Fifa 12 Review by Fc_Zenit_Fan

Hey guys,

I could not wait much longer and decided to give this season ticket thing a go for my PS3, even though I already have my game pre-ordered through Origin. I just wanted to see how the game has changed from the demo. Here are my impressions.

Well, I think overall the game has improved slightly. There are less weird collisions due to the Impact Engine, but also the Impact Engine itself is less noticeable. I've played FIFA 11 on PS3 and I now, in the full version of FIFA 12 on PS3, the way collisions are handled are almost the same. So basically they pretty much decided to polish it up for FIFA 13, I suppose, while leaving some bits and pieces of it in FIFA 12.

The dribbling has improved and the "precision dribbling" now "kicks in" sooner than in the demo. It's implemented better, I think. Just feels right, compared to the demo.

Tactical defending is about the same as in the demo, maybe it's a little bit easier now, since we've all adjusted to it, or maybe EA did some tweaking, but it just seems pretty easy to take the ball away. However, I've not been playing against highly ranked teams like Barca or Real, so that might still prove to be a great challenge. Overall, I think tactical defending is a change for the better.

Career mode this year is actually playable and highly enjoyable. Most of all I love the new transfer system as it seems like they've really spent lots of time working on it. It's basically now a game within a game to sign a player you want. I've had to work real hard to convince Podolski to join my club (Fc Zenit). I've had to pay $34.5 million instead of his market value of $24.5 mil to convince FC Köln to let him go, and I also had to up his contract by about 50,000 a week. Then I speent weeks ironing out the contract for Bosingwa. Chelsea was surprisingly eager to let him go for about $11.2 mil (market value $9.4 mil, i think), but I had to double his contract from 100k a week to 200k a week. Every time I'd send him an offer, he wanted more money. I guess he really didn't want to go to Russia, but I needed a quality RB in case something happened to Anykov. In general, the transfers in the game are fairly realistic. I just saw Sneijder move to Real from Inter for like $67 mil, i think. He was on the verge of changing clubs this year, so it's a realistic transfer. Oh yeah, I also wanted to get Forlan, offered tons of money, but Inter said he's not interested cause he just changed clubs and that was that.

One other cool thing about the Career Mode is the news. You get all the rumors around your league, and also lots of other news. Like analysis which team will finish in which spot. Who's looking to sign which player. Then you also get the news of your players status and so on. Basically makes it more fun to play.

The game speed, to me, seems a bit too quick, but I guess it's about the same as in the demo. I think if you change it to slow it might be better, but I just didnt bother with that yet as I want to play the same speed as online.

The addition of the favorite club feature, where everything you do goes to the total of your clubs XP points, is cool. You basically have another league and it drives you to play more and more FIFA. Win more and more games. Etc... I like it a lot, although my club is currently in 7th place there Other players gotta step it up!



Now, coming to the bad and the ugly part. Head-to-Head Seasons, and (probably) the rest of online modes. One word I have to describe it. LAG. Massive, massive lag. I've never seen this stuttering and freezing in FIFA 11. Sometimes it would get bad and freeze up, but never like this. It makes the game almost unplayable for me online. And the worst thing is, since now you select your club and all the settings before you even know your opponent, is you cannot see the ping. Basically the game select your opponent itself and it doesnt matter how bad the connection between you two is, it just starts the game. In FIFA 11 at least you saw that connection was bad and could quit the game before it even started. Not anymore. So because of this major stuttering I've lost all 3 games I've played. It basically made all of those things I've enjoyed about FIFA go to a garbage dump. Very frustrating. I hope this is something PS3 specific and it'll be better on PC. Otherwise it ruins the game essentially.

Oh yeah, one last point. I seriously pity all the people playing on the consoles. This game looks horrible compared to PC (if you've got a good one that is) and not only that, but the menus are sluggish, the load times are long, and the framerate drops during replays constantly. After I've played FIFA on PC, I WILL NOT go back to FIFA on consoles (after this weekend, that is).

Ok, that's it for now. Overall a great game, but the online part of it, on the PS3 at least, is questionable, for now. I hope we'll get better experience.


Precision dribbling is "activated" in two ways: 1) you press the LB button, which is usually used to stop a player quickly or do a quick turn, while standing still; 2) it's activated by the game itself, if you're in control of a great dribbler like Messi and you're in close proximity to a defender. This lets you zig-zag past opponents with just your left stick and very helpful to try to dribble past multiple defenders. Of course the better the player the easier it is to pull it off.

