FIFA 12 Review

It’s that time of year again; the time when the latest FIFA has been out for several months and has now endured enough playing time to face a fair verdict. But before the main feature, let’s go back a few years to the time when FIFA was making its first leap to the next generation consoles. The year is 2007 and it’s October. FIFA 2008 hit the shelves and was inserted to many consoles all over the country. It was a decent game overall, but faced stiff competition from Pro Evolution Soccer 6. Over the following two years, FIFA 09 and FIFA 10 would slowly eclipse this competition and forever cement Pro Evolution Soccer into its shadow.

FIFA 10 was most probably the pinnacle of the entire series to date. The passing was fluid, the shooting was accurate, and the replay value was high. It felt uncomplicated, yet challenging; and many fans including myself felt that this was the best football game we’d ever played. The expectations for any sequel to follow this footballing masterpiece were high; and inevitably FIFA 11 fell short. The main innovation that E.A. introduced was their new passing system, which aimed to replace the ‘ping-pong’ passing system that past versions were criticised for. However this new passing system was not implemented without fault. Passes were too frequently under and over hit, and players would always have to track back in order to receive an always too weak pass. This made it difficult to produce an attack with momentum. Still, many fans enjoyed this game even though it was largely inferior to FIFA 10.

The stage had been set for FIFA 12 to come and knock the socks off FIFA 11 and restore the faith in the series. As soon as it was released, it was bought and thrust into my Playstation 3. The first thing to note about this game is that the passing issues have been addressed. It’s still not as fluid as FIFA 10, but it’s definitely an improvement. The game as a whole is fairly similar to FIFA 11, but it contains one new element. Similar to the remodelled passing system that appeared last time around, E.A.’s designers have turned their fire on the defending. The new ‘tactical defending system’ makes it much harder to tackle opposition players. Well, the word ‘harder’ is flattery really as it’s practically impossible.

Since the release of the game, tutorials have sprung up all over the internet; answering to the call of thousands of fans who have voiced their frustrations. One common factor is that a lot of players advise to avoid the use of the tackle button – ‘circle’. Surely this is the beacon that advertises the game as being poor. Any time a trick or strategy is widely proposed, that bypasses the intended use of a feature in a game; it is a primary example of bad game design. The frequently used tackle button in past versions of the game is now for last ditch challenges only; similar to the sliding tackle button – ‘square’. Players are supposed to contain the opposition team and either let their attack deflate, or get close enough to an opposition player so that your defender automatically tackles their opponent. This makes the defending in FIFA 12 almost impossible as simply tackling your opponent when you want to, is a feature that seemingly no longer exists.

The most disappointing thing is that the rest of the game doesn’t even need to be reviewed. The frustration factor of the extremely flawed and difficult defending renders the game unplayable. It’s such a shame too, because I for one always look forward  to playing the new FIFA every year; even though it seems like it’s destined to be a disappointment forever onwards.

5.5/10.