We hate FIFA's dev team; every year we write about how they've perfected virtual football, how each new iteration of the series is the best yet, and then every year they go and trump themselves spectacularly, leaving us looking rather stupid in the process.
And so it is with FIFA 11; while the progression from FIFA 10 isn't as superficially vast as it has been in previous years, the suite of subtle additions make its game for a more convincing take on the sport than before, and one that plays with a wonderful flow and instinct. We're not going to say that it makes FIFA 10 look poor, but having played FIFA 11 our lunchtime sessions with last year's game are often spent yearning to get our hands on this year's model.
So what's different? We've gone over the headline new features before, but it's worth a quick recap. Pro Passing brings the manual passing that's been an option in the series for some time to the fore, tweaking it to ensure it's still an exercise in fun for less experienced players. Slotting the ball to other players is now more reliant on context – trying to spray it around with abandon is now a less fruitful option, and in the team's own parlance it puts an end to the 'ping-pong passing' of previous FIFAs. It's now important to think before laying the ball on, and the game benefits hugely as a result.
