EA's team, be it the programmers themselves or the marketing department, love to give new gameplay elements names that range from realistic to overly cutesy. There was the implementation of Freestyle Control, which effectively meant that virtually every EA title released between late 2002 and the end of 2003 had some sort of right-analog implementation in the mix. It started with NBA Live 2003, then spread to FIFA 2003, and so on, and so on. FIFA 2004 debuted online play (for PS2; Xbox owners would have to wait a year, and GameCube owners... well, you know the score) and Off the Ball controls, which meant that players could set up new moves. Then FIFA got First Touch, which allowed players to react to the ball as they would in real life upon encountering it. Henry would certainly take a pass differently than Bergkamp.

In last year's game, it seemed that EA Canada effectively gutted the engine, rid themselves of Off the Ball and revamped the game, including new elements like an exceptionally detailed franchise mode -- at least, the most detailed anyone in North America was going to get -- and new controls that felt closer to their rival series, Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven. The revamp worked to fairly successful results as the game's handling was seriously improved. So, where does that leave FIFA Soccer 07?


Slippery. There isn't a cute catchphrase that we heard at EA's press event last month regarding FIFA 07's newest feature, which involves dribbling and ball handling, but it's slippery. That's actually a good thing. Anyone who's ever played soccer in real life knows that handling the ball is easier said than done. It takes some real coordination. In last year's game, EA Canada gutted out a lot of the old gameplay to make way for new elements, like the Pro Evo-inspired controls. This year, they've completely revamped everything about the ball itself.

In every way, the physics of the ball have now been dramatically altered. We're not just saying that to gush or make it sound like FIFA's megaton revelation. But players who charge ahead with the sprint button are going to be in for a very rude awakening if they don't handle the ball gently. Previous FIFA games felt a little like NBA Live in the way that ball carriers could dribble up and down the pitch. That has now changed.

Rather than stay tethered to the player, the ball moves completely on its own, which means that the player is now at its mercy. Sloppy dribbling will be far more costly than in past games, judging by both how we played and how we saw others playing it. The game's Vancouver-based producers also indicated that, thanks to their physics engine, even ball shapes and sizes can affect the player handling, which sounds as though it reflects the complaints by World Cup goalkeepers in Germany regarding the ball types used during the tournament.