Wednesday, August 18, 2010

EA Sports' FIFA 11 Preview Q&A | David Rutter

Following last week's Gamescom event, David Rutter of the FIFA production team answered questions from Facebook users regarding the upcoming EA Sports title, FIFA 11.

The demo is due September 16th for both the Xbox Marketplace and Playstation Store. Rutter has mentioned that there will be a few surprises in the demo, and chose to not reveal the demo teams in the interview. FIFA 11 is due to be released on September 28th in North America and on October 1st in Europe/Asia.

FIFA 11 will implement many graphical and gameplay improvements, including the following:

  • Personality+ engine in which players are true to their real life characteristics. This means an aggressive defensive midfielder such as Gattuso will be a tough competitor on 50/50 balls and slide tackle with much more intent as opposed to someone who is not known for his defensive skills, such as Nani. Even referee's will have their own personality traits, which affect how leniently or strictly they referee the game.
  • Player faces have been remodeled and updated. Although Rutter didn't specifically mention which teams and players were updated, it is a safe to say that most big name clubs and players have had their facial look and personality traits modeled according to their real life characteristics in FIFA 11.
  • Users can now control the Goalkeeper, which will allow full on 11v11 online club gameplay. Goalkeepers can also be chosen as the user's individual player in Career mode. The goalkeeper's position can be controlled by using the left stick, while diving is initiated with the right stick (similar to the way the keeper has been controlled in penalty kicks). For those of you who don't feel up to the task, a simple press of the 'X' button will allow the keeper to make an assisted save. If you are playing with a friend, one of you can control the goalkeeper in the loading arena, allowing for fun 1v1 gameplay.
  • A new 360 degree gameplay system which allows players to jostle and fight for the ball in a dynamic new way.
  • Manager mode and Be a Pro mode have both been scrapped, er or um, combined in a new 'Career Mode'. Career mode allows players to choose a single player (or your virtual pro) and control him over the course of 15 seasons. Users can also decide to partake in a combined player-manager role or just a manager.
  • The penalty kick system from FIFA: World Cup 2010 will be returning for FIFA 11.
  • No new national teams will be added from FIFA 10's crop, but the Russian Premier League will be making it's debut on the 'next-gen' versions of FIFA.
  • Virtual Pro's cannot be transferred over from FIFA 10, so you will have to start from scratch. The number of VP accomplishments has been doubled to about 400. New Virtual Pro unlock items and traits have also been added. The online clubs system has been improved, allowing for better recruiting and scouting of fellow Virtual Pro's, including a 'trial' option which allows you to bring another user's Virtual Pro over to play a practice match with your club before deciding to bring him on.


A truly impressive list I must say. I will be pre-ordering my copy of FIFA 11 this week. If anyone wants to play a quick game on FIFA 10 or FIFA: WC 2010, send me a message (my gamertag is on the right hand side of the page).

1 comment:

Chris said...

FIFa games are always the same. they hardly change every year. im hoping the next one will be better. <a href="http://www.game-controller.co.uk>Xbox Controllers</a>