Review by: William Abner

A word of caution: FIFA 11 may induce gamepad breakage. It also has the innate ability to cause grown men and women to scream out in a moment of anxiety – at times causing young ears to ask, “What did dad just say?”

I have never openly yelled at the television, talking to essentially no one, as much as I have with FIFA 11. This is doubly true when playing a game with a buddy on the same machine. Phrases such as, “How did he not score?” or “How is that not a yellow card?” are commonplace. Even the occasional “Whoa how did he save that?” happens from time to time. Regardless, rest assured, staying quiet and stoically playing FIFA 11 is nearly impossible.

This is what happens when you tweak the gameplay of what was already an enjoyable (if a touch arcadey) game in all of the right places. FIFA 11, much like the other games in the EA Sports library this year, doesn’t have a real back of the box selling point. While there are certainly new features this year, the real meat – the real hook—is the improved gameplay. It’s not perfect by any means, as I’ll get to in a moment, but it’s another step forward for this long running series.

So much of what was “gamey” about FIFA 10 is gone. Players play to their ratings now more than ever – taking on a team like the Columbus Crew in the MLS will cause great aggravation when players fail to knock home what would be easy goals for better players. You can clearly see a difference not only in player speed but also dribbling skill, passing skill, receiving skill, and so on. You will have to learn to use the advanced control schemes to use the special moves with better players, but if you do you are rewarded with some beautiful gameplay. Hell, the fact that you simply can’t pass point to point up and down the pitch with impunity is a massive improvement all by itself.

The physics engine is fantastic – or at least it looks the part. Every shot looks just a touch different and the results are wildly varied. I have seen more near goals rattle off the bar, or just miss the post more times than I care to count – which makes driving home that 30 yard blast all the more satisfying. A few days ago while playing in a Cup match I saw the keeper deflect a header off a corner kick, lose sight of where the ball was, and accidently kick the ball in goal. This was, in fact, my keeper which led to my daughter asking the aforementioned question to my wife.

The new “player personality” feature works surprisingly well, too, as you’ll see hustle players, or players who after a long match without enough touches will literally sulk on the pitch and the announcers are even quick to call these players out when it happens. Adding to the player personality is the fact that we finally have players of various height and weight and you can clearly see the difference on the pitch. It’s funny how such an obvious addition can have such a dramatic effect on gameplay – especially when fighting for a header in the box.