The FIFA franchise is one of the most popular sports games franchises in the world. Last year EA Sports finally decided to give a fight to Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer franchise and had a big success. When it was time to release the 2009 version of the game I was wondering what could be done to make the game a better experience than last year’s.

FIFA 09 comes with several improvements. Some are major and some are minor but overall,  the changes made the game better and even more kick ass than the previous one.

Gameplay-wise, the game took a more realistic turn. The goalkeeper can now send the players for a fast counter attack, when the players fall their fall looks more natural – spinning and rolling, the players move faster – they are not so heavy like they were last year and for those who know how to execute skill tricks – new tricks that will give you more options on how to avoid the defending player were added. All these changes have been made just for one reason – a faster and more intense game than FIFA 2008.

The game modes are the same as the previous game. You have the manager mode, the “Be a Pro” mode, Lounge mode and of course – the custom tournaments mode. I wonder where did Practice mode go… Lack of practice mode makes it very hard to find online players who know how to kick a decent free kick.

The online modes are the same as the previous game as well. You have the (favorable) lobbies where you can find other players to play with, chat and share some strategies and useful tricks.

The best thing happened this year is the Adidas live league. The Adidas live league works much like the NBA 365 – the main leagues EA in corporation with Adidas send scouts to watch games and update the stats of the players. However, if you didn’t buy the game in the store you won’t be able to use this feature… There is a one-use code that will give you access to the feature. If you bought your copy from someone,  you can purchase the code from EA for 20$…

Not all is perfect in FIFA 2009 though… First of all, the stats aren’t so accurate as they were supposed to be. For an example, Del Piero – a very honorable Juventus player – can sprint very fast. His sprint ranking is one of the highest in the game. He didn’t run so fast when he was young… I hope things like that will change with the Adidas Live Season feature.

Also, there are some problems with the judging system. One bug I noticed is when a foul is being made on a player. If the player doesn’t regain control over the ball in a few seconds, a foul is given to his team. I found myself losing a goal I scored because the goalkeeper of the opposite team tackled my player. It took some time, but the ball rolled gently toward the goal. Because the ball took to long to get there the game was stopped and I got a foul… but this was a definite goal! I hope the judging will be fixed with a future patch…

As for now, FIFA 2009 is the best soccer game out there (haven’t tries PES 09 yet though…). The atmosphere, the visuals, the great improvements  from last year – they all make this game a must have for every soccer fan.

Score – 93