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The moment is upon us once again that we shall be bombarded with the expected buzz of EA's latest FIFA offering entering the gaming world. Ever since the arrival of the brilliance that was fifa 11, we have been wondering as gamers where Ea would take this legendary franchise. So ultimately (no pun intended) this leads to the fundamental question, is fifa 12 better than its predecessor? Game On's Steven Hesse is here to try and answer that very question.

As an avid gamer I have been watching the development of FIFA 12 with interest. The one fundamental concern with games that have a yearly release is that they have to make something uniquely different for ever new release in a lot less time than most

gaming companies do on other franchise. EA's triumph in FIFA 11 was marketed around being able to play as a goalkeeper and then later the fantastically fun ultimate team mode that was available as downloaded content sometime after its release. This is a casing point of something that took EA a while to get right and the more that it was available the more the idea got developed and in my opinion became one of the most enjoyable game modes. Fifa 12s marketing campaign is frighteningly degrading as it is based around the fact that ultimate team is on the CD (EA are essentially saying they saved us the job of a 2 minute download-how kind and hardworking) and also the new defence system that left most people with a sense of intrigue.

One of the first things you notice actually when you start the game is that the difficulty levels are significantly harder, which sounds funny but it is largely to do with the learning curve that you face with the new additions. As my fellow co host Scott Ireland says if you are approaching this game as a newbee to the franchise you will undoubtedly find yourself frustrated and may very well be put off altogether. To put it bluntly Ea have really focused on trying to please the hardcore Fifa fans with something completely radical in changing the whole way of looking at defending. Gone are the days of pressing the x button and hoping for the best in snatching the ball from the very inadequate AI. Or is it? Certainly, when playing against the computer the new shepparding system has its advantages, but against any human player with average ability it is just too slow to use effectively and efficiently that you discard it altogether. One thing that it does add to the game including other factors is it ma kes the game significantly harder that even professional give a good challenge for those familiar with past FIFA's .

Obviously when you mention Fifa games you think of the amount of different modes available to play. As mentioned earlier ultimate team makes its second appearance and is one of my own particular favourite modes to play. I have to admit, the main reason for enjoying it is the reminder of how fun it used to be to collect premier league stickers as a child and see if I got a shiny, only to get my 100th Gary Speed. In all seriousness, the fun in ultimate team is playing players you wouldn't normally get through getting the best chemistry or picking the same nationality. The only trouble is that even after a few weeks the amount of tournaments to play against other human players is ridiculously slim, therefore its life span of playing is can get very short indeed, especially with a lack of motivation to keep playing it. As per usual the head to head mode is fun as you try building up the leagues and due to amount of leagues on the game its fun to pick different teams and see how well you can do.

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspect of fifa in recent years has been the virtual pro option that gives you the opportunity to develop your own player and get achievements for doing so. Its worth noting that this year EA have also included a nice little bonus of gaining exp as you unlock achievements that go towards certain different things in the game (mainly effecting where your supported team stands in the league-a little off record bonus that EA do). It does sound in this review that EA have made the perfect game but once again fifa 12 does have its faults like its predecessor.

For example, one of the main modes that you use to improve the virtual pro is the career mode, which sadly as time goes by and year by year seems to get forgotten. Other than slightly revamped menus (the same can be said for ultimate team) it is very much the same as it was before, which I am sad to say is boring. I would also like to say that whoever is the graphic designer on fifa 12 so hand in their resignation as majority of the menus are poorly designed and difficult to manoeuvre around. The worst part about career mode is you don't feel involved, as you hardly there is also getting anything happening within the game that interesting or worthwhile. Essentially it just saves you time from starting an exhibition game over and over again. One of the good things that Pro evolution Soccer does with career mode is have FMV when players get given contracts etc and also you get offered a number of contracts from different clubs. In Fifa 12 you get to pick the club you start at, again making it a lot less fun and engaging. It also must be said that Ea servers are anything but consistent, with ultimate team regularly going offline and being unavailable for several hours.

This leads me very nicely to the gameplay and as per usual there is pro and cons. The tackling although different to Fifa 11 is not necessarily better, it seems very slow and inaccurate in the players going for the ball. The players seem to have an uncanny annoyance to fall over each other more often than not, and the sensitivity of giving away a penalty means you start avoiding tackling in the penalty area altogether. One of the slight improvements has to be the passing, it isn't as easy to deliver passes by simply pressing the button and the power of passes are more important than it's ever been in a football game. The through ball is now more of a skill as it has to be just right in order to hit your players feet, rather than it being as easy on Fifa 11. The finesse button is also more sensitive, meaning it takes a lot more in gaming ability to use it as often as online players did in the last fifa. One of the last and most relevant improvements to the game has to be the graphics. It's very rare that you can say about a football game that it's just as good to look at, as it is to play, yet somehow EA managed to achieve it.

One the last episode of Game on, Scott and I asked the fundamental question about fifa: where do we go from here? In terms of a video game EA have made a game that's a great alternative to actually playing the sport itself which is a unbelievable achievement. But where is the next improvement going to come from apart from the minor glitches? We both hope that they decide to revamp the career mode and make it more enjoyable, it reminds us of the call of duty franchise in that single mode gets left alone while multiplayer gets all the attention. The worst thing is, having played this game for a few weeks; I am starting to get bored, so as good as this game is, the longevity is really wavering rather thin. I just hope EA manage to come up with something to make this game even more realistic, because this is easy to say: this is best football game ever made, it's as simply but ultimately as complicated as that.

Overall YRadio Score

90%