2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa

Preview: Source: http://www.gamespot.com/

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Q&A

Producer Matt Prior takes us through some of the new features in EA Sports' upcoming World Cup game.

With the Super Bowl finished up, and March Madness about to wrap up, the attention of the world's sports fans will soon shift to the World Cup this summer in South Africa. Thirty-two teams will face off for the ultimate in bragging rights when the tournament kicks off in June. If you can't wait that long, you'll be able to get a taste of what to expect with the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa from EA Sports. The game is coming for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PSP in April, and recently we got a chance to speak with the game's producer, Matt Prior, to learn about some of the newly announced features in the game.


Matt Prior: We have partnered with Coca-Cola Zero for an ambitious feature called the Coca-Cola Zero Story of the Finals. We will re-create moments from the real World Cup during the actual tournament and will allow gamers to play them out in the game. From June 11 to July 11, as the actual World Cup is taking place in South Africa, we will select the most interesting match scenarios each day, and gamers will be able to download them for free and play them out in the game. For example, if in the real World Cup England were losing to the US with 10 minutes to go but ended up winning with two late Rooney goals, we would re-create that scenario and allow gamers to download it. It may take the form of a scenario where the gamer plays as Rooney and joins the game in the 80th minute in an attempt to re-create Rooney's real-life heroics or alternatively we may choose to let the gamer take control of the US team and try and prevent the loss. 

GS: Describe the process of how the team will create these scenarios. How quickly will scenarios be available during the World Cup? How many scenarios will you be creating? 

MP: As diehard football fans, we will all be watching every single game during the World Cup. While watching, we'll be taking note of the most exciting games and key incidents, and at the end of each day we'll sit down and decide which ones we want to create. The scenarios will go live within 24 hours after the actual games take place. We need testing time for each, so we can't get them out any sooner than that unfortunately.

We are aiming to do a scenario for every game, but nothing has been finalized yet. I think it will be a very popular feature as it directly connects our game to the real World Cup on a daily basis, which is something we have never done before. For those disgruntled fans whose teams don't do too well, it also gives them the opportunity to vent frustration by downloading the game and showing them how things should have happened. 

GS: Beyond the obvious of downloading new scenarios, will there be any online component to Story of the Finals mode, such as leaderboards? 

MP: Not this time. If it proves popular, it's certainly something we could look at in the future, but I think for a first-time outing it will be enough for gamers just to have the ability to play alongside the actual tournament taking place on their TV. 

GS: What scenarios will be part of the Story of Qualifying mode? 

MP: There are lots, as the actual qualifying process created a lot of interesting opportunities. We actually had a tough time picking them as there were so many we could have done. I don't want to spoil the surprise completely, but there are over 50 to choose from, and they include scenarios from all of the different confederations. One of the great things about this mode is that it allows gamers to play with teams that they may not ordinarily pick, so they'll get to see all the different environments and stadiums in the game. Some of the more memorable ones we have included are Argentina's visit to Bolivia and having to deal with the issues of playing at high altitude; the historic playoff between bitter rivals Egypt and Algeria (the first time in the history of the World Cup a playoff of that kind has happened); the USA's visit to the Azteca in Mexico in a must-win scenario for the home side; and who can forget the game between France and Ireland in Paris and the now infamous Thierry Henry handball incident.

As an added bonus, completing each of the scenarios earns points which go towards unlocking the extra scenarios. The unlockable bonus scenarios are all from the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, and we all know how memorable that was. Remember the incident in the final!

GS: Elsewhere in the game, we've seen the composure meter that will be used with penalty kicks. What kind of fan feedback have you seen on this feature? Have there been any tweaks to the system based on this feedback? 

