The FIFA 10 Takeover Tour has been on the road for almost four weeks now bringing the game to footy fans all over the US.  Over the past week, the East Coast team has set up shop at numerous GameStops through Philadelphia and Baltimore where they also set up in the ESPN Zone to pack crowds.

They continued the week in the DC area where they met with the Vienna Youth Soccer League along with setting up with the City FC, a non-profit youth soccer organization with over 5,000 athletes from under privileged areas of the community.

The team also made a stop in Roanoke, VA where  the state's largest youth soccer tournament was being held.  They set up at two different fields where kids played more than 1,000 games!

On the West Coast, the team made GameStop visits in Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Redwood City.

The tour set up at Danny Coyle's pub, one of the top soccer bars in San Francisco where many of the fans watching the Man U and Chelsea game found time to take in the sticks as well as the game on the big screens.

The team also made a stop at the Mustang Soccer Complex in Danville, CA to an awesome turnout at the private facility.  For those that didn't make it to the complex, the crew set up at a large GameStop in Danville where they were able to run a 16-person tournament with the winner receiving a PSP!

Check out the Off the Bench blog for upcoming dates and venues:  US Takeover Tour Week 5 Dates and Venues

Follow the Takeover Tour on twitter and Facebook:  http://twitter.com/EAFIFA10Tour and http://facebook.com/EAFIFA10Tour

With FIFA 10 now in the hands of gamers all around the world, the EA SPORTS Events team continues it’s US FIFA  10 Takeover Tour and will be out looking for fans to come join them for a chance to play the game and win cool prizes.

Check out the Off the Bench blog for exact locations, dates, and times for the next week:  FIFA 10 Takeover Tour

It's a bit of a landmark week for the weekly FIFA 10 podcast - episode 40. That's a lot of audio...

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here, but you'd probably do best to just listen to the latest one!

This week's show features the first Live Season 2.0 weekly update of the FIFA 10 era - dominated as the team of the week is by Italians. That's joined by a Newcastle-related Fact of the Week in line with the news their venerable old Stadium is to be preposterously renamed the "sportsdirect.com @ St James's Park Stadium". And of course we have the Big Shout in which we ask you lot what's more valuable - the Champions League or the Premier League.

Have a listen to Episode 40 right here.

Audio Director Jeff MacPherson answers the call to the many who have been asking about new commentary in FIFA 10.  Here's his first blog going in-depth with what fans can expect in this year's game.

We know that in the past we've neglected to give Manager Mode the commentary depth it deserves. Quite frankly, we have been focused on the challenges of just getting a 90 minute match right! So, this year, for FIFA 10, we listened to the feedback and decided to devote a large portion of our commentary development time to supporting Manager Mode and Virtual Pro progression.

We designed over 150 new commentary "contexts" devoted to these modes with anywhere from two to twenty different phrases for each. There are lots of new types of team, player and manager banter talking about milestones, performance, stats and more. We've focused on intro and fulltime analysis that is relevant to where the player is in seasons and tournaments. When a player is in possession of the ball there are comments about his performance over the course of the match and over the course of the season. Different actions (i.e. tackles, misses, goals, etc.) are qualified using player traits and season/career statistics. There is feedback and hinting regarding the transfer window. There is feedback regarding manager job security and team budgets. Along with ensuring that there is enough coverage (breadth), we also aimed for depth - there are comments that you will not hear until well into a Manager Mode or Virtual pro career/progression.

For the full blog entry, go to the Off the Bench blog:  New Commentary for Manager Mode and Virtual Pro

In order to use the new EA SPORTS Game Face BETA feature, you must first complete the following steps:

Login to the EASPORTS.com website with your EA SPORTS Account.

An EA SPORTS account is free and is mandatory to play our games online. This means if you are able to play our games online you already have an EA Account and can log into our website.

If you do not have an EA SPORTS account please sign up HERE.

If you've forgotten your EA SPORTS account email click HERE

If you've forgotten your EA SPORTS account password please click HERE.

You must be logged into to easports.com in order to complete registration for the Game Face BETA. Please ensure that you login by entering your EA SPORTS account email and password in the login box.

Register  for the Game Face BETA.

