Re: FIFA 09
Someone put this on FSB:
hey Guys, i was given a behind the stage preview of fifa 09, in an EA press conference here in Canada, it wasn't this week, but 3 weeks ago, it's only now i've come out to post about the event. especially after the PES 2009 screens released made some people forget where its at.
It was a secret viewing of fifa 09, and i'm going to share my experiece with you guys.
keep in mind it was an old build of the game.
back on topic: I saw actual gameplay!! yes in motion!
i will go into detail, starting....now
let me break down what i saw for you guys:
-The game starts in usual EA fashion with the 'EA' and 'EA HD'logo and everything.
the sound aswell is all there.
-the developer made it clear to me that the build i saw was not the final build what-so-ever...
i noticed that too, when the game began there looked like there was a problem with loading the profile it also stopped the user skipping and going straight to the Arena!, so that part had to be super-skiped(using a game engine tweak)
to the Arena.
-in the Arena, it was Wayne Rooney this time, which i thought was a great relief, tired of always having Ronnie in the EA Arena vids.
may i also point out that the graphics have been improved its nothing to scream about in regards to fifa 08, but the way light and dark, shading and tone is used is better, making players look much more lifelike, and in general better than fifa 08, but you'll have to wait till you see it yourselves!
-the assistant developer, showed off the new animations engine, the players dont 'pop' into different animations anymore, its all blended and synced properly, i liked what i saw.
when i collided with the keeper, the collision took into consideration the angle the players collide, speed at which they were going, location at which they collided and player strength, being Rooney its safe to say the keeper didn't come out top, toppling over to the ground, with rooney bending over to make sure the keeper is alright, sure enough he is. brilliant detail EA.
-he showed off a few new skills too, but i can not go into detail as to what they looked like. quiet a few of them looked complex/hard to pull off.
-then we started a match between Man utd and Chelsea, can i just say that their pre-match menus are looking stunning, as good as fifa 08 menus looked fifa 09's are better, they are also much faster to access, or at least they looked faster to me.
the match options were highly limiting, only a 5 mins match was available and the choice of two balls, that was it, i guess that's what we'll most likely see in the demo if they release a demo this year.
-when the match had been fully set up, we carried on practicing in the arena, he showed of some of Rooneys' new shooting animations, they look great as ever, one time he shot the ball, the keeper was at the other side of his post(bcuz we've been shooting the ball at him a few times...) Rooney had directed the ball to the opposite corner of the goal post, the keeper dives across the post and rolls realistically, the animation was simply stunning, he didn't get to it of course...
-the match kicks of, Chelsea playing from left to right, the assistant dev immediately began pounding the other developer, who was playing as the Red devils, i could see the new physical play EA had been going on about, looks far more realistic and almost entertaining.
-Drogba as always, big and strong was able to out muscle vidic and turned heading for goal, only for W.Brown to come crashing into Didier from behind with a strong/fierce sliding tackle, i looked across to the dev playing as Man Utd, he had a slight grin on his face, looking at the assistant developer of Fifa 09, he was less than pleased. needless to say the game was over for Drogba, for his standing leg was well caught. he fell to the floor Drogba-style too
-i was impressed when I saw this and also disappointed, impressed because it looks simply stunning, very realistic physics based contact, but disappointed because what if this happens too often in a game, it happened already in a 5 mins match...
but i'm confident EA will get it all sorted.
-Drogba taken off the pitch, Brown given a straight red card ,which i believe he completely deserved, drogba being taken off the pitch was a fifa first, it wasn't in real-time, but the cut scene sequence looked very promising, if EA add even more of them i would be a happy gamer.
-Lampard lined up the freekick, something happened before he took the freekick which i'm not going to say, lets just say those that clamoured for more freekick taking options could be in for a treat...
and what a treat, usual EA style.
-Lampard's freekick missed agonisingly wide of the left post, Van der sar doing an impressive dive across post to make sure, Man utd reliefed...i could sense it too with the crowd noise dying down.
-the core fifa gameplay remains largely the same, a few tweaks here and there, players trap the ball quicker, and make smarter off the ball runs, but gameplay speed i'm happy to report stays the same, player respone though much faster...
- the match ended '0-0' but i couldn't help but feel Chelsea should have won, if not for Browns' dangerous tackle on Didier Drogba i'm pretty sure they would have too, i would have loved to see if there were interactive celebrations this year...
-Upon leaving the assistant dev reassured me that FIFA 09 is here to remain on top, as the THE football game.
Surely they should go for someone different, I think Kaka should be the new face of FIFA
But meh autumn is fine enough 
