FIFA 12

The king of football games is back on its nineteenth outing


Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date(s):  Sep 27, 2011 (NA),  Sep 30, 2011 (EU)
Platform(s): PS2, PS3, PSP, PSV, 360, Wii, PC, XPE, 3DS, iOS
Genre: Sports


The king of football games is back on its nineteenth outing and the team behind it are not resting on their laurels, but with such huge support and stacks of cash to throw into the project, you wouldn’t expect anything less. FIFA has always had the advantage of a fully license product to hold over its main rival, Pro Evolution Soccer, for the past decade, but in more recent years has taken the lead in overall gameplay, and now that EA have their foot in the door they will not give up that advantage easily.

They’re leading the charge this year with three major features and major isn’t an exaggeration, as each one looks to fundamentally change the way the game plays.

Say hello to a new way of playing FIFA

The first and clearly the biggest change is that of the new Impact Engine, which affects every single player-to-player impact throughout a match, and works in real-time. It takes into account a host of things, such as the force of the impact, the weight of the players involved and the parts of the body that are connected with, as well as a host of other attributes. This makes every encounter different and multiplies the number of eventualities tenfold.

This isn’t just on the ball, it happens constantly off the ball too, and will be seen all over the pitch throughout a game. So if Aaron Lennon for example, is looking for the ball and makes a forward run, but goes face first into a defender, its more likely he will fall on his backside. However, if Wayne Rooney is running full pelt at a backline, there’s far more chance he will either knock the defender back a few steps when the connection is made, or shrug passed them due to his heavier physique. Although that is only the principal of it, there are many other factors to take into consideration, and five identical runs from the same player, will all end differently.

Depending on which parts of the body are targeted, and how much of the weight is distributed it will also determine how badly a player comes off, whether they have an injury and the extent of it. This takes away those annoyances at being tackled lightly in Career Mode and your player being out for six months. Now you’ll see their leg crunch and then watch as they writhe on the floor in agony. Even if you’re the tackler you may still be prone to injury if it isn’t timed correctly, closer reflecting real life tussles.

The new impact system brings every tackle to life

It isn’t just how the players smack into each other, as the ball feels like a completely free entity during challenges, bobbling around as it bounces from limb-to-limb and makes goalmouth scrambles more realistic and frenzied than ever before.

The animations for such impacts have also been greatly improved to accommodate the new system, and the clumsiness of players’ limbs passing through each other in ghost like fashion has been eradicated for the most part. FIFA producer David Rutter touches upon the point, "It creates these really fluid moments, In Fifa 11 you had these momentum-breaking glitches, where a player gets stuck in a little animation cycle against another player. It drags you out of the moment.”

The second new feature is that of Tactical Defending, which does away with the endlessly mind-numbingly exercise of holding down a button to press a player. The defensive side of the game is now broken down into three main areas: positioning, intercepting passes, and tackling, with a greater emphasis on slowing the attacker down until you’re in a better position to dispossess them.

The third is Precision Dribbling that gives you total freedom when the ball is at your feet. With a push of your trigger, you can slow the pace and perform deft touches to help retain possession of the ball and create time and space for yourself. You can now also shield the ball and move across when doing so, instead of being rooted to the spot like you were in FIFA 11.

Kaka’s skills will shine with new Precision Dribbling

Career mode has also been given a lick of paint and they’ve added a few new bits and pieces here and there. The relationship between player and manager has been improved, and your team selection, the salaries you offer on new contracts, and the overall treatment of your players has a huge impact on both his attitude and morale. Unhappy players will now talk to the press and voice their concerns, which will tempt rival clubs to make a cheeky low bid for their services. Perhaps they should include Twitter, as that seems to be were most footballers speak their minds nowadays.

The ongoing quest to replicate full player likeness is still apparent, with more work on thousands of new and improved attributes and idiosyncrasies. Players will better react and feed off of each others abilities, with a player such as Stewart Downing far more likely to whip a cross into Andy Carroll, who has a better aerial presence, than he would Luis Suarez. Alternatively, Luka Modric will receive the ball to his feet more often than not, as he prefers time on the ball to set up plays.

The commentary team for the UK version naturally sees a change this year, after the firing of Andy Gray from Sky Sports. Martin Tyler remains, with Alan Smith as his co-commentator. The pair worked together many times towards the latter half of last season’s campaign. Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend will also pair up as a second commentary team, who will be used in cups and tournaments, giving those games a more authentic feel. Although these can be swapped to all matches if that’s your preference.

Left: Alan Smith and Right: Martin Tyler

FIFA 12 will again ship an Ultimate Edition on release day; including four monthly Ultimate Team gold packs with a random selection of twelve of the following: players, contracts, stadiums, managers, staff, fitness, healing, footballs, kits and badges. Each pack will also contain one rarer and more sought after item.

In conclusion, FIFA seems like a true class act this year, with some fundamental changes that address some of the games weaker areas. The general consensus from testing points to a game that blows it’s predecessor out of the water, rendering it pointless in comparison, and at the end of the day, that’s all you can ask for from an annual sports title.

Pro Evolution Soccer is definitely playing catch up, but their innovative Active AI system seems to hold a lot of promise, and only time will tell whether that makes the difference. It has certainly got people standing up and taking notice of two football games again, and we will be sure to post our in-depth opinions on both when we’ve got our hands on retail copies.



Craig Bryan, NoobFeed
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