FIFA Soccer 09

CVG: Publisher splashes the big bucks to win FIFA endorsement from England striker

Major Nelson reports that Burnout Revenge, NFS ProStreet and FIFA 09 are now ready for direct download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Console Monster writes: Microsoft's 'Deal of the Week' promotion continues this week with the price drop of FIFA 09's Ultimate Team downloadable content. The content has been reduced from its 800 Microsoft Point price tag to 400 Microsoft Points, a saving of 50%. The description for Ultimate Team is as follows: Feel a rush of adrenaline as you step onto the pitch and live the ultimate fantasy in club football. Collect the most talented footballers in the world, shape them into your dream team and then prove yourself online against a legion of challengers in FIFA 09 Ultimate Team, a strategic new downloadable game designed exclusively for the award-winning FIFA 09 on Xbox 360. Ultimate Team comes with a free 5 game trial available to everyone with a copy of FIFA 09, during or upon completion of the trial there is the option to purchase the full game. Language settings cannot be changed within the game mode so please choose your version with care...

Cheating on online ranked matches has become a common practice in FIFA 09, more common than in any other game. It has reached such high levels that fans report that almost 30% of online ranked matches result against people using Dream Teams or Edited Teams. EA once again, did nothing about it. Update: EA Official Forums are flooded with user's complains, with no answer from EA. (See comments)

Fresh off the press (well airwaves), we've just got news via the official FIFA 09 podcast - presented by Steve and Rom - that FIFA 09 will be getting kit updates for a select number of teams.... More after the jump

BeefJack writes: For those of you that purchased the FIFA 09 Ultimate Team DLC, you may have found that the game 'challenged' the EA servers and led to a disruption to gameplay. If you did experience problems, you'll be pleased to know that you will be rewarded compensated with 10,000 coins, provided that you made your purchase before April 10. These are of course in-game coins and cannot be spent on the high street!

BeefJack writes: The world's best 32 virtual football players lined up at Port Olympic, Barcelona, Spain in an attempt to be crowned the FIFA Interactive World Champion 2009. Despite the fierce competition, Bruce Grannec was able to defeat 22-year-old Mexican, Ruben Zerecero, 3-1 in the final round to snag the title.

Xorloser noticed the other day that when FIFA'09 for Xbox360 is patched with the latest update, the flags that specify what media the game is allowed to run from have changed. Originally it was allowed to boot from a standard original Xbox360 disc, however now it is only allowed to boot from a new media type which is basically an updated version of the original Xbox360 disc type. Those who have ever looked into the depths of the Xbox360 disc authentication scheme know that a new type of disc authentication has been in the works since the Xbox360 was released. It is known as the AntiPiracy v2.5 checks, or AP2.5. Is this FIFA'09 patch a sign that AP2.5 is finally going to see the light of day? If so then the ban hammer is going to come down hard.

Console Monster writes: We have just added the new Achievements for FIFA 09 on the Xbox 360. The new achievements are for the recently-released downloadable content. The 2GB download has the following dashboard description: Feel a rush of adrenaline as you step onto the pitch and live the ultimate fantasy in club football. Collect the most talented footballers in the world shape them into your dream team and then prove yourself online against a legion of challengers in FIFA 09 Ultimate Team, a strategic new downloadable game designed exclusively for the award-winning FIFA 09 on Xbox 360. Ultimate Team comes with a free 5 game trial available to everyone with a copy of FIFA 09; during or upon completion of the trial there is the option to purchase the full game. Language settings cannot be changed within the game mode so please choose your version with care. There are 10 new achievements worth 250 Gamerscore...

FIFA 09 Ultimate Team is available to download now from Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 MS Points. Ultimate Team is a new expansion for last year's award-winning football game that allows players to collect, trade and play their way to global supremacy by building the ultimate football club from over 4,000 available stars or creating and developing themselves in the game to captain their team to glory.