P.S. Unrelated thing I forgot to mention. Overall rating DOES NOT change, when the player plays out of position. I've put strikers as CB and their rating remained 80-85 or so. EA said they fixed it. Looks like they didnt, but I think it doesnt matter anyway. Just makes it harder for you.

David Rutter Interview with Xbox World

FIFA 12 hits Europe and North America next week, and we're all rather excited.

Ahead of release Xbox World sat down with FIFA producer David Rutter to break down the changes and improvements that have been made this year's edition one of the most promising in recent years.


Let's talk PES first. There was a time when Konami's game was so far ahead of FIFA in terms of quality, it looked unlikely you'd ever catch up. But you did, and now it's them playing catch-up. How did you manage it?

We decided to rewrite our gameplay engine when we moved over to the 360 and rather than just taking what was our old generation game and porting it across, we instead rewrote the whole thing from scratch. It was based around a principal of not being scripted, or pre-determined, but about creating a game where there was a near-limitless variety of outcomes based on what you were doing.

And at that point, you go from what's an arcadey experience to very much a simulation. We created a game where, depending on where the ball's coming from, how it's spinning, how your foot connects with that ball, the outcome of that kick is different nearly every single time. And at that point you are suddenly creating a very deep, rich and rewarding gameplay experience.

We always keep an eye (on PES), but we've dedicated our lives to making the best football game on Earth. There's no danger of complacency.

What if the next generation of gaming freed you from all restrictions?

I think if there was absolutely no restraint on anything at all I would like a system where, rather than us having to generate player heads with our capture tool, we would re-utilise the APB for our fans to be able to generate amazing characters, and then to take some kind of very cool stadia engineering tool and let them make their own stadia and be able to light it in real time in a really nice way. Animation-wise I think we are pretty good, I think gameplay-wise we are excellent, but ultimately our next frontier for challenge is going to be environmental and physical likeness.

What's the most important football game of all time?

For me it was the first N64 Konami one, International Superstar Soccer, because the dribbling on that was something else. I remember getting the analogue stick and just thinking, "Holy moly!" Sensi was good, but I didn't like it as much as Kick Off... I can't believe I'm saying that because I know the people that made Sensible Soccer, but I prefer Kick Off.

What do you think of as the number one problem with making FIFA titles?

One of the things I find most difficult to deal with is the exploiting and the cheating. People have a number of different ways to hack save games to boost their stats. It's not something that's unique to FIFA, pretty much any online team game you play has a similar problem. Would someone in a Quake match quit in a duel? Absolutely. What happens at that point? You grin and go, "haha, I beat him so bad he quit!" Quite the opposite happens in FIFA, which is, "why won't you punish that person for backing out?"

For the vast majority of situations we can spot when people are doing that and we award the points and the win. It is almost a cottage industry: trying to find in what order to switch the plug off and pull the router cable and rest your wireless action point so you can fool EA into thinking something odd is going on. It's unbelievable.

Do you ever worry that you'll run out of ways to improve the game?

We're lucky that we make a game based around a very rich and dynamic sport, so every time I watch a match on TV, or go and watch the Vancouver Whitecaps play, there's something that will inspire you to go back to the office and say, "Hey! We need to do this!". We have a ton of stuff we still want to get to, especially in Career mode. I've been making football videogames for 15 years, and I've never had any lack of inspiration, or a stalling point, as to how they can be improved.

Fifa 12 Youth Academy

Hi Guys,


One of the biggest talking point of this years career mode is the new Fifa 12 Youth Academy so here is the latest update about the Fifa 12 Youth Academy





Check out Career Mode Transfers Click Here

FIFA 12 Penalty Tutorial: How to Save a Penalty

Saving a penalty kick in FIFA 12 is a bit more tricky. It all comes down to your own and your Goal Keeper's reaction plus a little bit of luck. Here's our tutorial on how you can save a penalty in FIFA 12 and be a hero for your team.

1. To move your keeper on the line you can use the left analog stick and to dive use the right analog stick. You can choose to dive left, bottom-left, right and bottom-right using the right analog stick. For shots that go straight and just under the bar you need to use the right analog stick facing upwards to jump for these.

2. If you have a feeling you know which side the penalty taker is going to choose, you might decide to commit a bit early by moving the keeper using the left analog stick which allows you to dive further in one direction so you can save shots closer to the post, however when you commit it'll be harder to save shots closer to the middle of the goal. Also, if the penalty kick taker decides to do a stutter shot you will give away your position and he might decide to take the spot kick in the opposite direction.

