5 more improvements we want to see in FIFA 12

So we’ve played FIFA 12. And we love it. The changes to close control and tackling and the new physics engine might look like evolution, but they play like revolution for FIFA. But we’ve only played a very early version and producer David Rutter and the EA Sports team behind FIFA 12 are promising a lot more to come with revelations due regularly until the expected October release date.

These are the 5 things Made2Game is expecting and/or hoping for. We’re not really touching the online modes at this point – we will come back to them later on.

1. More stadiums
The huge amount of licensed leagues, teams and players only highlights the paucity of real stadiums on offer. While Wembley, the Emirates and Stamford Bridge can be found we ended up playing a lot of games at Union Park Stadium and Town Park when we wanted to be at Upton Park and elsewhere.

2. Difficulty increases complexity, not just making it harder to score
We’ve always suspected the the higher difficulty levels really mean ‘better defence’ without actually seeing a higher level of intelligence on show. The Pro Player Intelligence system should put a stop to that with individual and team elements making all the difference.

3. Quicker subs and formations
The new physics engine might have removed many of the in-game animations but what about those endless, horrible breaks for substitutions in FIFA 11. There’s a certain amount of realism here – managers make substitutions at the end of a game to break up continuity but it’s not a good idea for a game to replicate that! We’re hoping for something a bit slicker this time round.

4. Career mode overhaul
Offline might not be the priority for FIFA 12 but it’s still where we play most of our football on FIFA and while there’s nothing much wrong with the Manager and Player-manager bits of Career mode, there is something lacking. There’s a real lack of depth in how you mould and build your team, whether that’s through training or buying players, and it’s still miles behind PES’ Master League.

We’re liking the look of Pro Player Intelligence and are hoping it can iron out some of the niggles with Pro in Career mode. For a start we like the idea of choosing an attribute that the rest of the team will react to, like being a bean pole and having them cross to you. The tricky part is in balancing this against your actual ability to play and other factors.

5. Help with penalties and free-kicks
From what we saw there is no change in how these work. Which is a pity, we never got to grips with the penalty system and still haven’t scored a free kick. Better tutorial, at least, please!

Got any more? Let us know and we’ll forward them on to Mr Rutter.

FIFA 12 release date: October 2011 (not confirmed but based on previous years highly likely)

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