In short, yes. The passing is much better, and so is the movement of your AI team mates, meaning you'll have a much better chance of creating attacks through intricate, triangle passing Barcelona-style, if your players are good enough. Very rarely are passes under hit, as they so frequently were in FIFA 11, although lesser passers are not as likely to his the pass into the right place, which is basically as it should be.
The upgrade in passing and movement also means that through balls are much, much better this time around. Threading one through an established flat four defense is very difficult, but a side step, a feigned shot or a shimmy may open things up. Chipped, rolled or over the defense, all of these work well and better than before, especially if the passer's stats are good in terms of passing ability and vision, and the receiving player has pace and/or strength. Though your average passer may also be able to hit a decent through ball, the balance between good passers and not-so-good passers is immensely improved.
Shooting is also much, much better. If you player has good shooting stats, in particular in terms of power, and the ball is hit cleanly, you get the feeling that there is some oomph in the shot. Finesse shots are also fine tuned, so you can cut inside and aim one for the far corner.
The speed of players has been tweaked, fast wingers will be handy to have, but don't underestimate crossing ability. I get the feeling that early crossing is a good option if your forward(s) have good movement and heading stats.
But crossing is also one of the game's faults: Short, hard crossed can be awkward to pull off, when they are very common in hte modern game, especially with teams such as Barcelona, whose style you may think the game engine has been tweaked to emulate, or at least accommodate, in a better way. Lay-offs are even worse, almost always getting picked up by an opposing player.
The opposition keepers are also too good, in my opinion, especially on "World Class" and "Legendary" modes. Sure, I can live with getting 10 shots on target a game, the keeper saving all of them. This may just have to do with my lack of concentration or composure in a given game. But when the keepers nearly always catches, and keeps, the ball in his hands, with no possibility for rebounds, no matter how hard the shot was struck, something is not quite right. That your own keeper frequently drops balls into dangerous positions in the box doesn't make things much better.
The new defense system may seems like a good idea, and sure, on "Professional" mode (and lower, I assume) it works very well: calling on team mates to double up, while you try to shield for a possible cross, can work wonders, and get you the ball. But on harder modes, the opposition players get too tricky, even when their dribbling and technique stats are low, and your defenders have very little chance of stopping them. All too frequently, opposing players perform Messi-like runs through your defense and slots the ball into the corner. Very, very annoying, and impossible to stop.
While getting close to opposition players on the top two difficulties is neigh on impossible, sliding tackles are awful almost regardless of the difficulty, as it was in FIFA 11. I'm of the opinion that having a good tackler to perform one last ditch tackle is one of the joys of football, never mind football simulators. Sliding tackles occasionally work OK on the wings. Through the middle they don't work at all. Your player loses too much speed, and the opposing AI picks up what you're trying to pull off much too easily.
The new physicality of the game, meaning players can bump each other off the ball, or just bump into each other, isn't that much of a deal, though, it can be an annoyance when your fellow players knock one another to the ground, spoiling a potential good counter attack, or worse, sending an opponent clean through on goal. When this happens once, it can be a funny coincidence. If, and when, it happens too often, it's a bug that needs to be fixed.
Overall, though, FIFA 12 is one of the best football games I have played, right up there with Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (and possibly 5), which I still hold as my fave football simulator, especially in terms of the possibilities of what happens on the pitch and therefore the longevity of the game. I rated FIFA 12 9 out of 10 on Gamespot (by comparison, I gave PES 6 9,5). FIFA 12 is the first footy game, though, that I cannot see myself playing on the hardest modes (I played "World Class" on FIFA 11, almost always the top mode on other football games). I'm staying with "Professional", at least for now, as it seems offers just enough balance for me between challenge and gaming pleasure. Could be, though, that I'm just getting old.
In summary:
- Positives: passing and through balls; AI movement; shooting; presentation; physics; graphics.
- Negatives: keepers; difficult new defense system; tackling; lay-offs; the leap in difference between "Pro" mode and "World Class, esp. as it relates to opposing AI's abilities.
Below: a couple of videos from my second Manager Mode campaign (the first being an Arsenal campaign) that exemplify some of the joys of FIFA 12: one a chipped through ball assist, one that exemplifies good AI movement, and one a free kick goal from a difficult angle:
See more Game Videos at EA.com.
See more Game Videos at EA.com.
See more Game Videos at EA.com.