3. There are also reaction saves which can be made using the right analog stick after the player has taken penalty kick, but these reaction saves don't allow you to reach shots closer to the post and are more appropriate for saving finesse shots.


FIFA 12 Penalty Tutorial: How to Take a Penalty

Fifa 12 Celebration Video

Hi Guys,

I have added this video in which you can see all the celebrations for Fifa 12, check it out and post your comments

FIFA 12 Penalty Tutorial: How to Take a Penalty

Hi Guys,


I guess by now everyone would have downloaded the Fifa 12 Demo and played the have for hours together. This tutorial is for those who are having difficulties in taking Penalties with the new system

There are a few things that you have to keep in mind when you take penalties this year

• You have to press the shoot button with in the green region in the meter. It can also bee in yellow but it make result in missed shots. The closer the needle is to the green region the better your shot is.
• Once the spot in the meter is fixed you can hold down the shoot button to power up your shot. If you hold it for too long your shot will fly over the top
• To aim the shot you have to use your direction key. Once you set the position and decide the power you have to choose the direction. You will aim in the middle by default and the longer you hold the direction key in a particular direction the farther the ball will travel in that direction 

Finesse Shot:

You can follow the above instructions only difference is that when you shoot use the "RB" to take the shot with more precision.

Chip Shot:

You can follow the above instructions only difference is that when you shoot use the "LB" to take the Chip shot and fool the keeper.

Stutter Kick:


You can take a stutter kick like C.Ronaldo by just pressing the shoot button again while the striker is running in to take the kick.

Fifa 12 Latest Update

Hi Guys,

I Just cam across a few updates about Fifa 12 thats is going to release by the end of this month. And just to let you know i have already Pre-Ordered. For a few days now Fifa 12 officials have been busy answering a lot of questions from the fans on the twitter account. And i thought of sharing a few with you guys.

The latest team updates this year are

• Peru
• Egypt
• Chile
• Colombia 
• Cote D' Ivoire

China, Wales and Czech Republic will not be part of this years game. The leagues are almost the same but due to a few controversies Turkish and Czech leagues have been removed form this years game. But you can play with Galatasary and Argentina's Racing Club from Rest of the World league.

They have also mentioned about a new "Youth Academy" in Manager Mode were you can accommodated up to 16 players. But you will need a good scout and a youth coach to make them a first team player. We will here more on this later (Hopefully :) ). And now you can by the player that you have on loan by the end of his term at your club. You can also monitor the growth of you r loaned players and according to Mr. Humber players will grow more this time around.

One of the biggest news for me was that other clubs might be taken over by Rich , Money burning "Consortium's" meaning that along the season some smaller clubs might start buying big players out of the blue to change the scenario of the season.

Watch the Manager Mode sneak preview Click Here

Fifa 12 USA Ad

Hi Guys,


                Just saw the new Fifa 12 USA Ad, hope you will enjoy

Fifa 12 Demo Review

Hi Guys,


Here is the review of fifa 12 Demo, hope you love the game

Fifa 12 System Requirements

Hi Guys,


For those who are wondering about the system requirements for Fifa 12..... here you go


Recommended Specs: 

• CPU with Dual core processor (Core duo 2 or better).
• Intel Core2Duo @ 2.4Ghz on Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7. 
• 2 Gigabyte of RAM. 
• DirectX® 9.0c Compatible 3D accelerated 256 MB video card or equivalent (must support Shader Model 3.0 or above). 
• ATI RADEON HD 2900 or NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT and above

Fifa 12 Career Mode - Transfers

Hi Guys,


This is a sneak peak into the career mode of the new Fifa 12 and how transfer window might affect our improve your squad.... check it out

Check Out the info about Fifa 12 Youth Academy

Fifa 12 Demo Game play Videos

Hi Guys,


Just take a look at these two matches form the demo and tell us how you feel about the new demo





FIFA 12 - Barcelona v Milan

FIFA 12 - Manchester City v Arsenal





Click Here to get the Fifa 12 Demo

Fifa 12 Demo is available now

Hi Guys,


Fifa 12 demo is available now, download the demo and enjoy the game, watch this space for more updates

Fifa 12 Demo

Fifa 12 Xbox Live Subscription Pack

FIFA 12 is set to launch later this month, alongside the FIFA Ultimate Team downloadable content (DLC). However, for those gamers who don’t purchase the limited addition version of FIFA 12, thus receiving FIFA Ultimate Team as a free download, there is now a second option to receive the DLC for free: purchasing the FIFA 12 Xbox LIVE Subscription Pack.

