FIFA 12 Previews

[dbdynsty25]

Being able to actually control the ball in traffic with little one touches and the more polished dribbling animations is the biggest damn improvement Fifa has made in years. Now it's not a guarantee that you get de-possessed as soon as you hit the box and run into a bit of traffic. Huge upgrade that makes the game worth the price of the new version alone.

[JRod]

Lavan,
You enjoying the single player career mode?

[Zlax45]

I am getting BLASTED online...losing like 6-1, 6-0 in every game....I can't defend...anyone have some hints?

[10spro]

Loving FUT and its many tourneys. Got a gold package today where Chicarito was in. Check his worth for those that are into UT. Didn't do my homework and I gave him away for peanuts. He's selling for up to 20.000 coins and +.

[FifaInspected]

Career question:

At the end of each season when the job offers come up, I've only seen job offers for managerial positions. I've never seen an offer for a player gig nor for the combo player manager gig like I'm doing now. Is it possible that I might see job offers for something other than a manager at some point or is this just the way the game is? Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that if I take a managerial position at another club, my virtual pro may disappear.

[Zeppo]

I've been able to play a few games of ultimate team and I have to say I like the way the new defensive system changes the game. It certainly corresponds more closely to how I like to play defense in any case. It feels more realistic to me to be playing d more as you would in a basketball game - that is, staying between the ball and the goal, or staying in the passing lanes, rather than trying to push every player who has possession over and rip the ball away every second. Using the RB to bring that 2nd man can be just what is needed to shepherd the ball possessor where you can get a tackle attempt in. Even though it often feels like you can't get the ball away in the middle of the field, it also seems like as I try to get into the box when I have the ball, I get dispossessed pretty easily, or at least my shot attempt is often blocked. That seems pretty fair and realistic to me.

I also really like how the definitive 'stab' at the ball when you hit the tackle button allows for little dribble touches to be effective in getting past defenders. I always felt that in old FIFA, the only way to get past a single defender was to use the dreadfully sluggish R-stick special moves, so in essence I could never get past even one lone defender. Everything had to be passing around the defenders, and that's just not realistic. In WE/PES, I could always have a good chance at getting by guys with basic ball control, changing direction and pace, and suckering the defender in too close and then bursting past very realistically. Well, now I feel like I can do that in FIFA. If the guy I'm playing is getting too aggressive with his defenders, surely because he is used to the old FIFA way, I can get by just by controlling the ball in normal speed or holding the L-trigger while changing direction and then adding in that turbo boost if need be. This feels much, much more realistic to me. In general the ball possession seems to work out more realistically, and in a way it is very refreshing to have games v CPU where I am outpossessed. I haven't played much v CPU, but being outpossessed has never ever happened to me in FIFAs past. Maybe as I play more and get a better handle on tackling the ball away, I will go back to the traditional 60-40 possession divide, but so far it's sort of neat to be outpossessed and just try to keep them from getting a clean shot away rather than simply pushing them off the ball all the time.

I'd love to get in some club play, but I don't have any idea if or when I'll be able to get online when others are on.

[RobVarak]

Zeppo,

The first time I played offline Be A Pro and watched the CPU "attackers" pass it around for 10 game minutes while the CPU defense ardently stayed 20 yards off of them, I knew this was the game for you.

Get your ass into some club games!!

[10spro]

I finally managed to get Abate for 5000 coins. Don't let the overall rating of a player fool you, this Italian dude got a 91 PAC and he's horse. Just love FUT, wished the damn servers would be more consistent as it's a miss and hit.

[toonarmy]

http://www.destructoid.com/fifa-12-nets ... 2969.phtml

Wow. FIFA 12 with better launch sales than Gears of War 3, and the best-selling launch in sports gaming history -- 3.2 million.

[RobVarak]

Awesome games last night, guys! That last team was definitely a bridge too far, but they had a load of points.

[Lancer]

Guys just picked it up at TRU fo 39 since you guys are giving rave reviews. Burnt out on the Nhl engine so hoping this replaces that game for me.

I absolutely love wc2010 and when it comes to not national teams I'm clueless. So what would be a good team to start with? FUT sounds cool.

[Jimmydeicide]

Ok im just getting fed up with Fifa single player. Even with slider adjustments your defenders just dont make a tackle or do anything unless your in direct control .
The movement of the players makes tackling pretty much worthless .
Legacy defending is no better because the ai wont get the tackle in like before.

Wolves play like Man u so on so on, same ole same ole.

Pissed off. And im shite online

[Rodster]

I got the PS3 version on sale today at TRU, thanks Lancer !

Jimmy did you get the 360 version?

[Jimmydeicide]

Yeh 360. Trade it for 360 Rod and join us up front for Old Boys FC.

[dbdynsty25]

I got the PS3 version on sale today at TRU, thanks Lancer !

Jimmy did you get the 360 version?

Why do you keep getting the ps3 version of the games? 90% of the guys on here use the 360 mostly.

[Macca00]

Ok im just getting fed up with Fifa single player. Even with slider adjustments your defenders just dont make a tackle or do anything unless your in direct control .
The movement of the players makes tackling pretty much worthless .
Legacy defending is no better because the ai wont get the tackle in like before.

