Since FIFA 09 EA Sports long running football franchise has been on a continual upward trend making just enough changes and improvements each year to warrant fans shelling out once again. With FIFA 12 now out have EA Sports continued the trend or just milked a few more gallons from the proverbial cash cow?

While there are a number of changes to FIFA 12 it is the introduction of three major gameplay changes that will make or break whether you love this year’s instalment.  Known as Trinity the three changes include precision dribbling, tactical defending and a new impact engine.

Arguably the hardest to come to terms with is the tactical defending engine which, rather then mapping tackling to one or two buttons and focusing entirely on pressure defending, requires a more strategic approach. Rather than rushing blindly the new system will see defenders jostle and jockey for position allowing for a more measured approach to your defensive play, going in to quickly or not accurately enough will result in the attacker having far too much space and leaving you in his dust. If you do leave yourself wide open you can now use the new jostling system that allows you to pull back on the shoulder or shirt in order to get back the advantage. Naturally if you abuse this new system there is an added chance of yellow or even red cards. For the more defensive minded players from previous FIFA titles this can be a blessing or curse. While it allows for the more tactically minded to work players into channels and gain the upper hand the new jockeying system does not make players put a foot in and instead requires more button presses for a successful defensive strategy. Long-term as  players get used to it should be a system that truly shines however should you still be struggling thankfully the game does give you the option to switch back to “Legacy defending,” in other words the same defensive system from previous games.

Attack minded players are not forgotten either as the new precision dribbling system allows for far closer control when on the attack, even going as far as having the AI assist you in certain areas on the pitch. For example when running along the wing should you get too close to the touchline the player will naturally keep a tighter control to prevent the ball from going out of play. This also helps when going up against the new defensive system allowing for small close control touches to keep the ball out of the defenders reach, or even if you are lucky getting the chance to nutmeg them.  From a personal standpoint this is arguably the greatest improvement this year, as even though I’m not the greatest of players it has allowed me to beat players using skill moves on a more regular basis and with greater ease.

The third change is the new impact engine which works in the number of ways. The most noticeable way in which this works is that any contact between players will be more accurately represented with players reacting to contact to a specific body part in a more realistic fashion. This engine is not just restricted to visual accuracy as particularly heavy contact with a certain body part can cause an injury. While injuries were commonplace in previous titles this new system makes things feel a lot more natural. Speaking of injuries and realism instead of just contact injuries FIFA 12 introduces a new non-contact injury system. Abuse of the sprint button will see your player do the hamstring hop. While this will not necessarily need a substitution it will drastically affect your performance and result in you needing a spell on the sidelines.

The way in which FIFA 12 is presented is a vast improvement this year. Even whilst in the menu screens the game feels more alive than ever. Using the ever increasing gaming trend of a social networking appearance while not in game you will receive constant updates of your friends activities. This can range from your friend’s improvement of their pro by completing accomplishments, results from their matches and even breaking news style system at detailing events in their career mode such as them selling a well known player, winning a tournament or even the progress of the youth player in their ranks. The social network appearance doesn’t end there as all information is accurately mapped to a newsfeed and a new leaderboard system keeps tabs of your progress against your friends as well as the  “support your club” feature that is new this year. As with previous years when initially starting game you will select your favourite club, however this year rather then just being a quick selection tool for your team it’s a far deeper system. This time everything you do from simply firing up the game to playing matches and improving your professional will earn you experience. This experience is then averaged out amongst all supporters of those clubs that feature in the game, these averages then allow the game to accurately map who the best teams are for that day awarding points accordingly. Rather then having a simple system following current real life league tables it allows for even the lowest placed team in the league to become champions. It is certainly a nice way for players who do not necessarily like multiplayer to still feel as if they’re in a competitive field without dealing with the potential hassle the online play can bring.

In terms of gameplay modes EA Sports have taken more of a tweak approach rather than sweeping, drastic changes. Most importantly this year sees the first time in which Ultimate Team becomes part of the retail package rather than DLC. The mode itself has hardly changed at all taking a FIFA 11 UT presentation. Although it is worth noting that the game now attracts real-life progress of players with a team of the week. Sticking with the subject of real-life one new feature to the game is the introduction of Challenges. These challenges are accurate representations of real-life footballing events. For example one of the challenges so far took an EA Sports prediction video of last weekend’s North London derby and our suppliers to recreate the prediction’s scoreline.

Career mode now incorporates everything from pro to manager. While not drastically different small changes and tweaks that potentially offer far more polished experience. You can now set up a scouting network which allows you to scout youth players from around the world. The better the scout more expensive the network. Scouting is very much a risk versus reward system. Your Scout will return with a list of players from whichever region you send him to and each player carries a potential rating, initially this rating is a rather wide band but the longer your scout keeps tabs on the player the more accurate that potential will become. The risk versus reward comes in with exactly when you approach to sign the player, for example if you move too early the plan may end up being at the low end of the potential ratings band leaving you with a player that will never be good enough your first team, however leave it too late and other clubs make in their first. While this is not exactly groundbreaking it is something that adds to the realistic feel. That being said career mode is still not exactly perfect. If you’re playing it as an individual pro the rating system is still very very flawed arguably worse than FIFA 11. In almost every example the pro match but I have experienced so far plans rating will haemorrhage without any reason whatsoever, while this may not cause problems for an outfield player as you can call for the ball any time and forcibly improve your rating school playing as a goalkeeper is now even more frustrating than FIFA 11 when trying to get a decent score. On more than one occasion with the ball at the opposite end of the field my be a keeper pro has seen the starting rating of 6.0 drop 5.0 or less in under 10 minutes of match time. Hopefully a patch will be released to remedy the problem but for the meantime at least it remains extremely frustrating for anyone who enjoys playing as a keeper, and of course can potentially cause problems when trying to complete some accomplishments that are goalkeeper specific.

Online modes still, at their hearts, the same as they have always been, once again though it is a simple case of a more polished presentation. Rather than the random ranked or unranked matches of previous instalments you can now take part in head-to-head seasons. Instead of this being a simple case of working on a level of skill each result you obtain while playing online matches will now count towards an active league. The more wins you obtain the more points you get and after a set amount of matches you can then be promoted to a higher level league against the better level of opposition. These links will also include cups added bragging rights.

All in all FIFA 12 may not be a massive change from the previous year however there is certainly enough in terms of polish and new features to make it more than worthwhile purchase for fans of the series. As with almost every new game a patch is needed to address some major issues such as the ratings drop, however not forcing players to go down the route of the new systems such as tactical defending by allowing them to choose the “legacy defending” does pull back some of those brownie points. As with most sports games recommending FIFA 12 is simply down to a matter of taste. If you love the series the chances are you will buy the game regardless of review and it is unlikely that FIFA 12 will disappoint, however for those of you that may have missed last year’s instalment then FIFA 12 it’s a great place in which to pick back up with the series.

The Good
The best presentation of a FIFA game yet.
The “social network” aspect works beautifully with this type of game
The new systems allow for more strategic play
Being able to revert back to the old style if the above proves too much.

The Bad
Ratings dropping like a stone for no reason at all
Not a massive advancement in modes to keep a casual FIFA player engaged if they have recent instalments.

The Ugly
Tevez rendered accurately into the game is enough to give even the bravest of us nightmares