Before FIFA 13: The Evolution Of Football's Biggest Gaming Franchise

2011 - FIFA 12 FIFA 12 witnessed the implementation of three new major game play changes. These were the revamped Impact Engine, Tactical Defending and Precision Dribbling. Described by producer David Rutter as "the biggest technological change to the series since the transition to the current generation of consoles", the impact engine was dictated by a new advanced procedural animation system which produced different results depending on the players and physical forces involved. Players off the ball could now be caught up in collisions, and for the first time, these collisions directly affected specific injuries such as "bruised rib" and "broken ankle". Depending on the severity of the collision, during career mode, players could be sidelines for months. The new Tactical Defending system put more emphasis on players positioning when it came to making tackles and intercepting passes. In previous games, players positioning when defending was completed automatically, this at times made the game stagnant. Now, gamers could fall foul of defensive howlers by not getting their defence in the right shape on a counter attack to concede a crucial goal. Players used to the defensive system of old could switch back to "Legacy Defending" which made positioning automatic once more. The third and final big change to the series was Precision Dribbling. The Precision Dribbling feature allowed players to dribble whilst shielding, meaning you could still move around the pitch whilst holding players off, rather than being rooted to the spot as in previous titles. Cut scenes were improved. In all titles up until this one, when making three substitutions, only one player exhange would be seen by the camera. Now, all three player exchanges are displayed in the cut scene for added realism.