Game:

Not since the first Guitar Hero has there been a game that so effectively replicated the experience of being something that you are not. Where Guitar Hero made you feel like a stadium filling rock god, Kinect Sports can, at the best of times, make you feel like an Olympic level athlete, and at the worst of times make you feel like you’ve come last place at the Special Olympics.

From the start of the game your avatar finds themselves standing in the centre of a stadium filled to the brim with spectators. Raising your hands above your head can instigate an impromptu Mexican Wave, as well as fill the arena with the cheers of your fans. Waving your hands along the sky line can set of fireworks and rile the crowd up even more, making you feel like a mega star.

Upon confirming your avatar selection, which includes all of the avatars that are on your console as well as a number of generic guest avatars, you are then able to start playing. Before each game starts Kinect Sports asks each player to raise their hands in to the air to confirm that they are the players that need to be tracked by the camera. It is a simple system that cuts out a lot of needless profile switching and character selections that so many other games suffer from.

Once you are all set up there are several sports to choose from:
As an Englishman the first sport that I decided to check out was football (soccer to Americans). In real life I do not care for the beautiful game in the slightest, and haven’t played a Fifa game since Fifa 95 on the Mega Drive, yet I found Kinect Sport’s representation of football utterly compelling. Rather than having to run on the sport to dribble the ball, Kinect Sport’s football focuses more on passing the ball, and shooting for the goal. When you gain possession of the ball arrows will appear on screen directing you where members of your team are that are not being covered by members of the opposite team.

Football is my favourite sport in the game, despite detesting the real life sport

With a simple kick you can pass the ball up field to your team mate until one player gets close enough to the goal to take a shot at it. Should the opposing team take possession of the ball the game requires you to shift left and right with the aim of blocking their shots and regaining control of the ball. On the default difficulty the opponents are beyond inept, but this goes a long way towards creating the feeling that you are awesome at football. Choosing the higher difficulties may bring you crashing down to reality, as even on the second highest difficulty the opposite team develop cat like reflexes.

When the opposite team gets close enough to the goal you take control of the goalie – a small target will appear on screen indicating where their shot is heading, and you are given a small space of time to block the shot, or concede a goal. Football can be played in two player, with both players working together, or against each other. At times it can be possible to lose track of what is going on, but overall it is a rewarding experience.

The second sport I decided to try out was the track and field events. In track and field you start with a 100m sprint, followed by Javelin throw, long jump, discus, and finally hurdles. Of all of the games this is easily the most exhausting, as it requires you to sprint on the spot. Rather than tracking your actual speed Kinect Sports determines your speed by how high you lift your knees when running, as well as the speed.

The track events focus on the height of your knees more than the speed at which you move

It is all incredibly easy to play. For instance, when throwing the javelin, or performing the long jump, you are required to run on the spot. When the time is right for you to either throw your javelin, perform the long jump, or leap over hurdles, you simply perform the action associated with it when the ground beneath you turns green. Much like in the real sports should you jump or throw too late it counts as a foul and no score is recorded for you in that round. Each event – apart from the races – is made up of three rounds, with only your highest score being taken in to account, meaning you have plenty of opportunities to get to grips with it.

Beach Ball, Table Tennis, and Bowling play exactly as you would expect them to; mimicking the real life sports as closely as possible. In table tennis you can control the angle and the spin of the ball by tilting your hand. Likewise with bowling you can step left and right to line up shots, and control the angle of the ball by tilting your hand when you throw the ball. It will probably take a few attempts to get used to – what with having no physical item in your hand – but once you do it becomes quite easy to knock out strike after strike.

Beach Ball plays exactly as you would expect it – you knock the ball back and forth over the net, and occasionally you will need to jump in to the air and then hit the ball back. It works perfectly well, and can be quite fun, but of all the games Beach Ball left the least impression on me.

Boxing, however, irritates me. Despite Rare’s best efforts Boxing too easily descends in to the realm of random flailing and can be frustrating as hell in two player. Although the game wants you to take your time planning your shots and meticulously block, it is just too easy to spin your hands wildly to pick up a win. If you successfully block an attack then your next punch will do added damage, however if an opponent is flinging their arms about it is almost impossible to get a hit in.

Boxing is a bit of a let down

This is really disappointing because Boxing was one of the games that I was looking forward to the most. To be fair this is not entirely Rare’s fault, it is more a damning testament to the character of the people that use this cheap tactic… such as my wife!

