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FIFA Soccer 09 Kicks Ass

We just got back from an EA showcase, and as always, the company has a strong holiday line-up, including a much-improved NBA Live 09, a new cartoon-y boxing title called Facebreaker (think Street Fighter II meets Ring King), the ultra-awesome, ultra-violent sci-fi banger Dead Space, the infamous Spore, and a really cool game that we signed away the rights to talk about until next month.

But the game that really caught our eye was FIFA Soccer 09 (in stores October 14). Somewhere in the last few years, EA’s FIFA franchise caught up with Konami’s Pro Evo series, and now it’s clear that FIFA has passed it for good. Building on the success of FIFA Soccer 08 and the summer’s UEFA EURO 2008 title, FIFA Soccer 09 has the makings of the best footy title ever. Check out our hands-on impressions of the game and more screenshots are after the jump.

GAMEPLAY: We played an exhibition game against a colleague (Arsenal v. England, go figure), and what was immediately evident is the intuitiveness of the controls. What impressed us about UEFA EURO 2008 was the improved “through ball” control, making passes into space seem more like real football. FIFA Soccer 09 builds on that and makes it even smoother, so you can incorporate intricate “Total Football”-style passing into your game. Even as an early version of the title, the game engine felt seamless and the movements instinctual. As good as FIFA Soccer 08 is, the game sometimes feels a little choppy. FIFA Soccer 09 is fluid all the way.

GRAPHICS: Seems like FIFA Soccer 09 has hundreds of new animations—in just a 10-minute game, we saw dozens of them. Collision dynamics are greatly improved (players will jostle each other in pursuit of the ball), the tackling is more varied (i.e., it’s not the same slide tackle over and over again), and player models are more realistic than ever. EA obviously paid attention to the little things too: when you send a player on a run, he points to where he wants his pass, and there are a multitude of ways that players can tumble. You can even tackle your own teammate! (Sorry, Rosicky.)

EXTRAS: We had a lot of fun with the customizable goal celebrations in UEFA EURO 2008 (especially online, suckas!!!), and apparently others did too, because EA put them in FIFA Soccer 09. Nothing better than rubbing a goal in the face of your opponent by executing an elaborate celebration. Overall, the game looks incredible and we can hardly wait to play it for real. Pro Evo, time to stop slacking. You’re getting left behind.