FIFA 09 Preview

When it comes to football I'm a bit of a console fanboy. Way back when FIFA arrived on PC (during the Mega Drive/SNES era) and included full audio commentary I dabbled with PC football, but since then it's been consoles or nothing. The problem has always been a control issue and, in recent years, that the PC game always felt like a step behind the 360/PS3 games. After spending 30 minutes with FIFA 09 on PC at Games Convention 2008 my way of thinking might be changing.

FIFA 09 on PC has been designed clearly with the PC in mind, which is key to this year's game. This isn't just another port of the PS2 game. Gameplay has been completely re-worked, the interface and options have been given a PC overhaul, the graphics have been improved to the extent that they more closely resemble the next-gen versions and Adidas Live Season adds a new level of realism to the way the game plays.

In the front end menu system EA has included a widget system. These tools allow you to customise your menu, as you would on a modern website. We were shown the widgets for your online profile, a news feed on your favourite club and for info on who's playing online now. These can all be moved around, removed, or added to, and presumably the community will be able to make new widgets once the game hits stores. Widgets are certainly a nice touch, but the real changes come on the pitch.

Collisions have been improved so players show their weight and strength when challenging for the ball. The angle you attack from, the height of your player and their overall strength all play a part in determining the result and visual representation of a tackle. According to EA over 350 new animations have been included in FIFA 09 and on the basis of what we saw there's no reason to question that figure. One on ones have also been improved. Attackers and defenders now have more options when in these situations, including the ability to shield the ball by pressing sprint while stood still. Strength and speed attributes play an even more important role, allowing skilful players to use their footballer's skills to move past defenders or to stop attackers in their tracks.

FIFA 09 features many of the assets and effects from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, including the detailed player models, 3D grass, realistic lighting and sweat.

New skill moves have also been added, such as the scoop turn and a flick over your head, but again these will only be pulled off successfully if you're in control of a player with the required attributes - David Wheater fans shouldn't even bother. Defenders aren't completely out of luck though, with work being done on improving the AI of your defensive line. A smart back four is key to a tight defence and more intelligent positioning should help prevent teams from cutting you open at the back.

These improvements are all well and good, but the new mouse and keyboard control scheme is what could make FIFA 09 a real winner. Although all passing and shooting still uses the game's stats to generate exactly how accurate players are, the mouse cursor is now used to give you far more control. If you want to pass into space, point the cursor into an area and press pass. If you want to pass directly to a player, point at the player and press pass. The same applies to shooting. You've also got full control over player runs by using the mouse wheel. For example, move the cursor into space, roll the mouse wheel and click pass, and you'll cause the nearest player to move into space and play a ball into his path. It opens up an entirely new way to play the game on PC.

This year's PC FIFA sports vastly improved visuals over the 08 edition. Up until now the PC version of FIFA has effectively been a high-res port of the PS2 game, but no more. FIFA 09 features many of the assets and effects from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, including the detailed player models, 3D grass, realistic lighting and sweat. We don't think it looks quite a good as FIFA 09 running on a next-gen console, but it's pretty close.

Last but by no means least is the new Adidas Live Season feature. FIFA 09 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 will feature player stat upgrades each week based on real world performances. This service will only be available for the major leagues so unless your team plays in the Barclay's Premier League, La Liga BBVA, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Serie A or Mexican Primera Division you're out of luck. A team of experts will collate data based on a week's worth of games (including internationals and European games) and then feed that back into FIFA 09. So, if Dimitar Berbatov sulks in Tottenham's reserve team for a week, his performance that week won't be great. After the weekly FIFA 09 update his overall stats will have decreased, indicated in-game by a downward pointing arrow. On the flip side, if Darren Bent excels that week due to being the main striker in Berbatov's absence, his stats in the following week will increase.

EA is positioning Adidas Live Season as a premium add-on to FIFA. In FIFA 09 players will be able to get one year's subscription for free for one league, with others costing a fee. On paper it looks to be a good addition, but it's hard seeing it appealing to anyone outside of the obsessive hardcore. Maybe a year's trial will make us think otherwise.

In all likelihood we'll probably still gravitate to the console versions of FIFA 09, mainly down to the superior multiplayer functionality and readily available controllers, but we want to give the PC version a good go, which is more than what could be said about last year's game. If the keyboard and mouse control scheme can cut it once we've been playing for a month maybe we'll have to find room in our schedules to accommodate both.