Upon completing each game you are asked to pose for the cameras. At this point you realise that Kinect has been filming you the whole time you have been playing and has put together a highlight reel of your game. Watching these short videos back is incredibly amusing, and should you choose to do so, you can upload them to www.kinectshare.com to share with your friends. Likewise if you do not want to broadcast how stupid you look you can disable this feature in the options, and any video that is not uploaded will be deleted almost instantly.

One area that is a little disappointing is that when performing your poses you are actually quite limited in what you can do. This is because the game has very set parameters for where you can be standing and what parts of your body you can use. For instance, while you can jump up and down, flex your muscles, kick, or bow, you cannot do anything too extravagant – such as break dancing – simply because the game will not allow it.

Rather than this being a limitation with Kinect, I suspect that this has been a specific choice from the developers, because the game tends to map your movements fairly loosely outside of the game. Evidence for this theory comes in the way that you navigate your menus; unlike other games like Your Shape or Kinectimals, the area that you point to on the menus does not map 100% to the angle at which you are pointing. With Kinect Sports’ menus I constantly had the feeling that the pointer was actually a few inches lower than I was actually pointing.

No amount of calibrating seems to have changed this, and other Kinect enabled games, as well as the Kinect Hub, map my movements more accurately. This is not a major issue by any means, as it is easy to compensate for, but seems to be a strange choice by Rare.

As well as being able to play exhibition matches of each of the sports, there are at least two mini games per sport that revolve around scoring points. For instance the two mini games for Football are a goalie game in which you must stop as many balls from hitting the net in a row, and a striker game in which you need to hit specific targets inside of the goal, which is defended by a capable goal keeper.

The final mode is Party Mode, which allows you to group together in to teams and take turns at each of the sports, sort of like a tournament mode. In Party Mode each player gets to wear some outlandish mascot outfits, which are quite amusing.

As well as being a ton of fun to play, Kinect Sports features some really lavish production values. The game features a huge number of licensed tracks, such as We Are the Champions by Queen, that play during the replays of your particularly good attempts. There is something so heart warmingly ridiculous about seeing your avatar charging down the 100m track to the Chariots of Fire theme tune, and that goes a long way towards making this game so likeable. It is little things like this that really helps make Kinect Sports stand out from their competitors, Sports Champions on PS3 and Wii Sports Resort on Wii.

Kinect Sports can track 2 players at a time, although more people can play the turn based Party Mode

One of the best things about Kinect Sports is that it is one of those rare games (no pun intended) that is actually as much fun to watch people playing as it is to actually play yourself, which makes it ideal for a party setting. One of the most amusing moments for me came when watching my brother and his wife playing the long jump, with my sister in law mistiming her jump completely and barrelling through the sand pit waving her arms in disappointment.

While bowling can be played in 4 player, as can the turn based party mode games, Kinect Sports can only track two players at a time. This is not a major hindrance, and actually seems to be a wise move, as having four players standing side by side flailing their arms and legs about would likely lead to some sort of injury or damage to property.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 4/5 There is a wonderful bright clean look to the game that is typical of a Rare game. The use of your own Xbox Avatar goes a long way towards personalising the experience for you.

Sound: 5/5 Everything about the sound in the game, from the commentators, the crowds, the sounds of the events, and the music that plays during the replays creates a wonderful atmosphere.

Gameplay: 4/5 Exhilarating and exhausting fun, especially at parties. This game manages what few other games can, and really puts you in the place of these athletes in the way that no other game possibly could.

Longevity: 3/5 The inclusion of online mutliplayer goes a long way towards prolonging the life of this game, and it will likely become a party favourite for millions as word of mouth spreads. Having said that when playing solo it may become less appealing after you have played each of the sports through a few times.

Overall: 4 out of 5

This may be a controversial statement but I am going to make it anyway: The existence of Kinect is entirely justified by the creation of this game alone. Much like any good first party launch software this game not only highlights what this device can do, it also acts as inspiration for future games from other developers, showing them exactly how to make a great Kinect game.

- Luke Mears

Everybody loves lists right? Contrary to popular belief within the games industry, local multiplayer gaming is still very much alive.

Many of us still like to get the mates over and enjoy some split screen gaming. In fact every night out with my friends begins with the playing of a few games or drinking to Family guy (drink at every flashback, which is a lot).

All too often, though, we focus on the regular gaming experience and don’t experiment enough with the fun that could be had with the addition of a few rules and a lot of alcohol.

So with that in mind, I’ve knocked up a little list of some ideas for drinking games while playing games. Have a go and let us know how it went. Or even video it and send us a link to the YouTube video of you drinking (responsibly) and making fools of yourselves.

