FIFA 12 / PES 2012

[Doombear]

Well both titles are out in a little under two weeks on the 27th, and for once in the US they come out on the same day.

The US versions of the 360 Marketplace and PS Store have demos for each up. I had a chance to play a bit of each, and while I definitely need to play both demos more to have a real sense of each title... here are my thoughts.

FIFA 12 - At first I abhorred the new defense changes. At first it was just such a strange change. For those unfamiliar, they have added a new 'Tactical Defense' system. Now before I go any further, don't worry... you can set the defense style to "Legacy" in the settings and forget they ever added it. This can be done everywhere EXCEPT ranked online matches.

In a nutshell, you no longer make a mad dash at the opponent with the ball and magically strip it away from them. You can no longer hold the Dash + Pressure + Teammate Pressure buttons and just double team the opponents into giving up the ball.

The Contain button (replacing Pressure) now does just that. Instead of rushing the ball at the players feet, you contain the player and your player does not get closer than about 1-2 feet from the player when Containing them. To actually strip them you have to press the Slide Tackle (X) or Standing Tackle (B) buttons. It should be noted that the B button is also postition sensitive. If you are behind or beside the opponent that has the ball you will simply pull on their shirt or shoulder charge them.

Here is a video of the tutorial in game explaining the defensive system:


More Videos

Spoiler: show

Someone playing the demo - You can see how when you 'contain' the opponent, there is a certain distance you reach in front of them and then you just... keep your distance unless you are tackling them.


Here is someone that has turned off Legacy Defense and you can see there is NO distance bubble... you just pressure them until you foul them, steal the ball, or they bomb by you.

Again, you can disable this, or even switch the buttons around so that your slide tackle and player contain buttons are mapped the way they were in 11. This is what helped me immensely. I don't want to ignore the new system at all, I would rather re-learn the game as that would be far more interesting. It is growing on me.

As for the other elements, the entire game feels FAR more dependent on possession. Obviously with it being much harder (maybe just at first) to get the ball from the other team that is going to be true. But in addition the game feels more open, it feels easier to keep possession as well. The AI players make smarter moves, the passing feels much better to me as well. In 11 the 'smart passing' meter never really felt like it was working. It seems to be in this one.

I will play more for sure and these opinions may change. At this point though I just don't know if I want this Day 1 like I have the past two years.

PES: This got less playtime and I blame that on the fact that the demo doesn't make it easy to start a new match after the first. You get more matchtime in the PES demo, but once the match ends and you choose to return to the main menu... you are locked into watching a demo clip reel showcasing the new features. What are you gonna do? It is a Demo!

Overall though, it definitely feels less ... uhh... clunky? They have sped things up a bit, and once I changed the button config to match up to what I am used to with FIFA / Legacy PES I was set. Passing still feels way better to me in PES. It just feels like I can get a pass to go where I want and to who I want. Great leading passes, defense splitting passes, etc.

It is still slower over all than FIFA, and you just cannot hold the ball with one player for long without getting smooshed and left in the dust. So passing is key.

Overall, I am sure that I will be a fan of the Become a Legend again which has yet to disappoint. I definitely need to play this demo more though, only a couple matches doesn't give me a very good perspective.

So download those demos! Let me know what you think!

[Callisto]

I tried FIFA last year(I got nostalgic at how absurdly awesome 2002 was) and just could not get a handle on the controls for my life, plus I couldn't understand what the hell anything in the controls manual meant, game needed a goddamn glossary lol. I wish I had more time/desire to play other EA titles so I could make use of the Season Ticket deal, I can't justify buying it just for NHL.

[Julian]

The lack of international teams/events, once again, is a huge turn off. I know these games are supposed to cater to people who are into clubs and shit, but I'm not, so meh.

I just want to make my own character to play for my favorite team in Brasil, then get good enough that I start getting called up to play in friendlies, copa america, world cup, etc (when the year applies, obviously)

qq

[Tyr]

I can't wait for FIFA. It's far and away the best sports game in my opinion, what with basketball games still feeling off (despite NBA 2k11's strides, although, the game keeps freezing), and EA taking a shit on the madden franchise (god damn madden 12 sucks).

As awesome as Fifa 10 was, Fifa 11 was better. I bless Konami for making PES a solid game that forces EA to keep Fifa 12 improving (actually improving, not just using the word when all they add is some gimick).

This game is a distant second to Skyrim on my "want-it-now," but still, that's saying a lot.

[Doombear]

I hear your pain on the International front Julian. I do understand why they won't make one (outside of the World Cup franchise) but I do wish they would add more to FIFA regarding it. Yes sure you can play international matches, and you CAN get called up to the national team in Be a Pro mode. But the call ups are few and far between and not as rewarding as you feel they should be.

I played a lot more last night and I am still struggling to get the hang of the new Tactical Defense. It really is that space barrier that is there now. I am used to pressuring a lot to make the opponent eff up or take the ball outright. Not constant like I hear whining about all the time, but it is something that I grew accustomed to using. I feel like I am going to have to start over at a lower difficulty and work up. Been a while and that is a good thing, it starts getting boring when you rarely lose.