Of course, as can be seen in the cover image featured on this page, the FIFA 12 Xbox LIVE Subscription Pack simple includes 800 Microsoft Points at no additional cost, so should you choose, this Xbox LIVE Marketplace currency could be exchanged for any goods of equivalent value and are not limited to use for purchasing the FIFA Ultimate Team DLC alone. This latest Xbox LIVE Subscription Pack will be available later this month, and Electronic Theatre will keep you updated with all the latest Xbox LIVE promotions.

Fifa 12 Sound Track Revealed

Hi Guys,


For those who were eager to find out about the sound tracks in Fifa 12, here is the complete list of artists and song in the upcoming game

The complete in-game soundtrack for FIFA 12 includes:

ARTIST	SONG	COUNTRY
Alex Metric & Steve Angello	Open Your Eyes	England/Sweden
All Mankind	Break The Spell	Australia
Architecture In Helsinki	Escapee	Australia
Bloco Bleque / Gabriel O Pensador	So Tem Jogador	Brazil
Chase & Status	No Problem	England
Crystal Castles / Robert Smith	Not In Love	Canada/England
CSS	Hits Me Like A Rock	Brazil
Cut Copy	Where I'm Going	Australia
Digitalism	Circles	Germany
DJ Raff	Latino & Proud	Chile
El Guincho	Bombay (Fresh Touch Dub Mix)	Spain
Empresarios	Sabor Tropical	USA
Foster The People	Call It What You Want	USA
GIVERS	Up Up Up	USA
Glasvegas	The World Is Yours	Scotland
Graffiti6	Stare Into The Sun	England
Grouplove	Colours (Captain Cutz Remix)	USA
Japanese Popstars	Let Go	England
Kasabian	Switchblade Smiles	England
La Vida Boheme	El Buen Salvaje	Venezuela
Little Dragon	NightLight	England
Macaco	Una Sola Voz	Spain
Marteria / Yasha	Verstrahlt	Germany
Monarchy	The Phoenix Alive (Kris Menace Remix)	England
Pint Shot Riot	Twisted Soul	England
Portugal. The Man	Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now)	USA
Rock Mafia	The Big Bang	USA
Spank Rock	Energy	USA
The Chain Gang Of 1974	Hold On	USA
The Hives	Thousand Answers	Sweden
The Medics	City	Holland
The Naked & Famous	Punching In A Dream	New Zealand
The Strokes	Machu Picchu	USA
The Ting Tings	Hands	England
The Vaccines	Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)	England
Thievery Corporation	Stargazer	England
Tittsworth & Alvin Risk / Maluca	La Campana	USA/Portugal
TV On The Radio	Will Do	USA
Tying Tiffany	Drownin'	Italy

Fifa 12 Player Ratings - Real Madrid

Hi Guys,

                    This is the player rating for Real Madrid. 

Casillas	91
Sergio Ramos	86
Pepe	86
Ricardo Carvalho	84
Marcelo	82
S. Khedira	82
Xabi Alonso	86
Á. Di Maria	84
M. Özil	86
Cristiano Ronaldo	92
Karim Benzema	84

Check out the Player Ratings for Barcelona

Fifa 12 Club Covers

Hi Guys,


I thought of making a few club specific covers of Fifa 12 so that the club fans can also enjoy.....



Manchester United





Chelsea





Manchester City






For more Fifa 12 Covers by me Click Here

Fifa 12 EA SPORTS Football Club Tutorial

Hi Guys,


Just found the new video of the tutorial by Martin Tyler for the latest feature in Fifa 12
EA SPORTS Football Club, take a look and enjoy

Click Here to look at the latest trailer in Fifa 12

Fifa 12 Game or Reality

The games are becoming so real these days and people have to be explained that these are just games. Some of the fifa fans were disappointed when Manchester united failed to buy Sneijder from inter. One of the most anticipated game of th year Fifa 12 is on the Verge of being released by the end of this month. The build up for this game has been excellent. EA has tactically released few information on a timely basis. The Latest News is that  Fifa has tied up with Full ham which means the premiership club will get various Fifa 12 exclusive courtesy. The Demo of this game will be out on 13th September across all the consoles.

Among notable changes to the game this year is the New player impact engine, which is said to revolutionize the game. Fifa's Game Play producer, Santiago Jaramillo said that this has been 2 years in the making, in an interview with Gaming Examiner. He explained how every year their is a lot of expectation for the game and how the improvements change the title every year. He said that the player impact engine will make a big difference in EA's competition with Konami and Fifa 12 is better than the PES 12 demo that hr played.


