Product Description

Play professional soccer your way in EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer 09. It features new Custom Team Tactics that gives you all the tools to become a first-team coach. Go inside the game engine to customize the positioning and support play of your teammates and decide exactly how your team will play in any situation. Now you are the player, coach and manager. You have the power to adjust and customize tactical settings so CPU players and your team perform just like the real-world team plays or how you think it should play. Save your tactics and then make strategic decisions to exploit your opponent's weaknesses, all on-the-fly. FIFA 09 delivers a new level of authenticity. The matchday experience is now true-to-life with a referee and assistants. Plus, crowds, stadium atmosphere, and commentary have all been regionalized in exacting detail with 15 new stadiums added.

Customized Controllers - Create your own bespoke controller configuration, save it and take it online. Assign actions to the buttons exactly how you like them

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #353 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 15443
• Released on: 2008-10-14
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Dimensions: .30 pounds

Features

• 250 additions and enhancements to core gameplay
• Live Season - Dynamic update of player information in-game that mirrors real-life performances. Leagues included - English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1 Orange, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Mexican Primera Division.Be A Pro - 10 vs 10 Online Team Play
• Custom Team Tactics Become a first-team coach with the power to tune and balance 11 tactical sliders for 140 attacking and 40 defending options (more than 50,000 combinations). Save your tactics to make strategic decisions to exploit your opponent's weaknesses during the game. Plus, share your strategies with friends online
• Be A Pro - Seasons Pick or create a professional player and test your football ability over a four season campaign
• Improved Goalkeeper Intelligence - Goalkeepers position themselves more intelligently, react to shots more realistically and recover from saves faster

Amazon.com Product Description
Lace up your cleats, strap on your shin guards and step onto the pitch to play professional soccer your way in FIFA Soccer 09. Fine tuned to take advantage of the advanced processing power of Next-Generation gaming consoles, through FIFA 09 players will experience the most authentic soccer simulation EA Sports has ever delivered on the PlayStation 3 as you live the fantasy of playing as a professional footballer on the rise in the international leagues and customize your game to suit your evolving style and abilities.

Ride the bike like Ronaldinho. View larger.

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The Next Generation of FIFA
Powered by the third generation of the EA Sports' soccer engine, FIFA 09 features more than 250 core gameplay additions and enhancements that deliver the most responsive, intelligent and realistic action ever for the series. Enjoy turning defenders with more controlled dribbling and ball control, snapping off precision shots with improved first-time shooting mechanics and firing beautifully timed passes with greater accuracy, placing the ball exactly where you want it. With new player momentum physics the speed and weight of the player determines everything from the distance of a slide tackle and the power of a header to the severity of player collisions and the height of a player's jump. Plus, players now behave according to their physical attributes with larger, stronger players dominating collisions, battles for control of the ball, and position in challenges for two player headers.

Custom Team Tactics
FIFA Soccer 09 features new Custom Team Tactics that gives you all the tools to become a first-team coach. For the first time, go inside the game engine to customize the positioning and support play of your teammates and decide exactly how your team will play in any situation. Now you are the player, coach and manager. You have the power to adjust and customize tactical settings so CPU players and your team perform just like the real-world team plays or how you think it should play. Save your tactics and then make strategic decisions to exploit your opponent's weaknesses, all on-the-fly.

Key Game Features:

• Polished, Refined Gameplay - Featuring 250 additions and enhancements to core gameplay, including new animation technology that creates more responsive first-time shooting and passing, faster and more controlled dribbling, and improved trapping, and new player momentum physics that delivers realistic player collisions, authentic jostling for the ball, and more variation in tackling.
• Custom Team Tactics - Become a first-team coach with the power to tune and balance 11 tactical sliders for 140 attacking and 40 defending options (more than 50,000 combinations) so CPU players and your team perform just like the real-world team or how you think the real team should play. Save your tactics to make strategic decisions to exploit your opponent’s weaknesses during the game. Plus, share your strategies with friends online*.
• Be A Pro: Seasons - Pick or create a professional player and test your soccer ability over a four season campaign. Master a single position and develop your skills -- passing, shooting, positioning, marking -- to ultimately become a national legend.
• Be A Pro: 10 vs 10 Online Team Play - Create your own team of up to 10 friends all playing fixed outfield positions to challenge rival teams of up to 10 players. Instead of thinking as an individual player now you have to think and play as a team.
• Improved Goalkeeper Intelligence - Goalkeepers position themselves more intelligently, react to shots more realistically and recover from saves faster.
• Customized Controllers - Create your own bespoke controller configuration, save it and even take it online effortlessly. Assign actions to the buttons exactly how you like them for complete control.
• Multiplayer Options - Local multiplayer supports 2-7 players; PlayStation Network supports 2-20 players.

Career Mode - 'Be A Pro: Seasons'
Live the fantasy of a professional soccer player through the popular feature innovation - 'Be A Pro' - now expanded to include a career mode. 'In Be A Pro: Seasons' you pick or create a professional player and then develop his skills at a single outfield position over a period of time. Your ultimate is to become an international legend, but will you do it with your home club or take your game on to the road? The choice is yours in FIFA Soccer 09.

Lifelike Player Reactions
Soccer matches are filled with a myriad of sounds, gestures and emotions. Until now this firsthand experience has been missing from video game simulations, but FIFA Soccer 09 brings the richness of the world's game to life with its lifelike player reaction system. Through this, players on your squad react to the events on the pitch, both through gestures and in their native tongues. These can be emotional responses like complaints about a call, or about the way the game is unfolding, but they can also be directional, such as indicating that a player is offsides, calling for a ball/directing where it should be passsed and waving off a defensive assignment. Not only does this smart cooperative AI help you in the field, but it also injects soul into a game loved by millions around the world and one it is you task to conquer in FIFA 09.

* Broadband connection required for online play via the PlayStation Network (PSN).

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Customer Reviews

Solid Game
I am not a hardcore gamer, but I love Soccer video games. When I was using my PS2 (stopped a couple of years ago), I bought into the hype of the Winning Eleven/PES series, and definitely enjoyed the games. Due to the conventional wisdom of the hardcore players out there, I avoided FIFA like the plague. Fast forward to now, and I have a PS3. I was itching to get a Soccer game, and figured I'd skip the '08 editions and wait for the '09 editions. FIFA '09 was released first instead of PES '09, so I jumped on it.

Not having played any recent-generation Soccer games, I can't quite compare it all that much to recent games, but I have been having a ball (no pun intended) playing FIFA '09. Gameplay probably isn't perfect, but it seems great to me. Everything is smooth, no choppiness, graphics are good, and it is simply a fun game to play. Passing, crossing, shooting, etc. are all pretty quick to get the hang of. Of course, I have a lot more work to do to get all of the gameplay down.

Frankly, I am in heaven having all of the big leagues and international teams, with the correct players, kits, etc. What I had to go through to get any level of team/player realism with Winning Eleven on the PS2... (we all know they don't have most of the licenses compared with the FIFA series). With FIFA '09, I can power up, choose Manchester United against AC Milan, and have Rooney, Ronaldo, etc. going up against Pirlo, Nesta, etc. with no issue. La Liga, Premiership, Serie A, and more. I love it.

There are a ton of advanced options and features that I won't go into such as seasons, online, etc., but if you have the time and passion for it, I am sure there is plenty to sink your teeth into with this game.

All in all, I am very pleased with FIFA '09, and have cancelled my preorder for PES '09 for the PS3. Good work EA Sports.

My Favorite FIFA Yet
FIFA Soccer 09 - Hours of entertainment on an intense, nearly 100% tactically customizable world of soccer. If you're all about making the gameplay unique, this is the game for you.

