FIFA Soccer 12 - Playstation 3

Fifa 12 has excelled in leaps and bounds from Fifa 11. This is the game with the most authentic gameplay that literarily puts you in the shoes of the footballers. The one area that the game has improved on is the overall gameplay. There is no longer the hustling and jostling in the penalty box as in Fifa 11 where seems like all players were attaracted to the ball on your feet like a magnet making the game more like a rugby match. The movement, twists and turns of the players are fluid and with the proper use of the left axis you can leave defenders biting dust. The overall player AI has improved vastly and the goal keepers seem to be better as well. (Atleast mine was as Peter Cech made lots of stunning saves). The player impact technology makes the game a whole lot of fun with collisions resulting in different results every time. Next comes the hard part. This year EA has introduced something named Tactical Defending. This was to ensure that the game is as close to real life football as possible. Moving away from the legacy defending (which you can turn ON in the game if you wish), the defensive work is no longer about going to the feet of the player and pressing the X button to make a tackle and get the ball. It usually resulted in a lot of breaks in the fluid gameplay. You need to be careful this time with defending. With Tactical defending, you will need to jockey around the player with the ball waiting for the perfect moment to make a tackle. If you don't tackle at the right moment the player will outfox you leaving your defender biting dust. Only after jockeying around (That is the term EA has used for using the defender to tactically cover the ball preventing the player from making a move), you will make a tackle at the right moment when you think you can win over the ball. The sliding tackles look more realistic. A good tackle will result in excellent defensive work while more often than not, a bad tackle will let you have a straight red card. The tactical defending will take some time to master so its recommended that you practice a lot and don't give up. (Being an intermediate player I have had a lot of trouble and seems like every time the opposition attacked me, they just ripped open my defense. Hmmmmmm........I need to practice more). The visuals havent changed a lot so people may not notice much difference in the graphics from Fifa 11. But EA has added a lot of new player animations. Last but not the least: Andy Gray is no longer in the commentary team. Its Martin Tyler and Allan Smith this time. Pros: 1) Fluid and more authentic gameplay 2) EA Sports Football Club (Makes your every achievement count as experience points which would go as a support to the actual real world club you support. There are leagues to determine which is the top club every week and who gets relegated. Pretty Cool.) 3) Improved AI. 4) Tactical defending ensures that players are equally engrossed when involved in defensive battles since a mistake can cost them the match. Cons: 1) No improvement in overall graphics. 2) Tactical defending takes some time to master. I have already seen few forums with people complaining about it and switching back to legacy defending. However, legacy defending cannot be used in Online modes. So my advice is to practice and master this new aspect. As a last word .........See you in Fifa 12......I am Intellix

