2010 FIFA World Cup Review

If you win the World Cup, you're treated to an elaborate, lengthy celebration scene.

The Battle of the Nations mode, which lets you represent your country against players from other countries, feeds into World Cup Online. You score points for your selected country for doing well, points that feed into a global total, which sorts countries into an online leaderboard. What's to stop everyone picking Argentina or Spain, you might have asked? Good question. You won't get many points for winning with the best teams, so you're encouraged to play with the weaker teams. Wales here we come.

Then there's Coke Zero Story of Qualifying, a mode that's got Coke branding sprayed all over it, but only exists because of the extra revenue the sponsorship provided. The idea is that you replay games from qualifying packaged as short challenges and attempt to change history (well, virtually). Take the great football robbery that was Ireland's defeat to France, for example. The challenge begins just after France's cheat equaliser. It's up to you, then, to win the game, sending Ireland to the World Cup at Thierry Henry's expense. It's great, and surprisingly affecting; Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend's challenge-specific commentary is brilliant, and the teams are right relative to the players who were on the pitch at the time.

Lonesome players will find much to sink their teeth into here; some of the challenges are proper hard (probably why the real life games they're based on ended up the way they did). But when you're done with them, there's more.

During the World Cup, EA Canada will package games and make them available as similar challenges for free. So, if England - god forbid - lose 1-0 to the USA, the following day you'll be able to make yourself feel ever so slightly better by downloading the challenge and scoring an equaliser. With a Peter Crouch header, no doubt. Shudder.

So, is World Cup worth a punt if you own FIFA 10? The answer is, yes, but it's a victory on penalties. EA Canada's done just enough with its new game modes and carnival atmosphere to capture the imagination of - probably foolish - football fans. No matter what EA says, the lack of club teams is an issue, as is the lack of a manager mode. But elsewhere, World Cup is as good, if not better, than FIFA 10.

Could this year be the year? Maybe. If Rooney's fit.

There's something about World Cup's appeal, though, that works on psychological levels. We all feel compelled to play it not because of a game mode we can play, or improved graphics we can see, but because there's something very special about the World Cup, and playing the official World Cup game taps into it. This summer's going to be great, hopefully. The nation expects, and all eyes will be on South Africa. There's a buzz even now, over a month away from the opening match. More than the Olympics, more than the FA Cup Final, more than any sporting event in the world, the World Cup, with England in it, transforms June into a month long bank holiday, and football fans into wide-eyed puppies who hope - however irrationally - that this year will be the one. FIFA World Cup taps into the hype with a planet-cracking drill, drawing from it geysers of excitement we just can't ignore.

Picture this: you're hosting a get-together to watch England play what will undoubtedly be a heart-breaking penalty shootout quarter final defeat to Portugal. At half time you can't bring yourself to listen to Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson's depressing analysis of our terrible defending, so you pop World Cup on and play a game against a mate instead. Your mate may be rubbish, but the new two-button context-sensitive control scheme levels the playing field. By the time it's over, the second half is just about to begin, and the agony can resume. Wicked stuff.

If you don't own FIFA 10, and are looking for a football video game to help fuel your World Cup fever, then you should absolutely buy this game. If you own FIFA 10, and are considering buying World Cup, then you need to work out just how big a football fan you are, and whether you can see yourself sneaking in a quick game during half time, or hosting a tournament when you get home from the pub after a boozy night spent celebrating/drowning your sorrows with your mates. If World Cup sounds like it should have been downloadable content to you, then it's probably not for you. If, while reading this review, you felt your hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and you dared to believe that this year may be the year, then make like Nike and do it.