Sports titles struggle to impress year after year. It is a constant fight to add enough new content to warrant the consumer to purchase the same game year after year. FIFA was a title that was failing for quite some time, but then they introduced 360 degree dribbling. This alone advanced the soccer genre and is responsible for the thriving title and the advancement of the games gameplay.
The gameplay has been given a new collision and physics system. The difference between playing a game in FIFA 11 and playing a game in FIFA 12 will show after only 2-3 games. The way players interact when running into each other and the way the ball moves more realistically with passes and deflections gives an even more realistic experience.
The realism it creates is that luck/chance that occurs in real games. Those plays that have you screaming at the TV because the ball manages to bounce just enough to get over the keepers hand or you see a wild deflection that changes the game are all present in FIFA 12.
I rarely see leaps and bounds in gameplay for sports titles from year to year, yet for some reason FIFA’s changes that are actually minor aspects, completely revamp the gameplay.
The controls themselves also were given small changes. For example you still pursuit players with the A button but now to try and steal the ball you hit the B button. This tries a standing tackle and forces players to make a decision “when to attack.” It adds more control over the game and players who master the new way to play defense will have the competitive edge.
It was a little more difficult to grasp with the new defending changes where RB now sent a teammate on an opponent, A put you in pursuit, and B allowed you to tackle or grab (slow down) your opponent if you were close enough. There is a lot more button presses and I felt like the button choices make it difficult to multi-task where FIFA 11 was real simple. I am not saying that it’s a flaw, I am saying it is difficult but these changes will allow game modes like 11v11 Online Team Play more skillful and allow players to really standout as better players.
Online Team Play is one of my favorite features to ever enter sports titles. Obviously studios like EA can’t expect profits to go up when they release a game that can be argued to be identical year after year. Changes need to be made when you have the exciting online multiplayer world yet you are still only playing with 2-4 players. FIFA and NHL have led the way in bringing sports titles into the future and they improve year after year.
The big things I noticed in OTP this year was the presentation, they encourage you to play games and be scouted by teams, and make it more efficient with showing statistics on their gamercard in the pregame lobbies. You can see their overall, their average match rating, et cetera. Then you go into the game and can see how well they perform.
The career mode has also seen some changes, not anything really major in my eyes to the system, like the interface received an upgrade that makes it easier to navigate and feel more a part of a franchise but that isn’t very major. I have been enjoying the scouting system that was added into the game where you can sign scouts (who have ratings) and send them anywhere you want in the world for a set period of time and tell them what position you are looking for and track these young players. Scouting is one of my favorite parts of the Madden franchise so I was very excited to see it added to the huge world of soccer.
I do play the career mode with my girlfriend a lot and unfortunately I am forced to create a generic player for her every year so we can do a virtual pro type deal. It doesn’t seem like a stretch for EA to make it so you can have two virtual pros playing on the same team similar to the FIFA World Cup title that offered a Captain-Your-Country mode. I mean obviously I am not a developer but it seems like implementing it wouldn’t push a release date back.
Also I still love EA GameFace and wish more games implemented this. I think the system still needs work especially when it comes to graphing the correct skin tones and coloring of the face on the import, but I like where it is heading. EA’s Peter Moore even said that there will be Kinect features in every EA Sports title starting next year. I am sure they will have mini-game modes for it, but if they want to really impress people and myself they should introduce full body scanning. To have an anatomically correct version of myself in the game playing soccer would blow me away.
The last big addition in this year is the EA Soccer Club. Other EA Sports titles have tried to implement a user experience system to keep players playing. FIFA this year has taken a Facebook-styled approach and I feel has succeeded in their goal.
You have an experience bar that you can earn points for by doing just about anything. Win a game, start a career mode, score goals, trade players, earn accomplishments for your virtual pro, anything. These points level up your account and raise your ranking in the EAS Club.
The EAS Club is an added interface that you can enter on the main menu. When you open it up you are greeted by a Facebook wall with the latest happenings. You can see scores from past games, when you started a career mode, information on these games, and how many points you have earned for each of these. You can also add your friends to it and know the latest details of their experience as well.
The other part of the EAS Club is the team support system. You select a team to support and every time you win a game for them you earn points for the club and can help move them up on the leaderboard which are technically leagues. Each week the season ends and your team can get promoted/demoted depending on the communities performance.
The EAS Club even has new scenarios each week from past games that you have either recreate or change to complete. Similar to the Madden Moments, I wish EA actually implemented this system where you can remake moments like the Buffalo Bills coming back in the second half against the New England Patriots.
The only bad thing I can say about FIFA 12 is that the graphics seem slightly worse than last year. They may have had to tone down quality to compensate for the new physics and collision, but those make such a great experience in gameplay that it is almost worth it. The graphics aren’t glaringly bad or anything it just didn’t seem as polished as past titles.
FIFA fans will not be disappointed at all in the latest installment. FIFA and NHL are my two favorite titles in the EA Sports series and they constantly lead on innovating one of the most criticized genres. Whether you are a career mode fan, a virtual pro fan, or just like beating your friends on the weekends the EAS Club system will keep you pulled in and the gameplay speaks for itself.
A copy of FIFA Soccer 12 for Xbox 360 was provided to us for review from EA Sports.
