For the past month, the entire world has been glued to the events in South Africa. There have been some fantastic moments, ranging from Donovan’s last second goal against Algeria, to Uruguay’s controversial handball from Luis Suarez, to David Villa and his Spanish squad that halted Germany in their tracks, and of course the early flights home for England, Brazil and Argentina. It’s all led to a massive showdown this Sunday between the Netherlands and Spain. Both have tons of quality within their sides and I look forward to a fantastic final match.

This week EA SPORTS also made some news of its own, announcing our new next-gen engine for FIFA 11 on PC. You’ll now be able to have the award-winning game play and graphics that were once only for consoles, optimized for your home computer. FIFA PC users have been requesting this for some time now, and although it took two years to develop, we are finally able to deliver the next-gen game experience on PC. We have always strived to make our games accessible to all, no matter what platform you use. FIFA 11 on PC is another example of this-it broadens our audience by bringing next-generation quality game play to another platform. Congratulations to the FIFA PC team!

Not to be outdone, the FIFA 11 dev team revealed this week a new feature called the “Creation Centre“. Having the league and team licenses to deliver the most authentic football experience has always been our trademark since way back on FIFA 96 when we acquired the FIFPro license and for the first time used real player names in the game. Now we are complementing this authenticity by putting the tools in your hands and giving you the ability to create your own teams. You’ll be able to create your own team from scratch, creating its crest, kit, and players (me, I’ll be reliving past glories by recreating Gresford Athletic F.C. circa 1978…) When you’re finished, you’ll have the ability to play online with them, or share your new squad with friends. Furthermore, we’ve developed a feature called Custom Audio, giving fans the ability to implement their own chants into the game to play during player introductions, halftime, and after goals. This is a new direction for FIFA, combining authenticity with the ability to create your own content.

As the World Cup comes to a dramatic finish, our FIFA 11 season is just getting underway, and we will have more news and features soon. To be the first to hear about them, follow our Facebook group here. As for this Sunday, who should a Liverpudlian like me pick? Fernando Torres (if he plays) and Spain? Or Dirk Kuyt and the Netherlands? I think it’d be wrong to go against our 2010 FIFA World Cup simulation, so I too will side with Spain.