BigZombieMonkey is a active member of the official EA Sports forums, he got a chance to play FIFA 11 in it’s early stages and had the following to say,

Around a month a go I was one of the lucky people who was invited by EA out to Canada to play FIFA 11 in one of it’s early builds. Today as everyone is probably aware the embargo has been lifted and we are allowed to talk about FIFA 11. I figured I would take this opportunity to create a thread to talk about what I personally saw/played and what I thought of it, as well as giving you a chance to ask any question you may have that I may be able to answer for you.

Player Authenticity

That’s right, as you’re probably fully aware by now player authenticity has come to FIFA for FIFA 11. I honestly am glad this is now out in the open as the amount of times I have had to bite my lip recently as EA have been accused of not listening and creating a generic game with players who have no personality has been crazy. So I’ll take this opportunity to say “EA are listening!” and “give them some credit, they want to create a great football game, whatever you may think of them.”

Right, on to the player personality authenticity. First of all this is not some simple inclusion of players doing tricks or the odd animation for certain players, this is a recreation of certain aspects of the engine as well as new additions that makes player personality work within FIFA 11. For example a new player model has been included to recreate certain players.
One major change is that touch distance when dribbling has now been changed so that great dribblers such as Messi and Ronaldo will keep the ball closer to their feet giving them more control over the ball. This recreates the real life dribbling ability of players such as Messi who can keep the ball at their feet. In a demonstration video of this we were shown a player with very good dribbling running in a full circle and his circle was very small and tight, however when a player with not so great dribbling did the same exercise the circle was much larger due to the bigger touches on the ball.
Many people will also be glad to hear that the AI was using skill moves when we played games too. Some were out of context but as it was an early build this was still being worked on… but it’s there

So with some change on how players will attack it’s only right I mention the changes in defending. Defensive players personalities also shine through as now you can see the difference between an aggressive tackler and a careful minded defender. Player such as Ashley Cole will attempt to cover the defender and prevent him from making a pass until they can steal possession off of the player whilst players who are more aggressive like Obi-Mikel will be more likely to barge, stick in a leg or even slide through a player.
Another addition to defending is players can now read the trajectory of a pass using the new “interceptions” attribute. This means depending on how well a player can read the ball when it’s in the air they will adjust their positioning to intercept the pass.

Another huge impact on the personalities front is that you can now see the difference in the mentality of a player. What I mean by this is when watching Manchester United play you could see that when the opposition got the ball Berbatov was doing a lot less chasing of the ball and spent a lot more time walking. However Rooney was chasing the ball down and coming back further as he does in real life. It’s these work rates that really brought the players to life for me as I found it a breath of fresh air to see Rooneys aggressive and dogged attitude shining through as Berbatov played his lazy cards out for all to see lol
The work rates are visible in both attacking and defending and give a whole new life to FIFA as you feel like the players are recreated realistically.

One question I asked whilst we were talking to the development team is “Does this individuality carry over to goalkeepers?” to which the answer is “yes”. Goalkeepers are now given personalities with different styles such as acrobatic vs Traditional. So you will see more flamboyant saves from your more acrobatic goalkeeper whilst more traditional goalkeepers will be more likely to keep it simple and not throw themselves so much. Goalkeepers also have different techniques in their drop kicks with a new “flat trajectory” style kick.
Goalkeepers have also been given the ability to read the trajectory of the ball and their reaction times will be based on a reflex attribute.

Another big change is when battling for the ball a new sheilding system will be in place allowing a 360 degree fight for possession. Unfortuently this was not in the build that I played and I did not get a chance to test it. However the idea behind it is that it should allow “true freedom in man to man interactions”.

Celebrations have also had a touch of genuine splashed on them as you can now press A (or X for PS3) to do a players default celebration e.g. Crouch doing the robot

Now, the biggest change in game play and in player personalities… passing.
FIFA 11 introduces pro passing mechanics which is essentially a lot of changes that result in a more organic and realistic passing game. The biggest adjustment I had to make personally when playing the build was my passing game.
For the record I am not a ping pong passer but having said that it does not mean I cannot ping pong pass, I just prefer not to as I think it takes away from the realism and it is apparent that EA are with me (and a lot of you) on this. Again as I mentioned before, EA are listening and here is an example of it.
When playing the build we played the power bar had a new addition when passing, a small bar that was a guide of where the perfect pass could be achieved on the power bar. I am not sure if this will be in the final release of the game but the idea behind it is that hitting the white line performs the best amount of power to make a pass reach it’s intended target. Going over this bar would cause you to over hit a pass and going under it would cause an under hit pass. It was very impressive as the amount of times I tested the ping ponging and found myself under hitting a pass was quite high. Having said that this did not mean you could not put together a nice quick move but it did require more thinking and it also meant reacting quicker to an incoming pass.

This new passing system really brings to life the realism of good passers and not so good passers as a player trying to make a first time pass who does not have a great ability to pass the ball will make the pass but the ball will bobble more and at times be less accurate. The outcome of 4-5 players playing first time passes can be a ball that is bobbling or travelling too fast/slow due to multiple factors such as the players ability to pass, the angle that he attempts the pass, the amount of bobble on the ball that he is attempting to pass on etc Essentially what you see is the more one time passes you make the more likely the move is to deteriorate due to an increase in pass error. This means having a player like Fabregas in your team in the middle of the park can help keep the ball under control as his passing ability is far better along with his first touch etc

Another great addition to passing is the “swerve pass”. Quite often in football you will see players with a great passing ability adding swerve to a pass to make the ball harder to intercept. This is also in FIFA 11 as players with great passing ability can swerve a pass making it harder for a defender to intercept it. This pass can also be used as it is in real life to play a pass into the stride of it’s receiver rather than the ball having to do through the back of his run. When watching this pass take place it looked very organic and impressive and really added variety to passing, a great little addition.

Gameplay

My personal opinion of the game play is that if FIFA 10 was checkers, FIFA 11 is chess. I know this might sound odd but FIFA 11 feels like a game where the player has to think faster and be a lot more aware of the movement of his players.
I found that in FIFA 10 I quite often went into an almost “robotic-like trance” when finding myself under pressure. I knew where to play the ball instantly and when passing I didn’t have to think too hard. However FIFA 11 feels like a big leap in the right direction as I was thinking about every pass I made and more often than not before I even received one pass I was thinking of the next. This is mainly due to the changes in passing which felt a lot more realistic.

I think the game play is better if you ask questions and I answer them as it’s a lot to cover and I feel like I’ll overlook a lot of things people may want to know, so feel free to ask questions.

The new feature: Customising Audio

As you’re probably aware by now FIFA 11 brings the new addition of customising audio. This allows you to edit team specific audio and edit VP and Online pro club music.

So for all of your fellow Bristolians I’m sure Bristol City will hear chants of “One for the Bristol City” or “If you hate the GAS stand up”, for fans of others clubs you’ll be hearing your favourite chants and for you slightly crazy people like Mr Cooley you’ll e hearing some chants of “Glen Glen Glen”

The great thing about this is that you can have music playing as your team comes down the tunnel, realistic chants etc and hopefully these will be appearing on Sweetpatch TV – Bringing together the FIFA Gamers of the World

Saving videos

A quick note, we also witnessed first hand the addition of saving replys to the hard drive. So I hope all of you with a small hard drive will be investing in a new one soon as it’s coming soon

I feel like I could write a whole lot more but then I’m sure people will probably have questions about things I have forgotten to mention or haven’t gone into.