FIFA 13 Demo Impressions

Demo

rating:4.5

Though PES Team Leader Jon Murphy's anti-FIFA campaign is obviously motivated by his own professional interests, his assertion that EA Sports have been fiddling about with tiny pieces of their core game and adding frills as opposed to reinventing the engine entirely and changing the feel of the gameplay does actually have some basis in truth. Since 2009, there has been limited evolution in how FIFA actually plays, and though last year's new defensive system was a breath of fresh air and a very welcome one at that, it never felt quite as successfully integrated as we might have wished. But this year, judging by the demo that has today been released, the new tweaks and modifications to the core of the game add together to actually make a difference - the new dribbling and control systems are excellent, and lead to a more realistic feel to play and the ball mechanics feel a lot more authentic than any FIFA game so far. That will come at a cost to players who favour lower-league or "under-dog" style teams, as the control system will inevitably make the better players in the game better than they've ever been before. And while I'm all for the authenticity factor, opening a gap between the top players and the less spectacular ones will only possibly lead to gamers tending towards a handful of better teams when it comes to selecting their team of choice for matches. For now that wasn't an issue, since EA Sports have limited the available teams to a handful of four-and-a-half starred and above teams, including English Premier League pair Arsenal and Man City, and it is admittedly something of a pleasure to see how much more intelligent David Silva feels on the ball over someone like Carl Jenkinson. The first-touch system is really one of the stand-out elements of the new game, as well as being one of its most simply integrated thanks to an incomplex control system, and it's a system that will lead to a lot more impressive goals being scored (judging by my own atypical ability to score a couple of Goal of the Month contenders). The new dribbling system isn't a licence to showboat however, and the game developers seem to have taken the use of Lionel Messi as the cover star as some sort of indication of exactly what should be valued on the pitch - play direct but with flair like the Argentinian, or direct and creative like David Silva, and the game rewards you. But try and stick eight step-overs in before your shoot from distance and the defensive AI will deal with you fairly simply. Tweaks to the defending engine mean that it's a lot easier to foul attacking players as they pass your less nimble defender, which will no doubt be frustrating to those who don't take the necessary time to learn the art of defending, but which otherwise introduces a welcome learning curve for those of us who like to abide by the rules of the game a little more precisely. Though last year's improvements on the defending system were a great new addition, and forced everyone to relearn that side of the game, there were some problems, but this time out everything feels a lot more fluid and a good sight more easy to defend situations that you would feel confident defending. The lottery element has gone from simple situations, and it helps that the defensive AI has improved to go alongside the new, and much improved attacking AI. There's also a whole new free kick system as well, which I managed to test out a couple of times (scoring precisely no goals in the process) with a vast amount of new options for taking than those we've seen in previous games, including fakes and adding a little more realism to the feature. It's all very simple to implement as well, thanks to the prompt system If there is one other complaint, it's that the new impact system, which was designed initially to put paid to some comical animations, feels a little over-tweaked, and impacts between players occasionally look fatal, no matter what size the player of the end of the bruising is. It's all well and good being able to jostle more realistically for the ball, but anything close to a goal-mouth scramble leads to chaos with the 'keeper invariably wiping out at least two fellow players with apparently little concern from either himself or the referee. Away from the pitch, the presentation has taken another serious step-up, rivalling king of the sports game genre and EA Sports' stable-mate Madden for the pomp and circumstance of the game, thanks to more in-depth commentary, and pre-game animations. Hearing the commentators riffing about real world events was also am enjoyable factor, even if their assessment of Robin Van Persie's Arsenal situation was rather dated. Typically, the music chosen for the game also feels suitable and atmospheric enough for the match-day experience with some great tunes in there for those who appreciate a good tune between matches. So, overall a hugely impressive gameplay experience, with some seriously good new in-play developments and some impressive tweaks to the overall presentation of the FIFA experience. In short, a damn fine start for this year's edition of the game, and hopefully the rest of the game will follow suit, as we will discover when the full game is released on 28th September. For more FIFA 13 coverage, head over to our dedicated FIFA 13 hub-page.