MP: There was a lot of feedback and tweaks required on the new penalty kick system, as it is such a step forward to what gamers are used to. We actually ended up putting in a training mode, as we were finding gamers were missing almost every kick because they were not used to the added accuracy and control of the new system. The composure meter was all part of that tuning and feedback and is one of the features that help us emphasize the pressure of taking a penalty kick. Each player has a different composure setting in the database, and in addition to that, the composure meter will also be affected depending upon the importance of the kick. If it's simply a kick to extend a big lead in a friendly match, then there is not much pressure. If it's the kick to win the World Cup, that's an entirely different matter, and the composure meter will relay that to the user. The feedback on the new system has been hugely positive so far. 

GS: What new features in FIFA 2010 will we recognize once FIFA 11 is released later this year? 

MP: We have a central gameplay team that continually refines and improves the gameplay experience for all of our football titles. It's all part of continuing the evolution of the EA football games so they get better and better with each iteration. The gameplay improvements in World Cup will certainly feature in FIFA, as they make the game that much better. FIFA 2010 World Cup South Africa represent the best football game EA has ever produced, so we are not going to throw all of that effort away. Likewise, we put a lot of effort into the new penalty kick system, so we will consider carrying this over as well. In terms of modes, there are clearly a lot in World Cup that relate to just the World Cup, so they won't feature, but everything we do to improve the gameplay experience will be carried over. 

GS: Tell us about Captain Your Country mode. 

MP: Captain Your Country is a mode based around achieving the ultimate goal of any professional footballer and that is captaining your nation to World Cup glory and being the one who lifts the trophy at the end of it all. You play as an individual player, which creates a unique spin on gameplay. You can play as one of the real-world players, create a new player, or even bring your virtual pro in from FIFA. If you choose to create a player or bring in your virtual pro, you also have the added bonus of being able to grow your player. As you play well and move up the rankings from B team player all the way to the first team squad, your player's attributes will improve. Most of the producers chose to create a player, as we have also added thousands of new commentary names that you can assign. There is nothing quite like hearing the commentator shout your name as you score, so the created players make it that much more special. The mode is a local multiplayer mode for up to four players, and that also creates a unique spin on gameplay. As a team, you are all competing for the same prize: to take your team through the entire qualifying campaign and onto World Cup glory. The subplot, however, is that you are all competing on an individual level for the captaincy, so while you must all play as a team, the other players are your direct rivals for the ultimate prize. These competing goals create some very interesting and entertaining games and a very different gameplay experience than many will be used to. 

GS: Players can use either existing stars or created players in Captain Your Country mode. We've seen this option in Be a Pro modes in other games, but I'm wondering if you have any data that shows how often people use one or the other? 

MP: We do track data surrounding these things, as it helps us develop features that gamers want and ensures we focus our efforts in the areas most people use. Making created players has become more popular since we have put more features surrounding it. In FIFA 10, there were 2.8 million virtual pros created, and 770,000 of these players utilized the photo game face feature through easportsfootballworld.com.

You will always get users who want to play as their heroes, and that's perfectly fine, but using a created player has its own unique personal feel in my opinion. In Captain Your Country on World Cup, for example, we have added another 6,000 player names that users can assign to their player. If you are lucky enough to have a name that features in that long list (and most people probably will), then you can give your created player your own name and hear the commentator shout it as you score. You'll also see your name feature in news headlines in the Fifa.com screen we have incorporated in the game. It's just a couple of the things that makes using a created player that much more satisfying. Additionally, using a created player also allows you to grow his attributes, which is something you can't do with an existing player, so he'll develop as the game progresses.

We'll always support both, but as we continue to develop the created player and make the process much more user-friendly, with features like game face and so on, I think you'll likely find more and more people gravitating towards creating themselves. In Captain Your Country, if you are good enough, you get to see yourself lift the World Cup surrounded by the real-world team. How cool is that!


2010 FIFA World Cup Updated Hands-On

It was fitting that today in San Francisco we got beaten by USA when playing as England in 2010 FIFA World Cup. While that was a particularly humiliating blow, the event allowed us to find out a whole load more information about the official World Cup game, including penalty shoot-outs, online modes, and the plans for postrelease downloadable content.

