Difficulty:

Very Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

Well, I bought FIFA 08 and FIFA South Africa and they were amazing, stunning, addicting. So when I saw the constant stream of 9, 9.5, 8.5 review scores I immediately went to pick up this cash cow of a game. I plugged it in and immediately started up manager mode with Arsenal. After 4 seasons and an in depth analysis of this game I have come to a conclusion: the developers of this game spent the whole year doing nothing, and the week before the release date they came up with some BS about personality plus, and used it as an excuse to make everything sluggish and slow. All of the players feel like lumbering giants, except for the AI controlled opponent who is nimble and can tackle perfectly from any position. In fact the Ref is so biased that one time the foul count 19:0 in AI favor. Mind you I never even slide tackle. Now the passing if horrid, and sluggish, just like the players. The players run out of stamina and energy yet they are running slower than an 8 year old with a weight tide to his shoe. Yet the AI is ridiculously quick, for example, Rio Ferdinand (a good defender but not the quickest by any means) can out run Theo Walcott to every loose ball, yet Theo Walcott is probably one of the quickest soccer players in the world. And it is nearly impossible to actually juke the opposition because they have a superhuman intelligence knowing exactly where you will go. On topic of juking, the AI seems to be able to go around you half-witted defense every time, it seems like (and this not only pertains to defense but the whole team) if the ball is more than a foot away from your player who are not actively in control of, they can't be bothered to get it. Even goalkeepers seem to be nailed to there line on crosses and well let the ball sail next to their head and let the opposing player fire it in. Another problem, your AI players seem to all be lazy because none of them can be bothered to go to a position where they can make a run. It is nearly impossible to sell players, and buying them takes too long. Players who your assistant manager seems to think have high potential (for example Jack WIlshere one of the greatest young soccer players of our time) stays stagnant except for constant messages saying he will make progress in great strides, yet soon his overall player rating plummets. Everything is riddled with problems and online play is buggy, slow, players quit, players only play as 5 star teams, and it just isn't fun. What saves this game from being a 1? Well if you invite a friend over play against each other it really is good fun, because both of you have dumb AI therefore it is the only instance of skill vs skill. Oh, and EA's personality plus crap doesn't affect anyone ore anything, and their holy goalkeeper mode is extremely boring.

This game is a disappointment, and not only that but EA admitted they never even play tested it!!!!!!! I'm done with FIFA11 it is garbage.