Bucking a sport game trend that sees mild tweaks and updated rosters as the only justifications for $60 price tags, EA Sports seems to have noticed that gameplay mechanics taken for granted for far too long ought to be addressed.

That's certainly the case with FIFA Soccer 09, which includes simple but sweeping amendments to player A.I. (artificial intelligence). As brainless as it sounds, a computer controlled FIFA Soccer 09 player will now, for the first time, let a ball roll on by just to keep the flow of play alive, rather than mechanically latching onto it just because it was there.

What's more, if you boot the ball from the sidelines out toward and ahead of a buddy in the middle of the pitch, he'll not stop, face you, stop the ball, turn, then pass it off in the direction you were hoping play would go in the first place. Instead, he'll position himself parallel to the pass, take some congruous steps along side it, then pass it along, giving you and your team the actual momentum essential to real life soccer.

Another major highlight of FIFA Soccer 09 are the new players animations -- some 250 of them, reportedly -- which, to you the gamer, amounts to a smoother, more realistic and authentic footy game. That is to say, beyond looking lifelike, these new animations give you more to do.

They offer more ways to head the ball, for example. Notably, if your guy is behind the defender when the ball is flying in, he'll actually lean on the defender. Too, player collisions look more authentic. When a defender comes in and kicks your legs out, for example, you'll wince with the implied agony... or maybe you'll dance yourself out of a fall, but probably not.

Now a mainstay in almost all the other EA Sports titles, the "Be a Pro" and "Live Season" are marquee features of FIFA 09 now as well -- with a little twist on both of these modes that make them better then what you've seen before.

Starting with the "Be a Pro" mode (where you take control of one player – existing or one you create - and try to make him the captain of your national team over the course of his career), unique to FIFA 09 is that the mode lasts for four seasons rather then just one. Even more impressive, you can have a friend join in and play on your team to make you look better. Or, that same friend can play against you and try to hurt your reputation.

Also, FIFA 09's Be a Pro allows you to switch back to regular play (Be a Gamer?), where you can play all/all postions if you get bored of just playing one position of you Pro in waiting.

Then there is the "Live Season" feature that (vaguely) emulates what is happening in the real world. Basically, if a real life player is doing extremely well in real life, the videogame version will see his stats improve accordingly. Conversely, if he's not playing well… well you get the idea.

A problem inherent with this feature, however, as with all the EA Sports games sporting this feature, is that improved stats don't translate into improved play of that player; it's all "on paper." Oh well.

Furthermore, Live Season is somewhat hampered by the fact that there are multiple leagues within Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), so your updates might not even matter to the league you're playing in (you can "buy" into other leagues online; first one's free, others will cost you a few dollars each).

The only long-standing, long-hyped FIFA 09 feature that continues to disappoint is the "improved goalkeeper intelligence." Improved, yes, but EA never set goalkeeper bar very high to begin with. Part and parcel with the enhanced AI and added animations, a goalie will now position himself properly to what's happening in front of him and he'll recover from saves more realistically, too. But they'll also dive for shots that are clearly wide, taking themselves out of the play for no good reason, along with other inexplicable errors.

Interestingly, the FIFA series has dominated the soccer genre for quite a while now -- the same can't be said of other EA Sports franchises -- but FIFA Soccer 09 distinguishes itself further still by improving on its own great self, pushing it further ahead of the competition than you'd expect of a publisher better known for churning out good-enough annual sports offerings. FIFA 09 is great.