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There is no finer feeling that when you win a championship in a sporting event.  There is a sense of satisfaction and pride in knowing that you team rules the top of their prospective sport.  That feeling is driven even higher for the greatest sports trophy in the land, The World Cup.  Part of this comes from the fact that country pride is on the line more than anything else.  To become one of the final 32 teams that can compete for The World Cup is a dream that cannot be compared in any way, shape or form.  You walk out on to the pitch, millions of flashbulbs popping, and billions more watching around the world, as you wear the colors of your country.  2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, captures this entire atmosphere of country pride, and wraps it around a refined FIFA10 football engine, providing a stellar experience for at a nice price point.

In 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (now to be known as FIFA World Cup) models the entire 2010 World Cup event, that will start here in one month.  All 32 teams in the World Cup are represented in the tournament, and all the brackets are set as they were drawn out several months ago.  You can choose one of the 32 teams in the tournament and guide them to the greatest trophy in the land, The World Cup.

Yes, the World Cup tournament is the main draw to the title, but I would say that while it is great, it is not the highlight of the package, as the reason to own this game is the Captain Your Country mode.  In this mode, you can pick up any one of the 199 teams that attempted to qualify for the World Cup, and try to guide that team to the championship.  However, adding to that mix, is the ability to create your own player, or take an existing one from the team of your choice and earn them the position of captain of their country’s team.  As you play through each game on the path to the World Cup, you are scored on your performance.  Each pass, dribble, shot on goal, goal scored, tackles, takeaways and everything else is factored into your performance grade.  Perform well, and you will eventually get the much desired captaincy.  Screw up, and you may find yourself riding the pine.  I just found this mode to be tons of fun, as I was able to focus on my one character, getting him into proper position, working situations and so much more.  I found it to be highly exciting to see my performance at halftime, and see what I needed to do to get to where the coach wanted me to be at.

There are also other modes of play like putting you into World Cup situations where you have to meet a particular goal.  One example is after Deco has scored a goal for Portugal at the 87’ mark, you have three minutes to lead the Denmark team to victory down 2-1.  These moments add some tension to the gameplay, but it is always more difficult to play in a situation that may not involve a team that you are passionate about.

While FIFA World Cup offers a ton of modes in the game, it would mean nothing if the actual football engine was terrible, and thankfully, this is not the case.  The action on the pitch is absolutely amazing; with pass control reaching a new pinnacle for the EA Sports football titles.  FIFA World Cup felt fast on the pitch, with crisp passing, and the AI seems to have great situational awareness, getting into just the right position for a critical pass.  I did find the player switching to be a bit confusing at times, as I wound end up having the game switch my player on the fly to the one closest to the ball, leading me to run the wrong direction for a minute.   You start to get used to these player switches after a few games, but it would have been nice to have a warning for the transitions.

A slight issue that I had was with the AI of the computer opponents.  At the higher levels of difficulty, I found it almost impossible at times to get the ball even out of my half of the field, let alone organize an attack.  I do understand that the higher difficulties are suppose to supply a serious challenge, but I have been playing football games for some time, and I have never felt a challenge in prior FIFA titles like I have with this one.  I did start to get better as I progressed through the game, but at the beginning, it was not uncommon to see 5-0 routs by the computer over my team.  The AI is also kind of weird when handling teams of poor skill ratings.  When I was playing a match against Israel, I watched them drive the field, only to pass the ball backwards for no reason.  This happened in more than one match, and it made me think that the developers dumb down the AI for the lesser teams, but it comes off as irritating more than showing less refined play.

The graphics and sound in FIFA World Cup are outstanding, with crowd chants getting progressively louder as your team starts to push forward for the win, and great cheers ring out for standout plays.  I also loved the presentation on screen, as the game looks as if you were watching a televised match.  The screen kept up with all the action, and looked to be running at a solid 60 frames per second.   All of this graphic fidelity seemed to tank however whenever the game would shift to a cut scene.  Many times during a game, the game will cut to the crowd, the coach or even to players on the field during certain events like a yellow card, or a foul.  These cut scenes looked very choppy and the animations rather stiff.  I got to the point where I would just skip them, because they were so hard on the eyes.

FIFA World Cup does offer online quick online tournaments, and also the ability to play against a friend on the same screen, as well as playing against another person one on one online.  I played in a few of these games and found the online to be surprisingly spry, keeping up with all the action and with little to no lag whatsoever.

At the end of the day, the World Cup and Euro titles are a hard sell to consumers.  On the one hand, it is the only game that offers you the direct experience of the World Cup championship, but at the same time, it is hard pressed to get your money right in-between FIFA 10 and FIFA 11.  Yes the price point is lower than a full game, but it can factor into the decision to buy the game.

All in all, FIFA World Cup provides the one definitive World Cup experience, with the atmosphere, play and modes to earn points with most football fans.  It has a few rough spots in an otherwise fantastic on the field experience.  2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa gets 4 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.
Check out 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and other Xbox 360  reviews at Test Freaks.