The player receiving the ball even seems to be aware of the pass before it arrives. When one player passes to another, you can see head and body movement just before they kick. While players looked like cardboard cut-outs gliding across green tarmac just two years ago, they now have life and limb. Player polygon counts and textures have been undergone a significant facelift in comparison with what could be seen in last year's edition.

The biggest change this year is improved graphics. While the actual gameplay in remains practically unchanged, just about everything else has been upgraded. What may come as a surprise with FIFA 2001: Major League Soccer, the latest version of the venerable, award-winning series, is that the graphics are far more textured and detailed, the AI seems far more challenging even after a hundred games, game pacing has improved, the commentary is much more representative of the action (thanks to John Motson and former player Mark Lawrenson), and the scoring celebrations and other scripted events are more entertaining than anything seen before. If you're like me, you'll typically play through a few seasons, the World Cup, various less important tournaments, and countless exhibition games until you've seen every animated post-goal celebration, heard all the commentator quips, and mastered the artificial intelligence so well that you can score with both hands tied behind your back.

For longtime fans of the FIFA soccer series from EA Sports, each new year brings another reason to hit the pitch, man the sticks, and generally wreak havoc on poor unsuspecting countries with underdeveloped soccer franchises.

Fifa 2011 download