Want to see the whole interview Click Here

Fifa 12 Exclusive Trailer

Hi Guys,

          We are just one week away for the release of Fifa 12 Demo. The Demo is to be out on 13th September across all consoles. EA have just released a latest trailer for Fifa 12. Check it out

Watch More Fifa 12 Trailers Here

Fifa 12 Stadiums

Hi Guys,

EA has revealed the list of available in the latest edition of Fifa. Fifa 12 almost has all the stadiums that you know and love to play in like the Wembley, Old Trafford, Anfield, Camp Nou, etc.... with a few new addtions. The Biggest addition to the list is the Manchester City Stadium "Etihad Stadium". This is due to the deal between Manchester City and EA. Here are the list of stadiums in Fifa 12

The stadium list in full:

• Akaaroa Stadium
• Allianz Arena - Bayern Munich
• Aloha Park
• Amsterdam ArenA - Ajax
• Anfield - Liverpool
• Arena D'Oro
• BC Place Stadium (NEW) - Vancouver Whitecaps
• British Modern (NEW)
• Camp Nou - Barcelona
• Century Park Arena
• Court Lane
• Crown Lane
• Eastpoint Arena
• El Bombastico
• El Medio
• El Reducto
• Emirates Stadium - Arsenal
• Estadio Azteca - Club America, Mexico
• Estadio Latino
• Estadio Mestella - Valencia
• Estadio Preisdente G.Lopes
• Estadio Vincente Calderon - Atletico Madrid
• Estadio De Las Artes
• Estadio del Pueblo
• Etihad Stadium (NEW) - Man City
• Euro Park
• FIWC Stadium (PS3 only)
• Forest Park Stadium
• Imtech Arena - Hamburg
• Ivy Lane
• Juventus Stadium - Juventus
• O Dromo
• Old Trafford - Manchester United
• Olimpico Arena
• Olympiastadion - Hertha BSC
• Parc des Princes - Paris Saint-Germain
• Pratelstvi Arena
• San Siro - Inter Milan/AC Milan
• Santiago Bernabeu - Real Madrid
• Signal Iduna Park - Borussia Dortmund
• St James' Park - Newcastle
• Stade Gerland - Olympique Lyonnais
• Stade Kokoto
• Stade Municipal
• Stade Velodrome - Olympique de Marseille
• Stadio Olimpico - Lazio, Roma
• Stadion 23. Maj
• Stadion Europa
• Stadion Hanguk
• Stadion Neder
• Stadion Olympic
• Stamford Bridge - Chelsea
• Town Park
• Union Park Stadium
• Veltins Arena - Schalke 04
• Wembley Stadium

Fifa 12 releases on September 30. For Demo information Click Here

Fifa 12 Career Mode Video

Hi Guys,


This is a sneak preview of what is to come in the latest edition of Fifa. Fifa 12 career mode has been revamped and lot of improvements have been made. In this video the Creative Director of Fifa 12 Simon Humber, walks you through some of the updates in career mode

If you want to know more about Career Mode Click Here

Interview with Game play Producer Santiago Jaramillo - Part 3

GE: There seems to have been quite a reworking of the Career Mode in FIFA 12. How do you feel about this new Career Mode compared to FIFA 11, and how do you think the fans will react?

SJ: That’s my game basically, playing Career Mode. That’s where I’ve played FIFA my whole life and that’s where I feel I get the most joy out of playing FIFA, so I’m a big big fan of the improvements that have been made this year. I think the fans are going to love Career Mode. I think it is by far the best Career Mode that we’ve ever had. To give you a little bit of a background, FIFA 11 was the first year of the new engine for Career Mode so it was a tough year in that everything had to be rewritten from scratch. It was a lot of work, a lot of bug fixing, but we knew it was the right thing to do because it was going to give us some good features last year that we didn’t have before but more than that, it was going to open the door to do really cool things in the future. FIFA 12 is really the first year that we’ve been able to pack the game with much more polished fundamentals and also with bigger features. So just to point a few of them out, as a manager something that you’ve never really had to do much before was to do a lot of managing the players, not only on the pitch but off the pitch. You will have to now be conscious of if your players are happy at your club, if you’re paying them enough money, if they’re playing in the right position, if they’re playing enough because these players will then send you emails saying “I want you to play me more” or “I don’t like that you bought these other guys so now I want to leave.” All that kind of stuff that you see in the news every day is going to be part of Career Mode. For example, just the other day I got one of my star players, I bought another player who was really highly rated in his same position, ask to be transferred so I transfer listed him, and then the news broke out in the world of Career Mode that this player had been transfer listed and a lot of big teams were going to go after him, and right away I got emails from other teams wanting to buy this player and a bidding war started, so all those sagas that you see in real life that a manager has to deal with week in/week out are going to be part of Career Mode. So it adds a lot of depth to the mode and it’s so much more fun what you do every time you’re outside of gameplay and before you go to the next match. There’s a lot to do now as a manager. We also have much more realistic broadcast style coverage of really special days. The most important one is the transfer deadline day which what happens is you get the summer transfer and winter transfer season, and as you know a lot of activity happens. Players go for much more than they are probably worth because teams are desperate to get this or that other player to fill a hole that is in their team. All that extra activity and that sense of emotion and coverage is something that we have in our game. So when you get to that day in the calendar, the Hub changes to be this transfer deadline day type of Hub with a clock that is counting down hour by hour and this advances through the whole day. It’s much more realistic and allows you do to last minute changes to your squad in the way that real teams do at that time of the season. Also, players will now have much more realistic player goals and form value so depending on how well they are playing they will start to grow. Older players’ attributes, because of their age, will start to go down. It’s just a much more realistic, much more compelling experience overall with Career Mode.

