2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa Review

Every four years when the World Cup comes around you know that there will be a game to go with it. Normally, when a World Cup game is released it feels that there is something missing, especially when you obviously don't have the in-depth manger mode or the massive array of teams to pick from. So will South Africa 2010 get you in the mood for the World Cup this summer?

South Africa 2010 gives you everything that you could want from a World Cup game. Like in every normal FIFA game, you have a quick game mode where you can just jump into a match with random teams; and like in every normal World Cup FIFA game you have the World Cup mode. In this mode, if you choose to go straight to the finals you can choose from the 32 teams that have qualified. If you want to do the whole campaign (Qualifying and the finals), you can pick any country even if they didn't qualify to see if you can do better.

The Commentators do try to sell South Africa really well during the games they will start saying how spectacular the views are at Nelson Mandela Bay and how everyone is look forward to going to the Soccer City Stadium, but after a while they do start to repeat themselves with what they say. One thing that could have been added is different crowd sizes, like smaller attendances for friendlies to qualifiers and the world cup finals. Also smaller attendances for smaller countries and far away games.

The next mode is "Captain Your Country" which is essentially the same as "Be A Pro" on Fifa 10. You can import the player that you have made on Fifa 10 to save some time and like on Fifa 10, you have to start from the B team of what ever country you decide to play for. The campaign itself starts in 2008 so you have quite a lot of time to get up to the first team before the qualifying and try and get the captaincy for the finals.

Probably the most entertaining game mode is the scenario mode. The mode includes replays of the most important matches in the qualifying campaign - moments like when Thierry Henry got the crushing handball in the dying seconds against Ireland. In every scenario there are objectives that you need to complete and for every one you do you will get points. After you get ten thousand points you can unlock the German World Cup finals scenarios. Also, after this World Cup you will be able to download memorable scenarios from these finals too.

Finally the last offline game mode is Penalty Shootout mode where you can choose two teams and compete in a penalty shootout without playing the full game. You take it in turns to take shots at the keeper and best of five wins. The penalty system has also changed to make it harder for you to score. You have to set your power like normal but also when you set the power you need to get the composure in the green too. Also when you are running up to strike the ball you can do a stuttered run to see if the keeper moves and change the direction of your shot.

The online play is the same as Fifa 10 were you can jump straight into a match with someone or search for specifics like half length and the skill of your opponent. New to South Africa 2010 is the interactive world cup mode where you put the country you want to play with and the you play games in the group stages against other players from around the world - the top two go through to the knock out stages then though to the final.

As you can imagine the graphics are quite like Fifa 10, but you can see that changes have been made. The players in the bigger teams look like really life-like but the players that play for the teams that didn't qualify don't look quite so good. Also, similar to the last world cup game when the ball goes out of play, the camera sometimes flicks to the manager that always looks animated. Also when the ball goes out of play the camera some times flicks to a section of the crowd who are wearing the colours of one of the teams playing jumping about with air horns, this seems like quite an after thought when it only shows three or four people. If the camera panned out and let you see a bigger section of the crowd and showed people waving flags and taking pictures this would have been better because you will get to see the size of you support.

At the start of every match there are fireworks going off and confetti being thrown on to the pitch which gives you the party feeling like really playing at the world cup. Unlike most football games were the confetti will disappear when the game kicks off, this game keeps the confetti in view for the entire game. One down side to the confetti on the pitch is that it doesn't move when the ball and the players run over it. To add to the world cup feeling all the way through the match there is constant air horns blazing and shouting at the referees decisions, but if the constant noise gets on your nerves there is a option to turn it off.

The game play has also been slightly tweaked from Fifa 10 - the goalkeepers don't going rushing out when you get past the last defender but you can still manually bring him out when you like. The referee is also more animated and gets involved in the game more. When you pass the ball near to the referee he will try his best to get out of the way but some times the ball will hit him and change direction.

Overall South Africa 2010 is a game for any football lover to get yourself ready for the world cup. But the fact that Fifa 11 will be released in five to six months will put most people off. The new features like the revised penalty system, smoother through-ball passing, along with the scenario mode will keep you entertained reliving and rewriting your hero's most important games.