I have to admit that Fifa 12 takes a very promising step in the right direction. Anybody who buys yearly editions of sports games knows that the transition year-to-year is minimal, but when developers have competition they actually have to turn it up a notch. 2K destroys EA when it comes to NBA games and in this case, EA destorys Konami. Don't even bother with any football games, they're a joke and EA should be ashamed of themselves. Competition leads to better products for consumers and I hope PES is at least alive for the next few years to keep EA honest in upgrading FIFA. Let me break down the new features and the improvements for FIFA 12. Tactical Defending: Pretty solid new feature I would say. When defending, you have to hold the L2 button to "mark" the man with the ball and you now push circle to "tackle" him, or to hijack the ball. This takes precise timing and know how to use. You can't simply run around and push X, hoping the ball pops loose. Used correctly, tactical defending can interrupt passes, break up attacks, and ultimately swing things in your favor. If you mistime it or use it incorrectly, the man you're marking will run by you while you wiff. Player Impact Engine: Kind of gimmicky and kind of awesome. It's basically to add "realism" to the pitch by showing players colliding. Obviously it's a great feature to see rather than players running through each other or bouncing around. However, I find it comical sometimes the way they fall over. Running into the keeper often leads to your guy taking a face plant. Career Mode changes: They redesigned the entire layout of Career mode. Rather than having a calendar option to see your fixtures, it's placed horizontally above the main career screen. also, there is now multiple news feeds updating you on players' transactions, fixtures, transfer news, etc. not necessary but it's nice to have. Another new feature is player happiness. Players will tell you whether they want to be played and if they're not being played enough they'll want to hand in a transfer request. I like it because in reality players are pretty moody and demanding anyways. The one thing that takes away from this is, using Barcelona I started Messi basically every game for the entire month and at the end I wanted to rest him. He immediately responds, "I see that I'm on the bench, but I want to play because I'm in good form". So I suppose that turns into a judgment call, whether to keep an in-form player on the pitch or rest him and risk that extra boost in rating. Player happiness is coupled with "Form" which tells you how well they're playing at the moment. Player rating boosts or deductions are dictated by the "form" rating. I think at the beginning of every new month, the first four days are "media days" where players will tell you their happiness or unhappiness. Youth Academy: A feature I was pretty excited about. It's like FIFA 10 where you send scouts around the globe to pick up talent. This year you get to hire up to three scouts of various "experience" and "judgment", these ratings dependent on how much it costs to hire them. Sending them to talent rich countries like Spain, Brazil, and etc. gives you a great shot at landing future stars. Essentially, the each scout will hand pick a couple of players aged 14-16 and give you a range for potential player rating in the future. This range is large at first, sometimes like 50-91. You are given three options when evaluating players. Keep scouting them, reject them or to sign them. The more weeks you scout them the more info is unlocked about all of their stats and lowers the range of their potential player rating. The longer you wait means another team can sign the player away (Arsene might hijack your youth players! Upon signing players to your youth academy (no limit to how many players you can have), your academy quickly builds their stats and you can sign them to the senior squad. Transfer day deadline: Basically the last day of the transfer window. Great potential here, you have 10 hours to wheel-and-deal before the window closes. It seems simple but you can negotiate for players you weren't previously after and quickly sign them in that last 10 hours. Wasn't even trying to sign players until the deadline and was able to submit an offer, get rejected, submit a better offer, get accepted, negotiate a deal with the player and sign him at the deadline. Game play itself: I can't really comment on the game play since I haven't played it as much as needed yet. It definitely feels different from Fifa 11 which was pretty stiff, not as much as PES, but needed work. I like the whole "Precision Dribbling" feature, lets you dribble with the likes of Xavi and Iniesta. Haven't entire figured out how to perfect it, but the feature is there. In all, this was a pretty solid upgrade from the year before. I never expect massive overhauls of game play and features from one year to the next but the additions EA added this time around were good. Now if only EA could buy the rights to UEFA and get all the domestic cups' rights.....

I am a lifelong soccer/football fan and player, both in reality and in the video game world. Topping FIFA 11 was not going to be an easy task, but it seems FIFA 12 has beaten its predecessor with flying colors. The graphics, sound effects, and control are all top notch and are an improvement over FIFA 11 overall, so there is no reason to spend much time talking about them. What is significant are the new changes to FIFA 12, and how they have affected the gameplay. The most noticeable two are the 1) Tactical defending and 2) Player impact engine. I will explain both briefly to give newcomers an idea of what to expect. 1) Tactical Defending: Arguably the biggest and most significant change is the new defending system. No longer can you hold down A and B and watch as your defense swarms the hapless attacker automatically In FIFA 12, you have to position properly and time your tackles well (as in reality) in order to gain possession of the ball. Mis-timed or poor tackles will often result in the attacker blowing past you or a foul and/or booking. I MUST WARN YOU, that this can be VERY FRUSTRATING at times when you are learning the new system as it is not very forgiving. For those of you intimidated by this there is an option to revert to the old system called "Legacy" (Identical to FIFA 11's system). But I HIGHLY recommend you take the time and effort to master the new defensive system, because it is highly realistic, extremely rewarding when you do that perfect tackle, and required if you want to master online play. 2) Player impact engine: No more ghost players going through each other, players collide with each other when in the same physical space (shocking I know!). This can also result in injuries, some which are horrific and others which are just plain hilarious as your players fly around like ragdolls. The system isn't perfect and I've heard of a few bugs about it, but I haven't encountered any yet so I can't confirm. It is a welcome change though and, for the most part, adds to the realism of the game. OVERALL: 9.5/10 This is by far the best soccer/football game out there, and even if you're not a big fan of the sport, chances are that you will enjoy this immensely fun and well designed game. Just about everything has been improved, and the extras (such as support your club) are just icing on the cake. Now if you'll excuse me, writing this review has already taken enough of my precious FIFA 12 playtime!

