A little more than a month ago, I wrote about my disenchantment with the latest version of EA Sports’ college football video game series. I managed to plug away and finish a season with SMU (we went 8-5 or something like that and reached a bowl), then chose to take a job with Syracuse.

I left it at that point without starting a new season because I hit the store the other day and bought FIFA10, the new version of EA’s popular soccer series. I played this game years ago on the computer, but hadn’t jumped back in since I bought the PS2 a couple of years ago.

The disappointment with NCAA10 and this past Tuesday’s release date of FIFA made me change that. I had the perfect way to fill my video game void. After two days of playing, I can say that I made a great decision.

First of all, a game in FIFA (playing 4 minute halves) takes less than 15 minutes. I loaded my season and played a game all while riding the exercise bike last night. A football game took an hour commitment, which just didn’t work sometimes so I wouldn’t even turn on the game at all.

Secondly, the game has so many damn leagues and options, I can’t possibly get bored with it. I am currently playing with Hearts in the Scottish Premier League, but could have easily picked an MLS team or one of many English teams or even a team in freaking Russia. The options are endless.

The last positive is that the game play is just so much nicer than NCAA. The animations aren’t as stilted and predictable. You really feel like they capture the spirit of the sport better than the college football game, which got kind of close four years ago, then stopped trying to improve it.

I can’t wait to start to explore things such as Manager Mode or to create a league or tournament. That sound you heard was my motivation for productivity disappearing. Blame EA Sports.