As we mentioned in our first hands-on with the game, 2010 FIFA World Cup is much more vibrant than the usual FIFA, which reflects the carnival atmosphere of the tournament itself. However, the development team at EA Sports in Canada has incorporated plenty of gameplay tweaks, as well as new game modes. These are the focus of this GDC preview, so if you're new to the game, check out our previous coverage.
One new improvement is the penalty kick system, which has radically changed since the last FIFA. Each penalty kick will change in terms of difficulty depending on the events surrounding it. For example, a penalty against Fiji when you're 5-0 up will be relatively easy; while the decisive penalty in the World Cup final against Brazil will be much tougher.


The new system is based on a compsure meter that goes back and forth, moving between red in the extremities and green in the center. The idea is to hold the shoot button when the marker is in the green area and then perform a similar maneuver to determine the power. Meanwhile, a blue marker will appear on the screen allowing you to direct the shot, with a small marker allowing pinpoint accuracy if you landed in the green portion of the bar. The position marker appears only in the training mode though; in the real game, you have to make a judgement on how much to tweak the aim of the ball.

With the penalty taker getting more options, it's only fair that the keeper does as well, so thankfully EA Sports has improved this area as well. Keepers now do more to stop the ball than before, automatically moving their arms and legs to knock the ball if they're heading in the right direction. You can also move the keeper up and down the line and perform various taunts, moving your body to try to put the penalty taker off his shot.

While the World Cup mode will allow you to take your favourite team to win the coveted trophy, there's plenty of other stuff to sink your teeth into. The Captain Your Country mode will allow you to work your way up from your nation's B-team, playing as either a famous player or a virtual pro just like in FIFA 10. You'll be able to compete against friends locally in four-player, and as it takes covers qualifiers to the World Cup final itself, this will be the longest mode in the game.

Online will be a massive part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup package, and we got to speak to producer Matt Prior about what to expect. Battle of the Nations will allow each country to see who has the best FIFA players by tracking each individual player online. A points system will award wins, and more points will be awarded for those who play with lower-ranked teams. Hopefully this will avoid the frequent Manchester United vs. Barcelona matches that clogged up FIFA 10 online and help to keep things interesting overall.

There will also be postrelease downloadable content for 2010 FIFA World Cup, although EA Sports wouldn't reveal what it will be or when it will arrive, other than sometime after the launch. The game also introduces a new two-button control system, which should allow novices to get into the game. Pass and shoot will be mapped to A + B, with secondary actions such as run being controlled by the AI.

2010 FIFA World Cup may well be coming out five short months after the last FIFA game, but EA Sports has certainly added a lot to the game. The build we played was feature-complete and was a noticeable improvement over the first version that we played back in London. The game is being released on April 27, so we won't have long to wait to get into the World Cup spirit.



2010 FIFA World Cup and FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Impressions


Today was footie day at GameSpot HQ, as developers from EA Canada came by to show off two of the company's big soccer releases for this year: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and the latest edition of the Ultimate Team feature for last year's FIFA 10. I've got some thoughts and observations on both games, but if you want a more complete look at World Cup, check out GameSpot UK's hands-on preview of the game.

2010 World Cup South Africa

It might not be a back-of-the-box feature, but this year's World Cup game has something that no previous FIFA game has seen: women. If you look closely during game introduction, you'll see ladies in the mix who are supporting their favorite teams among the guys wearing jester hats or brightly colored Mohawks. For whatever reason, people go nuts when they see girls at World Cup games, so it's nice to see EA is including the fairer sex this time around.

While I didn't spend a lot of time playing last year's FIFA 10, I like what I've seen of 2010 World Cup's evolution of the FIFA engine. Consider a situation I experienced during my hands-on time with the game:

Playing as Japan (against Cameroon, who was being controlled by EA Canada producer Luke Didd), I gave up a goal I'd never seen in a soccer game before. After my goalkeeper made a wonderful diving block to stop an otherwise certain goal, the ball bounced off his hands and just in front of him. My center half--who was nearby--collapsed down near the ball and over the keeper as he lay on the ground. Desperate to kick the ball free, I tried to move my defenseman close enough to the ball, but his legs were tangled up in the crumpled form of my keeper, which gave the Cameroon striker just enough time to get to the ball and knock in the go-ahead goal. Sure, I was angry at giving up the goal, but the game's attention to the physics of how bodies interact on the pitch was surely impressive.

