FIFA 12

FIFA 12 brings to the pitch the game-changing new Player Impact Engine, a physics engine built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. Experience the way real-world footballers challenge each other for the ball, win possession, and test each other physically. Enjoy an infinite variety of natural and believable outcomes in every collision. Players feel more resilient, push and pull during the fight for possession, and recover from light challenges more easily. Revolutionary gameplay innovations make FIFA 12 deeper and more engaging. All-new Precision Dribbling creates a higher fidelity of touch on the ball for better control in tight spaces, more time to make decisions on attack, and more control over the pace of the game. Innovations in attack are balanced by a...

• Andrew Highton January 12, 2012 PS3

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  EA's prized sport franchise returns with a new iteration producing more endless recreational football fun. Whilst some niggles and technical hitches prevent it from being a world cup winner, it's quite possibly the greatest recreation of football to have ever existed.
  The winning-formula of Fifa 11 has returned with some pretty useful and inventive changes, also known as the "holy trinity" which have completely revolutionised the dynamics of how a game of Fifa is played.
  The first of said changes is the new precision dribbling, with the simple touch of a button your player can now turn on the spot which allows you to manoeuvre out of seemingly dead-end situations. Meaning that, true to life, if Iniesta finds himself hounded down by 3 markers with no room to move, then precision dribbling will let Iniesta turn and swivel to find that tiny pocket of space he needs to get the pass away. Maybe he can find that perfect opening to jink his way past 2 defenders and create a goal-scoring opportunity. I found myself at times just turning on a sixpence just weighing up all the different possibilities, sometimes I did it purely because it's just so much fun to be blessed with this newfound freedom.
  
  The second new feature is the new tactical defending which has removed the effortless manhunt you could do with the mere pressing of a button of past Fifa games. Instead you can now only jostle and contain your man waiting to choose the perfect moment to commit yourself to a tackle. If you succeed then you'll win the ball with a good tackle, you can maybe pressurise your opponent enough so that he falls over or makes a bad pass. Conversely, if you're up against Theo Walcott and you happen to mis-time your tackle then you'll get barely a sniff of him as he's already halfway up the wing leaving you in the dust. It's certainly tough to get used to if you're used to the previous iterations of Fifa (like myself initially), however once you've persevered and adapted to the learning curve, you'll reap the glorious rewards and benefits. The joy of sticking to your man like glue for a long distance just to mentally break him and win the ball with an inch perfect interception; is like the feeling of having a cold beer after a long day of work in a stuffy office on a hot summer's day...satisfying! It can be tempting at times to keep pressing the square button (X on Xbox) to quickly win the ball, but if you do you'll give away a LOT of free-kicks and penalties. Also you're allowed to pull on your opponent's shirt to again pressurise them into a mistake, although depending on the strictness of the ref, you'll wind up receiving a yellow card if you tear their shirt off through excessive pulling.
  
  The final overhaul to the gameplay is the brand-spanking new impact engine which EA has been fine-tuning for the last 2 years. In place now is the ability for any of your 11 players to be on the receiving end of an unforeseen injury, again true to life. We've all seen a player sprinting on the pitch only to suddenly pull up with a pulled hamstring, Fifa tries its best to imitate this. The impact engine is designed to detect every single calculation of physics that would occur with the human body during a match; meaning every collision that occurs is different and reflective of a genuine collision in a real match. Also working in conjunction with your players stamina bar and fatigue, players will pull up with a hamstring strain, go down with a femur contusion or even break a rib in a collision. It adds so much depth to the game and is crucial in Manager Mode even more so. In one instance, I signed Adel Taraabt to Stoke City for an astronomical sum (for Stoke anyway) and agonisingly he got caught in a collision in only his second game leaving him injured for 4 months; truly brutal but annoyingly realistic!
  
  On the other hand, it's blatantly obvious that the engine is far from the finished article. If you've even so much as heard of the famed impact engine then you'll be aware of the amusing scenarios it can throw up. Despite getting the physics implemented into the game, a player will frequently collide with another player and they will form an attachment (literally) as they're stuck together like a Joey in its mother's pouch. They can remain stuck for seconds at times which not only destroys the realism but it affects the gameplay as you may need to pass to that player. I've seen players be touched very faintly and be turned into a human break-dancing cyclone. It can also be poor at registering collisions too as I've won the ball on countless times, especially in the penalty area, yet the inch perfect tackle has been deemed to be a foul. Whilst conversely, you can commit a blatant foul and get away with it; consistency is horrifically lacking. In addition, injuries occur sporadically and occasionally the extent of injuries is completely overlooked and very unrealistic. I've had players sprain their knee which would hinder you to the extent of having to come off in a real match, yet in Fifa world you can shake it off within a few minutes and play like nothing happened. I've even had a player pickup 2 injuries within the same match and still continue, the injury system needs some amendments. Needless to say the engine is a work in process, but there is no doubting the concept is there. With some tweaks I fully expect it to be an accurate and prominent feature in Fifa 13.
  