Note: Drink 2 fingers, 3 fingers etc means that the person must drink the specified finger width of their drink. So, 4 fingers would be about 4-6cm of their drink. It all adds up fast.

Spin Out

Compatible Games: Blur, Split/Second, Mario Kart and other kart racers.
This one could also be applied to Mario Kart but I’d recommend Blur. Just because it’s awesome. It’s nice to get a little bit of physical activity into the mix, to liven things up and make it harder on everyone. Let the dizziness ensue!
Rules of the Game:

• At least 4 people required. Split into 2 teams.
• 1 person from each team will play in a split screen race, 2 on 2.
• Every time a player is hit with a power up, their team must spin in a circle to represent the car then take a drink (2 fingers?).
• If wrecked the player and their team must quickly drink before returning to the race.
• After every race the players swap over and repeat.
• After 3 races the losing team take shots.

Erm, I don't mean to alarm you but...

Bubbly Bros.

Compatible Games: New Super Mario Bros Wii
Although I’m not the biggest fan of the New Super Mario Bros, the inevitable frequent deaths and “sit in your bubble” mechanic, make for a great drinking game. This can be up to 4 player.
Rules of the Game:

• Up to 4 players start the level.
• If you die you have to go into your bubble and drink 4 fingers.
• If somebody pops your bubble accidentally you may re-enter the game.
• The first person to the finish line wins and the others have to drink shots or 3 fingers.
• If you want to play the game hardcore, then put some (cooked) mushrooms in your drinks to make the experience more authentic.

Eat up Mario and spit him to the Hammer Bros. No mercy.

Foul and Score.

Compatible Games: Fifa, Pro Evo, Sensible Soccer, Football Italia ’90 etc
This is a game to stir up the competitive nature of any football game fan. What’s the fun in playing to the rules of the game when you have the ability to chop players down with completely unnecessary tackles? Bear in mind that losing players will make it harder to stop those goals and your defeat all the more certain. This game is best played with 4 people for ultimate carnage.
Rules of the Game:

• If you score a goal your opponent must drink 2 fingers.
• If you get a yellow card, your opponent must drink 2 fingers.
• If you get a red card your opponent must drink 3 fingers.
• If your team is disqualified you drink 3 fingers or take a shot.
• The losers take a shot or down the remainder of their drink.

By my rules, this is about to turn real ugly

Tag Team.

Compatible Games: Street Fighter, Tekken, Smash Bros., Rival Schools, Marvel vs Capcom, Mortal Kombat etc
This will work for most fighting games and requires at least 4 players. I like to make things a bit more interesting than the usual “loser takes a shot”.
Rules of the Game:

• Split into 2 teams.
• Choose one from each team to start the game. While this player is fighting their partner must drink.
• To tag out you have to put the controller down fully before you partner can stop drinking and pick up the pad.
• The player who tagged out must then drink while the other plays.
• Tag as many times as you need but each tag allows the opponent an attack.
• The losers take a shot each.
• The winning team has to get up and mock the winning pose and sound of their character otherwise they have to drink.

Tag. Your turn.

“You’re gonna eat lightnin’ and you’re gonna crap thunder!”

Compatible Games: Fight Night Round 3
Here’s one that will make those long Fight Night Round 3 matches go a little quicker. This won’t work for Fight Night Round 4 as they changed some of the mechanics but I’m sure you can modify accordingly if needs be. Also, to make things more interesting you could try pitting lightweights against heavyweights.
Rules of the Game:

• Neither player is allowed to block, only duck and weave.
• If your boxer is knocked down, you must drink 2 fingers before getting them get back up.
• At the end of every round both players must drink from one hand while fixing their boxer up.
• When the fight is finished the loser has to do ten press-ups then drink a shot.

No blocking. Don't worry mate, I'll go easy... RRAAAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Pour one for your homies.

Compatible Games: Halo, Call of Duty and Modern Warfare, Goldeneye etc (first person shooters)
To be honest 1st person shooters probably make the worst drinking game games in terms of coming up with something original and interesting. But I couldn’t leave them out completely so let’s go for a simple one.
Rules of the Game:

• Every death, take a drink.
• Highest scoring player takes a shot after each game, to keep everyone drinking.
• To make things more interesting go for some special rules like hand guns or gun butts only. These are dependent on the game.

