A Late Impression of….FIFA 12

Last year I haven’t been able to buy any new ps3 games, so most of my gaming time in 2011 was spent on either dota, or platinuming older games. Which was worth the effort because they’re fun and satisfying. I wouldn’t have thought that I would add the likes of Trinity Universe, Nier, FFXIII, Resonance of Fate, Assassin Creed 2, Dragon Age Origin and Sengoku Basara to my platinum list. Moving on from platinum stuff, on 2011 I don’t really have any particular game that I really want to play, except a few – Atelier Totori, and most importantly, FIFA12. And these 2 games are the exact 2 games that I bought a few days ago. Late I know, but it’s unfortunate that it’s only this year that I could spare the money to buy these games.

Moving to FIFA, I spent most of my footballing games of 2011 with, well, FIFA11 and I enjoyed it a lot. It made me really looking forward to FIFA 12, anticipating changes/new features that the game brought and any possible stats changes to some in-form players at early 2011-2012 seasons (eg Anderson, Dzeko and Cleverley).

Title: FIFA 12
Developer: Electronic Arts
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PS3), XBOX 360, PSP, PS Vita, PC, 3DS, Wii, PS2, iOS
Genre: Sports/Football
Release date: September 2011(all version)


Being a big FIFA series fan, I know I had to get this game even though it's already a few months late. Then I took my time to play the game, getting familiarized with new gameplay changed, indulging myself with career mode etc. So, what can I say about FIFA12?

• Impact Engine made the game more realistic as players collision was feel more real, but sometimes it can be a nuisance eg when you're defending and try to chase the opponents, only to get obstructed by whatever players (and ref!) in your way, tumbling and the opponents ran away.

• Tactical Defending was the biggest changed that I really need to get used to. In FIFA11 defending was easy - hold x to press opponents and auto stand tackle, R2+L2 to jockey or slide tackle when necessary. With Tactical Defending in Fifa12 the system was changed, it really require us to "play" real football - it now emphasize on positioning, holding and containing player off before making tackle at the right time. In short, in FIFA11 we can just hold X and the player will prompt to tackle, but in FIFA12 pressing X will only made them contain the opponent. Stand tackle can only be made by pressing O at the right time, or else you miss and the opponent get away. Kinda sucks at first, I had a real hard time taking the ball away from those fukken dribblers, needs to get used to this fast or I'm toast.

• Player Customization/Slider Option is stupid and made Pro levelling super easy. It basically allowed you to adjust your team's shot/pass speed/accuracy, running speed/acceleration, errors etc all the way to max/mid AND doing the reverse to the opponents. It only works on AI, but still a broken concept, making the game totally boring if you stretch every option all the way to the end. Well, the other option is, don't use this Player Customization at all, but in certain case (especially when you use a half-star team like AFC Wimbledon), you definitely want to adjust the option just slightly (especially pass speed) to survive League 2.

• Career mode is now more fun and realistic. The basics are still similar to those in FIFA11, with some more additional features. Scouting system made its comeback, now being part of the newly introduced Youth Academy. Now you can use the scouting network to find a new raw, unknown gem from secluded place all around the world, although it's highly unlikely that you'll find another Messi, Hernandez or Ronaldo from them. Playing career mode so far, I only managed to find a Japanese youth that has the potential to go up to 84 overall. Another addition to career mode is the deadline day transfer, where times passed by hourly rather than daily. Basically it allowed you to make any last minute transfer, which while sounds exciting, is getting boring over time. One last thing, apparently we can no longer change the match weather pre-game anymore. Sucks, I hate playing in snow :(

• Other comments: players now have stamina/energy, form and morale on when you're managing teams. It's a hassle at time, but it did give a realistic feel to it. Loading time is much reduced especially in career mode. Be a Pro didn't have much change, and I'm still working to increase my Pro's overall. Currently a striker, Overall 76. My Pro in FIFA11 managed to get Overall of 86 (Striker), but I bet with the User Customisation Option in FIFA12, it's much easier to surpass what I achieve in FIFA11.