GE: The music selection in FIFA games has always been a big part of the games ‘atmosphere’ so to speak. How do you go about picking what bands/artists/songs will appear in the game? 

SJ: It’s funny because I actually got that question the other day. I’m not really involved in that much. All I can tell you is what we always want to do is represent, because we know that soccer is the world sport, as many territories as possible. We tend to go with more Indie type of bands that are just up and coming. Really it’s our audio director who is more involved with that and someone from EA in California who go back and forth between that list of bands and then eventually the contracts get signed and those are the bands who’s song gets put in the game, but I don’t really know all the details. GE: It seems that a lot of developers are implementing some type of motion control and/or 3D into their games these days. Do you have any present or future plans to bring Move/Kinect controls or 3D to the FIFA franchise? SJ: Obviously we haven’t discarded any of them. In terms of 3D, I can’t really say what the direction is at this moment or how pressing that priority is. I’m sure that once there is a big install base of 3D TV’s… than our game will do its best to adapt to that sort of experience, but at the moment there’s not that many 3D TV’s out there. I think HD TV’s is still the main way that people are playing video games like FIFA right now so we’re focusing on continuing to improve and use our capacity to improve that experience at the moment. In terms of motion control, basically FIFA 13 is going to be the year we are going to invest in different ways of integrating those types of technologies into our game. What those ways are is the current brain storming that is going on.

GE: If you could say anything to the new players to the game to convince them to buy FIFA 12 over another football (soccer) game, what would it be? 

SJ: *laughs* It’s difficult to say one thing because I feel like it’s so many things that could be used to convince someone who is playing PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) right now. I think the main thing is FIFA has taken such huge quality strides in gameplay which was really where many years ago Konami had the upper hand on the old generation consoles. I think people who are still playing Konami (PES) are those who have this romantic idea that it was better then and it’s way better now so they continue to play Konami (PES) so it has this type of cult following, but I think for anyone who really gives it a try, tries FIFA in the past 3 or 4 years, the gap of quality is becoming more and more evident that I truly think FIFA 12 is going to blow it (PES) out of the water even more. Obviously people might think that I’m very biased saying that but you look at Metacritic our score just keeps going up. Konami is going to start giving up the market share as our market share keeps going up. So for those who have the objectivity to try both games, I think there are very few who still decide to stick with Konami. I’m really happy about that. I think our game is reaching a level of excellence that it really is a trail blazer when it comes to sport simulation. That is why we are winning certain awards and why our market share continues to grow is because we make such a great game. I’d like to take this time to thank Santiago for taking time out to conduct this interview as well as thanking fellow Gaming Examiner Editor Tony for actually conducting this interview over the phone as the time difference prevented me from doing it myself.

Watch Fifa 12 Exclusive Trailer Click Here

Interview with Game play Producer Santiago Jaramillo - Part 2

GE: Just out of curiosity, do you see this engine being used in any other EA Sports titles? 

SJ: The Player Impact Engine is FIFA’s version of a more rudimentary, more basic technology that was created here in this studio and that we share across NHL, FIFA and I think Madden is using it now as well. I guess the way it works is, they’re not using the Player Impact Engine perse, we just created this base technology that then has to be tuned, adjusted and implemented with different/more logic to it for a couple of years so that it would work with what a soccer game is like because, as you can imagine, the type of impact that you get in a hockey game is much more different than what you would get in a soccer game. In soccer your legs get affected much more, you don’t get shoulder to shoulder hits as much, and if you do they’re more of a fight rather than just a huge check the way it is in hockey. All those big differences made this base technology have to go into different routes. The Player Impact Engine is just FIFA’s version of that. So in a way we are already sharing certain components of it. It’s just a matter of the other games working with that base technology and growing it so it adapts to them.

