Electronic Arts, purveyor of more sports games then we ever believed possible, announced this week that it will be adding new gameplay features for it's release of [i]FIFA Soccer 07[/i] for the X-Box 360. What are they? Well, right off the bat, EA is moving away from an animation based engine and is using physics and data to fuel the game. For the player this will mean more lifelike movement among the in game figures and the most sophisticated visuals seen to date in a sports game. The features of the players themselves are based on new traits and twice the number of attributes previously available. This means that, as you see the players moving about the field, none of them will move in exactly the same way in order to enhance the more lifelike feel of the game. Finally, at least on the technical end, the responsiveness of the players and the ball have been tweaked so the reaction times are enhanced and allowing you more control of where you want the ball to go. To round off this parade there in depth game analysis, a new system to allow you to better manage your team, commentary from Martin Tyler and Andy Gray. For those of you who wish to keep up to date on the real time soccer news you can due that through the utilization of X-Box Live. There will be weekly podcasts and a news ticker that will provide up to date news in five different languages and in real time. Also, online, four players on one console can play together with four others on a different console and compete for bragging rights. A demo will be available on X-Box Live Marketplace this October so keep your eyes there, here at the official site at http://fifa07.ea.com, and right here at MyGamer.com.

Nick McCavitt at nmccavitt@forumwizard.net