I think the most interesting thing is that the AI actually poses a threat now...or maybe its just cause I'm starting on Legendary. I have offense down, but defense is still a work in progress.

My pet project in this game (at least offline) will be Real Madrid so a lot of what I post will be from my experiences with them. The freedom of movement in this game is beautiful to watch and its nice to actually be able to beat a man in FIFA for once.

But where the game shines is off the ball runs. If there's space in the defense, your guys haul ass to make themselves available for the ball. and if you have an attacking maestro on your team, youre going to see some simply magnificent killer balls.

The other area of note is dribbling, especially trick moves seem to be much more responsive when you attempt them. For an example, I picked up a ball on the touchline w/ Ronaldo and did 4 stepovers before going by the man and passed it in for Higuain to backheel it in. In 09, I'm almost positive I would've gotten a completely different trick move than what I wanted.

I still feel like the slide tackle is absolutely useless and can only be a negative. Free kicks are alright, takes a sec to get used to.

Something I've noticed though is that this year's game isnt newbie friendly at all. I let some of my friends play (as it stands now they refuse to play me. i'm too sick) each other for a few hours and it basically devolved into me coaching them. So beware of that when you try and introduce someone new to this game.