Hello, and welcome to my second blog on World Cup. It’s the day after the Olympic Hockey Final, which was a big deal here in Vancouver. Hockey is Canada’s sport, and watching them win gold over arch enemy the USA made me realise what it must be like to watch England win the World Cup. The whole city went totally mental before, during and after the game; a most excellent day was had by all.

The winning goal in overtime was scored by assistant captain and superstar of hockey Sidney Crosby. Imagine scoring the winning penalty in a shootout in South Africa on 11 July. Even better, what if you then got to lift the trophy since you were the captain? Yes, it’s back: Captain Your Country!

Captain Your Country

For anyone who played UEFA EURO 2008, I’m sure you enjoyed CYC. So when deciding on game modes for World Cup we knew it had to be included again. Just in case you didn’t play the feature before, it’s a Be a Pro mode where up to four gamers compete on the same team starting as B-internationals, aiming to get into the first team, qualify for the finals and be appointed the team captain and ultimately lift the trophy.

What’s different this time around?

The ranking system is now simply a list of all the eligible players from your country. So you start at the bottom, which is around 40 for big nations, and have to work your way up into the top 23 to get that first call up for the squad. You do that by playing well in B-internationals, where you are judged by the Man of the Match scoring system and given a rating out of 10 that changes as the match progresses. Each event in the match is worth points, and the mixture of how many points you have earned for good play and how many you’ve lost for bad play determines your game rating. To get a high rating you need to play your role well. So, defenders should keep good pitch position, make tackles/interceptions/blocks/win headers and use the ball well. Midfielders need to pass well, not give the ball away, win tackles and chip in with some assists and goals. Meanwhile the strikers need to stick the ball in the back of the net or assist their strike partners.

he rating system has been extensively reworked since the first version of Captain your Country and updates after every minute of the match. At first it doesn’t move that much since it would be weird if it jumped around from 6 to 10 with a couple of good passes or a shot. But as the first half settles down, by about 30 minutes you should have a good idea of how the manager rates your play so far. The longer the match progresses the more solid the rating becomes, so don’t expect to jump far from a 6 after 80 minutes with just 10 minutes of good play.

Be aware that the manager doesn’t like you giving the ball away, he’s got this funny idea that if his team has the ball they can score and the opposition can’t so cherish your possession and don’t get too carried away!

Just like the 2010 FIFA World Cup mode, this mode is presented in our new FIFA.com graphical style which mimics the look of FIFA’s website and really makes the experience authentic.

For FIFA 10 owners you can import your Virtual Pro into Captain Your Country, complete with your Game Face, and then earn CYC Accomplishments and attribute boosts. You didn’t think we’d neglect that did you?  However, as this is international football, these players will need to prove themselves at international level. Plus, you can export up to four different Pros for use in the FFIA World Cup offline mode and Kick Off, too.

New Penalty Shoot-Out Gameplay

As for that winning penalty you scored in the FIFA World Cup Final, it was pretty impressive to keep your composure when the stakes were so high. Especially when it was scored using the brand new penalty kicks in the game. Yes, it’s true, gone are the scissors-paper-stone style penalties we’ve had for years, and say hello to a new analogue aiming system which really tests your nerve.

The way you take a penalty now happens like this: You have to stop an oscillating needle as it passes over the ‘composed’ zone and this button press also starts the powering up of the shot. As you begin to add power you use the left stick to start the process of moving the invisible aiming zone anywhere on the goal. Depending on how composed your player is, error is added to the shot. During the run-up to the kick you can decide to stutter to try and put the keeper off and get more time for your aim, this does though come with the risk of adding more error to the kick.
Don’t worry if this sounds complicated, we have tutorial videos and a practice area where you can turn on/off the aiming system visuals as you practice taking the penalties. It’s really easy to take shots once you’ve practiced a few, but it can be hard to master as fellow Producer Luke Didd found out recently.

Luke practiced penalties and could easily put them away out on the training pitch. But in a recent play of the online FIFA World Cup mode he ended up going to a shootout in his Round of 16 match and he missed his first three spot kicks. That is precisely the effect we were hoping for with the new penalty system. So do you think you can hold your nerve when the pressure is intense and find the back of the net?

Meanwhile, for goalkeepers the choice is whether you choose to dive in a direction early so you can reach the corner and maybe give away your intention, or do you wait to dive until you can see where it seems to be going but with the risk you can’t get near to a ball in the corner. The keeper will also attempt to reach back for the ball with an arm or leg if he’s dived beyond it.