FIFA 13

[GLC]

First FIFA 13 details and screenshots out

FIFA 13′s main producer David Rutter shared some of the first details of the title during a recent London showcase, revealing that the game will have five major improvements over its precursors.

He mentioned the five improvements and explained what kind of an impact they’ll have on gameplay. You can find them listed below.

First Touch Control

One of the first things to do for FIFA 13 was to implement a more realistic ball control. Now it will be more difficult to control a receiving ball with your player. It all depends on the strength, the speed, the ball height and the technical skills of your player to wrestle control of the ball and dribble it.

Player Impact

Another feature that got improved is the player impact engine. There will be no more unrealistic animations in the players challenges. The engine has been optimized and new a set of impact values ​​has been added at the hip and the upper body area.

Complete Dribble

In FIFA 12 you could dribble just by changing direction; in FIFA 13 this won’t be possible any more.

Tactical Free-Kicks

A whole new free-kick system has been developed. Up to three players can now gather around the ball and make fun of the opponent’s defense and goalie. You can now feint a direct shot and adjust it to a player who comes off the wall. Also the defense set pieces have been improved to go with the new free kick system. For example, you can make a defensive team with more players into the wall and send out a single man to block the ball.

Attacking AI

The offensive Artificial Intelligence has been overhauled. The CPU-controlled players have better running routes and better guessing options as to where you’ll pass the ball. Also the strikers are smarter and move with the offside line of your defenders, waiting to receive the ball and run with it towards your goal post.

Rutter also confirmed that besides the aforementioned upgrades, he also wants to make other improvements to the game such as implementing new passing types, new shot rotation moves and new goalkeeper animations.

He also expressed a desire to improve the referee, as well as confirming that the cheering animations have been adjusted to match the present day football atmostphere.

David also mentioned how adopting the new Dimensional Imaging software will improve the graphics of FIFA 13 significantly. CVG has the details.

[jonlcfc1990]

Just keeps getting more and more realistic, I haven't bought a FIFA game since 10 but borrow my brothers i think i'll have to buy this one this time.

[MC Prussian]

If they can combine the fun that FIFA 11 was with the graphics and details of FIFA 12, then they're onto a winner.

But I guess they'll just completely re-invent the whole football games genre once more, leaving a lot of frustrated fans behind.

Every year, they implement new technology, fancy stuff, but tend to forget what really matters... gameplay.

There's still hope, though.

[GLC]

I really want some 'controversial' decisions in the game, the whole was it offside, over the line etc, but it's Ffa so i doubt it would happen

[Christoph]

I really want some 'controversial' decisions in the game, the whole was it offside, over the line etc, but it's Ffa so i doubt it would happen

I could imagine that getting old very fast and it just pissing you off when playing online. An option to turn it on would be ok though I guess.

Personally, I hope they don't make it too realistic...the last one was a bit boring to play.

[stix]

I really want some 'controversial' decisions in the game, the whole was it offside, over the line etc, but it's Ffa so i doubt it would happen

I hear ya, but as has been said it would become very frustrating very quickly. Ultimately every football fan whether online or in real life wants the correct decisions to be made regarding offside & goal line tech etc. However, implementing some kind of replay of the whole 'was it over' situation with maybe a cutscene of the ref & lino discussing it but ultimately coming to the correct decision would add a little variation? Or maybe the players rushing towards the ref claiming it went over when replays show that it didnt?

[Dan LCFC]

Complete dribble is going to absolutely fvck me sadly.

My dribbling ability pretty much carries me through this game.

[Finnegan]

I'm a bit confused by what they mean by complete dribble.

Are they implying things like the Ronaldo chop will be far less devastating or are they implying that dribbling without the use of tricks and skills will be harder to do because a Giggs-style weaving run won't be as effective?

I despair if the latter. They need to pander less to the morons that abuse flair skills not make them more essential. Save that shit for FIFA Street and just give us a football game, please?

[Dan LCFC]

I'm a bit confused by what they mean by complete dribble.

Are they implying things like the Ronaldo chop will be far less devastating or are they implying that dribbling without the use of tricks and skills will be harder to do because a Giggs-style weaving run won't be as effective?

I despair if the latter. They need to pander less to the morons that abuse flair skills not make them more essential. Save that shit for FIFA Street and just give us a football game, please?