Some background - I've never been a hardcore sports video game fanatic, but I always enjoy playing them. I started out with the original Playstation and have stuck with Sony's systems from that beginning. My most recent FIFA games were both 03 and 04, so this was a big step up from those. Like I said, this game is incredibly intense. On more than one occasion I've pulled all-nighters playing this game with friends and plan on doing so in the future. We're talking about 12 hours straight of FIFA (with the exception of bathroom and pizza breaks). In fact, I had a rivalry going with one other guy - we were both pretty equal German teams and continuously rematched for about 7 of those 12 hours with the same teams over and over and over again. Although boredom usually sets in after a few hours of repetitive gaming, this game, on the other hand, will allow you to have a different outcome and have a lot of fun every time.


And now for the technical stuff (keep in mind, this is the PS3 version):

This game has incredible graphics and totally utilizes PS3's intense processing system. The fields look realistic, players feel like you could reach out and touch them, and the gameplay follows the same way. Graphically speaking, the only thing that could be better would be the fans. Like all sports games I've seen so far, the crowd atmosphere, fans, and stands are only so good. However, they ARE getting better. If you think back about 5 years, the crowds were only flat, rather inanimate figures. They've gotten better, but their sense of real is not quite there yet. However, how much are you actually going to look at the fans anyway? The soccer match and the participants in it are the focus of the video game, not so much the people watching it.

Another big point as I already said - customization. There is a full arsenal of tactical plays and ways to change the game to your liking. There are, from what I can tell so far, a number of different ways to pass, chip, shoot, cross, defend, goalkeep, etc etc etc. If it can be done in a real soccer game, it can be done in this game, and that is my favorite part about the game so far. Of course, the more variety you try to use, the more time it's going to take to become adept with those different skills. Quick example - it's harder to learn when to do a through pass to lead a player than simply always pushing X and passing to the player you are pointing to. However, the rewards for learning how to do the through pass well are exponentially greater than just using the basic pass. This is also applicable for learning how to use the right analog stick and also L2 for quick, controlled tricks. Like I said, if it's possible in soccer, it's possible in this game; it'll just take a little time to learn how to do it right.

A big plus for some - Downloadable League updates allow you to stay in sync with your favorite teams. There are numerous different leagues to download, minus the MLS which I find somewhat odd. Don't forget to bring your credit card though - they cost a few bucks each.

In 09, they've also brought in a new "Be a Pro" mode where you can create a player and simulate a real career. It's pretty enjoyable, but probably could be worked on in the future. As far as I can tell so far, there aren't the normal "Amateur, Semi Pro, Pro" settings, and I've won every game I've played, one game 10-1. It's fun to win, but without a challenge, it's somewhat boring. Also, don't forget, you're only going to be playing your player - the rest of your team will be computer players that you can tell to play defense or pass.

This game is also great for both advanced players as well as beginners due to the Assist system. This is all set up via the Controller Configuration interface and allows you to turn help on or off, or even semi if you're trying to advance your skills. This way the AI will help those that need it to keep the game fair, fun, and enjoyable.


Finally, a few things for work on in the future years:

Like I already said, the fans could use some more personality, but that'll come with time. Also, although the goalie AI in this game is pretty great, sometimes the goalies seem a little stupid and don't charge the ball when they should. This is quickly fixed by manually telling the goalie charge by holding down triangle. Other than those two, shooting seems a lot harder in this game than past ones. This may just be that it, too, is more customizable than previous games and I just need to learn how to place my shots better than before.


All in all, my opinion is that this is an amazing game. If you want an enjoyable, customizable, lifelike experience where you control the players, this is the game for you... until FIFA '10 comes out.

Happy gaming.

Amazing game, still missing the small points to make it a 5
FIFA 09 is a vast improvement on 08. The game looks like a real match now due to the physics being improved astronomically. You can do all sorts of beautiful finess shots, heel passes, etc that weren't possible in 08. The celebration is a lot of fun as well. The crowds in the stdium need still improvement. I can't believe there aren't smokers going off, or flags, or anyting of that sort to show the audience really behind it. The crowd needs to be louder as well with more chants. The commentators are great as usual but could use a little more emotion some times. Overall I would say this game is amazing and a huge step up from 08 but the little things hold it back from being perfect.