First 10 Minutes: Fifa Street 3

Manager
Saturday, March 22, 2008 | 6:33 PM
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Xbox 360 PS3

EA released FIFA Street 3 on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and DS a couple of weeks ago, and we finally got our hands on it to show you some footy love. The three videos show the Challenge (Career) mode, and two different match modes. Enjoy some action from the most famous players from France, Spain, England and Italy, plus a lengthy Q&A about the game.

XCN Q&A For FIFA Street 3
Answered By: Justin Sheffield, Lead Designer, FIFA Street 3

· If I was personally a big fan of standard football games, why should I buy FIFA Street 3?
FIFA Street 3 is the game for you if you want to play a football game with your mates before (or after) you head out for an evening. It’s fast, fun and doesn’t get bogged down in all the tactics and details of a standard football game. I love FIFA and PES too, but I play FIFA Street 3 when I’ve got a friend, a beverage and a quarter of an hour to sit down and play a bit of footie.

· The graphics for FIFA Street 3 seems quite unusual, what was the inspiration behind the art style?
These players are already heroes to most of us – for their exploits on the pitch on the world stage. When it comes to their street skills, most possess even another level of expertise that they usually don’t get time, space (or permission from their manager) to try. So we wanted to allow them to get over-the-top with their skills, tricks and moves – and they needed to look the part. This isn’t a league match – there are no referees – and when we turned up the reality to an arcade level, the players had to get ‘turned up’ too.

· Will it be possible to create online leagues?
The World Challenge mode is the closest we come to standard online leagues – it’s a lot faster and arcade-styled approach to the FIFA world rankings. Hop on, pick your nation and try to move them up the rankings. FIFA Street 3 isn’t about long, drawn out competitions – it’s about getting into a game fast, having a blast and then picking a new challenge.

· Is there a replay save function in the game?
If the auto replay system doesn’t make you look good enough, you can always call up a replay on the fly – but unfortunately, we did not include a save replay function this time around.

· Have you thought about a spectator mode for Xbox Live?
We thought about it – but this game is meant to be played. The games are fast – the set up is easy – and I’ve yet to meet anyone who couldn’t get into the control system and start having success.

· What's your favourite team in the game?
It’s got to be England! Such a diverse set of weapons! Rooney scores at will, Gerrard performs even better than he does in my Fantasy Premiership Pool, Joe Cole is so good he makes me forget he plays for Chelsea - and Crouch – well, just look at him – the guy was made for this game!

· FIFA Street games have mostly offered a more intimate football/soccer experience. For those gamers used to the huge stadiums and the conventional game, the idea behind FIFA Street might be a little alien. Tell us why you think gamers should buy FIFA Street 3 as opposed to simply waiting for the next FIFA game?
Because it lets you in to that world that we so rarely get to see – players performing skills and tricks that they don’t get the time, space (or permission from their managers) to try on that huge stage. A lot of players I’ve talked with say that this is the kind of football that they enjoy playing the most. All of the pressure of tactics, strategy and management falls to the wayside – FIFA Street 3 is about having fun playing a trick-based street football game. It’s about quick blasts of football – not epic journeys. It’s about over-the-top tricks and goals – not offside traps. It’s a nice companion to the standard football experience.

· You motion captured Ronaldinho in the studio, can you tell us what this was like and whether he is actually any good at video games?
The great thing is - I think Ronaldinho is still a total kid at heart. He loves to play football – or just play with a football. Where most motion capture shoots we do are very structured – we call out each move we’re going to shoot, then redo it a couple of times until it’s just right – with Ronaldinho, we just pressed ‘record’ and tossed him a ball. Move after move, trick after trick – he even just idles with the ball like no one else. He was a perfect fit for FIFA Street 3. He’s a big gamer too – I got the chance to play him at Nou Camp – and I may have gone a bit easy on him, but he definitely picked up the controls and flow of the game right away. If we only hadn’t had all that press work to do we probably would have kept on playing!

· Can you make your own player and if so can you use the Xbox Live Vision cam to place your face in the game?
With the exaggerated look that we created this year, and the strong focus on tuning our gameplay and responsiveness, create player didn’t make the cut this time around.

· How are the tricks and flicks in FIFA Street mapped to the controller, and can players customise their controls?
We based most of the control scheme on a ‘tap or hold’ system. For the tricks, you use the right stick – tap in a direction for one trick – hold it longer for a more elaborate trick. Then you can start to experiment with combinations of moves in different directions. On top of that, the tricks you’ll see will depend on where you are – in open space, near an opponent or near a wall. Not only that, but the Specialist you’ve chosen will have different moves – the Trickster obviously excels in this area more than anyone else. There’s yet another whole set of standing drags available when you hold down the LT button and do all of the same right stick moves that I’ve described. Because a lot of the combinations you can pull off depend on context and timing, I’m still seeing tricks that I’ve never seen before – and I’ve been working on the game for more than a year and a half!