The good news: 2010 World Cup will let you play a full World Cup tournament online, matching you with players of similar skill levels from the group stage matches, through the knockout rounds, and all the way to the World Cup finals. Matchmaking is random, so you can play a round in your WC tournament at any time and be matched up with a similar player. The not-so-good news: Matchmaking is completely random, so if you and 31 of your friends want to get together to organize a private World Cup tournament online, you're out of luck.

The "Battle of Nations" feature stands intact from previous international tournament games, which were first seen in UEFA Euro 2008. It is a metagame that assesses which nation--among the 199 national teams that were eligible to qualify for the 2010 World Cup--has the most serious FIFA skills. Playing the game will earn you points for your favored nation, but you won't need to play as your country of choice in order to earn points. So with that said, fellow Americans, let's plan on loading up Brazil online and never looking back!

FIFA 10 Ultimate Team

The popular card-collecting series, which began with UEFA Champions League 2006/2007 and has now migrated over to the Madden series, continues in late February. That is when FIFA 10 Ultimate Team is released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will run you 400 Microsoft points or $4.99, respectively. The FIFA team has made several crucial changes to the mode. Here's a look at some of the most notable tweaks:

Unlike in previous years, Ultimate Team in FIFA 10 no longer includes the concept of doing away with excess cards in your collection. The card-collecting album is gone, and though you can still discard cards for coins or put them up for auction, keeping a ton of cards on hand will be to your benefit. Instead of simply focusing on creating a single ultimate team, you'll be able to create multiple teams from your various cards (and even save your various teams in any of 15 available slots).

Why would you want to create different teams? Why, for tournaments, of course. Ultimate Team will have numerous different tournament types, with new tournaments introduced on a regular basis after the game is released. While you'll want to have your most powerful team available for some tourneys, others will challenge you to build teams with very specific requirements (such as a team with a maximum skill level of three stars or fielding a team where no more than two players come from the same club). These various restrictions are another good reason to keep as many cards as possible on hand.

The developers behind FIFA 10 Ultimate Team are clearly putting a premium on playing in tournaments--thanks to tournament modifiers. These modifiers will change depending on the difficulty of the tournament and will affect the amount of coins you earn at the end of the tourney. In addition, one team in a tournament will earn bonus coins by being declared the best team in the tournament. Winning a tournament doesn't necessarily guarantee you this bonus; you still have a chance at it by playing skillfully throughout the tournament, even if you don't pick up the trophy.

Contracts will still play a role in FIFA 10 Ultimate Team, but there is one big change this year. Even if a card's contract is reduced to zero, it won't be automatically removed from your deck. Instead, you'll need to renew the card's contract with...you guessed it...a contract card.

Speaking of cards, there are a few changes to note here, as well. First, FIFA 09 Ultimate Team's gameplay cards--cards that you could play in midgame to affect either your team or your opponent's team--have been removed this year. New to the Ultimate Team deck are rare cards--which are essentially pumped up versions of their regular counterparts. Rare cards can happen for players of any skill level--for instance, you might have a rare card of a player who would normally be found in a silver or bronze pack but a boosted heading ability will elevate him to "rare" status.

Chemistry--or how Ultimate Team players play together on the pitch--is one of the most interesting aspects of Ultimate Team's gameplay, and there are plenty of theories on how to improve your team's chemistry. This year, the parameters for how team chemistry works have opened up a bit. For example, unlike last year, players who play in the same league or the same club in real life will enjoy a boosted chemistry bonus. The developers have also changed how a player's preferred position or formation affects his chemistry rating. For example, a player who normally enjoys playing right wing won't take as a big a chemistry hit if he's playing right midfield on your team. Similarly, a defender who prefers a 4-4-2 formation won't be put off if you change the formation to the very similar 4-4-1-1 formation. - Your club is your own in FIFA 10 Ultimate Team. If you created a team in last year's game, you'll be able to transfer your team name to this year's version. The game will even note the year when your team was established. The bad news? All the coins you earned in FIFA 09 will not transfer over into FIFA 10...because that would just be cheap.


