FIFA 13 Review
FIFA is one of the most popular games in the world due to the sheer amount of fans of the sport and gameplay. I personally hate football but strangely enjoy the video games to a certain extent so lets see how I found it.
This year FIFA is back with the usual smooth gameplay, pretty graphics and far too many game modes. FIFA 13 has jumped on the kinect compatibility bandwagon and they shouldn’t have bothered. Through speech you can change formations, make adjustments to your squad and even tell your players what to do i.e. “pass the ball”, “take a shot” etc. Although this sounds like a great idea, I think it’s pointless. Why would you tell the player to take a shot when you can press “B” and lessen the risk of the kinect sensor misunderstanding? Swearing during the game is picked up by the sensor. After one game I received in game emails from my club telling me to pipe it down due to the unwanted press attention I was getting for the club. Funny = Yes, stupid = Yes, worth it = No!
The menus have had a revamp and I love them. I never player FIFA 12 so the menu’s to me are new, smooth when navigating and full of lovely solid colours. It’s about time these changes were made!
Like I mentioned above, there are far too many game modes. You can play career as either a pro or manager, compete in tournaments, play through Xbox live and create a team and play skill games for money. But to be honest, the only real game mode worth playing is FIFA Ultimate Team. FIFA ultimate team is like collecting cards/stickers, so if you have the best stickers you have the best players. You can earn cash by playing games, buy and sell players, and really get the best team going if you put in the time and effort. Personally, I quite like the depth that FUT goes into but with my lack of knowledge I did struggle a bit to begin with. Once you have your team together you will need to ensure that they are in the correct formation, morale is high and make sure they work well together (chemistry). There is nothing more frustrating than having a foreign player on your English team that doesn’t understand anything because that one loose end could mess up your whole game. If you’re going to do it, do it properly!
Playing offline in my eyes is the best because there is no hacking or gaining coins illegitimately, you can choose your difficulty and there is no lag or rage quitters. On the other hand playing online has its pro’s but not enough of them. I am not very good at the game so when playing against those with experience I would be very pleased if I managed to score a goal, only to find out that if I score within the first (in game) 5 minutes the opposing team could quit and nothing of that game existed. WHAT?!?!?!... EA’s excuse for this is that it’s to help players avoid gaining positive/negative results if the game was laggy and therefore unfair. Yes, another lame excuse from EA trying to defend themselves as to why they’re so cheap and won’t use dedicated servers. In the end it’s those that put time and money into the game that suffer and EA need to remember that they are technically charging you to play online with the “redeem pass” rubbish so they should be careful when trying to save money in the wrong places!
One of my favourite additions is the RPG elements to the game. You can gain levels by playing games and completing given tasks. Once you have levelled up you’re able to purchase new items from the EAS store including attributes for your online and offline Pro, celebrations and kits. Adding the RPG elements give players that addiction that will make the game great but can be damaging to the bank account.
Other new modes such as Match day, seasons, skill games etc are pointless. Yes you may gain extra cash and win a trophy but at the end of the day you’re still kicking a ball and hoping it goes into a goal at some point.
Overall
A new year means a new FIFA game and with it we hope for great improvements and added extras worth the £40 price tag. Instead, you’re given the usual regurgitated game that’s been sold for many years with the only main difference being the year written on the front of the box.
If you want single player fun, brilliant but if you like FIFA for its multiplayer, I can guarantee you’re going to get ridiculously frustrated and possibly not enough enjoyment.
7/10
Review By Wicket2961
