As the real football season draws to a close, we can all look forward to the new virtual one – I got my hands on the first playable demo of FIFA 10 in a behind closed doors session on the EA SPORTS stand on the show floor.

The game’s line producer, David Rutter, gave a ten minute presentation to me and a small group of American journalists, although they disappeared shortly to look at NHL 10, leaving David and I to play a couple of matches between Manchester United and Barcelona.

“This year, 70% of our efforts have been refining the gameplay and responding to community feedback,” he said. “With the other 30% placed on innovation. We’ve been listening to the players and we’re addressing all of the areas that have caused frustration.”

The game certainly felt familiar and at this stage, it looks very much like FIFA 09, but there are a number of changes that seasoned players will notice right away. Dribbling, for example, has been greatly improved so that you can now push the ball in any direction. What David describes as skill dribbling allows greater freedom of expression on the ball and the Artificial Intelligence now includes threat analysis, so that defenders become more alert when danger is near and attackers are better at sensing an opportunity.

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It was eerily quiet around the LA Convention Centre on Monday, with the only activity coming from frantic crews applying a last lick of paint to the show stands and the few earlybird visitors taking pictures of the outside and working their way around the massive venue.

I’ll have pictures of the PlayStation stand for you very soon but, in the meantime, I can tell you that it’s looking spectacular and that many of the games you asked for in my first post are going to be playable. As I type, I can hear the pitter-patter of Heavy Rain falling behind me…

What I can show you is some behind the scenes photos from Room 502, which is kind of like SCEE’s living room while we’re here: a gorgeous space where we’ll invite journalists and retailers to try upcoming titles and interview the developers. It’s a real marvel in terms of design, with bright colours, quirky trinkets and funky furniture scattered among huge screens hosting cracking games. Here’s a few pics but there are plenty more on Flickr!

I’m also trying to arrange appointments to see all of the games you’ve been asking for. It’s going well and I’ll be meeting up with the developers behind Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, SingStar, VidZone and many more, although I’m still waiting to find out when they’ll all be slotted in. I’ve just received an invite to go and try a demo of FIFA 10 tomorrow and will be posting later in the week with my impressions and quotes from those in the know. If you have any burning questions for them then let me know in the comments.

Tomorrow is when it all kicks off so check back throughout the day for a cornucopia (word of the day) of announcements, revelations and discussion points from SCEA’s press conference, which takes place at 11am, LA time.

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