Fifa 12 Review (PS3)

Fifa 12 has excelled in leaps and bounds from Fifa 11. This is the game with the most authentic gameplay that literarily puts you in the shoes of the footballers. The one area that the game has improved on is the overall gameplay. There is no longer the hustling and jostling in the penalty box as in Fifa 11 where seems like all players were attaracted to the ball on your feet like a magnet making the game more like a rugby match. The movement, twists and turns of the players are fluid and with the proper use of the left axis you can leave defenders biting dust. The overall player AI has improved vastly and the goal keepers seem to be better as well. (Atleast mine was as Peter Cech made lots of stunning saves).
The player impact technology makes the game a whole lot of fun with collisions resulting in different results every time.

Next comes the hard part. This year EA has introduced something named Tactical Defending. This was to ensure that the game is as close to real life football as possible. Moving away from the legacy defending (which you can turn ON in the game if you wish), the defensive work is no longer about going to the feet of the player and pressing the X button to make a tackle and get the ball. It usually resulted in a lot of breaks in the fluid gameplay. You need to be careful this time with defending. With Tactical defending, you will need to jockey around the player with the ball waiting for the perfect moment to make a tackle. If you don't tackle at the right moment the player will outfox you leaving your defender biting dust. Only after jockeying around (That is the term EA has used for using the defender to tactically cover the ball preventing the player from making a move), you will make a tackle at the right moment when you think you can win over the ball. The sliding tackles look more realistic. A good tackle will result in excellent defensive work while more often than not, a bad tackle will let you have a straight red card. The tactical defending will take some time to master so its recommended that you practice a lot and don't give up. (Being an intermediate player I have had a lot of trouble and seems like every time the opposition attacked me, they just ripped open my defense. Hmmmmmm........I need to practice more).

The visuals havent changed a lot so people may not notice much difference in the graphics from Fifa 11. But EA has added a lot of new player animations.

Last but not the least: Andy Gray is no longer in the commentary team. Its Martin Tyler and Allan Smith this time.

Pros:
1) Fluid and more authentic gameplay
2) EA Sports Football Club (Makes your every achievement count as experience points which would go as a support to the actual real world club you support. There are leagues to determine which is the top club every week and who gets relegated. Pretty Cool.)
3) Improved AI.
4) Tactical defending ensures that players are equally engrossed when involved in defensive battles since a mistake can cost them the match.

Cons:
1) No improvement in overall graphics.
2) Tactical defending takes some time to master. I have already seen few forums with people complaining about it and switching back to legacy defending. However, legacy defending cannot be used in Online modes. So my advice is to practice and master this new aspect.

Just forgot to add a few aspects which I noticed while playing the career mode.

1) Commentary : Commentary has been vastly improved as mentioned in my original review. The commentary is not repetitive and is more based on the context of the game. Alan Smith and Martin Tyler form the commentary team for the EPL matches. However for the Carling cup matches, we have an entirely different commentary team. I have not yet played Champions league or FA cup or other leagues......hence can't comment on whether some other aspects are present as well.
2) Youth squad is pretty cool where you hire and send scouts to different countries and try to sign potential young players for your team before the others do. The young players are given a overall range (e.g. 45-90) instead of their actual level. You can risk losing them to other teams by scouting them further but that further scouting also gives you the information on their actual level.
3) Player and team AI: I am playing in professional mode and right now my career seems in a bit of turmoil. I beat Manchester United 2-0 with 60% possession. However, when playing against minnows Crystal Palace in Carling Cup after 2 days (I rested a few players who were over tired), I had to fight to get a 2-2 draw till extra time and won it in penalty shootout. So net net, you can't take any team for granted (Small team or big team). Man United had created few chances however they failed to score and also failed to hit the target throughout the game. In the Crystal palace match, Palace had just 2 counter attacks throughout the match and scored 2 clean goals from them while holding back in defensive third for the rest of the game thereby stopping me from actually scoring no more than 2. Different teams have different mentalities based on the teams they are playing against and that is correctly reflected through the updated AI in the game.

4) Last but not the least........Tactical Defending once again..........well I am still in a learning phase.