The last bit I feel could be aimed at me in a way but without blowing my own trumpet I'd actually say I'm a pretty devastating dribbler and I don't need 5 star skills to be, I do occasionally flick the trick stick but I don't rely on it one bit, just have a knack of being able to beat players.

I agree with you really though, my mate's mastered 5 star skills and it makes him absolutely unbearable to play against.

[Manwell Pablo]

The last bit I feel could be aimed at me in a way but without blowing my own trumpet I'd actually say I'm a pretty devastating dribbler and I don't need 5 star skills to be, I do occasionally flick the trick stick but I don't rely on it one bit, just have a knack of being able to beat players.

I agree with you really though, my mate's mastered 5 star skills and it makes him absolutely unbearable to play against.

Skill button should be removed.

End.

[Dan LCFC]

Skill button should be removed.

End.

Personally disagree, but I think less players should have such high star skill moves.

It's a piece of piss with your pro too. I can get my Pro from 1 star to 4 star in about 1 minute literally.

[LCFC FOX]

Should create some online career mode like football manger style. Would be class

[Dan LCFC]

I've said that for years but it'd be ridiculously hard to maintain.

[Leicesterpool]

be great if they include the non league, also more English stadium's would be nice.

[Finnegan]

Licensed Welsh national side would be lovely.

****ing FAW.

[Charl91]

Actually not really looking foward to this. I bought FIFA 11 and FIFA 12, but I might miss out on this one for once. The only reason I would be buying it is for updated squads, which doesn't really justify the value.

Will wait and see though.

[Danno]

Hope they bring out an Add-on in about Jan to update the boots and faces, will be great. I hope they bring out under shirts, with Leicester I just make every player look exactly like he does in real life

[Manwell Pablo]

Actually not really looking foward to this. I bought FIFA 11 and FIFA 12, but I might miss out on this one for once. The only reason I would be buying it is for updated squads, which doesn't really justify the value.

Will wait and see though.

I'll see what it scores, Like every yearly release it is in danger of hitting the limitations of the current generation and not improving enough. Bit like FIFA did in 01/02 and Pro Evo in 2008/09

[Ross 'LCFC' Turner]

Complete dribble is going to absolutely fvck me sadly.

My dribbling ability pretty much carries me through this game.

I don't remember any of this??

We need another game soon!

[GLC]

Courtesy of EA SportsWith refined precision dribbling, you can utilize Lionel Messi like never before in "FIFA 13."

Aaron McHardy is the only member of the “FIFA 13” production team to make the head-spinning transition from playing professional football internationally to designing the way his former opponents run and react in the video game.

That’s right, McHardy, who was originally pegged by EA Sports as motion-capture talent for the “FIFA Street” series, has worked his way up from the Jamaica roster to the bottom of the “FIFA” chain, getting his fingers cramped in Quality Assurance as a tester before climbing all the way to lead gameplay designer of the most popular sports video game in the world.

“From a young age, I always played video games, and I always played ‘FIFA,’ and you always dream of little features you could add, but I never thought that one day I’d become a ‘FIFA’ gameplay producer,” says McHardy. “I always tell people, when I hung up the boots and I was done playing, I knew that part of my life was over, and I was a little upset about retiring, but then I fell into this job, and it was great for me because it enabled me to stay in touch with the game at a high level. I’m still analyzing the game every single day, just like I did as a pro player, only now I’m doing it in video game form.

“So if playing professional football was the number one best job in the world for me, this is definitely number two.”

And seeing that McHardy is the brains behind everything from 360-degree dribbling and custom tactics, to leading the development of the game’s revolutionary Impact Engine, I figured there was nobody better to give ESPN the rundown on what the development team has cooking for “FIFA 13.”

Here are the five things you need to know before the game kicks its way into stores later this year:

1. “Action is the real measure of intelligence.” -- Napolean Hill

One of my biggest gripes about playing “FIFA” throughout the years is that there are too many players on the pitch that just seem to be taking up space, with no thoughts about what to do until the ball starts rolling their direction (and even then, they might not know what to do). In “FIFA 13,” this has all changed, as all-new positioning code has been written that will not only improve how players analyze space, they will work to create better attacking opportunities, even calculating plays, two moves ahead.