New Goldeneye announced at E3! Perfect multiplayer drinking game

The Game Name Game

The odd one out, this is the only drinking game that doesn’t require anyone to actually be playing games. It is video game themed, however, and it can be played anywhere.
Rules of the Game:

• Take the form of a drinking circle.
• The first person names any game.
• The person next to them in the circle must then take the initial of the last word in that game. For example Street Fighter would be F.
• They must name another game starting with this letter. For example F-Zero. Then the next in the circle could name Zoo Tycoon and so on.
• The player must drink while they think.
• Sequels will only be accepted if they have a subtitle or different name, for example The Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
• “The” does not count as a first word.
• Double initialled titles reverse the direction around the circle.
• If someone finishes their glass/can while thinking, they can pass their turn.

Please drink responsibly, and only if you are over the age of 18.

–Joe Finn–

World dominance in terms of football games seems to be a fickle mistress, flitting between PES, in it’s various forms (all the way back to ISS 64), and the Fifa series year on year. With Fifa ’09 however, EA really were back with a bang, shining a harsh light on the inferior PES 2009, proving it to be the metaphorical black sheep of the football game family.

EA seemingly didn’t have much they had to do to create a fantastic football game this time around. My advice to the development team would have been, “Just don’t f*ck this up okay guys!” and EA have followed through in fine form; presenting the polished end product that we all expect from the only licensed football game with fantastic gameplay and a wealth of new features to boot (pun intended).

That being said, the remainder of this review will focus on the things that EA don’t get quite right, just in case someone reads this and I’m whisked off to aid development for 2011!

Firstly, the new virtual pro GameFace; giving the player the opportunity to download their own face into the game so that you can see your chiseled features as you hack down Ronaldo’s smug millionaire face in the first five minutes of a game. I’d like to say that this great idea is flawlessly executed in Fifa 10 and that I’ve been using my computer generated version of me to bring home the silverware. I’d like to, but I can’t. The simple problem being that, at time of writing, the website takes too long and throws me out at a frustrating rate. I tried three or four times attempting a task that should be made as simple as possible before feeling that I really could be spending my time better, continuing my season managing Colchester United.

Christiano Ronaldo is still a tw*t

Online, Fifa works well; my issues with it are perhaps more to do with the Playstation Network and online gaming in general than the game itself. I found it took an inordinate amount of time, even with a relatively fast broadband connection, to actually be able to get into a game and play. Also, the hundreds of options to tailor your gaming erred on the confusing side, and it annoyed me having to figure out just what everything meant when all I wanted to do was play a game. Once playing though, it must be said that there was no hint of lag and play worked really well.

My final little niggling bugbear is the commentary. Whilst certainly authentic, with vocals from Andy Gray and Martin Tyler, there is little variation from match to match: by my second game I was feeling more than a little déjà vu. It would have been nice to add a couple more commentators for a little variety. As it stands however, this is a very minor negative.

Fifa ’09 allowed you to create a pro, drop him into a team and develop him over four seasons. Fifa 10 takes this idea and really runs with it, allowing you to improve your pro in just about every mode, with a number of challenges that, once completed, give your pro stat boosts as well as unlocking new clothing and celebrations.

The accomplishments augment the abilities of your virtual pro

Overall then, I would argue that Fifa 10 is the best football game around. The move from Fifa ’09 certainly seems to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary but that’s not a bad thing; if it’s not broken, why fix it?

GRAPHICS: 5/5 The best graphics you’ll get from any football game around

SOUND: 4/5 Some of the music choices are a little confusing and obscure. There don’t seem to be any instant classics like ‘Kids’ by MGMT, as there were in ’09. The commentary is good but a little bit on the repetitive side.

GAMEPLAY: 4/5 The 360 controls work perfectly and the player movements are smoother than ever. Online isn’t quite as good as it could have been though.

LONGEVITY: 5/5 Perfecting your virtual pro will take you right up to next year’s release. The virtual pro mode and manager mode have an impressive level of depth and complexity.

OVERALL: 5 Footballs out of 5. This truly is the greatest football game around at the moment (even if Luton Town aren’t in there Kamiza!). I would go as far to say that this is better than Fifa: Road to the World Cup ’98.