2010 FIFA World Cup Hands-On

As certain as night follows day, it was a sure thing that EA Sports would announce a World Cup game in time for this year's South African tournament. After all, FIFA 10 is now within touching distance of selling 10 million copies, making it one of the most successful games in EA Sports' history. So we pretty much knew what we were in for when we received an invite to a mysterious event in London recently where the division's
Peter Moore lifted the lid on 2010 FIFA World Cup. What did surprise us, however, was just how different a proposition it was from the four-month old FIFA 10, with a much more vibrant look that befits the World Cup tournament. We managed to get hands-on time with the game at Stamford Bridge, where Premier League leaders Chelsea ply their trade, and spoke to producer Simon Humber about what to expect.

"We've been working on the game for 12 months to create the most stunning football game ever," said Humber. This has been achieved, he claims, through enhancing the gameplay, improving the visual authenticity, and capturing the carnival atmosphere of the tournament itself. The gameplay improvements are undoubtedly the most important, but it's certainly a tough job for Humber and his team to top what David Rutter achieved in FIFA 10. "We've something new in every area," he claims, listing 100 improvements in passing, shooting, dribbling, and every other basic gameplay feature in the game. Humber is upfront about other FIFA 10's annoyances, such as the goalies who were too eager to rush out and the fact that it was too easy to chip them as a result. Both issues have been addressed in the World Cup game.

Of course, while FIFA 10 is authentic to domestic football, the World Cup is a different beast entirely. We'll have to wait for the actual tournament to see how this year's event is presented on TV, but early marketing shows a bold colour scheme, and the South African weather should give the whole event a bright visual aesthetic. All these elements have been incorporated into the game, which results in a distinct carnival feel to the tournament. The crowds are vastly improved over FIFA 10--each team has its own 3D supporters, on whom the camera focuses during downtime, wearing their own team colours and waving their nation's flags.

All of the razzmatazz is there, too, with fireworks, confetti, and the new LED ad boards adding to the atmosphere. The FIFA broadcast captions have all been licensed, which means that the matches should have the same feeling whether you're playing them on your console or simply watching the real tournament unfold on TV. Also new are the actual managers for all 199 eligible teams who will bark orders at their teams from the sidelines. And if you take your team through the seven games to go from group stages to the finals of the tournament, you can watch them winning the World Cup as we saw when Humber played a video of England lifting the trophy.

One of the most surprising aspects of 2010 FIFA World Cup is just how much the graphics have changed from a technical perspective. The new lighting engine really adds to the realism of the players, with comparison shots of Ashley Cole and, particularly, Peter Crouch revealing the greatest improvement in the new game. The pitch is similarly improved, with richer, more textured grass clearly shown in Wembley comparison shots. With the carnival atmosphere of the competition added to the game, 2010 FIFA World Cup is substantially different from its predecessor in terms of visuals.

As Humber said during his presentation, this is the first time the World Cup tournament will be playable online. Details are sketchy right now, but there will be a persistent multiplayer mode where you will be able to represent your favourite team against the rest of the world. There'll also be an interactive globe in the game with statistics and news pulled in during the buildup, as well as the competition itself, from FIFA.com. We'll have to wait a little longer before finding out more about these features, but with 300 million FIFA 10 online games played and counting, you can be sure that online will be a huge focus for EA Sports in 2010 FIFA World Cup.

2010 FIFA World Cup will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PSP on April 30, leading up to the the tournament itself on June 11. Stay tuned for more info on the game as we get it.