Alright, so I've probably played this title for a good 7 years now. While Fifa '11 incorporated many of the changes reflected in '12, the latest FIFA seems to go behind realistic in implementing all sorts of gameplay changes. No longer can you steal passes with ease...it takes careful stick control. NOTE: this makes playing defense impossible at times. Finesse shots are no longer given goals. Goalies make better one-on-one plays (also depends on the talent of your striking player, to some extent). Lead crosses and through passes become much more challenging, taking into account the CPU players anticipate far better than in past titles. My only true complaints would be with how EA matches teams online...taking into account both user skill and the quality of the team you've selected. EA seems to take the quality of the team moreso than the talent of the user (this could also be due to the fact that the game is still fairly new). This game takes much more practice and thought to advance your skills, and overall is frustrating. From Dominating FIFA '10 online to running a .500 record after about 20 games on '12, I can say that it's been quite the challenge. However, if you're an individual like me who can appreciate a video game for being REALISTIC, beyond all else, then I think FIFA '12 is easily worth it. Despite the challenges...this game is still extremely addictive.

I've been a fifa fan since 98 but I usually play on pc...I gave it a break for a while until I got an xbox in 2010....I had fifa 10, and 11 and now I've got 12. Fifa 12 is ok so far...I've only played two games though and I am trying to get used to the new defense system...I find myself pressing A all the time for the standing tackle and nothing happens....Whats good about it is that if you dont time your tackles correctly (as in the real game) you will be beaten by your opponent..and the same goes for your opponent....I played one game online and one in career mode...I got my ass whoopped in career mode but i whooped simply because I havent gotten used to the defending the fifa 12 way.... However, I whopped some one online who seem to be having the same problem with defending....I guess I am a faster learner than he is.... Overall graphics is better than fifa 11.....dribbling and passing seem to be better...you can change commentary teams instead of having just Andy Gray and the new fellow.....Fifa 11 topped fifa 10...and now 12 has topped 11.....its a good game.....go get it if u havent... Ps...There is no booklet (manual) in the case except a warranty sheet....so if your new to fifa you can go on youtube or download fifa 11 manual

