FIFA 13 Review

Other modes are kind of like seeing your friends for the first time in a while. They got improvements, nice touches here and there, but are mostly the same. Which isn’t a bad thing of course, especially with a game as polished as FIFA. The middle ground Player Manager role has been eliminated, so your options for Career mode are just to be a player or a manager. In Be a Pro you can now be loaned out by your club if your rating isn’t quite up to par for the rest of the squad, which is a nice touch of realism and a chance to enjoy having a starting role in a lesser club as you upgrade your skills over time. International competition has been added, so as a player you can get called up for the country duty, and as a manager you can earn the job to lead your nation. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but still nice to see the mode’s options being expanded.

Trade logic, one of the concerns from last year, has also been addressed. No longer will you see insane trades worth billions happening at every transfer window. Players now have specific roles (star, first team, bench, etc) and this, along with their age, remaining contract, and happiness all affect their decision to switch clubs. So trying to steal away a young and happy player is not going to be easy, regardless of cash. Trades now include options to use said cash as well throwing your own player as the offer, which can lead to newly added counter-offers.

Down at the grounds, FIFA 13 continues to carefully refine the elements introduced last year, without throwing anything substantially new into the mix. The systems of dribbling and player injuries/physics are further improved, giving the gameplay a more realistic feel. New tactical free kicks allow more flexibility for attackers via fake runs and passing options, while defenders can now move the player wall and even sneak forward – but at the risk of being booked if done too early. A new first touch system now takes into account player skills, so lesser players will have realistic trouble receiving tough crosses and passes, and that makes a huge difference in gameplay. Finally, AI is almost incredibly good this year at reading the game, anticipating passes, and timing their runs to stay on-side. Overall, the gameplay adjustments this year don’t revolutionize the game, but they improve on almost all aspects of it without cutting corners on any visual or technical details, creating probably the most authentic soccer experience ever.

Not everything is perfect though, but these are minor faults compared to the overall experience. It feels like this year players have a bit too much control over the ball – with AI on normal difficulty and using a poorly skilled team, CPU has no problem dribbling past you as if the ball is tied on a string to their feet, which comes in sharp contrast to the realistically poor first touches from tough passes. The Player Impact Engine which powers the physics of the game, though improved, can still be a bit glitchy and produce some wild behaviour. There also seems to be an unrealistically high amount of injuries (almost every game), and far too many are related to players’ arms and shoulders.