Flicks are the same – but much simpler to master. Tap the ‘X’ button to flick the ball up – hold ‘X’ longer to flick it higher. Practice your timing and you can be juggling on your foot, knee or head. Stall at any of these heights with the LT button. More advanced players will start to use the flick button when receiving a pass – it gets the ball up out of foot traffic and allows for a lot of stylish turns.

· Apart from the visual style, what are you changing from the previous games? Is there some new control method or gameplay?
We redesigned the controls and gameplay completely! We based most of the control scheme on a ‘tap or hold’ system. For the tricks, you use the right stick – tap in a direction for one trick – hold it longer for a more elaborate trick. Then you can start to experiment with combinations of moves in different directions. On top of that, the tricks you’ll see will depend on who you are or where you are – in open space, near an opponent or near a wall. There’s yet another whole set of standing drags available when you hold down the LT button and do all of the same right stick moves that I’ve described. Because a lot of the combinations you can pull off depend on context and timing, I’m still seeing tricks that I’ve never seen before – and I’ve been working on the game for more than a year and a half!

We introduced Specialists: The Finisher, The Playmaker, The Enforcer, The Trickster – these players have unique abilities that can help you succeed against different opponents or game types – maybe you need more than one Enforcer in a line-up against a team with a lot of fire-power – or maybe an extra Finisher in a ‘Headers and Volleys’ match where a run-of-the-mill goal won’t cut it!

Obviously there’s a lot more, but really we wanted to reinvent the arcade street football experience – make it easy to get into but give it a lot of depth to master. It’s a lot of fun – that was the main goal of course!

· Will we be able to perform spectacular acrobatic moves like the ones seen in some Nike and Adidas TV ads?
Absolutely. We motion captured not just world-class footballers and street freestylers, but we got to work with gymnasts, martial artists and parkour specialists. I can say with utmost confidence that there are a ton of moves in FIFA Street 3 that you’ve never seen in any football game before.

· How is the online mode of FIFA Street 3 structured?
You can play any of the offline Play Now game types – Score, Score Difference, Timed, Headers and Volleys, Gamebreaker or Five-a-Side. Obviously you have the choice of ranked or unranked for any of these games. We also have Playground Picks – a mode shamelessly stolen from the last World Cup’s Adidas advertisements – where the two kids on the playground pick from their heroes to play a match. In a nutshell, that’s the Playground Picks mode – two opponents – first and second pick – choosing their team for a match. Our World Ranking mode is your chance to affect the FIFA world rankings – for FIFA Street 3, that is! Take your nation up against any opponent to try to raise its ranking – just remember everyone else online is doing the same for and against you!

· With such a variety of skills and tricks to perform how will you keep them intuitive and easy to pull off?
We based most of the control scheme on a simple ‘tap or hold’ system. For the tricks, you use the right stick – tap in a direction for one trick – hold it longer for a more elaborate trick. Then you can start to experiment with combinations of moves in different directions. On top of that, the tricks you’ll see will depend on where you are – in open space, near an opponent or near a wall. Not only that, but the Specialist you’ve chosen will have different moves – the Trickster obviously excels in this area more than anyone else. There’s yet another whole set of standing drags available when you hold down the LT button and do all of the same right stick moves that I’ve described. Because a lot of the combinations you can pull off depend on context and timing, I’m still seeing tricks that I’ve never seen before – and I’ve been working on the game for more than a year and a half!

So with a simple concept you unlock the ability to perform endless hours of skills and tricks. Have fun!

· Are there any new additions other than online play to add to the games 'replayability'?
Other than the addictive rush that comes with beating your best mate? Seriously, I think that the inherent multiplayer slant for FIFA Street 3 brings the most tangible replay value for me. More subtly, I think that the emergence of the Specialists brings a whole new level of variety to gameplay. Because each Specialist has such a different package of skills and strengths, playing teams with different mixes or complete squads of Specialists acts as a real draw to keep going back against or with different teams.

· Should we expect to see FIFA Street’s art style in EA's other existing arcadey sport franchises? Like hypothetical sequels to NBA Street or SSX, for example.
Not sure! I really like the approach we took – making players look more heroic than their simulation-sport counterparts – so it might make sense to do the same for other arcade-styled games.

· Given how there are very little players in FIFA Street when compared to a traditional soccer game, have you considered to include an online mode where every member of the team could be controlled by a human player? Similar the recent online addition to FIFA 08.
That’s already a part of FIFA Street 3 – minus the keepers, anyway. You can play up to 8 players online – that covers all the outfield players on both teams. Have fun!

Thanks for your time!