FIFA 12 brings profound changes: "We've rebuilt the engine from scratch"

With the UK season all but over with only the hope that Barcelona can humilaite Man Utd left to keep us going we've little else to keep us interested in football than waiting for FIFA 12, due in October 2011. And if EA Canada's early talk is anything to go by this FIFA game will be worth the wait.

"It's the biggest change we've made since we rebuilt the engine for next-gen consoles," Lead gameplay designer Aaron McHardy told OXM in the June issue due on sale tomorrow. The FIFA 12 Impact Engine "gives us better accuracy, better momentum, more realistic outcomes, solving a lot of situations we tried not to get into before,” he adds.

McHardy also told OXM that EA Canada will be able to build on the new engine in future FIFA games. “When you think about the player and ability to someone to take a hit and continue dribbling, we didn’t have that ability before in our game because you were either dribbling or stumbling," McHardy says. "Now we can have that grey area and it’s something we can play with down the line, just to give you some vision of where we see these kind of things going in the future."

The OXM preview also gives additional information on FIFA 12, including 'Precision Dribbling' and new defensive and injury  features: Reworked defensive play: The Press button has gone [Nooooooo!] to be replaced by ‘Contain’ where it’s all about jockeying and then timing your tackle right New injury system: maths in place to work out the weight of the impact of challenges and falls. You can injure your own players by working them too hard  and there will be specific animations for re-injuries (where they have hissy fits for being played when injured).

Precision Dribbling: a third pace in addition to sprint and jog allowing you to dribble and shield the ball. So you’ll be able to hold up play and wait for that Lampard-style run from a midfielder. The FIFA Impact Engine results in “physical play that looks astonishingly authentic: if you come flying in for a tackle and clatter into the dribbling player’s shins, they’re going to go flying.” We'll have additional FIFA 12 for you, including screens and more info, on 20 May.

FIFA 12 release date: Expected October 2011 - We'll have all that and more for you next week.

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