“We’ve completely changed the way our positioning analysis works,” explains McHardy. “What this allows is for our players to now run with more conviction. They’re not as indecisive as they used to be. In ‘FIFA 12,’ they might start running and change their minds maybe three or four times during your run, which really kills off the effectiveness of your run. Players were taking themselves out of the game because they couldn’t decide what to do. Now, you have players analyzing the entire length of the run, and it’s a much more stable system because now when a player decides to go for a run, he sticks with it, and that’s just one small piece of what we’re doing in a new system we’re calling Attacking Intelligence.

“The other piece of that puzzle is giving every player out on the pitch different run types. So now, they are trying to get open for you. They’re curving their runs in order to stay onside, and we have a bunch of new locomotion animation that we added so that you can now see this happening all over the pitch. For players to be able to curve their runs behind the defender that’s blocking the path to where they want to go, that’s something we couldn’t do in ‘FIFA 12.’ What they would do last year, they would just run to a different spot, even if it wasn’t the best spot for them to go to, but that’s all we could do when players were forced to run in straight lines. Now they can decide they want to run behind a player, and they can run around their defender, better exploiting the space available.”

Add to that the ability to open up passing channels, giving players on your team the intelligence to recognize when the defense is playing tight, and pushing them to actually run away from their defenders in order to create space for the pass, and now we’re talking.

“This is something players in the real world do all the time, creating that avenue for the pass,” says McHardy. “Now your teammates will create that space so you can get the ball to your striker. It’s all about working harder, working smarter, in order to give you better opportunities with the ball.”

2. The rules of soccer are very simple. Basically, it’s this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn’t move, kick it until it does.” -- Phil Woosnam

From precision dribbling to skill moves, there were four different dribbling mechanics gamers could utilize in “FIFA 12.” In “FIFA 13,” EA Sports tries to bring everything together in a feature they’re calling Complete Dribbling.

“We looked at our core mechanics, and we want you to be able to control the ball like in real life, where a player like Lionel Messi takes his defender 1v1,” says McHardy. “How we’ve done this is, we now enable you to move in any direction while facing any direction. What I mean by that is, from ‘FIFA 09’ to ‘FIFA 10,’ we added the ability to turn 360-degrees. In ‘FIFA 09,’ you could actually only turn in eight different directions, which was very limiting. So we freed you up in ‘FIFA 10’ and it was very liberating. So in ‘FIFA 13,’ we’ve done that again, allowing you to turn in any direction while facing any direction, and that’s quite the technological change. But what this does is, it puts you in a situation like Lionel Messi in the real world where you’re facing up defenders in these 1v1 battles, but now you can easily go left or right, making quick decisions while simply using your left stick. Simply by changing the orientation and the facing angle of the player who is moving, we can put you in a much better position in these 1v1 battles, enabling you to better beat people off the dribble.

“By adding this, it’s also enabled us to really enhance the ball shielding while dribbling. We can lock the facing angle away from somebody, which gives you maximum protection with the ball. You can now shield the ball a lot longer, and that really helps those big strikers holding the ball and waiting for those midfielders to run off of you.”

Precision dribbling has also been completely blown up as McHardy and crew stole the Street Ball Control mechanic from “FIFA Street,” where a simple button hold held your player in place, while the left stick moved the ball around the player. “This idea of a one-to-one relationship between how the ball moves and how the left stick moves felt really good in ‘FIFA Street,’ so we took that knowledge and applied it to what we had with precision dribbling,” adds McHardy. “Now you have that one-to-one control in those slow-speed situations, and it allows you to change directions and to change your mind quickly, just like real players do. Sometimes, it’s those little start and stops in your game that are just enough to throw the defender off balance, and we’ve added that type of behavior into the game.”

Courtesy of EA SportsFree kicks have been revamped to better portray real life in "FIFA 13."

3. “The difference between right and wrong is often not more than five meters.” -- Johan Cruijff

Play “FIFA 12,” and the ability for 40- and 50-rated players to control ridiculous passes 40 yards through the air, over the shoulder, with a defender draped all over them and still come down cleanly with the ball only to deliver another perfect pass probably left you shaking your head.

“We had to fundamentally change first-touch control,” says McHardy. “There was no downside last year to controlling the ball. There were no errors. Even the best players mis-control the ball every now and then, so we wanted to add that into the game. We wanted to really work on the balance that we had between attacking and defending. Understanding the context of a particular situation -- is the ball bouncing, how fast is it moving, how good of a player you are, is the ball dropping in from a mile in the sky -- all of these things factor into the given scenario when a player is trying to control the ball this year.

