Probably best FIFA game yet, but the game itself has alot of flaws.
User Rating: 8 | FIFA Soccer 12 X360
I can inform you all that are reading this that this is my first FIFA game that i've actually bought since FIFA 07, so i can't give you die-hard comparisions from the last FIFA games in the series (I have played some of the other FIFA games over at my friends house, so i can compare some of it with FIFA 12). Hmm... Where should i start? Well, this game had a bad impact on me when i just bought it, it felt like i had played this game before and i thought it was to much like the other FIFA games from the last years. That was what i thought at the beginning at least, but when i had spent some hours on it, i could actually see and feel the difference. Things that has been improved is quite alot of things, one of them is that the movements and feeling overall is alot smoother, it doesn't feel as choppy as it did before. Shooting is alot harder now, you have to place your shots alot better if you wan't to score from a distance (etc), so it is absolutely not as easy as in FIFA 11 for example. I think that Ultimate Team has got some improvements too, but i'm not completely sure. The new player-impact engine is great! Graphics has actually been downgraded, i'm not joking, FIFA 11 looks graphicly better (but plays worse). So why has EA made this move? Probably because they can't create better graphics anymore, mostly because the console can't handle alot more nowadays. I also know they've done this to make you think that the next FIFA will look so much "better", because players gets used to the FIFA 12 graphics, and will think that FIFA 13 looks "better" when it actually will look like FIFA 11. What i've noticed when it comes to the passing-system is that it is really buggy. Sometimes when i for example wanna pass the ball to the right, it can go straight forward instead, which is VERY annoying. It's okay at the beginning, but when this process has been repeated alot of times, you can't avoid to get pissed off. Something that is REALLY bothering me in FIFA 12 is the diffuculty learning curve, i wonder what the hell they were thinking when they made the difficulty settings in this game, if you're playing for example on semi-pro (which i played on in the beginning since i haven't played FIFA seriously for years) and then moving up to the Professional difficulty setting, you'll get pretty damn annoyed by the ridiculous difference. It shouldn't be THAT much of a difference to turn the difficult setting up one step, just saying EA.
Now to the multiplayer:
From what i have experienced in the multiplayer so far is nothing enjoyable. When i have tried to play online i've just ended up with "Super try-hard that won't accept to lose a game" kind of players. My first game online on Ultimate Team was not funny at all. I think my team had a 1 star rating, when the other one hade like a 4,5 star rating, and I lost with like 9-0. My question is; why am i playing against someone that probably played this for 10 years, having a superb squad, and is a die-hard fan of the series when i just started after 6 years and doesn't even have a okay player in my team? What EA have do for the next FIFA game is some kind of system that will make sure you'll end up playing against someone that is as skilled as you are, and that can't be that hard, can it EA? After these things happend, i can tell you that playing against other players wasn't my kind of thing in FIFA, it probably would be so much more enjoyable to meet other players if i was better at the game, but that will take some time for me. Thank god that you can play against the computer in Ultimate Team (since Ultimate Team is mostly a multiplayer "thingy"). Another thing EA have to make better for FIFA 13 is the soundtrack for the game, gosh, the soundtrack for FIFA 12 is so bad. I think that out of 40 songs, i'm enjoying 3, so hearing 37 songs that is mostly crap will get you really annoyed, so please EA, put some better music in the next FIFA game.
Final scores:
Gameplay: 8.0 - Despite the multiplayer flaws, it's awesome!
Graphics: 6.5 - This game isn't looking as good as it should.
Value: 8.0 - Takes a long time to get bored of the FIFA games!
Sound: 7.5 Despite the awful soundtrack, the sound(s) in the game deliver well.
Cheers.
GamerX500.