Review: FIFA 13

Name: FIFA 13
Publisher: EA Sports
Platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii-U, PC.
PEGI Rating: Aged 3 and over.
Released: 28th September 2012

While the anticipation leading to the release of FIFA 13 was nowhere near the scale of Call Of Duty: Black Ops II, it was, as you would expect, pretty big. At least, that's what I was expecting as a fan of the franchise. As usual, EA Sports promised big changes in the latest installment and, for better or worse, you can't deny them that prize.

Let's not beat around the bush here, FIFA 13 is a great piece of work. EA Sports somehow never fail to answer one common question asked of them with every FIFA release, 'how can this be improved?' Well, I suppose that will depend on what an individual defines as an improvement. Personally, I like a challenge. Once I have conquered FIFA 13, the first thing I will look for in the next game - my money's on FIFA 14 as the title - is an increase in difficulty and/or new challenges to sink my coffee-stained teeth into. If nothing was changed in that department we'd be paying upwards of £30 for updated strips and squads (AKA, a fucking rip off).

So, what sort of challenges are we talking about in FIFA 13? Well, to start with, there's the all new 'Skill Games' which have been added to the main menu as well as taking over the loading period before a game (except for online matches). Basically, you have a variety of challenges which allow you to work on your skills (obviously) and techniques in shooting, penalties, long passes and dribbling among others. What this does is give us something a little different to the usual shtick of randomly pissing about the arena trying our hardest to score rediculous over-head kicks from 45 yards whilst improving our individual game.

The old 99% chance of finding the back of the net with a finesse shot has been slashed to approximately 60%. This is especially good for online play as the opponent will have to rely on their own skill and judgement in order to win, as opposed to letting the console do the work. For fans of the 'Player Career' mode, the match rating system has been modified. No longer will a goal guarantee you a high performance score, you actually have to do well during most of the game to achieve a decent rating. However, this isn't all progress which you will find out later.

An obvious element of improvement would be attending to any glitches/niggles which occur during game play. We all know that it will never be perfect. How in God's name would they sell the next game? Surely EA couldn't just call a halt on the entire franchise. Well, technically they could as it is their product, but where would it leave us supporters? We'd be left to play the last edition for the rest of eternity whilst it is grossly outdated as the seasons pass. It's not like Pacman in the sense that it will stand the test of time because Pacman has no real life equivalent to out date it. You won't get beaten up at school because 'you have the old version' of Pacman with the 'old strips and retired pros.' FIFA requires annual updating to remain relevant.

Got slightly side-tracked there, apologies. Anyway, I can't remember enough about FIFA 12 to recall any significant glitches. Use your imagination or do what everyone else has done and buy FIFA 13 (if you haven't already then find someone to pull you out from under that rock), enjoy it and wonder how on Earth EA can top it. Believe me, there are imperfections, but the key word there is 'how'.

I could go on and on here, but I think I've said enough.

Predictable Introduction Post

Hello and welcome to my blog, Press Start. My name is Marc Holden and you will most likely care as much about that than the fact that I have another two-page blog that you've never heard of in your life, which is entitled 'Read This At Your Own Risk!' This blog, however, is all about video gaming.

I've been a big fan of computer games since I was a five or six year-old. My first console was a SEGA Megadrive, followed by a SNES. Around that age my favourite games were anything to do with Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the one I played most of all. Those were the innocent days of racing through levels, cheating death, collecting stuff, and bopping baddies on the head thus reducing them to nothing. I'm positive the only game I had for the SNES was Super Mario Brothers. Then again, was there really anything else worth the time of day?

The Nintendo 64 was the console that really turned me into a fanatic. To this day, it is my favourite piece of gaming hardware I've ever owned. I have many fond memories of split-screen multiplayer sessions on Goldeneye 007 and Mario Kart 64. When playing Goldeneye, my mates and I used to love having the main weapon - you could set the best weapon available to the players when setting up a multiplayer battle - as proximity mines. We'd always fill an area with them and then forget where we'd placed them, inevitably walking into our own booby traps on a regular basis. Rocket launchers were a laugh too, as sometimes you would fire it whilst standing nipples' length from the target and it would either whizz past them and strike a wall, where your running momentum would take you into the explosion you created, or it would strike the target and transform you both into virtual mince. Fun times.

Anyway, fast forward to the present day where I own an Xbox 360, PSP, PC, Playstation 2 and a Nintendo 64. I went through a period where I almost ceased to play computer games. I'm not sure if I had too many other interests to make time for it or if I genuinely didn't think there were any half decent titles out there. I studied a bit of Computer Games Development at college, but I didn't feel I was focused enough to carry on. Almost a year later, I've decided to give it another shot in the hope of making some sort of career out of it. This blog is just one way of maintaining my interest in the subject.

With Press Start, the aim is to produce insightful, crude, entertaining and irritable facts and opinions in all things related to video gaming. Past, present and future. I hope I can achieve this with my notoriously short attention span. Please note, however, that nothing posted on here is aimed to cause offence. Anything I say is all in the name of honesty and fun, it is not designed to be taken literally or seriously and I don't expect it to be.

Enjoy!

Marc Holden (Twitter - @TheMarcHolden)