FIFA World Cup 2010 Q&A With Simon Humber

With the 2010 World Cup in South Africa just a few months from now, an official World Cup game from EA Sports was a virtual certainty. After all, the publisher behind the tremendously popular FIFA series has produced the last three licensed World Cup games, beginning with World Cup 98 on the original PlayStation, the first WC game produced by the company after obtaining the license in 1997. For the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010, EA is throwing a good deal of its development muscle behind the online features; the game will feature an online World Cup that will let you play as any of the 199 nations that participate in the FIFA, taking on other players around the world to claim sports' most prestigious prize.

We recently had a chance to speak with FIFA World Cup 2010's line producer Simon Humber to learn more about the game's features ahead of its April 27 release, as well as the process of putting together a World Cup game while at the same time continuing to work on the next entry in the long-standing FIFA series.

GameSpot: In World Cup years, you have two soccer games released in the same year from EA Sports. How do you decide which features will be in the World Cup games and which will be reserved for FIFA? 

Simon Humber: Well, some features are uniquely suitable for World Cup, and others would be common to any of our football titles. Essentially my team looks at the preceding FIFA, works out what needs to be enhanced, and then looks at the World Cup and what that means to people and creates a set of features that give a World Cup experience to people who can't get to South Africa. "Everyone can play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup" is the mantra we work to.

It's not as if [FIFA lead producer David] Rutter and myself end up wrestling on the floor of his office to decide what features go into each game! We have long-term plans we revise each year and work through the prioritized feature ideas getting as many as we can into each game we release. The World Cup is a spectacular event, and we wanted to capture the excitement and the atmosphere, so the first thing you'll notice about the game is how good it looks. It looks really good. In a way, we're lucky in that we get to tell a story and we know it's all building to the climactic ending in Soccer City on July 11. Since we know the ending and there is just one ending, we can put together a bunch of great visual features to support the run to the final. Take a look at the images, and you'll see things such as:

• A gorgeous new pitch: Our pitch simply wasn't good enough, so we've made it look superb.
• Lighting of the players and environment: Clever changes to the lighting makes everything look more realistic.
• Camera flashes: You'll see all the fans in the crowd using their cameras.
• Seat cards: Fans hold up cards to form national flags and emblems in a show of patriotism.
• Fans: Close-up shots on supporters cheering on their team or despairing in anguish.
• Confetti rains down from the sky in the team colors and stays on the pitch all game.
• Streamers create a carnival atmosphere as they glide to the ground.
• Populated benches: Characters sit on the benches rather than being empty.
• Broadcast graphics: The same captions you've seen in FIFA tournament broadcasts.
• Close-up celebration camera: To really feel the goal-scoring moment, the camera zooms in close to the player as he responds to your celebration commands.
• New players and managers: More content for star heads and many of the team managers.[England national team manager Fabio] Capello looks brilliant, and [notoriously tall English footballer] Peter Crouch no longer looks like a naughty elf.

GS: What's the main aim for FIFA World Cup 2010 in terms of gameplay and AI improvements? Are there any control changes we need to know about? 

SH: The game is not just about visuals, though. The gameplay has over 100 enhancements--some major, others subtle--so players will notice a difference in how World Cup plays compared to FIFA. So here are just a few of the improvements you'll get in World Cup. We'll talk about other aspects of gameplay closer to release.

Responsiveness:

• New chest traps that allow you to chest the ball in the direction you want to go rather than having to take midair touches after a chest to change direction.
• The ability to let a ball drop over your shoulder and move off in the direction of ball travel. Great for preserving momentum with lofted through balls.
• Improved the problem of trapping the ball too far and being "stunned," then taking too long to go and dribble the ball.
• Defensively players will now clear an aerial ball rather than do a chest trap first when you are asking for a clearance.

Goalkeeper:

• Improved the "narrowing down the angle" logic so the keeper doesn't come out so soon and so far, making him vulnerable to the chip shot.
• Ability to change his save direction if there is a deflection.
• Added variety to punching, which results in punches sometimes not clearing the ball out of danger.

