That time of year again when the latest yearly iteration of the FIFA franchise is released. Today marked the release of FIFA 12. Hotly anticipated with more than the usual upgrades including a new impact engine, revamped defending and controls. As well as the usual improvements of the graphics, squads and licensing.
First impressions are that it certainly lives up to the claim that the game has been revolutionised this year. It feels a lot different to previous versions, it isn’t perfect but it feels more realistic. I know that this version will put many off due to the complexity of the defensive controls. They do need lots of practice to master but once you know what you are doing they truly help to open up the game more, allowing more chances of capitalising on a mistake and creating openings for yourself. It’s not just hold x to tackle and get it done for you, now you have to position yourself and pressing circle too soon or too late is the difference between winning and losing.
The impact engine is also interesting, it is a good change to see more realistic motions in the game when players get tackled, tripped or collide. It does feel more natural and less animatronic, it is a little glitch at times but it is still early days yet and these teething issues are bound to be found. Nothing a patch or two won’t be able to sort out.
Other new features include ‘Challenge’ mode where you play scenario’s that occurred in real life and try to change the games, achieving the objective provides a bonus boost of XP. This year FIFA has incorporated a points and level system whereby everything you do contributes points to both you and your supported team. Support Your Team is a new feature launched this year where you achieve XP for doing almost anything from starting the game to playing the various modes, the XP then goes towards your selected team in an online league with relegation and promotion. It is a fun little feature.
The only feature I find a little clunky this year is career mode. I haven’t really played it in previous versions but this year I am. I am playing it as a player, I tried it as a player/manager but there are so many stops and starts for mail and player interaction it got old pretty fast. Other than that it is pretty fun and certainly a challenge.
Online has changed too this year, you have two different modes. Head to Head seasons and Friendly Seasons. In Head to Head you play 10 matches which make up a season, the aim is to win 4 and earn 12 points in those games to get promoted up a division. Failure to accumulate enough points means relegation to division 10. You start in division 10 and work your way up. Friendly seasons is almost the same except you play the people in your friends list and the winner is champion and after 10 games you start a new season from scratch.
In terms of trophies and achievements the game is fairly straight-forward enough, I have 32 of the 45 trophies and have found them simple enough. One of two are a challenge like ‘Precision Tackler’ and ‘Riding Bikes’ aside from those two it has been easy going. Most of the ones I have left are grinding trophies like play FIFA for 50 hours – ‘FIFA for Life’ and create an Ultimate Team with a value of 85 million – ‘Growing Club’ (that will take a long time to achieve). The most annoying trophy is ‘How Great is That’ which is achieved when you open a team pack and find a team of the week player inside. It is an achievement which could be expensive if you use money to buy packs. I find it stupid to include something which is based on pure chance. It’s luck of the draw if and when you get a pack including a TOTW player. I have opened about 40 so far and haven’t had one yet.
On the whole this game is a vast improvement on the previous iterations of the FIFA series; the new control facets make the game a new challenge to all from casual fans of the series and hardcore FIFA junkies. Although the changes like tactical defending are tricky to get into first off, I find them very good since I am starting to get the hang of them. The mode I am enjoying the most is the Ultimate Team mode. It is very addicting and engrossing. I will go into it more in detail in a later blog entry.
If you’re looking for a football simulation, I can wholeheartedly say look no further than FIFA 12, it is truly as real as it gets.
9.2/10
