2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa isn't exactly much in the way of being a "new" title as much as it is an expansion of sorts of
FIFA 10. It appears to use the same engine and basic gameplay mechanics of this "main" soccer title from EA Sports. In fact, when you jump into a Career mode for the first time, you'll not only be able to create a new player or use a current pro, but you'll also have the option of importing your created player from
FIFA 10 (although his stats will be reset for
South Africa). In addition, upon dropping the disc into your Xbox, fans of the FIFA titles will immediately see a screen where
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa auto-sets the difficulty level based on the number of achievements unlocked in
FIFA 10.
What does this mean? Simply put, many of the core features of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa are a rehash of its predecessor. However, soccer fans will likely still eat this one up for the World Cup aspect of the game. As its title suggests, the game focuses on the World Cup and, in fact, offers up a full online version of the World Cup for its inaugural experience. The unfortunate side of this is that there are only a handful of stadiums to play in (although with nearly 200 teams to choose from, variety really isn't lacking).
As mentioned, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa's main draw is the online World Cup play where your team can literally take on the world. The game also features standard online play through Xbox Live and offline game modes that offer up a decent gameplay experience. Offline, you'll be able to also play through and try to overcome quite a few scenarios that will keep you busy for a fair amount of time in the Story of Qualifying mode. However, my favorite mode comes in the form of the Captain Your Country feature. Here, you'll control a single player (either created, current, or imported) in an effort to become the number one go-to guy on your team.
The Captain Your Country mode tends to be more playable for those of us who stink at fútbol videogames because you can focus on making your player fire better passes and shots, as well as play better defense instead of auto-switching as you would in all of the other game modes. You'll get constant feedback throughout the game as your performance indicator goes up and down with good and bad play, respectively. The only thing that I found a bit annoying in this mode was that none of the camera options seemed to be ideal, mostly due to the camera following your player, whose best position on the field may not be near the ball, keeping the action off-screen. However, when you do have the ball or are near the action, I've found that the Broadcast Cam actually worked great and allowed me to see the most field (when combined with the zoom out option).
Despite being a somewhat stripped down version of FIFA 10, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa does offer up another new feature that can help novice players get into the action. The game boasts a new 2-button controller option, in which most of the action is delivered through the (A) and (B) buttons. From a gameplay standpoint, newbies will certainly find the actions easier, but the overall play felt a bit too loose for my taste, especially when it comes to attempting precision passes that just didn't reach their mark. Still, I do applaud EA Canada for trying to make the controls easier for those who want it.
