Out for just over a week now here in the US, the game soccer enthusiasts worldwide wait for at the beginning of every new season has returned with great success. Last year, FIFA 09 was majestically produced, and a great improvement on 08, however it had many quirks that fans worldwide wanted to see fixed. So far 10 has not only stepped up to the challenge, it has surpassed it on so many levels.

Among the many complaints I heard about 09, the most common was the difficulty of actually scoring a goal. Personally, I didn't have a huge issue with this fact (I found it rather realistic actually), plus after playing countless hours I eventually improved my conversion rate drastically (using finesse and/or power shots is way more successful), I heard many fans were frustrated. FIFA 10 offers a better range of difficulty that was not as distinct as 09, allowing those goal-hungry crew a chance to get their fix.

My biggest peeve with 09 was the chipped through ball and how it just seemed to get launched in whatever direction you happened to be facing, rather than into the path of your player streaking down the line. 10 changed how this function works now, along with overall long passing, so it is now more than possible to send speedy players like Walcott or Lennon down the line when the ground pass is not an option.

Directional heading was possible with 09, but 10 steps even further, allowing you full 360 degree aim of your headers, which is particularly useful...once you get used to it (which I am admittedly not, I have sent countless corners straight out of bounds with no challenge, dreadful really).

A great addition that was somewhat unexpected is the new ability to muscle players off the ball. It used to be that players like Aaron Lennon and other small speedsters were just as capable as Michael Essien of knocking players off the ball, or holding players off like Drogba does so effectively. Now that trait is strictly left to the players that have the body mass to support it, giving slower, big players a chance against smaller, quicker players.

Be A Pro had it's own set of improvements and I really like the direction it took. First they made your stats mimic the size of the player you made. No longer can you have a Peter Crouch lookalike that runs like a gazelle, but he will be strong and good at headers. Along with this, your player improves as a whole along the course of the game, whether you are playing in actualy Be A Pro mode, or in Manager mode with your Pro on the roster. The Accomplishments are useful tasks that are fun to try and unlock and EA did a fine job splitting up these Accomplishments across many different formats and situations to make them difficult to complete, but not so much so as to be disheartening.

Overall, the gameplay has the same look and feel as it has the past few years, but EA did a masterful job tweaking the problem areas just enough to both please the FIFA fans and create enjoyable, realistic gameplay.