GE: Tactical Defending seems like a much needed change to the whole defensive mechanics of the game. Along with Precision Dribbling, how much of a challenge are you expecting these changes to present to seasoned FIFA players?

 SJ: [Tactical defending] is definitely a welcome change I think by everybody because defending was simply just not rewarding enough for a game. Everything was so automatic except for the slide tackles. You only had to hold down the pressing button and a defender would just go sprinting a beeline towards the ball possessor and would tackle him automatically if he finds the coverage for the tackle. That made the game, first of all, not rewarding when you got the ball because everything seemed so automated and you only had to hold down a button without really thinking about much. So when you got the ball, you didn’t feel that sense of reward that you get with other parts of the game, say when you score or goal, or when you make a really good pass, that kind of stuff. The other aspect of it is that it’s not realistic. In real life a defender doesn’t go full steam ahead at a ball possessor just sprinting because the ball possessor can just quickly make a move to the side and leave the defender gasping without the ball. You can’t just run straight at a ball possessor. You have to jockey him, you have to see what his movement is like, it’s much more composed and much more of an art than our game has had in the past. We wanted to not only make defending more fun but also more authentic and that is what Tactical Defending does. In terms of how much of a learning curve it’s going to be seasoned FIFA users, I think the physical fear that people have, if they have one, when they hear about the feature is that is it going to be difficult because now they don’t have that pressing functionality, that automated functionality so they think, oh now I have to time my tackles and there’s an extra button for the standing tackle, it sounds complicated. When you think about it, the mechanic of it is just as simple as the previous one; it’s still just pressing one button to tackle. It’s just that now the precision components of it is on a different button or you can do it manually and it’s much more composed. It’s not so aggressive as it was before. So I think, in terms of mechanics, it’s not going to be that hard to learn. What’s going to be more difficult is to unlearn that almost like a reflex of any time you lose the ball you start holding the A/X button. I think that is the main thing that people are going to have to get over, to not do that automatically because it’s going to put you in the wrong position. It’s going to make you do a tackle when there is no reason to do a tackle. Once that is unlearned, I think you are going to start enjoying defending so much more, and you’re also going to be able to become good at it. It’s something that people want, something to master. Last year, or any FIFA before that, there wasn’t much to master in terms of defending, and this year there’s a lot so that’s going to be really fun. To take it one step further, one of the things we wanted to do with Tactical Defending as well, was to make, say when you play online in game modes where you’re locked to a player, in years past once everyone was choosing their positions, everyone was rushing to pick a midfielder or a forward, no one wants to be a defender because it’s not fun to defend, but now with Tactical Defending that is going to change. Clubs around the world are actually going to be looking for people who are really good defenders because now there is a real skill to it, and to those defenders, they’re actually going to feel rewarded and have fun while defending so it’s going to make the online experience much more engaging.

GE: Personally I am very excited to try out the EA SPORTS Football Club feature in FIFA 12. I’m especially keen for the Support Your Club feature that essential pits fans against fans. Where did the inspiration for this come from, and what has the reaction been like to this new feature from the fans so far?

SJ: It’s been very positive. The inspiration for the whole feature was that we have this amazing following, FIFA and the sport of soccer has such a big big following around the world that we felt we needed to harvest that in a way and bring those people together. So what EA Sports Football club does is to really allow everyone to connect and compete against not just their friends, but also people who support different clubs around the world and you bring the FIFA community together into this arena where everyone is kind of playing for certain bragging rights or certain trophies and certain leagues and all that. Our producers here that worked in this online aspect of it, they came up with this feature. It’s kind of inspired as well by something we had in the Euro game several years ago where basically different people support a specific nation back then, and then you have competitions weekly or something like that, I can’t remember exactly. This year it is much more compelling. You support a club and no matter what team you play with, everything you do in FIFA will go towards that club. Week in/week out we’re going to have tournaments, we’re going to have weekly challenges based on real life events and as you complete those challenges you get experience points and those points add towards the overall standings [of your club], and then you’ll see which club has the most hardcore fans, the best gamers and the most dedicated FIFA players out there. That’s going to be really exciting to see.