[starreview tpl=16]

Game: FIFA 2010
Format: XBOX 360
Developer: EA Sports
Publisher: EA Sports

So it’s that time of year again my friends, no I’m not talking about Christmas being nearly on our doorstep like some off his face tramp, I’m talking about football fans go out in their hordes and buy the latest “Fifa” offered by EA. And lucky me, I get to review it for your lovely selves. But before I do, let me just say that I’ll try as hard as possible to not even mention the “Pro Evolution Soccer” as I think it’s sick that these two games are constantly compared with each other I mean you cant say you saw the first three “Call of Duty” games and the “Medal of Honour” series be compared in such a way did you? or the “Doom” series and more recently “Dead Space” series. So why these two? Because they are essentially the same game I hear you cry? Well that’s a bit of a flimsy excuse since the previous examples are all pretty much the same as each other too.  No, you see it’s actually just elitism, “FIFA” players think they are better than “PES” players and vice versa but in reality you’re all just bickering like a bunch of kids.  Okay, rant over.  Anyway on with review…

Since I’m reviewing “Fifa 2010” you’d be correct to assume that I, myself am a bit of a football fan, OK sod that, I love football. However despite owning a few previous iterations of “Fifa” football games had never really got me hooked, in fact there were games I went out and bought on a whim when I was bored. However last years offering, “Fifa 2009” changed all that. For the first time ever I had played a football game which had genuinely been enjoyable, so enjoyable in fact that I played the hell out of it and as 2010′s version drew closer I, myself was filled with excitement, waiting to see how they could’ve possibly made a brilliant game even better and boy have they.  If “Fifa 2009” was the king of football games then “Fifa 2010” is the god, it is that simple. The game itself is fully enriched with so many modes, if I were to go over each one in detail then you would’ve actually age a couple of years by the time you’ve finished reading so what I’ll do is give you a brief summary of each.

That’s of course when I get onto the modes because firstly let me just mention the controls. My word have they improved! I mean don’t get me wrong, controls in 2009 were fine but now you can actually score from long range shots, crosses, freekicks and boy does it give you immense satisfaction when you do.  Add to the fact you can then replay and upload said epic goals to the EA website to show all your mates (like this little beauty: http://www.easports.com/media/play/video/10775234 ) and your already on to a winner. The 360 dribbling system, allowing you to run with the ball and without the ball in 360 degrees is also brilliant once you get used to it.

Anyway let’s get those game modes shall we? Well I better start off with the manager mode side of things since that’s been looked at the most. Previously I’ve always avoided “manager mode” as I found it just not detailed enough, especially up against the might of the “Championship Manager” and “Football Manager” series. “Manager mode” in 2010 however is vastly improved and far more detailed. The addition of board interaction and a vastly improved and far less tedious transfer system as really made the mode far more enjoyable (and is consequently the main mode in which I play). “Be A Pro” mode returns from 2009, this time in the form of “Virtual Pro mode”, no longer can you play as a professional football in real life, no this time you create your own virtual pro and play as them. Other than the name change and the player change, not much else has changed however there wasn’t much wrong with it in 2009, in fact it was excellent (except the very dodgy camera angle which still needs improving!) For the hardcore “Fifa” pros you also have a nice set piece creator, meaning that you can spend hours (and I do mean hours) on creating your own set piece systems to use in the game, if you’re that much of a football nut of course, personally I wont use it past trying it out for this review. On top of that you get your usual tournament modes, exhibition modes etc. as you would expect from any “Fifa” game.

“The arena”, or “loading screen thingyme” as I like to call it as been looked at also. The addition to be able to hold fully fledged practice matches or practice set pieces like corners and freekicks is a genius little addition, especially if you just want a kick about rather than a fully competitive match.

On the online side of things, tons have been changed. Of course you can still play against your friends or randoms in fully fledged football matches. But this year sees in the introduction of online leagues. To be honest, I haven’t tried this out yet, however the idea of entire leagues of teams made up of different peoples created “virtual pros” does sound awesome, if actually pulled off, but like with “GameFace” (which I’ll get onto in a bit) some of the stuff EA as promised, fails to deliver.

One areawhere the “Fifa” games have excelled in recent years are the graphics and 2010 does nothing to break that tradition. Stadiums filled with crowds have never looked so spectacular and neither has all the ugliness of Wayne Rooney’s face. Not changed too much from 2009, the graphics still are some of the best you’ll find in footballing games today. I’m not saying it’s a “Gears of War 2” or a “Crysis” (a game made for the P.C. Which boasts some of the best graphics I’ve ever seen.) But the graphics in “Fifa 2010” are good enough, which is what you want from a footballing game.