This is a fantastic game but I have to give it 4 stars because I think the way EA marketed this game, i.e. as if they completely revolutionized the FIFA franchise , is a tad misleading. Maybe it's just me but I found the whole 'impact system' that this release is centered around to be very over rated and , when I did experience it during games, to be pretty glitchy (more on that later). Positives: 1) Let's start with my favorite part about this game - I feel that FIFA 12 really introduces a whole new level of realism into the franchise in that it really does seem to be a game that will require players to think differently in each match as the improved ball physics makes every shot move different ,even if hit from the same spot using the same power. One of my biggest peeves in FIFA 11 was playing against the hardcore FIFA players who mastered the game to the point where they knew where to shoot from, how much power to use - strategies which almost always resulted in a goal. I think 12 has gone some way to addressing the scenario of players being able to beat the game engine which will be a relief for casual players such as myself. Bear in mind , I think i felt similarly about FIFA 11 too so if i find myself once again getting scored on from the same spots, I'l edit this portion of the review. 2) Improved player AI - Absolutely fantastic. After playing about 10 games against the computer, I could really feel the difference. In fact, the only reason playing against the computer didn't seem as fun as playing online was because i knew I was playing against the computer. The scores were always vastly different i.e. 6-0 in 1 game , 1-2 in another and the AI's decision making ability ,even at the semi-pro level I am currently playing at is extremely smart. Case in point - I rushed my keeper on the AI player and the player actually chipped the ball above the keeper. Maybe it's just me but I never saw the computer do that in FIFA 11 even at the 'legendary' difficulty level. 3) Defending - Ok I admit it - I was one of those whose defense strategy in 11 was to simply rush onto the opposition with the X button pressed. I tried the same strategy in 'amateur' difficulty in FIFA 12 and almost lost the game. In short, defending in Fifa 12 is much more about anticipation and interception than it is about tough tackling - just as is the case in the real sport. 4) Dribbling: Just like the improved bal physics make it difficult for the very good players to master scoring positions , shooting power etc. , the improved dribbling makes it very difficult for amateur players to just come in and steal the ball by just running into the player with the x button pressed when a player is pulling of a skill. 5) Commentary - Having 2 separate commentary teams certainly goes a long way towards not hearing the same thing again and again. 6) Graphics - Player faces have been enhanced to give a more real life look as compared to the glossy look players had in Fifa 11. 7) Other: As with recent FIFA releases, you really have to keep playing Fifa 12 to really see all the new subtle tweaks in the game that really add up to making a big difference and hence i will continue to update this section as and when i notice something really cool. Here are some I have noticed a) Injuries: I actually had a player get injured mid run and just go down, possibly because I had maxed out his stamina and was still exerting him b) Game customization: You actually have the ability to increase/ reduce several attributes of both you as well as the computer (on a scale of 100) such as shot speed, acceleration, pass speed, injury frequency, injury severity, goalkeeper ability etc. - kinda helps if you want to make the game even more easier/challenging in addition to the difficulty setting you selected. How much of a difference does that make? I set my team's sprint speed and acceleration to 100 and that of the computer to 0; in the previous game where all attributes were equal, I won 2-1 but with the edited settings, i won 35-0 , both at the exact same difficulty level. Neutral: Revamped Start Menu - Is cool but not a big deal for me. it's just one of those things that gives you that 'oh yes this is a new game' feeling for the first couple of times but after that, you just feel indifferent towards it. Personally , I don't think it improves or decreases the user experience but yes it does look a bit better. Negatives: 1) Player impact engine: The primary reason that I consider this to be a negative is that i hardly ever see it come into effect in the game and when there is impact between players, the results are either over exaggerated or glitchy. 2 examples - The first was when I launched a sliding tackle straight through a player in the penalty box and it just made the player slightly imbalanced when he really should have gone down - no complaints from me as I avoided conceding a penalty but it will make it frustrating if i'm on the receiving end of one. The second was just plain ridiculous - I literally just walked into a defender but my player went somersaulting a few meters as if the defender had grabbed his leg and flung him full force. If it were Busquets or Alves who went flying, then i would commend the extreme realism in the game in that it really took player personality to a whole new level but it wasn't a player known for being a notorious diver. Perhaps I may change my mind about the impact engine but , as it stands, I am disappointed in this feature as this was marketed as some sort of revolutionary change in the game but I could hardly ever experience it and when I did , the results were disappointing. I assume EA will release a patch to address these glitches after which I will edit my review but personally, the inability of this feature to meet my expectations is the primary reason why I took off 1 star. 2) Sluggishness - At least a couple of times, the navigation took at least 2 seconds to respond after i pressed a button on the remote. Eg - I pressed 'down' to navigate from 'Team management' to 'tactics' but it took a little while for the selection arrow to move down. Not a deal breaker but it will be very frustrating if it continues. 3) Player attributes don't change when you change the player's position - Not sure why EA did away with this one as i found this to be extremely helpful. Yeah everyone knows that you can't player Vidic as a striker but ,especially in the case of players whose preferred positions you may not be familiar with, it's just a bummer that their attributes don't change if you switch a specialist defender into a striker role and vice versa. Verdict: If it weren't for the glitches and the fact that i found the impact engine to be grossly over rated, Fifa 12 would be a 5 star game. The game has a more solid , realistic feel about it and the tweaks benefit both advanced players as well as the casual players such as myself. Advanced players will find it much more difficult to master positions from which they will almost always be able to score, but ,in return , they will find it a lot easier to hold on the ball because of how much EA has tweaked the defending and the dribbling in the game. The less advanced players will benefit from not being frustrated to always see players score from those certain spots but will be forced to try to get better at the game because 'brain dead' defending is no longer an option. Is the game worth 60 bucks? I don't think so but , as is always the case, the fact that most online players will ditch Fifa 11 and the latest rosters will end up leaving you with little choice (assuming you mainly buy the game to play online). I bought the game when Amazon was offering a 20$ credit and am trading in my copy of Fifa 11 for 15 bucks so, for 25 bucks, this game is a steal. I haven't tested the Career feature yet and have never played 'be a pro' so i can't comment on that but this is indeed a very solid football game and , money aside, will certainly provide a very satisfying experience. It's the best Fifa to date and I look forward to playing it for the next 12 months.

Great game; altho now is a bit old, compared to the 13 version. it is harder than 13, but once you get used to you will have fun. The big no-no is that there is only English as commentary, and you cannot download any other commentary. I like to alternate, so I like to hear also different commentary (except French, which is the worst of all in Fifa); especially when you play an international tournament or you play a league in a specific country. The graphic is OK; if you zoom too close you can't see where your players are, and if you keep the camera too far, you loose in detail, so I think it depends from your preferences. The players are well made, but overall feels more like a ps2 game than a vita game. The touch controls are useless; tried them but then went back to the standard controls; someone may like them, otherwise just remember to deactivate the rear pad, otherwise you will have good chances to mess up often while you play (I have big hands, so my fingers goes often on the rear pad).

FIFA 12 on the PS3 felt like a nice step up when it was released. The gameplay had a good flow, and they introduced some interesting features that made matches feel more dynamic. There's a good selection of teams and modes to keep you busy, whether you like playing full seasons or just quick matches with friends. If you're looking to revisit a solid FIFA title on the PS3, FIFA 12 is definitely one to consider.