Wolves play like Man u so on so on, same ole same ole.

This.

Actually, I do find the attacking play differs a bit more from team to team - Man U will be more lethal in front of goal than Wolves, but teams and midfields all defend the same. So Karl Henry will still play like Makalele in his prime. It's even worse when you go on any difficulty level past Pro.

Really takes the shine off the UT stuff as well - I'm still kinda into it but then you play the same bullshit AI teams again and again while Online in that mode attacts all kinds of unique a$sholes.

I do however like the Head to Head Seasons - particularly if you pick a mediocre team because matchmaking puts you against a similarly rated team - and all the idiots are taking their 5 star Barcelona/ManU/Real teams online so you avoid them and play against (mostly) like minded players. I actually have a pretty good record head to head using Boca and QPR in most matches. Also these players tend not to use the stupid goalie bug.

Zeppo,
How did you make so much money trading cards in UT? What's your secret?

[RobVarak]

Zeppo,
How did you make so much money trading cards in UT? What's your secret?

Don't know about Zeppo, but my secret is to get lucky. Last year I got Rooney in my free pack and basically used that to finance about 33 different Gold player purchases for 3 complete squads.

[10spro]

I do however like the Head to Head Seasons - particularly if you pick a mediocre team because matchmaking puts you against a similarly rated team - and all the idiots are taking their 5 star Barcelona/ManU/Real teams online so you avoid them and play against (mostly) like minded players. I actually have a pretty good record head to head using Boca and QPR in most matches. Also these players tend not to use the stupid goalie bug.

Zeppo,
How did you make so much money trading cards in UT? What's your secret?

He probably got Messi and Ronaldo early and made the fortune.

@Macca: What's the goalie bug like?

Agree about defending. No matter what tactic I use, it seems that using RB and quickly is my best defense especially against a top team. Hard to contain and tackle at the same time.

[Zeppo]

Zeppo,
How did you make so much money trading cards in UT? What's your secret?

Don't know about Zeppo, but my secret is to get lucky. Last year I got Rooney in my free pack and basically used that to finance about 33 different Gold player purchases for 3 complete squads.

I got two free packs this time because I had played last year. Among the cards I got was one special 88 or 89 rated Gomez card and I put him up for auction at 190,000 and got lucky. I recently tried to buy a premium gold pack and get another superstar card like a Rooney or Ronaldo that could fetch insane amounts on the trading, but no such luck.

[TheTruth]

@Macca: What's the goalie bug like?

Really not a bug but a design decision. In single player and online you can hit your back button to take over the goalie, therefore letting the CPU defend for you and then they switch back as soon as they gain possession of the ball. A lot of people use this tactic online and supposedly it is pretty easy to make saves as the goalie as well. There is a big debate over at the official forums about making the goalie feature for offline only, because essentially you are going online and playing against the computer and not another human. If you wanted to do that you would just play offline.

[Macca00]

I guess I shouldn't have called it a 'bug' - it's more of an exploit but it can be bloody annoying when you play someone and as soon as you get into their 3rd of the field the defenders and midfielders become amazing at intercepting passes and taking the ball off you with the slightest of ease - meanwhile the keeper is wandering around his box like a tit in a trance. You could try and catch him off guard with a long range shot but the CPU defenders/midfielders are amazing shot blockers too!

Like I said, if you choose mediocre teams it's not so much of a problem but when Head to Head Seasons had it's last Cup window the matchmaking was pretty poor and I ended up playing two idiots in a row who were clearly using this.

Zep & Rob,
I have a Thierry Henry card - think that would be worth something? Any auction tips? I just want to get 15000 credits, buy a player, get the stupid achievement and then be done. Lame, I know.

[10spro]

T. Henry was worth up to 5000 coins during the first week of FIFA. I had him in one of my cards a couple of days ago and he went for only 1000 yesterday. To get a marginal profit, I buy Kits that are popular in the EPL, formations are also quite rewarding, a 4-2-2-2 is going for at least 2000, and don't overprice a player when you're selling or have a buy now price. I usually start at 150 even for the top players, a bidder usually knows the market and you will be rewarded even though you start at 150.

As Rob mentioned, yes luck plays a role too, with the servers problems I have lost key bids by a second or two but my biggest regret is selling 'Chicarito' for almost nothing last week as I put mistakenly a 'But Now' price of 2500 instead of 25.000.

[RobVarak]

Actually, I do find the attacking play differs a bit more from team to team - Man U will be more lethal in front of goal than Wolves, but teams and midfields all defend the same. So Karl Henry will still play like Makalele in his prime. It's even worse when you go on any difficulty level past Pro.

Really takes the shine off the UT stuff as well - I'm still kinda into it but then you play the same bullshit AI teams again and again while Online in that mode attacts all kinds of unique a$sholes.

Play more Pro Clubs!

[Jimmydeicide]

I think the new contact engine needs a tweak so as fouls are seen by the refs.

http://www.ea.com/soccer/videos/ugc/97787266

Nothing given, i think the ref was as amazed as me at how real it looked though.

[Rodster]

I lost a game 1-2 because the collision system thought I fouled a player in the box which did not happen and the CPU got and made a penalty kick in extra time.