I would like to say a huge personal thank you to Neil Bason who reviewed FIFA 13 for AbsoluteGaming. FIFA 13 was Neil's fist review for the site which hopefully more to come. Fir those that love FIFA take it from me its a cracking review. Ill hand you over to Neil.
It would be easy to view the latest FIFA game through cynical eyes. A game that falls neatly into the ‘annual update’ category is always capable of pulling glances from gamers sniffing a cash in.
And when it comes from a company that rode high on the crest of the ‘online pass’ wave and rubbed gleeful hands together as the ripple became a tidal wave of gamers hard earned money crashing onto the palm laden shores of EA Island, that cynicism may be well aimed.
But, when the suspect in question is FIFA 13, a game that has been nestled snugly in my 360 disc tray since it dropped onto the doormat many days ago, with no sign of being ejected anytime soon, it’s quite incredible how quickly I forget my original cynical stance and take on one of an eager striker ready to volley home a sweetly floated cross into the top corner and wheel away to bask in the roar of the crowd.
Or, to slice those three paragraphs down to one sentence, FIFA 13 has just replaced José Mourinho as ‘The Special One’.
What EA have delivered is a title that again captures the essence of the beautiful game. All football games live and die on how closely they can depict the real life action we clamour for every weekend. PES almost died a death a short while ago following some truly woeful releases, and although that game has steadily gained pace, it has never really recovered the lost faith that saw FIFA take the throne. If FIFA 13 is anything to go by, it probably never will.
The action in this latest instalment is about as good as it’s going to get on this generation of consoles. The game moves with a swagger, so fluid it must have a liquid core, every touch of the ball, trapped pass and finely executed dummy simply dances on the screen. There’s also a more natural feel to this year’s outing, the gameplay feels like the sport we know. It’s unpredictable and delivers moments that could have come straight from the Match of the Day reel.
Of course FIFA 12 was a brilliant game in its own right and it will come as no surprise that this latest isn’t exactly light years away from its predecessor. In fact it’s next door but one, in the same house but with a bigger garden to play in and where the kids have some new toys.
FIFA 13 is the same game tweaked to perfection. This year the defending is a pleasure rather than a joyless pain. Defenders have little tricks of their own to counteract the silky skills of the onrushing forward. You know the sort, a quick tug of the shirt or tap of the ankles, just enough to even the playing field, maybe holding off the attacker with a bodycheck or outstretched arm. Dirty tricks but ones we see every week on the real life pitches of the world and ones that add another layer of realism to the action on console.
As for those of a more skilful nature the dribbling is a far easier skill to execute. I spent FIFA 12 passing the ball like I was being controlled myself by Brendan Rodgers, pass after pass after pass, and all because I was too scared to attempt to beat my man. In FIFA 12 beating a man with skill was always lost to me, in FIFA 13 I’ve beaten many. The dribbling has an organic nature to it, as though rather than a pre-planned process has taken place the movement of man and ball is completely natural.
Those players lucky enough to be blessed with silky skills are noticeably easier to attack with and go one-on-one with, something I always felt lacked a little in last year’s game. I beat more players with Joe Cole in the last few hours than Joe himself has done in the last few years! And it feels good!
But while the difference between a Lionel Messi and a Ryan Shawcross is well defined there is a little blurring of the lines somewhere in the middle. In terms of play it can be hard to differentiate between players of a similar ilk. It doesn’t detract from the play but does to some extent make the transfer market a slightly redundant feature of career mode, other than snagging your own personal favourite players of course.
The Career Mode is one of the usual suspects in the lineup of options within FIFA 13. I never really thought a game could have too many features but this game walks a fine line between a healthy amount and completely overwhelming.
All the expected features are present and correct from FIFA 12 and a few newcomers have taken up a spot in the dugout.
A surprisingly addictive Skill Games section shifts the focus of the action from team play to honing those well tested abilities in a series of challenges ranging from lofting passes into buckets, to dribbling round cones, to hitting goal line targets from the penalty spot. The change of pace and nicely thought out tasks is one of those ‘just one more go’ slices of gaming goodness that keep us playing.
Then there’s Match Day (that was the title of a magnificent spectrum football game for those old enough to remember) in which a player can move along with the real world football season with player stats changing in accordance with their living counterparts. So for example if, and I’m hoping beyond hope here, Liverpool go an incredible unbeaten run full of high scoring wins and world class performances then the in game LFC squad will see their stats boosted.
This season we also have the inclusion of everybody’s favourite dust gatherer, Kinect. FIFA 13 isn’t ‘better with Kinect’ but the machine does pick up your vocal commands to the team and abuse to the referee and puts them into action. It’s amusing but feels shoehorned in and certainly doesn’t enhance the play.
Other than that we have the utterly wonderful Ultimate Team back and better than ever with a much more user friendly menu system, Virtual Pro, management modes and much more.
Another new feature is that every time a player achieves something in game it is rewarded with credits that can then be spent in the catalogue on all sorts of football goodies. Kits from days gone by, new footballs, boots, celebrations, it’s like stumbling into a Santa’s grotto for footie fans such is the wealth of items on offer. Again it’s a nice addition and another reason to stay.
Graphically the game adds that extra layer of polish we expect with each new year. It’s as close to the real thing as we’re likely to see before the shift in hardware. The players move as football players should, they make mistakes, they collide, they dance through flying studs and they look amazing doing it.
Overall EA have delivered big time with FIFA 13. Although the vast amount of options by and large deliver the same gameplay experience, when the experience is as close to total football as this, who cares.
There’s no better place to live out your dreams of footballing glory, the FIFA universe is pure gold. The wealth of online options means the game feels like an entire world of living breathing opponents and teammates are at your feet. Every football fan needs this in their collection, just don’t expect to play much else over the next few months.
My cynical eyes have been opened to the glory. Once upon a time FIFA games were pretenders, like playground kids attempting to be their heroes but looking clumsy and raw, now FIFA 13 has delivered the gaming equivalent to the 1970’s Brazil team managed by Busby and Shankly, it’s that good!