CPU Teams:

• Added more skill moves for the CPU to use depending on a player's flair attribute or trait.
• Better understanding of game context and situation, resulting in more intelligent changes of tactics/mentality.
• Manager now looks at who he has as subs and will attempt to give star players on the bench some playing time (i.e. Fabregas for Spain; Pato for Brazil). Previously he would rely solely on match rating and fatigue, leading to unrealistic substitutions or the same one over and over again.

Positioning:

• Teammates will now take more factors into account when looking into space inside the box when they are making a run for a cross to be delivered. I can verify how exciting this is having seen the way that Emile Heskey bulldozed his way onto the end of a cross in Andorra the other day.
• Improved marking for when the CB pushes up to the ball possessor when he shouldn't, leaving the team vulnerable to an easy through ball and 1-on-1 with the GK.

Shooting:

• Improved the realism of where players strike the ball to give more off-center strikes leading to more swerve and variety in ball trajectory.
• Changed the chip shot to make it more challenging and also to improve the feel of it--more backspin, better trajectory.

Passing:

• Added personality to crosses to allow better players to put in more driven crosses into the box.
• Added chest and shoulder passes.
• Lowered the amount of power you can get on backwards crosses and backwards lofted through balls, forcing you to roughly have to face the way you want to pass it to for these types of kicks to succeed.

Set Pieces:

• Ability to trigger a teammate run on a quick free kick.
• Lowered the likelihood of the CPU scoring from FKs--they were too good.

There are also brand-new features for gameplay. I am allowed to mention that each team will play differently at home or away if under CPU control. For example, Northern Ireland are great at Windsor Park, so they are way harder to beat there than they are on their travels. That makes qualifying for the World Cup Finals feel much more realistic, as you can beat the smaller nations at home quite easily, but away from home you may have an unexpected battle on your hands, and they are the games that define who qualifies.

GS: How much of World Cup's on-the-pitch gameplay serves as a "proof of concept" for gameplay ideas in future FIFA installments? Is there anything new in World Cup 2010 that fans will see refined or improved in FIFA 11? 

SH: The fundamentals of gameplay are ever improving and evolving, so every improvement in that area for World Cup will be refined and honed even more for FIFA. The game will get better and better with each iteration, and World Cup marks the finest football game EA have ever produced. There's the occasional feature where we would consider taking a real chance outside of FIFA. If you look back at UEFA Euro 2008, I really wanted to try out user-controlled celebrations. There were some skeptics, but we pushed ahead, and now it's a core feature of gameplay which you can use or ignore.

There are new things for World Cup which should end up in FIFA. But right now they are unannounced, so you'll have to be patient on that info. 

GS: How is the development team organized for the World Cup games? Is it a completely separate team, or do certain folks work on both games? 

SH: The gameplay team make all of our gameplay, regardless of whether it's FIFA 10, 2010 FIFA World Cup, or future football games. So as soon as FIFA 10 was over we sat down and worked out how we could improve what we had. It was very amusing to read so many reviews wondering how we could improve on FIFA 10, as the hardcore players know there is always room to improve and we are totally dedicated to making our games better and better and better. While there is one gameplay team who continually refine and improve the experience on the pitch be that for FIFA 10 or World Cup, everything else is a separate and devoted team on World Cup. We're all located in the same space as the FIFA team, and so there's much sharing of ideas and knowledge.

The World Cup is such a massive and important event, and this is the biggest World Cup game we have ever produced. It features every team in the world who took part. It is by far the best-looking and sounding game we have ever made and features many new innovate modes particularly in the online space. To be able to bring all that takes a massive effort and a completely separate team of about the same size as FIFA's but with a different creative outlook since you all want a new game, not a FIFA 10 clone. 

GS: In previous years, the FIFA team has made no bones about wanting to bring the World Cup online. How does this game's online tournament mode fulfill that ambition? 

