still easy tp get a game

I agree.

Getting rid of FIFA this friday after realising its just so funless.

Pes is also just miles behind in terms of everything.............I seriously think we have hit dark times when it comes to Footy games on this gen of consoles.

[SavageDonkey]

7/10

While I'll always play PES over Fifa (not an online player) I must admit enjoying this years FIFA. I think the Be A Pro in Euro 2008 was good and in FIFA 09 it is excellent. Spent many hours building my rep and improving my skills.

I haven't played the PES take on Be a Pro as I don't see how this could work the same with the different engines!

[skink]

Tried to like Fifa but as others have said it's just no fun.

Online is terrible with the majority of the game spent slugging it out in the middle of the park in the vague hope that you might get one shot on goal.

I'll stick with the new Pro Evo, which although isn't perfect by any means, is a lot more fun to play than Fifa (especially when you have mates round, online can be a bit dodgy still).

An interesting thing to try is have an online game of Fifa, then straight afterwards have a online game of Pro Evo.

All the built up frustration from slogging away on fifa is blown away as you run straight through the middle on Pro Evo and have a shot from 30 yards go in

Once I did this I sold fifa straight away. Any game that isn't fun isn't worth wasting my time on.

[silvercue]

Best footy game out there imo.

Played Pes since ISS and it has just nosedived since pes6. FIFA gets better and better every game as they listen to the players and try to improve.

Many of the things pes players say they don't like are actually in the game if they take the time to look.

[Ratinho]

Originally Posted by skink

All the built up frustration from slogging away on fifa is blown away as you run straight through the middle on Pro Evo and have a shot from 30 yards go in

Awesome.

[UselessLuke]

Originally Posted by skink

All the built up frustration from slogging away on fifa is blown away as you run straight through the middle on Pro Evo and have a shot from 30 yards go in

Where's the challenge then if it's that easy? FIFA has kept my interest unlike any of the past PES games (which I loved) because it is challenging and there are so many different tactics you can use and different ways to score, all of which require a decent amount of skill.

[zinger5]

Definitely the best football game on the 360 so far for me - I couldn't get into PES this year for some reason.

[y2w2003]

Originally Posted by UselessLuke

Where's the challenge then if it's that easy? FIFA has kept my interest unlike any of the past PES games (which I loved) because it is challenging and there are so many different tactics you can use and different ways to score, all of which require a decent amount of skill.

Completely agree mate, it's one of the most annoying aspects of PES 2009 for me.

[skink]

Originally Posted by UselessLuke

Where's the challenge then if it's that easy? FIFA has kept my interest unlike any of the past PES games (which I loved) because it is challenging and there are so many different tactics you can use and different ways to score, all of which require a decent amount of skill.

I like my footy games simple and fun, and this is neither. The multiplayer is more frustrating than enjoyable whereas pro evo just seems a lot more fun even with it's faults.

I don't want to have to learn 45 button combinations just to put in a cross