PS3 Game Review - 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

EA Sports' FIFA Soccer series is wildly popular, and they wring more money out of the franchise however they can. One way is by seriously downplaying the international teams in the base FIFA series and releasing a special World Cup or Euro Tournament edition every two years, making suckers like me buy more than one soccer game in a year, over and over again. It's not quite manipulative, but it still makes me feel like a junkie reaching past FIFA 10 to pick up yet another soccer game off the shelf. There's nothing I can do about it, it just works.

FIFA World Cup South Africa lets you take any of 199 international teams all the way through the process of World Cup Qualification and into the Finals, any of them theoretically having the chance to win it all, even New Caledonia or Luxembourg. The base game mechanics are virtually indistinguishable from FIFA 10, except for a renovated, more detailed penalty kick system. The "Virtual Pro" mode, which lets the player control a single position player rather than the entire team, returns under the name "Captain Your Country," and "The Story of Qualification" lets you take on smaller bits of interesting real-life games over the past few years and try your hand at them.

The largest difference between FIFA 10 and FIFA World Cup is the teams themselves. While FIFA 10 has international teams, they aren't really included in any of the basic modes, there aren't that many countries, and the squads have no life or color to them. In FIFA World Cup, you can choose (from a limited pool) which players will represent their countries, which is an even more satisfying managerial choice than choosing squads at the club level. I think it's ridiculous that Vincenzo Iaquinta is a starting striker for Italy, so I can replace him with Giampaolo Pazzini any time I like. Coaches for a large number of teams are even modeled in-game, a nice bit of color for real fans. The entire game is basically made up of all-star teams, so the match-ups are just that much more interesting, and the nationalistic rivalries are more exciting to ponder than the local rivalries club teams usually deal with. If you start up a game between Cuba and the United States, the commentators will actually talk before the game about the tense history between the two countries, an awesome addition to the game.

The new penalty system adds more detail and tension to an already interesting meta-game within FIFA. Penalties are especially important in the World Cup (the last World Cup ended with a penalty shootout, after all) and the new system lets you try virtually everything a real player can do. There's an extra variable to worry about in the composure bar, which determines the amount of error in your shot, and you have to be gentle with aiming your shot so as not to kick it too far left or right. If you're feeling cocky and want to try a chip shot, you're welcome to, but the shot will be much harder to keep on frame. Or if you feel like attempting the famous Cristiano Ronaldo tactic of a sudden studder-step to try and see the goalie's diving intentions, it's all allowed in-game.

The "Captain Your Country" mode is a nice addition with a few flaws. There just aren't as many matches for a single player to worry about in international soccer, which is both good and bad for this mode. It's good in that it doesn't take forever for anything to happen. It's bad in that even on the harder difficulties, you'll have virtually no trouble soaring into the starting eleven of your country's team. There's not a lot of challenge to it if you can play competently. Another issue is that if your team fails to qualify for the World Cup or otherwise disappoints, then you're done. There is no next year to hope for, because that will have to wait for the next FIFA World Cup game.

FIFA World Cup isn't as detailed as FIFA 10, but it's still incredibly hard to resist for fans of international soccer. The graphics are even more beautiful, the gameplay is slightly improved, and the matchups are more interesting. The atmosphere of a World Cup is conveyed pretty well, and you just get the sense that every victory is that much more important than anything your club team did in FIFA 10. It's not a real game improvement but instead a natural advantage that FIFA World Cup has, but that doesn't make it any less valid for the player.

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Review of Players Short Listed for the FIFA 2007 Player of the Year Award

It is time of the year where the FIFA world player of the year is decided by the votes of coaches and captains of national team worldwide.

But before we go into the discussion of the list of players drawn for 2007, an introduction of the mechanism of the system would be discussed first. The award was started in 1991 for the male player and in 2001 for the female player categories respectively. Basically, the coaches and national team captains would vote for players drawn by the technical committees of FIFA. The system used is called the Borda count where each coach and captain would get three votes (one of five points, one of three points and one of one point) to cast for the players of his choice. And the winner would be determined by the total of points received. The winner last year is Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro of Real Madrid.

Now to the list of players short listed for the award this year. Heading the list are five players of Italian descent, they are Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Gennaro Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta and Andrea Pirlo. Except for Cannavaro and Buffon (Juventus), the remaining three players of the UEFA 2006-2007 champions league winners AC Milan. However the chances of an Italian repeating the feat of winning is slim this year as the national team did not perform to its best after World Cup 2006 and as for domestically, the Serie A is recovering from the scars of the scandal hit season.

Next up would be the discussion of the English contenders for the title. They are Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), John Terry (Chelsea) and Wayne Rooney (Manchester United). Looking at chances of the English contenders, none of them have high chances of clinching the title as the English national team has a difficult Euro 2008 qualifying campaign so far and they did not any outstanding club exploits last season. The other reasons are although Manchester United and Chelsea went head to head in the Premiership race, they failed to impress at the UEFA Champions league level. As for Gerrard, if Liverpool did won the last season UEFA Champions league final against AC Milan, then his chances would be different. However they did not and Liverpool had another of its forgettable seasons in the league again.

