FIFA 13: Going down from Superb to only Normal. (Gameplay-Only review)
User Rating: 7 | FIFA 13 X360
I'm going to review only the gameplay because i think the core gameplay is the beating heart of any game.rnrnOne year ago when FIFA 12 first came out, i was blown away. the first match, the first time to really enjoy a football sim. when i picked my favorite team, FC Barcelona, ofcourse against the great Real Madrid C.F, it was time to bring the El-Classico to my hands. the referee blows the whistle and the Pleasant voices of Clive Tyldesley and his co-commentator Andy Townsend drives the match. The first huge step the all new Impact engine just worked fantastic. No more clippings and and no more of hands and foots of the players going into each others bodies. The Tactical defending was another great step forward. adding realism to the game and finally the slow, real football pace that made you pass the ball and use your head and strategy to score a goal. The exact player movement and styles. Everything was pleasant.rnrnIt took us time to find out the problems with FIFA 12. The impact engine failures, over powered Finesse shots, nearly impossible to get past to defender in tactical mode and some scoring ways. Lobbed through ball which has always been a problem in FIFA. However, on full manual controls they were a lot less in the eye.rnrnA year passed with full joy of FIFA 12 with my friends in arcade rooms, waiting for another huge release of FIFA, a refined and more bugless game.rnrnFIFA 13 was finally at our hands! I was so hyped to be able to play it with my own hands. All that new things was going to be in this. First one is the all new First Touch Control. It's another step forward towards real football. Now based on any player's skill you must know how to encounter the ball so it won't slip away. Down graded finesse is another good thing. I say only good because you expect a one on one situation inside the box to be like drinking a glass of water with finesse. Well, it is not. It's like passing to the keeper. The attacking A.I. is fantastic. They search for the open space everywhere so you can pass and create chances more easily. Sure Goal keepers don't recieve cheap goals any more. These were the Major improvements over last year.rnrnWhere FIFA 13 fails is the major part of my review. Comparing default settings to default settings of FIFA 12, the first thing that pops in the eye right after the referee blows the whistle is that FIFA 13 is so much fast paced. It doesn't take you long to recognize the failures. This wasn't suppose to happen to a football game that calls itself a sim. This fast paced game has taken away so much of everything. First you don't have time to think, to even pass. In the critical moment you are expecting the best passer in the world, the phenom Xavi, to pass the ultimate through ball and the ball bounces like you think you have pressed the wrong button. The attacking A.I. is so much over powered compared to the poorly defensive A.I. . Defence is more relied on the numbers, to make it crowded to take the ball away. Just two players attack your four player line of defence and if it happens to be ronaldo and ozil for example, you'd better dig yourself a grave! In my case it was like Puyol intentionally pulled himself away just to open space. Or when Ronaldo tried to dribble down my right flank where Dani Alvez is no where to be found. not even once was he in his position to stop anything, while in FIFA 12 he always came to my aid. And Ronaldo dribbles with incredibly unbelievable speed where even i try to get the ball he serves a pass down into my box and my defence are sitting ducks.rnWhile my play style is based on passing, i rely on my passing power gauge, and on default controller setting the assist to that is turned off. When i fill the gauge to full i expect the pass to go to the farthest person and instead it goes to the near person. this happened in the arcade room while another player was playing on another Xbox, and i heard him shouting "why did he pass to the near person i wanted something else!" rnrnTo Wrap up my FIFA 13 Gameplay Review i have to say that this game is about speed and dribble and has an arcady feel to it. Thinking and making strategy is gone. You can't think realistically to score goals. This is not a sim anymore, you have to be in the fantasy world.
