Mechanically, they're the same 2010 soccer game (release in late 2009), and feature all the same playable players. The difference, of course, is that World Cup South Africa focuses only on World Cup qualifications and the World Cup tourney itself, so there are no club teams - no Real Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona etc - just national teams.
This allows you to play the tournament as it played out with teams like Spain, Netherlands and England dominating their groups, with France famously knocking out Ireland with a controversial hand-ball aided goal... or you can go back and choose a country that didn't make it and change their fortunes.
To mix things up a bit, World Cup South Africa uniquely features the "Coke Zero Story of Qualifying & Story of the Finals" where you're playing out re-creations of given scenarios that already took place during this year's real world qualifying rounds; stuff to re-live, setbacks to overcome, recent history to write verbatim or re-write anew.
Further, as you progress through these different moments, you unlock scenarios from the 2006 World Cup Finals that you can also re-live/re-write. EA promises that as the 2010 tourney plays out (June 11 - July 11), there will be free downloadable add-on scenarios to incorporate into the game. Pretty cool.
One seemingly minor addition illustrates EA's devotion to putting the "special" in special edition. Once you win the Cup in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, there is an actual trophy presentation where you can see your team celebrating with that iconic, solid gold prize (which is not actually a "cup," ironically, but a globe). Typically, sports games don't do this; you merely spend dozens if not hundreds of hours grinding though a season, win the championship (hopefully) and -bloop! - you're booted back to the game's main menu. Granted, you might only revel watching this end game celebration once or twice, but the fact that it's even in there is a great touch.
That said, you can't help but notice EA Sports 2010 World Cup South Africa is still the same game as EA Sports FIFA Soccer 10 at heart. This is repeatedly illustrated by the same flow-killing cut scenes, for example, where you're firmly immersed in the middle of a game only to have the bubble burst by a generic cut to the stands to see one team's fans either celebrating or lamenting how the game is proceeding. And even more quizzically, the coaches seem to get even more "face time" then the fans, who get way too much momentum-interuptis as it is. This may sound like a minor issue, but play it for a few hours and it's as annoying as Provesta commercials. Okay, more annoying.
Another head-scratching downside that should be an upside to 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is that though you're able to take a user-created player from FIFA Soccer 10 and import him into any national team of your choosing in World Cup South Africa, said player's stats reset to their default starting attributes. Basically, if you've built up a great player in FIFA Soccer 10, you can import him to World Cup South Africa in likeness only, all hard-earned skills and attributes left behind. Lame.
Still, as always, to play an EA Sports FIFA game of any iteration is generally an outstanding experience despite the odd design flaw, quirk or misguided tweak. 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is no exception, though the ability to replay moments from the 2010 qualification round and the 2006 World Cup finals might not be enough "newness" if you already ponied up the bucks for FIFA Soccer 10 just a few months ago, especially considering FIFA 10 already has all the top teams and lacks all the cutscenes to coaches and crowds with their various hats and patriotic flag waves. You can recreate the World Cup in FIFA Soccer 10 manually, after all.
Of course, if you skipped FIFA Soccer 10 this year, or if you're totally nutso for the World game that only comes around once every four years, then yes, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa has got it all - and a tad more, for better or worse.
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