EA Sports FIFA2010: First Impressions.

Well, it's finally here. And as always, the downloaders@BITS promptly delivered the demo within 24 hours of the release. I was so thrilled to play the game. The game's starting screen shifted from the red to the cool blue. Then, you are greeted by an animated picture of Rooney in his hyper emotional state. I like Barcelona, among the teams that were offered, and that's the team I selected. I put up my settings a started. First up, Bayern Munich. Difficulty level, World Class. I thought that I got too confident after I had lost the game 0-1. With a few more matches under my belt, I was up an running. Now, here are a few things that I've noticed from my time with the game.

1. The first thing that struck me was 'Dribbling'. It's a little more fluent and controlled. I read that we can use the 360 Dribble feature when playing with a controller.

2. It was always easy to score from set pieces in FIFA(at least from short free kicks). I didn't waste much time in scoring goals from the first corner and free kick that I've taken. In my view, the scoring from corner kicks will improve considerably.

3. The reason for the above mentioned point: Better Heading. Players are more accurate with their heading now. But, I haven't tried heading to the keeper yet. That thing sucked in FIFA09, hope it turns out good.

4. I used to feel that all the players were of the same dimensions in FIFA09(not in the celebration videos, of course!). But, you can easily identify who is Messi and who is Ibrahimovich now(that you can do in 09 but, i think you get my point).

5. While stopping penalties, we get to see it from the keeper's point of view. It doesn't make it any easier but, looks good.

6. Where is the 'SPECTACULAR'? Well, it's still there but you need to be good to execute it. If FIFA09, even a 7 year old could bang one in from 40 yards!

7. And here it is, the thing that I liked the most...TACTICS. It is brilliantly modeled. I haven't put one of my custom formations but, I am getting a feeling that this system would work wonders.It would add the tactical element which was needed to make FIFA games even better. There are more attacking options and one extra defensive tactic.

Well, that's it for now. I off, tweaking with tactics. Later.