The PC version of FIFA has been a little behind the curve when it comes to getting the latest and greatest technology the soccer series brings to its big brothers on consoles. Well, all of that is changing with FIFA 11, as PC players can now enjoy the same game engine that has been on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for the last few years. It might still be lacking some of the features that console fans know and love, but there's no question that this year's FIFA on PC is a big step in the right direction.
When you first hop into FIFA 11 on PC the differences are immediately evident when comparing it to last year's version. The 360-degree dribbling that was introduced in FIFA 10 on consoles makes its way into this year's game, so moves feel much more under your control than they have in the past. You can make finite moves with players like Lionel Messi and every other athlete on the pitch feels a bit freer for impressive runs when not confined to the eight directions of old. This also helps the general realism of the action which only ups the excitement level in the various stadiums.
The other most obvious upgrade is the visuals. Depending on the specs of your system, FIFA 11 has the potential to look pretty damn good. Our system was an Alienware laptop with a Core 2 Duo running at 2 GHz with 6 GB of RAM and 2 GeForce 260Ms running under the hood. It's not quite state of the art anymore, but it was more than enough to churn out a smooth framerate and nice player details. The single lacking portion of the visual presentation was the general lack of the advanced physical interactions that are in FIFA 11 on consoles. There's still some jostling going on during gameplay, but it's not at the same level as what's seen on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The bigger downfall of the PC version is the slightly limited feature set. While everything works just fine and the online performs very well, its list of modes is pulled from last year's FIFA on consoles. You get Manager Mode, Tournament Mode, Virtual Pro where you can create your player and stick him on your favorite team and then develop his skills, and Be A Pro to go along with standard online gameplay (for background info on all of these modes, read our full Xbox 360 review. Pro Club Championship is here and accounted for and allows for the same five-on-five (consoles allows for full 11-on-11) that you'll find in Online Team Play. LAN support is also included, which will likely make FIFA PC tournament players happy.
CLOSING COMMENTS
The list of modes might not be as lengthy or as innovative as what’s seen on consoles, but there’s no question that there’s a lot of fun to be had with the traditional Manager Mode and Be A Pro: Seasons. Just don’t expect them to deviate all that much from what you remember from last year’s console game. But hey, at least PC gamers will now be able to enjoy the same game engine as the rest of the next-gen FIFA world. It’s a huge improvement over the last few years of PC offerings, but it still isn’t quite up to par with the big boys of the FIFA world.
