Its been over 15 years since EA Sports started making football games, in which time they’ve taken as many steps backwards as they have forwards – FIFA 10 is definitely a step forwards.

The game is quicker, more fluid, more balanced, more real. Finding yourself looking for a certain animation or wishing you could repeat that move from a few games a go is not uncommon – but thats real, isn’t it?

In the right situations you now get quick freekicks, with a player placing is hand on the ball to get the play going again as quickly as possible, the animation is lovely, and I can almost hear EA trying to decide whether I want a quick free-kick here or not. If your anything like me, you’ll probably miss place these freekicks all to often at the start, trying desperately to take advantage of the fact that we’ve not gone to the black ‘reset formations’ screen.

But why are we not able to do this in more situations though? Throw-ins for a start, how real is it when in the 10th minute of a 0-0 game someones misplaced ball flys from the halfway line back towards the corner flag and out for a throw-in, only for that black ‘reset formations’ screen to appear and change what should be a simple throw to your keeper into being a great chance for the opposition to steal the ball.

I would love to see animations for all set pieces, flowing from the ref blowing the whistle to the wall being pushed back cause they’re not quite on 10 yards. It wouldn’t impact on time, you’ll be lining your shot up whilst its all going on.

Cheating and wrong decisions don’t make an appearance – should every offside decision be spot on? or dare I say it, my opponent have the option to win a penalty with some rolling around on the floor? Yes they can ruin matches, but they are real.

At the end of a game on FIFA 10 your filled with the same emotions you would had you have been playing for real or watching your team on TV. The problem is that some of the feelings different events to thank than they perhaps should. The frustration you should have at a referees assistant for not calling an ‘obvious’ offside instead comes from your keeper standing in no mans land and inviting an easy lob. The anger that your opponent won a penalty through unsportsman like acting is replaced by the fact that you wanted to press the clearance button but instead got a slide tackle.

The gaps in the realism will become more evident the more EA Sports refine FIFA and remove the niggly bits of gameplay that have been around for years. But without a doubt though, FIFA 10 is the closest we’ve got to a real Football game.

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