As far as I’m concerned, the goalie in soccer is an unenviable position to play. Your team’s fortunes rest largely on your shoulders, on your ability to stop a ball 8.6–8.9 inches wide from making it into a comparatively massive net that’s eight feet high and 24 feet wide. But that’s why we have videogames: so we can try this stuff without being subjected to all that pressure. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to play as a goalie in EA Sports’ FIFA Soccer series… until now, that is.
EA announced at gamescom today a “Be A Goalkeeper” feature for FIFA 11. You’ll be able to play through the game’s 15-year career mode as a goalie, or create one in Virtual Pro 2.0 and learn about the position. In addition, you can finally play as a goalkeeper online, which means that FIFA 11 will be the first soccer game to feature full 11-on-11 online play with each player locked into one position on his or her team. Be A Goalkeeper will offer varying levels of CPU help — assisted, semi-assisted, and fully manual — so you can ratchet up the challenge as your goalie skills increase.
The first trailer for FIFA 11 also premiered at gamescom; you can watch it above. Check out the gallery below for screenshots from the major European football leagues: the Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), Ligue 1 (France), and Serie A (Italy). FIFA 11, with Kaká on its cover, will be out on September 28th in North America, and October 1st in Europe and Asia, for PS3, 360, Wii, PC, PSP, PS2, DS, and mobile platforms. (Be A Goalkeeper is exclusive to the PS3 and 360 versions of the game.)
Published: Aug 17, 2010 07:00 pm