  Aside from the 3 major unique selling points of the game, Fifa has a few incremental changes to improve the game overall. Thrown-ins has been given a new animation which allows quick throw-ins to retain its fluid gameplay. Again though the physics sometimes prevent this from happening as a player attempts to pick the ball and up and ends up walking into it and kicking it away which makes the game look slightly unprofessional and rushed. A whole host of new shooting animations have thankfully been created which allows the greatest variety of goals seen yet in a game (my main gripe of previous Fifa games). Shooting is now more weighted and you no longer feel like you're kicking a balloon that's just burst. Volleying is as satisfying as ever with the new animations providing superb technique executed with volleys. I've always hated the fact you could only score from the same few positions and you couldn't score with lesser players or defenders from range. Now I'm not saying that if you smash a 35 yarder with John Terry it'll fly into the top corner but there is a general feeling of increased ability in terms of shooting which I think was sorely needed. Another minor niggle I have is with keepers is the fact that they will 10/10 times gather a shot that bounces just in front of them. Even Casillas, Julio Cesar, Buffon and Reina are incapable of holding these most difficult of shots and by spilling those every now and again it would provide an additional element of franticness to the gameplay.
  
  In my eyes the primary area letting down this brilliant game is the two of the essential basics, sounds and graphics. Some people may call me a picky person who demands perfection and unparalleled realism, but in reality I don't think I ask for much. The sound of keepers making a save is, and always has been, ugly and sounds too much like a thud; likewise with the woodwork being struck. But passes, the sounds of various crowd cultures are convincing and really add to the match atmosphere. If you're winning (at home) and putting together 10 or more passes you can expect to hear the good ol "ole" from the home crowd. If you're at home using Santos then you'll be engulfed in a huge crowd of samba music. Some stadiums even have a spontaneous announcement of winner of an unspecified competition. It's completely irrelevant but it's so subtle that a true football supporter will be able to acknowledge this, making for a more familiar environment.
  
  The soundtrack to the game is lively enough and features a prominent upbeat-selection ranging from English group Kasabian to the Spanish workings of El Guincho. You won't be taking any more bows after EA made the big call of dropping the infamous Scottish commentator, Andy Gray, due to his recent controversial shenanigans. Instead, he's replaced by former Arsenal striker Alan Smith who forms a decent partnership up front with the usual suspect, Martin Tyler. But you can switch formations and deploy the ITV commentary team of Clyde Tyldesley and Andy Townsend if you're looking for something different. Veterans of the series will instantly recognised some recycled material from Martin Tyler and some lines are still used out of context or just don't make sense. "Oh it's a PENALTY"..........nope it's actually a free-kick Clyde but it's the programmers fault, not yours. The inclusion of the new "TV Broadcast" angle is one of the immediate things that will catch your eye as it's more naturalistic of a live match and it gives EA a chance to show you their brilliantly captured character models. Too many times in the past I've had to look at the name indicator to know who I'm passing to/controlling; not now though as the camera angle is just about close enough to showcase players and display enough of the action happening.
  
  On the graphical front, the major players on the pitch are virtually flawless, Messi (you've probably heard of him) looks like his real-life exceptional counter-part. If you take time to go to go to a replay you'll be able to study the facial expressions of players as they evolve and progress with each move. Whether it's an ecstatic player who's just scored a beauty or the shocked expressions at Emile Heskey simply scoring any sort of goal! EA retain their ability to showcase an extensive range of official licenses from authentic kits, logo's badges and full licensing of leagues from England, France, Spain, and Italy amongst others. They do so and they all look very accurate of their real-life counter-parts.
  
  Despite having crisp and exquisite looking pitches, the general stadium look doesn't convince me I'm afraid which does spoil some of the realism for me. For instance, my beloved Liverpool FC has the fortress known as Anfield (Liverpool's stadium) licensed in the game like they do annually. But it doesn't feel like Anfield because, any proper Liverpool fan would know, the stands at each end are almost touching the nets and the side stands can sniff the spray painted touchlines. Some other stadiums can be guilty of this but it's not a major problem in the slightest. What is a major problem however the continued lack of detail to the dismal spectators is overlooked. AGAIN. You don't even have to be a realism enthusiast to see that the fans are pixelated and move like they're tied to a swinging metronome, destined to swing and move in a way that's not believable and is also just plain stupid. You still get fans wearing the wrong colours in the wrong ends, fans don't always cheer when you score and they also don't react by putting their head in hands etc when the other team score. A big thing for me is that if you score a goal to go 1-0 in the cup final then the roar should be deafening. If you've just tapped in your 8th goal in a meaningless pre-season friendly, then it should be greeted with very delicate cheers. In Fifa all the goals prompt the same generic goal-scoring cheer.
  
