Review | FIFA 12

The tag for Fifa 12 was revolution over evolution. Promising a whole new way of play, more depth, more features and more accuracy than ever before. Lofty claims for a game that has already pushed the boundaries of video game football, but when you can back those claims up like Fifa 12 does, then you just might find this is the best sports game on the planet.

The Fifa series is a juggernaut. Guaranteed to sell a squillion copies even if all EA did was slap a shot of Wayne Rooney on a packet of instant noodles and send it to retailers, Fifa has changed the way that a generation looks at gaming. Playing a huge part in gaming becoming the dominant form of entertainment in Europe, Fifa has a lot of expectation from its fans to keep on improving every year.

And EA has done exactly that.

Fans already know what to expect with the multitude of leagues, tournaments, players, grounds, managers and more when they pick up a Fifa game. Think of your favourite player, your favourite team and you’re more than likely to see them in the game. Those facts are already a given when approaching every new iteration of the world’s best selling sports game.

But constant change and tweaking is the name of the game now. The few criticisms leveled at Fifa 11 focused on the reactions of the players in contact and the stiffness of control, two things that have proven problematic for almost every sporting video game since Pong. Come Fifa 12 and come the solution, or at least a glimpse of the solution to many of the complaints of the genre.

One of the most touted new features in Fifa 12 is the player impact engine. Designed to more accurately portray the physicality of modern football, the engine allows contact and impact to be more meaningful than ever before. Players now react, and subsequently get injured, in unique ways and variations that are dependent on a host of factors.

A majorly more realistic portrayal of actual football, the player impact engine allows more fluidity in both attacking and defending situations, with player encounters no longer seemingly random and with full-speed collisions actually having consequences. It’s been a long time coming, but it more than meets the expectations.

Perhaps the biggest change in the game is the tactical defending. In fact it’s so important that you’ll be given a tutorial right from the start to try and get your head around it. The game now balances the offense and defense much better and defending now actually requires thought instead of getting in the right place at the right time.

Much more realistic, defending requires positioning your player and those around him in the right place, forcing opponents into weak positions and taking advantage. Harrying attackers and pressuring off the ball is now an actuality and skilled defending is going to make a massive difference both on and off the field.

With additional defense abilities, the offense has been tweaked accordingly to allow far more control and allows players far more accuracy in their play. The precision dribbling mechanic allows gamers to push one button and have their on-screen counterpart maintain a much higher level of control over the ball. This may be handy to put a player into space or perhaps beat a defender but it’s not a magic fix-it that will allow any player to just run through the opposition,  but more like a reflection of the skill inherent within the real game and finally translated to the virtual one.

These three additions along with graphical polish and the usual yearly updates already represent Fifa 12 being the pinnacle of football games, but another new inclusion this year, the EA Football club, takes the game to an addictive level akin to a WOW or Civilisation.

Within the EA Football Club everything is tracked and everything counts. Both your personal score and your club score are tracked in a global world of millions. It’s a simple addition that, like Need for Speed’s Autolog, is designed for the modern, social-connected world, and it’s something that, in competition against everyone, is HORRIBLY addictive.

I’ve used the word accurate a lot in this review. It bothered me slightly but is the perfect reflection of the game. Fifa 12 is accurate, it’s so accurate now that it’s hard to believe that it can get better. This is truly sporting perfection, if you are a fan of sports games in any way you owe it to yourself to pick up Fifa 12. With the potential for years of longevity, Fifa 12 is simply the best. The best value, the best sports game and the best representation of football we’ll ever have…at least until next year.    [10]