- Publisher: EA Sports
- Developer: EA Canada
- ESRB Rating: “E" for Everyone
- Genre: Soccer
- Pros: Great presentation; fun gameplay; lots of modes; gameplay sliders; plenty of new features
- Cons: Kinda tired of the arena at this point
FIFA 12 features tons of licensed teams and players and leagues. Even for casual U.S. based soccer fans, teams and players you actually recognize are most likely in here. Also fitting into the "Stuff we already know" category, career, Be a Pro, playing as a goal keeper, full-on 11 vs. 11 online matches, and all of that good stuff returns. Basically, everything good about FIFA 11 is back.
The real story here is the huge list of new stuff this year. The addictive FIFA Ultimate Team card game is available on-disc at launch for the first time. More importantly is the EA Sports Football Club which tracks your play across all of the modes in the game and rewards you with experience points that let you "level up". It really just lets you track your progress and level with other folks, but it is neat to have it laid out so clearly. Another aspect of the Football Club is that you choose a team to support and then all of your results factor into that team's overall ranking. The rankings are based on averages of how well each team's supporters play and how often they play, which means even teams with small supporter bases (go Seattle Sounders FC) compared to larger teams (pretty much all European clubs compared to the MLS), can still win the rankings in a given week. It is very cool and surprisingly satisfying.
Gameplay
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Another change comes in player collision physics. We've had real physics on the ball for years now, and real player movement physics as well, but now we have realistic player-on-player impacts as well. Instead of players hitting each other and nothing happening, or a canned animation plays, now players react in realistic physics-based ways which makes the game look and play much more realistically.
All of these changes build on an already very solid gameplay base. FIFA already played amazingly well, and now with more realistic defense and physics on the field, along with the ability to tweak pretty much everything you want, this is the best playing FIFA yet whether you want a realistic hardcore sim or a fast and crazy arcade game.
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Visually, FIFA looks spectacular as ever. The player models are detailed and look great, and feature very smooth and realistic animation. The stadiums look nice.
Sound
The sound is also very good. The commentary actually manages to keep up with the play on the pitch and doesn't repeat all that often. It is also interesting that occasionally the color commentator will pitch in with specific information about players and teams, which is pretty neat. It isn't quite so nice how not all players are called out by name, so you'll hear some players name called a ton (they seem to be in love with Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan), but other players not at all. Or they'll pronounce the names wrong. Makes it realistic, I guess.
Bottom Line
All in all, FIFA Soccer 12 is a pretty big step forward in an already great series. The gameplay is better than ever. The presentation is rock solid. Old modes got updates and significant new modes were introduced. It is more accessible thanks to sliders and new options. FIFA 12 is pretty great all around. My one complaint is a pretty petty one - I'm sick of the loading-hiding 1v1 arena thing in the menus and before games. It was cool in 2005. I'm tired of it now. At least the load times are lightning quick in this game so you don't really have to bother with it much, unlike years past. In the end, FIFA Soccer 12 is the best soccer game around on Xbox 360 and is highly recommended for a purchase for any level of soccer fan.