  This year see's an unhealthy wealth of things to do insinuating that you should never be bored with Fifa. Career Mode is divided into your main manager mode where you choose a team and build into your own bastion of invincibility. Whereas Be a Pro remains relatively unchanged in that you create a virtual pro who's supposed to look like you but has 1,000 times the ability you do of course. I'm someone who feels that be a pro is an untapped gold mine and with some expansion it could be a gem of a mode with more in-depth development to your player e.g. training challenges. You improve your pro through completing challenges appropriate to your style of play and/or by lifetime accomplishments e.g "Score 100 career goals"
  
  The actually career mode has also seen some refinement too with such changes as introducing a new drama based transfer deadline countdown. To recreate the tension of the final day of the transfer window, you can now see it unfold with hourly updates on the latest news; possibly including yourself as a rich team steps in with a last second bid to prise one of your assets away. I think they could also add a similar feature for the draws for each cup as well. The draw for the FA Cup 3rd round is always massive and it's not quite the same when you have to go and look at your fixtures to see if you've drawn one of the "Big 4". Instead a screen randomly drawing out pairings could be much more fun. Unfortunately the mode is still not without its flaws though; fixture congestion can become normal as for some reason your fixtures will be re-scheduled closer together for no reason at all. Rarely have they ever been moved further apart which is irritating especially when in conjunction with injuries and fatigue. Fixtures such as League Cup matches will be scheduled for 8:00pm and yet be played in scorching sunshine. The transfers, albeit are uncontrollable, are unrealistic and also pre-determined as well. As someone who can get bored after a while with a season, I find myself starting new career modes every now and again. In doing so I've had the opportunity to see the same few transfers happening at the beginning every time e.g Sneijder moving to Manchester City every time, Modric moving to Manchester United, Samuel moving to Liverpool EVERY time. Even still, the thrill of completing a season of football, trying to win that illusive silverware, luring the top players to your ever increasing squad of top-notch talent; it's still fulfilling. It's got enough depth to satisfy anyone over-encumbered with information from the football manager games. New morale outbursts form players ensure that you have to make use of man-management skills to rotate players and keep them happy. If you've got a £20 million player sitting on the bench every week then he'll eventually state his displeasure and demand to play. His situation will have to have either an amicable resolution or the player will earn his keep elsewhere.
  
  On the other hand Ultimate Team is one of Fifa's main offerings and simply put its engrossing, nostalgic and quite simply very addictive! If you've experienced the timeless classic of going down to your local shop to buy some football trading cards then you'll understand the thrill of opening a pack in ultimate team. If not, then you'll still find it grows on you and you'll want to attain the best cards anyway. Through buying packs your objective is to basically assemble teams of high chemistry and high in ability to compete in tournaments with specific criteria. For example, one tournament inherently La Liga based or primarily players that have to be from the Premier League. It adds an extra dimension and more strategy in that you need a cohesive team that abides by strict tournament regulations allowing for variety and challenge. It's highly unlikely you'll open a gold pack and acquire Messi or Ronaldo, but over time you'll gain quality players and through the course of auctioning and careful purchasing, you can buy the players you desire. You earn coins through playing matches, you can buy packs with real money...yes you may scoff at the idea of using your own hard-earned money, but you WILL use it.
  
  There is no doubt in my mind that in all the years I've been playing games, Fifa 12 is the most accurate representation of the greatest sport in the world. It's made small but significant strides since its predecessor and makes for more compelling and unpredictable contests on the green battlefield. True though the impact engine is a great starting block for human physics; it quite clearly needs a hefty upgrade job over the course of time till Fifa 12. Also amidst the extensive array of licenses, stadiums and teams are some awful presentational flaws. I may have singled out a few criticisms but I can assure you these are purely personal flaws of a minor level. The crowds are horribly pixelated and unchanged like they have been for years and some stadiums falsify the illusion of atmosphere. Should that detract from a game that's continually generating momentum each year and spoiling football fans worldwide? Not a chance. This game is brilliant and provides multiple modes and platforms to act out your footballing fantasies. Want to sign Neymar and Hazard to create an untouchable dream team capable of lifting the top prizes? Then you'll be able to do so with deft touches, precision dribbling and flowing football that would make the 1970 Brazil World Cup team proud.
  

• FIFA12 - E3 Gameplay Trailer PS3 | 01:08 Play Trailer