Evolution Of FIFA 15 - 21 Years Of Incredible Football Graphics

6. FIFA 10

If you had been sitting on the sidelines for a few rounds, tired of the endless releases without meaningful innovation, FIFA 10 was a pretty good place to sit up and take notice of EA Sports' flagship franchise once again. It's not that this 2009 attempt was vastly different to the year before, but rather that by this point EA Canada was in total control of the hardware and it showed. We've banged on about incredible player likenesses many times by now, but here it was taken to new levels for the prominent footballers - Rooney, Ronaldinho and the rest of the overpaid elite were just downright eerie in their accuracy. Elsewhere, lush grass textures, fantastic shading and lighting and the traditional upgrade to the crowd graphics brought FIFA ever nearer to EA's ambitious goals.

5. FIFA 11

Detractors would tell us that FIFA was becoming a farce by this point. And, while calling it a farce is probably a bit strong, there is nevertheless merit in the accusation. 2010 was another World Cup year, which meant another mid-year release sitting between FIFA 10 and FIFA 11, and while the World Cup 2010 version lacked the clubs and league options it was a bloody terrific football game - good enough to make it hard to warrant shelling out for yet another FIFA a few months later. Still, we got our obligatory detail upshifts, perfectly rendered kits and even more accurate player modelling - this time reaching further down the leagues than before, so even your lower tier players had serious cosmetic work since the previous edition. A quick look at the pre-match line-ups of the bigger teams were near indistinguishable from reality at quick glance. So yes, another delightful footie game, as beautiful to look at as it was to play.