Now you see it’s not all happy, cheery reviewness, you see there are a few things about “Fifa” titles (well the latest ones at least) that really annoys me and one of those is the inclusion of downloadable content. You see things like “Live Season”, a downloadable mode in which players stats are updated weekly and accordingly with how they are doing in the real world, sounds great on paper and they do honestly work really well. But the every “Fifa” instalment is launched around October time, whereas the football season starts in the summer, so by buying the “Live Season” mode, you’ve actually already missed out on a couple of months of matches. Also the fact that a new instalment comes out every year means really that the DLC pretty much expires after a year because no one will play a “Fifa” game over a year old, no they’ll be going out and buying the latest and greatest so the inclusion of any DLC is slightly pointless. But what do Microsoft or EA care? As long as they get your money they don’t mind and what so you care either? As long as you get as much content as possible, I just can’t wait for the new DLC mode for “Fifa 2011 “ which integrates the game with the forthcoming, new Sky Player. In which you actually control what’s happening live on the pitch as you would playing “Fifa” only this time in real life so that you can kick Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronald constantly in the shins because I happen to think the only thing he’s world class at is being a totally and utter *****, and then proceed bathe in the sweet, nectar that is his Portuguese tears.

Hear that EA? These are the kind of scenes I want to see in Fifa 2011 OK?

Despite it’s short life span however, the “Fifa Store” in 2010 offers some really nice, cheap bits of DLC. You can buy stadiums, alternative commentary and little upgrades for your “Virtual Pro” or as I like to call them, cheats you have to buy.

Speaking of some new additions that annoy me (slightly tedious link there but bear with me) what the hell was up with “GameFace” this year?! For those of you that don’t know, “GameFace” is something EA as been pushing a lot recently and it basically enables the person to use pictures from which the game I can only assume will take various scans of and actually put your face in the game however this time around is “Fifa’s” first use of the technology and boy does it not live up to what was promised. See we were promised a system that actually worked, however on release the system was marred by various problems, causing the whole thing to shut down for a few days, much to the anger of “Fifa” fanboys. First of all, why didn’t they give us the option of just taking pictures from our live cams as they did “Tiger Woods” and “Fight Night round 4”? I mean the majority of us are still struggling to find some kind of purpose to why we bought the damn thing in the first place so you could’ve at least helped us out there EA.  But no, we have to upload some high quality pictures to a program on the internet which insists on actually totally not working or crashing my laptop. Yes, I find that strange that a P.C. That is about 10 years older than my laptop can handle such a program whereas the laptop falls on it’s arse every time I try to use it but that is definitely the case. Anyway to cut a long story short “GameFace” is working now, how do I know? Because I’ve used it myself you silly ninny! Obviously, not with the high quality photo uploads as like I said, it just doesn’t work, however there is a solution. “GameFace” also offers you to create your game face using the system used in various create-a-character modes in various games. However I didn’t want to have to be subjected to that, as I and we were promised quite the opposite, damn you EA!

And if there’s one thing you thought would be a cert it would be that “Fifa 2010” would have a great soundtrack, well apparently not actually. 2010 offers the most blandest set of nobody artists to date. Usually the series is known for it’s use of great popular indie hits but that obviously decided to scratch that idea this time around. And the commentary, OH GOD THE COMMENTARY. I mean the “Fifa” series has never been known for it’s great, intelligent commentary but please! For the love of god! Please improve the commentary in 2011′s instalment. I’m sick of getting so wind up at the stupidity of some of the comments that come from Andy Gray and Martin Tyler’s voices. Please, for the sake of my sanity, improve the commentary next time around because it’s bloody awful!

After all that, by pointing out some major flaws and well, not sounding too excited about the game, it may seem as though I think “Fifa 2010” is well….a bit rubbish. But it’s not, honest! “Fifa 2009” was a vast improvement and introduced me to a football that was actually fun to play. 2010 is just pretty much the same with some slight changed and much better controls so there’s not all that much to get that excited about. It’s just more of the same, only slightly better.

REVIEW ROUND-UP

Graphics: 4/5 – You wont see a football game look any better.
Sound: 2/5 – Soundtrack is surprisingly bland and boring, commentary is as rubbish as always.
Gameplay: 5/5 – Tons to do plus a improved controls makes the game utterly enjoyable, in fact far more enjoyable than any previous “Fifa”.
Longevity: 4/5 – Tons of modes and things to do, however not 5 out of 5
Overall: 4/5 – I give the game 4 Ronaldo shin kicks out of 5. More of the same greatness that was delivered in “Fifa 2009” with some vastly improved controls, however some big flaws knock the game a little bit.

[starreview tpl=16]

Tune in tomorrow for a review of the PS3 version by Tom01255 – ed