SH: I am happy to say we have achieved that completely. For the first time ever, we have managed to get the entire finals tournament online so that when you play online you will always be matched up against another human player regardless of the time of day or night. You'll choose your team and then play the three group matches, attempting to finish in the top two before heading into the knockout phase where you're four wins away from lifting the FIFA World Cup Trophy amidst a cacophony of confetti cannons and fireworks on a cool Johannesburg night. Without a doubt it's the most exciting online mode we've put together and the perfect way to build up to a match on TV or carry on the experience after a broadcast.

I expect this experience to really speak to our core gamers, and I get sweaty palms every time I test the mode and feel the pressure of tournament football for myself. 

GS: From a player's point of view, how will players compete in the World Cup online? How will tournaments be organized? Will player skill be taken into consideration when deciding seeding? 

SH: We have made it as simple as possible. Essentially the online tournament will feel exactly like the offline tournament with the obvious difference that you are pitting your skills against real-world players rather than the CPU. The player will simply pick their team, according to the size of the challenge they want, and enter into the competition. They are then matched up against players in the same round of the competition and progress as they would normally through the group stage and knockout rounds. Wherever possible, we adhere to the rules of the competition, so in the group stage you wouldn't be matched up against players who have the same team as you, and in the knockout stages you wouldn't meet any opponent from the group stage until the appropriate round. These are the rules of the real competition, and they have been factored into the mode. The only caveat to that is if the only other player available online has one of those teams. We are all avid online gamers, and the most frustrating thing about playing online can be waiting to find an opponent, so as a last resort you could get matched with the same team, but in reality this is very unlikely.

Player skill is not factored into matchmaking; instead, we use the Battle of the Nations to encourage better gamers to choose weaker teams so they earn more points for their nation on the leaderboard. So what you will see is a much more varied use of teams than normal ranked gameplay. Playing as a smaller team will earn you more points, so don't be surprised to see the likes of Tahiti or Andorra featured. This creates a much more interesting online experience than the usual battle of five-star teams and worked out well on EURO. 

GS: Beyond competing for the World Cup, what other online features will be in the game? Will you be able to play on the same team with other players online, for example? 

SH: I'll have to take the fifth on this question at the moment. There will be other online announcements at a later date though, and they are exciting. 

GS: An odd question, but with regard to the Battle of the Nations feature, how do you balance the feature to make up for large population variances (and thus the installed base of players) between different countries? Do relatively small countries like Honduras or Switzerland have even a hope of victory here? 

SH: Not an odd question at all. It's one at the front of our minds since in the past there have been some poorly implemented attempts to have rankings for groups.

We have online usage data that gives us a pretty good idea of how many players will be from each country. We'll use that as the starting point to create a level playing field. Then after the game has been out a week we intend to look at the actual usage figures and make any adjustments needed. The intention is that it comes down to gamer skill rather than big or small populations being favored.

GS: We understand that this year's game will include altitude effects in certain stadiums. How will this affect gameplay? 

SH: Altitude will affect gameplay realistically but subtly. We saw the effect altitude can have during the qualifiers when Argentina got thrashed away against Bolivia 6 to 1. Undoubtedly Argentina are the stronger side, but on the night they just couldn't handle the altitude. If you have ever been at high altitude you know that it can really sap your stamina, and you'll see that effect in game.
Likewise, the ball physics will be subtly different; the ball will fly a bit faster and straighter since there is less air resistance. You're not going to be able to hit 50-yard screamers into the top corner, but shots will be harder but also a bit more difficult to keep low.
It's not going to create unrealistic gameplay and might not be picked up on by some people. But the gameplay engine is quite mature now, and we can start to play with this type of thing to go a bit deeper on the experience. 

GS: OK, wrapping up, let's have a World Cup prediction or two. Who is your dark horse to make a deep World Cup run, and who do you think wins it all? 

SH: I'm going to steer away from England so I don't jinx them, and regardless, we don't have a good enough keeper. Assuming we don't win, I'd like Spain to win since they have been playing amazing football for the last two years. My dark horse would be one of the African teams. I suspect that on their continent one of them will make a run to the semifinal.

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