Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Broken"

Based on online experience only.

I personally had a great deal of fun with FIFA 12, having played it for 100+ hours. However, FIFA 12 wasn't without its nuisances and I was hoping EA would try to fix these problems with this year's instalment.

First touch adds more realism to but there is not much refinement to it. It simple adds a bit of randomness but leaves the player with a feeling EA could add more executional skill to it.

More refined physics and collision system additions are welcome as well as toned-down Tactical Defending as opposed to last year's instalment which simply containing with a defender would follow the attacker frame-by-frame as if the defender read the attacker's mind and matched his movements instantly therefore giving an extremely unfair and unrealistic advantage to the defender.

Passing however is horrendous. It is time for EA to finally rework passing after having it broken for many years. 180 degree passes should not be allowed. Assisted settings are simply unrealistically accurate. Defenders making passes in unbalanced situations, this is simply done by holding the pass button and starting a quick counter attack which no way in hell would be possible in real football because the pass itself i. EA should force players to 'clear' the ball more, as in and taking. Unfortunately right now passing in a difficult situation doesn't contain much risk because of how overpowered the assisted settings are.

Freekick additions are welcome but they barely add anything tactical to the game other than a few eyecandy features but more importantly it is still far too easy to score from freekicks. I almost always score from behind the box with a semi-decent freekick taker.

It certainly has its fun moments but one of my main gripes with FIFA still remains, which is similarity in ways which goals are scored and a lack of randomness which makes football in great sport. I prefer PES in that sense, where every goal you score and concede is different from the other, even though in terms of technology and execution FIFA is heaps and bounds superior to Konami's semi-robotic experience.