As for the French, they have Thierry Henry (Barcelona), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Lillan Thuram (Barcelona) and Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan) short listed. At the moment, the chances of the French are as slim as the English for similar reasons. Henry has been a world class player, but he could not inspire Arsenal to the Premiership title and for this season, he is still adapting to his new club, Barcelona. Ribery also did not have the best of seasons last year and has changed clubs in the summer, leaving for Bungesliga Giants, Munich from the sleeping giants of French Football, Marseille. In Vieria's case, Inter Milan did retain their Serie A title last season, but as mentioned above, the title seen to be given to Inter midst point deduction for several Serie A clubs and demotion of Juventus. Hence he would not have a high chance in this year's competition for the best player's title. For Thuram, it is even more gloomer as he did not feature in a lot of his club's games last season and Barcelona failed to defend its La Liga title.

Brazil has three players short listed in Kaka (AC Milan), Juninho (Lyon) and Ronaldinho (Barcelona). Although the Brazilians have a forgettable world cup 2006, however one of three can be considered as a highly possible contender for the title. He is Kaka. The reason is that he has also won the FIFPro 2007 Player of the year award and it was he that inspired AC Milan to winning the UEFA Champions League midst a disappointing Serie A 2006-2007 campaign. As for Ronaldinho, a previous two time winner (2004 and 2005), his chances this year are quite slim as he was not in the best form last season with the Catalans Giants as they lost out to Real Madrid in the La Liga title. In the case of Juninho, other than inspiring Lyon to six consecutive French Ligue 1 titles, he had no major efforts of note last season.

As for Brazil's South American rival, Argentina too has three players short listed in Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Juan Roman Riquelme (River) and Carlos Tevez (Manchester United). Of the three, Messi's chances are the highest as he has continued where he left off last season with eight goals in as many games this season. Tevez had a difficult season in which his transfer reeks of a drama serial while Riquelme with his talent to a lot of people has choked on the big stages once too often.

Another highly possible contender for the title is Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United. With his 23 goals, English Premiership Player of the year award and PFA player's player of the year award last season, he can be seen as a major reason why Manchester United managed to regain the English Premiership title. Furthermore, in midst of enduring an anti-Ronaldo season after his antics at World Cup 2006, it is a wonder that he could conjure up such a wonderful season. Another Portuguese short listed is Deco of Barcelona who for all his talents was a bit player for Catalans last season and hence his chances are not very high then.

The remaining players of the short list are Fernando Torres (Spain, Liverpool), Ruud Van Nistelrroy (Holland, Real Madrid), Petr Cech (Czech Republic, Chelsea), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea), Michael Essien (Ghana, Chelsea), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon, Barcelona) and Rafael Marquez (Mexico, Barcelona). Of seven remaining players, Ruud Van Nistelrroy may have the best chance as he was the top scorer for Real Madrid in their title winning squad last season and has continued his fine form this season. As for players of Chelsea and Barcelona, their failure in defending the title and poor UEFA Champions League showing would count against them. Lastly, Torres, the sole Spanish in the list, like Henry has traded clubs where he left his boyhood club, Atletico Madrid for English side Liverpool in the summer. His chances are very slim as during his time as Atletico Madrid, the team failed to establish it as La Liga contenders and as for his new club, he is still adapting there.

Lastly to summarize my views on FIFA 2007 Player of the year, my choice of player to win is the Kaka of AC Milan with Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) to give him a run for the title. The results would be out this December 2007 at the FIFA World Player Gala in Zurich.

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World Cup Adidas Ball - Review

The World Cup is a wonderful experience for a lot of people! Millions of eyes are focused on television and thousands watching it live on football stadium. However, this may not be possible without the World cup Adidas ball! Every 4 years was selected ball, which will be the face of the tournament. It must meet many criteria that are set by FIFA. Goes through various tests and if passes all the tests shall be declared as the new cup Adidas ball!

Producer company itself has created a laboratory for quality control called the Adidas Innovation Team or AIT. Following the testing of these candidate World cup Adidas ball is given to professional football players to be tested directly on the football pitch. In University of Loughborough is the world leading institution - Sport Technology Research Group. It also made many tests and studies. Everything proves that World cup Adidas ball is the only nominee and winner. Most round, most stable flight and the best behavior among competitors.

The best players from the tournament can show its superb quality thanks to FIFA and the high quality criteria that are created. Tests made at the World cup Adidas ball all outperform the benchmarks. And some of them are: Loss of Pressure Test, Drum Test, Permanent Roundness Test.

Loss of Pressure Test: The loss of air from the World cup Adidas ball during the game can lead to unpredictable and difficult to control. Making passes and sprint can become almost impossible. For this purpose, the test is done as follows: the ball is fully inflated, and after 3 days the pressure is measured in. There should be no more loss rate than anticipated.

* FIFA-Approved Standard: Loss of pressure maximum 20%

* Adidas Jabulani: Loss of pressure maximum 10%

Drum Test: This test is specially designed by adidas in order to guarantee the durability and high-quality printing on the surface, the species and unique design. In the same way as the Teamgeist, World cup Adidas ball Jabulani owns the underglass print technology, providing the best and most robust surface material that ensures the retention of the unique nature and strength as much as possible any longer!

Permanent Roundness Test: To show what A footballer is able to pitch, the ball must be perfectly round. If it is perfectly round, in which case it is much more balanced in their fields, more precise and predictable with each stroke while flying in the air. The shape of the new 3-D panels contribute to the harmonization of energy shift and minimizing the amount of formation of angles. A good hit is possible due to the larger panels. To make this test, World cup Adidas ball was measured at 16 different points and calculate the average diameter. A difference between the smallest and largest diameter must be set in advance limits.

* FIFA-Approved Standard: Maximum 1.5% difference

* Adidas Jabulani: Maximum 1.0% difference.

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