“This is game-changing. If you go back and play ‘FIFA 12’ after you play ‘FIFA 13,’ you’re going to wonder how you ever played the old game with this feature missing. I really feel like something is lacking in the controls of the game, because they really robbed me of the ability to win back possession as a defender. In ‘FIFA 13,’ this takes the game to the next level, and in no ways is this random. It’s all about the context of the situation giving you a much more realistic outcome, which in turn, adds so much more richness and depth to the way that battle for possession happens.”

4. “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I’m very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” -- Bill Shankly

“FIFA 12” introduced the franchise’s innovative Player Impact Engine. “FIFA 13” is about refining that engine.

“It took us two years to build that engine, and while it was received highly by fans, there were a couple of things that weren’t quite right,” admits McHardy. “We had arms breaking and sometimes players would get catapulted through the air if they were in a tackle situation. So we went back to square one and we looked at our player models and our physics models, and we looked at all of the strengths we had in our joints, and some of them were a bit too unrealistically high, which created some of these crazier moments. So we adjusted these numbers and re-assigned the strength to all of these joints that are way more human and way more accurate in terms of what a human can do. And this has actually solved a lot of our problems of catapults and broken limbs. So at the base level, we’ve already gone in and polished out all the bugs out of last year’s system.

“The second thing we did is we took that system, and we’ve built new features on top of it, and all of these new features center around the battle for possession. We’re giving defenders more ability and more opportunity to win back the ball. We’ve done things to work on our push-pull system we had last year, where you can give a player a tug or a shot while you’re fighting for the ball, and we’ve added stumbling dribble touches, and now if you hit somebody while they’re shooting, we’ll play a completely different animation and there will be more error on their shots. Same thing if you’re pushing them while they’re dribbling. You can now cause them to take poor touches, or touches they didn’t even want to take in the first place.”

More tools in defending to harass dribblers and changing possession? About time.

“You can push-pull all over the pitch now,” McHardy says. “Not just on the ball. We’ve also added a whole new tackle type and a whole new way to use your body. So now if you push the tackle button when the ball is by you but the player isn’t, now our defenders have the intelligence to step in front of the dribbler and use their body to shield them out, giving you one more way to win back possession in the game.”

5. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” -- Roy Keane

With the implementation of tactical free kicks and advancements on both sides of the ball, gamers will finally be able to position up to three players over the ball, add/subtract players from the wall, and even send a runner from the wall.

“We looked at our free kick system, and it’s basically been the same for the past four years, so we wanted to refresh it,” says McHardy. “We were really limited in the options of what you could do from a set piece, so what we’ve done is add a new kicker, and now that we give you up to three players over the ball, it really opens up a lot of options. You can fake a shot and run over the ball like you see in the real world a lot, and using the run overs and the combination of different players, we’ve created, in essence, a whole slew of new ways that you can take your chance from a dead ball situation. There are all these opportunities, from passing it to a fourth kicker waiting at the top of the block to getting a player to run over the ball and run down the line and play down the line in order to get the cross in, that it just creates so many more opportunities. It’s no longer about just getting the ball up and over the wall and down anymore.

“In doing that, we also had to work on the defensive side of the ball. We like to do everything in balance, so we fixed our wall technology so defenders can jump, then reform the wall on the fly, and that’s something we couldn’t do in previous years. You can even cheat a bit and creep the wall forward a few steps, but depending on the referee, they might call you on it and give you a yellow card. It’s all about risk and reward, but then again, isn’t that what “FIFA” is all about?”

[Petchy]

I hope they improve the AI massively. Fed up of your defenders stopping randomly when your switching to them and the other team are on the attack via through / over the top ball.

[Ashley]

Leicester WILL be good should I get the FIFA editing job!

[Danno]

I hope you can manage international teams

[RonnieTodger]

How about stop giving penalties when it's obvious you won the ball?

[Larry_LCFC]

Have always said I would love them to introduce an option to dive. Sometimes you get away with it and win a penalty, other times you dont and get booked. It happens in real life, why pretend it doesnt?

Also would like red cards for keepers and handball online.