FIFA '09 - Interview and Screenshots

We spent a lot of time reflecting on the community and press feedback from FIFA 08 and we managed to distill it down into 250 key additions and improvements to focus on for FIFA 09, and we’re really happy to be able to say that the vast majority of them are things we know our fans are after. The three biggest areas of gameplay improvement you’ll see are in Responsiveness, Physical Play and their affect through Attributes, plus the AI.

Responsiveness this year has improved massively –- we’ve revamped our animations and animation technology to make sure every gamer controlled action, including trapping of the ball, dribbling, running, tackling, heading, passing and shooting, are much more responsive. You’ll feel the difference immediately. Now what you want to happen on the pitch really does happen when you want it to.

Physical Play and Attibutes were top of our agenda too. For example, the team really felt that there wasn’t enough difference between small, pacey players, and large, strong players. This year you’ll need to become more familiar with the individual strengths and weaknesses of the players you have at your disposal and what they are capable of in real life. Fast players can nip in and out of tackles much faster than hulking defenders, but the little guys are much easier to muscle off the ball. Tackles are crunching – and we can discriminate between planted and trailing legs, so if you contact a player in the right spot he’ll go down or skip out of it authentically. We’ve also put in some amazing mid-air collisions and stumbles that add a fantastic sense of realism.

We have done a massive amount of work this year to try to humanize the goalkeeper. You’ll see the goalkeeper make better decisions about positioning, come away from the goal line at the right moments, getting down on shots a lot more intelligently and a lot more authentically. We have also introduced a new system this year which enables the goalkeeper to react to what is occurring on the field in real-time. So if the goalkeeper makes a dive and realizes he’s not going to save the ball he can half change his mind to try to get an arm or a leg out to try to at least deflect the ball to make the save.

Our new feature Custom Team Tactics completely changes the dynamic of all of the players on the pitch for the team that has the tactic applied. If you think about how football ‘works’ there’s an ebb and flow. One team has the upper hand, then the other. One team is pushing hard, say for an equalizer in the last few minutes, or defending deep in the last 5 minutes against that team. We’ve consciously acknowledged this in FIFA 09 with our new Custom Team Tactics system. As part of Team Management you’ll be able to edit 11 tactical sliders to change attacking and defending parameters of your team. Think of it as being the first team coach and being able to dictate how your team plays on the pitch. There are roughly 140 attacking and 40 defensive options. One example is to adjust the Defensive Mentality – in a high setting you’ll have nine players pushing into your opposition half trying to cut-out play in much the same way as in the team pushing for a goal, desperate to get the ball no matter how vulnerable that leaves you defensively. To counter this, the opposition could play a long, lofted ball over your last man and the striker will probably have 30 yards of space to run into between the last defender and the goalkeeper. The opposite example is low Defensive Mentality. Choosing this option means your defensive line is deep, leaving very little space for the attacking team to play in your half of the pitch. An attacking team is going to be met with a 10 man defense – so they’re going to need to use some pretty inspired quick passing and movement to get near goal.

FIFA 09 Clubs is a new mode that enables gamers to form or join user-controlled ‘clubs’ for Be A Pro: 10 v 10 Online Team Play. These Clubs are ranked based on total points and placed in a division. Clubs are relegated and promoted to different divisions based on their performance during the season. If a club has more points than the second best club in their division and more points than the last club in the division above, they will move up a division and send the last placed squad down a division. Club Managers can scout players based on position, rating, wins, losses and games played. Other detailed information can be reviewed such as shots on goal, passing, tackles, cards, fouls and off-sides. When a manager sees a player that fits his or her requirements, they can invite them to join their club. These are some of the new features and improvements we have made in the game this year.

PX360: FIFA 09 has some stiff competition from other soccer games this year, what are you guys doing to set FIFA apart from the pack and get it into gamers hands?

I’m a big fan of football and a big fan of football videogames. I think its very healthy for people to have the option of playing more than one football game. Competition helps us concentrate on making the very best experience we can for the people who love to play our game and our competitor’s game as well. What we have done this year is approach things differently. We have done a great job on the game in recent years which has enabled us to focus on improving the core gameplay that I’ve talked about. Our consumers wanted a more responsive, more intelligent, and more physical game that authentically represents the attributes of the players and way those players play together. People also want to customise there experience more, to map different buttons on the controller and they wanted more dynamic , emotional football. I feel we have delivered that vast majority of these improvements. In the years to come I hope we are far and away the best game on the market. If you look at the improvements and innovations we have made in the past three years and we continue in that direction.