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Even though we have had a late April retail date for a couple months now, EA finally confirmed the latest FIFA entry with FIFA World Cup 2010, and it certainly looks promising.

For the first time in history, EA will include every single nation that appeared in World Cup qualifying, that’s all 199 of them according to the company (although 204 competed by this count). Either way, that’s a heckuva lot of teams and far more than were even included in the last World Cup game (which included 127). The dream matchup of Turks & Caicos vs. England is now a reality!

Besides the question of how they will rate some of the poorer countries (teams of which could probably easily be overmatched by an English League 2 squad), FIFA World Cup 2010 will include a bevy of other features. Gamespot went through the list with producer Simon Humber, but here are some of the highlights..

• Visuals have been tweaked quite a bit. This includes a better pitch, better lighting and general World Cup pageantry.
• FIFA has never had a strong “broadcast” feel, but this will be helped by the addition of cut shots of fan reactions.
• A bunch of gameplay improvements, including chest traps, preserving momentum when gathering lofted through balls, goalies will play better angles, chest and shoulder passes.
• Real managers and more player faces.
• Teams are more difficult to beat at their home stadiums.
• Similar to Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 will integrate a more fleshed out online tournament mode that takes into account the group stages and tournament play and pits you against opponents who are in the same boat as you (similar stage or round and as true to the seeding rules as possible).
• Altitude will play a subtle effect on the gameplay depending on the location.
• No word on whether online team play will make its debut in a FIFA national team game, but Humber promised more online features will be revealed later on.
• Wii and PSP versions are in the works as well. I imagine the Wii version will build off the casual arcade type gameplay presented the console’s FIFA 10 while the PSP build will be similar to what we’ve seen before on the handheld.

I am truly thrilled EA seems to be including every team for once (though not sure how many of the smaller countries will actually be licensed). Here’s hoping some form of team play makes it’s debut and maybe the ability to transfer your FIFA 10 pro. Keep your eyes on the blog!