FIFA 13: 10 Big Reasons To Be Excited

Ahead of this year's addition to EA Sports' juggernaut FIFA football game franchise, and fresh with some officially released new details, we've been looking forward to what we might get from FIFA 13, and here are the ten most exciting things gamers can look forward so far...

More Captured Faces Than Ever

Tech developed by Glasgow-based digital capture firm Dimensional Imaging will be used by EA Sports to pack FIFA 13 with more realistic faces than ever before, according to Mike Harrison, director of EA Capture at Electronic Arts:

"We recognised a few years ago that raising the quality of facial appearance was an increasing priority for our game teams. Working closely with Dimensional Imaging has allowed us to develop a highly accurate 3D facial capture pipeline that is now so efficient that we can apply it to more characters than we ever thought possible."

Dimensional Imaging CEO Colin Urquhart added his own take on the continued success of the working relationship:

"The relentless increase in the quality of computer graphics makes it ever more necessary to capture real life human likenesses in order to create believable virtual characters, but this process has traditionally been very time consuming for video game development." "EA was one of the first developers to recognize the need for improved capture workflows, and working with them since EA Sports FIFA 10 has been instrumental in helping Dimensional Imaging to develop a product suite that is now suitable for even the most demanding development pipelines in the business."

The Five Major Improvements

Fifa 13's producer David Rutter unveiled details to everyone present at the recent London showcase that FIFA 13 which showed that the next addition to EA Sports' behemoth football franchise will enjoy 5 major improvements alongside a few other additions that he personally would like to see implemented in FIFA 13. Rutter said that he would like to see new types of passes, new animations for goalkeepers, improved referee behaviours and new atmospherics like crowd animations, all of which would go down well. Those 5 major improvements are as follows: First Touch Control The new control system will affect the way players can retrieve passes from teammates, with success being determined by certain factors like pass power, speed, height and the receiving player's technical ability. Sounds like Player Impact Engine Set for further improvement in FIFA 13, the Player Impact Engine will continue to wipe out all of the unrealistic animations that used to result from collisions between players with new body areas set to be affected by the game€™s physics engine including the players hips and chests. Complete Dribble A whole new dribble system will come in, which will require a lot more of the player than simple directional changes. Tactical Free-Kicks In FIFA 13, free kick taking will change: now you will be able to bring up to three players up to gather around the ball in order to disorientate the goalkeeper and hopefully misdirect the taker's intentions. Dummy kicks will also come in, as the player will be able to feign a direct shot on goal before choosing a pass at the last moment to a teammate who will be able to detach from wall. Attacking AI Clever opponents makes for a harder game experience, but a more rewarding one in the long-run, and FIFA 13's new AI will have opponents tracking the most efficient routes to the ball as well as anticipating a broader range of passes from team-mates, and doing their utmost to avoid being flagged offside. For veterans, that will spell a richer experience, and newer gamers will enjoy a steeper learning curve no doubt. All in the name of good sports simulation.

Be The Referee?

The long discussed new game mode might not appeal to all players, there has been consistent clamour to have it added to the next FIFA game, and there are rumours this time out that EA Sports may just have listened, taking 2012's goalkeeper mode to the next level. Personally, I can see very little pleasure in passively watching the real action of the match and calling decisions (or more likely abusing them) - if I wanted to be a jobsworth, I wouldn't choose to do it on my games consoles. But each to their own...

Kinect Compatibility

EA Sports have so far been resistant to announce Kinect compatibility, holding off until they had come up with something good enough to warrant the technology - but now it seems they have managed to find that idea. My money would be on shouting instructions from the sidelines to move unselected players into other positions, to give specific movement instructions or to influence the overall shape of the team.

The First Screenshots

Thanks to Dimensional Imaging, FIFA 13's graphics will be superior to previous games in the series, and the first batch of screenshots confirms as much: Visit our FIFA 13 hubpage to view more brand new screenshots from EA Sports' next football title. FIFA 13 will be released on multiple platforms later this year.