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.
