EA’s Fifa 13, minus Wayne Rooney on the cover, will be released on September 28 with demo downloads available on the 11 September. The finishing touches and deadline day deals are being implemented as we speak and with talk of this year’s instalment being ‘the best Fifa yet’, what can we expect?
For years Fifa has been the must-have game for sports gamers worldwide, many of us would have seen it grow from its 1993 release, through the tough Pro Evolution peak, to what the game is today. The following and sheer demand of the brand is backed up by the fact that Fifa 12 sold over 3.3 million copies in the first week of its release and still sits in the top 20 of the UK games chart. So how do they better it?
The previews of Fifa 13, the trailers and the talk are all pointing towards improved gameplay and an experience that offers more realism than ever before.
First Touch Control
One notable change to gameplay will be the addition of First Touch Control; no longer will the ball stick to the feet of a player and give them the ability to bound up the pitch to take the back of the net off, good news for those regularly on the receiving end of an opponent with a goalie on a hat-trick. Perfect traps have been replaced with heavy touches and knock-ons courtesy of shins, toes and heels.
This is going to make playing with a team in the lower leagues more difficult as timing of passing will have to be precise, passing power will also play a crucial role in this and reports from EA suggest that even the condition of the match itself is going to impact on player visibility.
Off the ball runs
Impact jostling and off the ball runs will play a bigger part in Fifa 13 than ever before, with previews showing off the new ‘skill centre’ to help even the most experienced players get to grips with changes. The biggest hint so far that this year’s edition of the game is something hugely different from the rest.
Match Day
Previews and trailers of Fifa 13 that pick up on Match Day give the biggest hint yet that the Fifa brand is becoming ever closer to being one with the beautiful game itself.
The optional Match Day feature will update the in-game database to reflect what’s happening in the real world.
For example, if Joey Barton decides to ‘Paolo Di Canio’ the referee and send him walking like a backwards chicken towards the floor and receive another 12 game ban, he’ll be unavailable on Fifa as well. Like wise, if Robin van Persie tops the Premiership scoring table again by sinking five against Arsenal, he’ll receive an in-game boost.
The idea here is that real conversation about football over a pie and pint in the blistering wind on a Carlisle terrace can extend to making decisions about your team on Fifa. It could potentially influence squad selections, transfer lists and your firepower upfront.
The improved gameplay just grazes across the surface of changes in this year’s Fifa offering.
In game news will be a feature, something that is likely to come to life in the January transfer window.
The career mode will also get a re-vamp, with the opportunity to head out on loan, put in a mid-season transfer request and even move into management AND international management upon retirement.
At full-time
For us the game looks great, the graphics take things up a notch once more and the gameplay looks to be vastly improved with its added features. However, there is a worry that those playing with lower league teams, with players that have less ball control and strength for jostling, are going to get pasted by experts with an ultimate team built up from day one.
This being said, Fifa 13 looks like it’s going to change football gaming, yet again.
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From www.gamezine.co.uk
