Now what you are about to read has not been written by me or anyone else here at Console Monster, but because there is far too much juicy info to write into my own words, i’ll just let you read the below PR post from FIFA 10 line producer David Rutter. It makes for interesting reading. PES better watch out! This is Part 1 of 2. Part 2 will be posted up tomorrow evening. Enjoy!
We’re really proud of FIFA 09. Quality wise the game was up there, but being football and football game fanatics we’re never satisfied. So with FIFA 10 we wanted to address 3 key things.
- Refine our gameplay (Part 1)
- Respond to feedback from our Fans (Part 2)
- Innovate in some really cool ways. (Part 2)
About 70% of our effort went on the first 2 items, whilst the remaining 30% was spent on the very cool new innovations we have already revealed and others that we will be revealing in the coming months.
Taking each in turn
Refining our Game
When we look at FIFA 09 the overall quality of the gameplay is good. We’ve been building our ‘Next Gen’ gameplay for three years, and we have managed to address most of our fundamentals to a really satisfactory level. However there were still some frustrations – and we wanted to address them. Week in and week out when we watch real football games we see things that help us to identify how real football players behave, and express themselves on the pitch. With this in mind we focused on a heap of things this year, namely:
Urgency: We wanted to replicate the degrees of urgency on the pitch. When players aren’t involved in immediate ‘action’ they’re more relaxed. As play gets closer they become more alert and responsive to what’s going on around them. So in FIFA 10 this year you’ll see a lot of different motions being used dependent on the state of the play, and the ‘threat’ of the situation. We’ve also worked on new Face Ball logic, to ensure that players are correctly following the play and better prepared to react to the situation. This work even moves into players getting out of the way of teammates passes and shots, and players throwing themselves at the ball with effort – things like diving headers, sliding shots, falling clearances etc.
Trapping: Trapping is how the player gets into a position to control the ball, and how they control it. This year we wanted to get away from inappropriate ‘earliest’ trapping, where a player might move to a position where they would get the ball to touch them as soon as possible, to an ‘easiest’ trapping system, where players move to a position to get the ball under control as easily as possible. Essentially we gave the players more intelligence and awareness of where the most ‘natural’ trapping position is. The net result – a more responsive ball control mechanic to get the ball on the ground, and under control.
Positioning: This year we wanted to ensure that players had more awareness of where their teammates were. A new system call ‘Position Priority’ makes sure that Defensive Midfielders cover at the back if a Centre back has gone up for a corner – and they won’t leave their post until it’s safe for them to do so. Similarly in attack supporting players make more elaborate runs, analyzing space more effectively to curve, stay onside and create space for passes.
Passing: Yet again there was a lot of ‘threat’ analysis work going on. Passing players now have a greater understanding of the space ahead of teammates to make through balls more effective.
Shooting: We really wanted to improve the way the ball moves this year. So we created a tool that enables us to create a context sensitive shooting mechanic. What this means is we can tune the error on shots based on the situation. Factors during a shot like the ball, foot and movement of both now will have the correct effect on the ball and lead to some really cool looking shots.
Defending: We worked not just on the positioning as mentioned above, but also on the slide and standing tackles, and momentum on both. For slide tackling, good players now slide further, so you’ll have more reach. They also have better targeting – so you’ll generally go for the ball rather than the player. Obviously with more reach, you’ve got to time them better, otherwise you’ll be picking yourself up, as the attacker is bearing down on goal. The standing tackle, which was very powerful in 09, is now less forgiving. Defenders will use more momentum in these tackles, so again, if you miss time – you’ll be committed to the wrong direction.
Keepers: Lots of improvements here. We’ve looked at interception logic – calm and collected in low threat situations, through to punches under pressure. Again, lots of urgency work too. The keepers are now far more aggressive coming off their line, but if caught off their line they can scramble back to scoop the ball out of danger. We also worked on the goalies momentum to ensure his saves are realistic.
There’s a heap more too – and I’m sure in upcoming blogs by Creative Director Gary Paterson and gameplay producer Aaron McHardy they’ll be discussing these, and much more, in lots of detail.
Part 2 will be live tomorrow night, so stay tuned to Console Monster!
