FIFA 12

i'm really digging this "online friendlies" mode where you play people on your friends list and they give you 3pts for a win, 1 pt for a draw or 0 pts for a loss. first to 15 pts wins.

I'm having trouble adjusting to the new defensive system. Back in FIFA 11, I played my defensive line pretty far back and was fairly patient with my defense but in this new game I'm having issues with it. Calling in a second player to help has changed buttons to R1 and is a lot riskier to use than back in last year's game.

On offense some of the buttons are in different places plus a few new commands here and there. The new finesse pass thing is annoying when I'm just trying to do a regular pass. On the PS3, I think finesse pass is R1 + X, but it also activates when you're holding down L2 + X apparently. I held down L2 a lot back in FIFA 11 so that my players would receive passes and do a good first touch to receive the ball and pressing X while holding down L2 wouldn't do anything; now it'll do a random fancy pass that I don't want. It's taking me time to get use to.

I didn't play the demo so these things people might have known already but they were new to me as I played the game a few times. When a player goes down with a "severe" injury (like he's unable to play the rest of the game), if the opposing team gets the ball on the restart, they'll kick it back for "fair play" reasons. Nice little touch for realism.

Another thing that happened today when using Germany, the commentators made mention that they should win it for Per Mertesacker since it was his birthday (later Googled he was born on Sept. 29, 1984, today REALLY IS his birthday).

The new impact engine or whatever it's called I've seen it in action. A player on the opposing team got a game-ending injury against me after he tripped over one of my players who was sliding to make a pass. Don't think I ever saw a player get any sort of injury in such a situation back in FIFA 11.

the only major difference between 11 and 12 is the changing of standing tackle from X to O, which took a little time to get used to. it's a bit annoying because before if you mashed X to get the ball away, sometimes, you'd accidentally pass the ball but now you clear it and it's hard to keep the ball when you have accidental clearances

still really haven't tried too much of the L2 passes yet, but I never used L2 for much except for receiving passes not making them.

like the dribbling system because it seems a little easier to juke people now. that was one of my problems in 11. could also be related to the "miss" animation when you hit circle to tackle but miss.

I noticed a couple of cool new features last night:

- More types of injuries during games: When an opposition player had the ball he just stopped and grabbed his leg like he had pulled his hamstring. Weirdly he played out the rest of the match though. Seems there is more than just impact injuries in this game.

- Ref stops play for injury: Another was when one of their players was on the ground injured and the referee stopped the game so he could be substituted. I had the ball at the time and my player was made to play the ball out. The other team kicked it to my goalkeeper after they made their substitution.

Every year they seem to add things like those, and the quickly taken throw-ins, which make it a slightly more realistic experience.


Edit: Just scored a great goal with Hulk. Hulk's left foot > Messi's left foot.

Flash

quick throw ins are great, but when you see it happening, you should be able to switch players and move people into position

the ref stoppages/auto kicking the ball out of bounds seem to be for human vs cpu only, because i've been playing human vs human or online and haven't seen it yet. only saw it once in the demo vs the cpu

what's up with the new announcer? he shows up for only some of the games.

New Zealand is rated 3 stars so might have to get game

what's up with the new announcer? he shows up for only some of the games.

I think it's to make it more like the real world. The TV rights for different leagues/cups aren't all owned by one network, so maybe they thought adding extra commentators for cup games would it seem more realistic. That's just my guess though.

Edit: Just scored a great goal with Hulk. Hulk's left foot > Messi's left foot.

Flash

Some man love at 0:09

Anybody got PC version? Is it same as PS3 version physics-wise & gameplay-wise? I'm not happy with huge numbers on NZ jerseys so guessing somebody would patch that shite. Plus a lot cheaper too.

as far as I know, the PC version is the same. www.moddingway.com is a good place for patches/tools

Edit: Just scored a great goal with Hulk. Hulk's left foot > Messi's left foot.

Flash

The crowd reacted even before the shot went in.

Some man love at 0:09

As soon as you score your team mates try and grab you. Kind of ruins the custom celebrations feature. You only get like a second to do something before they get you.

The crowd reacted even before the shot went in.

They knew it was sneaking inside the far post.

the soundtrack isn't bad, but i do miss the songs from Fifa 11. I might have to copy them onto the PS3 and import them into the game

The new option of pressing triangle in the team selection screen and scrolling across to swap players is the best thing ever.
It saves so much time not having to scroll through the entire squad just to make a change.

Been enjoying FIFA12 on PC for a couple weeks now...im playing a manager career mode with Shrewsbury Town (one of the better teams in the English 4th division) and I'm hoping to take them to the EPL before getting a dream manager switch to coach either Barca or the Gunners

This is on sale on Origin for $16 until the 7th.

Playing with Ajax in career mode, signed Anderson, Gibbs and Muniain to my team. Now, I am in search for a attacker(pref 80+ ovr, and can score a lot). If anybody got any good ideas(15-20 mil cash perhaps?), give me a few shouts.

If anybody wants a proper midfielder(Center), Eriksen is a beast.

i don't know their salaries in the game, but my favorite attackers besides the elite (Drogba, Ronaldo, Tevez, etc.) are Kun Aguero, Malouda, David Silva. I've been playing as Newcastle a bit recently and Ben Arfa and Demba Ba aren't bad either, although their overall ratings are a bit lower at 78

Ultimate Team has me hooked. It's just really fun to have a dream team in action. Starting a Career Mode with a scrub MLS team to see who can I get

Started a career with Montpellier, very fun team to play with, Belhanda is amazing

Got this one today for PS3 and I'm already into Career Mode with Newcastle United. Having a tough time with transfers... a lot of players turned me down because they think I "don't have enough manager experience" or "don't want to leave". But I'm having a blast, nevertheless.

Should be a good game.

Who were/are you trying to sign?

BIG players -- Lavezzi, Kolo Touré, Mexés, Julio Baptista I should probably play a couple of seasons until I get more recognition, then try again.

That's because I used to play PES with "Maximum Funds", "Master Negociator"

How much do you have to spend?

Maybe players from lower reputation leagues will join you. (Netherlands, Portugal, France etc.)

I had $30m and spent $7m on Miguel Veloso (Genoa) and $3m on Maduro (Valencia). Good so far -- 3 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses. Ba is a beast.