Interview with Game play Producer Santiago Jaramillo - Part 3 Click Here

Interview with Game play Producer Santiago Jaramillo - Part 1

Here is an interview by Gaming Examiner with the Game play Producer of Fifa 12 Santiago Jaramillo 

Gaming Examiner: As the highest selling sports game in the world, FIFA always has such huge expectations heaped upon it. How have you approached FIFA 12 to take it above and beyond the amazing FIFA 11?

 Santiago Jaramillo: Well I think… the expectations that are on our game every year are so big because there’s such a hardcore following of the game that is supposed to represent the world’s most popular sport. Given the level of quality we’ve achieved, particularly since FIFA 09, we have continued to just take more and more market share, and higher and higher quality ratings, and as you pointed out, FIFA 11 is kind of like the pinnacle of this. So as a producer and as a development team we went into it as a challenge. That’s really what the job is about here, is how can we continue to progress and to innovate the game so that those who already like it, and are already playing it, want to buy the next one. So you can’t give them something entirely different because than it is probably going to be something that they don’t like. But how do you make it different in a way that it’s consistent with what they’ve liked and what their expectations are going to be, and really that it where the magic happens and that’s the art of making video games. It’s knowing what big leaps to take in certain areas of the game, what fundamentals to focus on and then just try to polish certain areas because they are basically what users want and they just want it a little bit more polished. It’s knowing that what the expectations are and seeing how much our capacity is going to be for the year and prioritise accordingly and then make the game. FIFA 12 is probably the biggest leap that we’ve taken from one year to the next. FIFA 11 left it at such a good quality level, not just in gameplay but in other areas of the game as well, we’ve managed to spend more time bigger, more impactful, more revolutionary type of features like the Player Impact Engine, Precession Dribbling, Tactical Defending and those sorts of really big features that are really going to revolutionaries the game in a way that we feel is consistent with the expectations of what people want.

 GE: FIFA 12 has picked up multiple awards at both E3 2011 and Gamescom 2011. What type of effect has this had on the development team leading up to the games September release?

 SJ: It’s a great morale booster. Making the game is such hard work, especially in these summer months, when we’re finalising the game and just fixing bugs and polishing and working really long hours and working weekends. I think for the development team, playing the game all the time, and just being so involved with the product itself, you maybe lose track of maybe how much people love it once it’s shipped. How much joy you bring to people’s life once FIFA ships. I think when we hear about all these awards and what our consumers and our fans are saying about our game then it gives us a little bit of a boost that at this very tough time, to make this one last push, and finish the game properly, polish it properly, fix all the bugs and get it out of the gate in time. So it’s great to hear that because basically it shows that a whole years’ worth of sweat and hard work is actually paying off in the way that we want it to pay off, which is in the satisfaction of our fans.

GE: Arguably the most stand-out and anticipated feature of FIFA 12 is the Player Impact Engine. How was it working with this new physics engine and how do you think it’s going to change the way the game is played? 

 SJ: This engine has been in the works actually for a couple of years. So we started it at the beginning of FIFA 11, in parallel as we were making FIFA 11 but we knew it wasn’t going to be ready, so we basically took 2 years in development. What it does is it replaces our old collision system that could only process the physical interaction of a player against another player in just one frame. We would have to then give you the result based on just one particular frame of interaction which probably is not going to be the most accurate representation of what would happen if there’s a collision because more and more contact and more and more collisions are going to continue to happen in the frames after that. That was one problem. The second biggest problem was that we would give you say a stumble animation or a fall animation which would be part of the animation that we had created. We didn’t have a way to modify those animations to represent something more accurate. Those are the things the Impact Engine allows us to do. [We can] add an incredible level of variety in terms of how players react to collisions, and also be able to process the information more accurately, to give you more authentic results. So it’s been 2 years in development and it’s been a lot of work with just polishing and polishing. Creating new animations that fit scenarios that we didn’t even have in the game before. The way it changes the game is very fundamental because, as you can imagine, the way players interact against each other happens countless times in one match. So the fact that we now have this much more powerful, much more accurate and sophisticated engine at the base of it all, that it really allows us to bring to life other types of features that you might not necessarily think of them as physics or collisions. Just say like the way you shield the ball or just say you’re sprinting with the ball and you get hit by a tackle on your trailing leg, but you can still manage to continue. These are things that we weren’t able to do before, but now we can have much more accurate results that it really changes the way that the game plays in other areas, such I was saying, dribbling, shielding, jostling, all those things to give you more accurate and more varied results even in those areas.


Interview with Game play Producer Santiago Jaramillo - Part 2 Click Here