At the current time you must register for the Game Face BETA in order to use the Game Face feature (this will change soon). For this you will need to ensure that you are logged into easports.com.

You can access the Game Face BETA registration HERE.

Or look for the Game Face banner in the 'My Bio' widget on your profile page:

How to Register

After log in and accessing the registration link in please follow these Steps:

Step 1) Welcome

When first accessing the Game Face BETA registration you will land on the welcome page. Please click the 'Register for the BETA' button to advance.

Step 2) EA SPORTS Game Face BETA Testing Agreement

In step 2 you will be presented with the EA SPORTS Game Face BETA Testing agreement, please read through the agreement and click the read and agree if you wish to proceed. If you do not wish to accept the agreement you can simply click any link in the main navigation bar to leave the registration process. You will not be registered for Game Face if you do so. 

Step 3) Installing the Game Face Package

This is a very important step in the registration process which ensures that all necessary components for using EA SPORTS Game Face are installed on your computer. This Game Face Package (GFP) must be installed on any computer you choose to access Game Face from. This means that if you wish to use a different computer than the one you previously installed the GFP on then you must install it again. You can do so at anytime by accessing the 'SETTINGS' tab in the EA SPORTS Game Face Creator.

1)      Installation Instructions - Please read carefully through the instructions in order to launch the Game Face installer which will guide you through the full install process.

2)      Minimum System Requirements - These requirements are recommended to ensure that you receive the best Game Face experience. Having system requirements lower than these will result in poor feature performance and visual quality.

3)      What is inside the Game Face Package - If you wish to learn more about what is contained in the Game Face Package that will be installed on your computer this area will provide you with more detail. Please note that nothing will be installed by clicking this area.

4)      Game Face Package Install Now -This button to launch the Game Face installer. After clicking this you will be presented with a download popup from either Internet Explorer (IE) or Firefox. You must open this file in order to run the installer. Choose 'Run' on IE or 'Save File' on Firefox to do this.

Using the Game Face Installer

A.      Language Select - First you must select a language.

B.      Installer Landing Page

Please follow the instructions on the installer landing page and ensure that you close all other applications before starting the setup. Click Next to start the setup process.

***NOTE - The setup process may take over 30 minutes depending on the version of your system components.

C.      Installing Components

Depending on the version of DirectX and .Net Framework software you currently have installed on your computer the EA SPORTS Game Face Client installer may have to update these to a compatible version. As mentioned in the previous step this process may take up to 30 minutes so you may have to be patient. If it is identified that these must be installed you will be directed to a 3^rd Party installation process that will guide you through these steps. Please follow the steps carefully.  Once completed, you will return back to the EA SPORTS Game Face installer to complete the Game Face installation process.

D.      Installation Complete

Once the Game Face Installer has completed installation on the required components, click Next to advance to the Finish screen.

On the Finish screen, click 'Finish' to finalize installation and return back to the Game Face BETA registration screen to continue along the registration process.

In order to advance to the next step, please click the check box confirming that you have successfully installed the Game Face Package. When checked the 'Next' button will become active, click the 'Next' button to advance.

Step 4) Install Unity Player

Installation of the Unity Player is mandatory to be able to view the 3D Game Face character within your web browser. To install, click the 'Install Now!' button in the lower right corner of the screen as shown below:

A download prompt will appear once the install Unity button is clicked, choose 'run' on IE or 'Save File' on Firefox and follow the subsequent directions to install.

***Note - The Unity installation process is not controlled by EA SPORTS.

Once the Unity player has been installed an EA SPORTS logo animation will play in the Unity player on the right of the screen. If you are able to view the animation below Unity had been installed correctly and the 'Next' button should be active. Click the 'Next' button to continue and finalize your registration.

Step 5) Finish!

You have now successfully registered for the EA SPORTS Game Face BETA. Check your easports.com or Football World inbox for registration confirmation. The team at EA SPORTS will be constantly approving accounts, approval should take anywhere from 24-48 hours however depending on the volume of requests it may take longer. The team at EA SPORTS will try and get to your request as soon as possible.

When you've been accepted to the BETA you will be sent another email to your easports.com inbox with further instructions on how to get started and create your Game Face.

We hope this helped and look forward to seeing your Game Face!

Thank You.

The EA SPORTS Team.