This feels like it takes a lot more work, and giving away the ball now you feel much more punished for it. It isn't as simple as mashing Dash+Press and getting it right back anymore.

Played more of PES as well and there are things that I am sure I am going to love about it. They have added the ability to control directly who you are going to send the ball too on corners. Throw ins as well but that was always a bit more controllable. Now you press the right stick to highlight a player and then Pass or Cross and you will immediately take control of that player once the ball is crossed in. It makes set pieces much more exciting. The Become a Legend mode is always awesome, but it isn't in the demo. They have also added training challenges. They only had a few on the demo. You get trophies for completing them and can unlock harder challenges. Free Kick over the wall challenge. Corner Kicks. Defense, Offense, etc. Looks fun to me.

[Tagus]

Fifa has been amazing the last couple of years, but it gets super frustrating when you actually start to get good at it. It's really tough to set the difficulty right. It seems like if you're playing as a 5 star club, you can absolutely destroy people up to a certain level, at which point the game immediately becomes intensely difficult. I've been hitting 11 alot lately in anticipation of 12, and I've almost put myself in a position where I don't even want to buy this year's edition because the game drives me insane. There's nothing worse than seeing an opening and going to make the pass to free somebody, and for whatever reason the ball just goes wildly wrong. It's just so annoying to know that in real life any of us could probably have made the pass with no problem, but digitalized schweinsteiger just kicked the ball straight at the only defender within 10 yards. Anyway... my two cents on the evolution of FIFA. I hope '12 is good, they seem to continue to improve.

[Doombear]

I find it more infuriating when you are coming up the middle, a winger makes a run and say a CF makes a run and the winger is PERFECTLY placed to dodge off-sides and take the ball in, while the CF is surrounded by 3 players but the game decides you meant to make a leading pass to the CF.

That never ceases to amaze me.

[Tagus]

Yeah, it's maddening to know that you can get so good where you can pull off some crazy shit every once in a while, but no matter how good you get that errant pass that's going to make you want to murder something is only a game or two away. I can't remember a game in recent years that I loved that much but also made me so freaking angry.

[Maaglin]

If you really want to know frustration, play football manager and start in Iceland.

[Doombear]

Ahahaha! Why would you do that to yourself!!??

I have a hard enough time starting as Leeds or Crystal Palace.

[volcanicweather]

I find it more infuriating when you are coming up the middle, a winger makes a run and say a CF makes a run and the winger is PERFECTLY placed to dodge off-sides and take the ball in, while the CF is surrounded by 3 players but the game decides you meant to make a leading pass to the CF.

That never ceases to amaze me.

This makes me rage so much, I hate the passing in FIFA and dribbling along the sidelines drives me nuts. I have played the FIFA demo some and while I like that it's a little more difficult to score on offense it's also so damn random. It seems as if now you score out of nothing more often and great build-up play isn't rewarded as often. Not a fan of that.

Regarding the new tactical defending, I have a love/hate relationship right now. I like how you can't just hold down a button and call it "defending", but at the same time you can tell the system is flawed. For example, when you switch guys it takes a half second to "orient" yourself tactically with the new guy which can really hurt your defense. Also what's ridiculous is if you're lazy you can just man control a forward and eventually the defense will usually play pretty good without you doing a damn thing. Kind of sad.

Finally I think the new defending system has taken out a lot of the "fun" of FIFA. Nobody likes to watch the computer pass the ball around and they do it too much now. In addition to this, the new system is going to create a much larger barrier of entry for casual players to play the game (a huge advantage FIFA had over PES imo) because it does take time and practice to even be decent at it. The days of inviting friends over with little FIFA experience and having a good time are all but gone with this game sadly unless you turn on legacy defending.

I'm still waiting for the full game and I really like FIFA ultimate team but I feel they took 1 step forward and 2 steps back. If PES puts out a decent game this year they could steal the "casual" marketshare.

PS: Madden 12 was awful, played it for 3 days and sent it back via Gamefly. I owned Madden 11 and thought it was decent. Again they sucked a lot of the fun out of it... hope FIFA doesn't go down the same path.

[volcanicweather]

Anyone else pick up either one of these games? A little surprised people aren't talking about it since the sales figures for FIFA 12 at least are through the roof (sales are up 23% from last year, 3.2 million copies sold in the first week). I'm having a blast with Ultimate Team which is a huge success this year, tons of fun to open packs and buy/trade cards as the trade market is extremely active and it's easy to make money if you know what you're doing. Getting better at tactical defending now too and I can beat the computer probably ~95% of the time on professional.

[Tyr]

I've been playing Fifa 12 a bit, but noone to play with these days as I'm done with u/g.

Freaking playing against the computer is the most frustrating thing ever -- I can beat them, sure, when they get the ball it takes about 5 minutes of them pointlessly running around, moving back and forth with one player before they get it near the box and they give up the ball.

I'm pissed off that they took away Lounge mode...don't understand why they'd need to do that, it was a great way to track your record against friends.

Otherwise, the game's pretty solid. Virtual pro/career still has some annoying aspects (like it being so damn hard to improve, and my player sucking ass despite playing really well). Getting used to the defense still, but I'm more or less content.