FIFA 12

FIFA 12 (titled FIFA Soccer 12 in North America) is the nineteenth game in Electronic Arts' FIFA series of association football video games. It was developed by EA Canada, and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. Adel Daher, the line producer for FIFA 12, promised "a revolutionary year for FIFA ... especially in the gameplay department."

An "Ultimate Edition" of the game will be available through Game and Gamestation stores. It includes four monthly Ultimate Team gold packs, with each pack containing 12 items including players, contracts, stadiums, managers, staff, fitness, healing, footballs, kits and badges. Each pack contains one rare item, such as enhanced player attributes, longer contracts and the most coveted players. On 22 June 2011, EA Sports announced that the Microsoft Windows version of FIFA 12 will have the same engine, features, and competitions as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.

Along with several other new EA Sports titles, FIFA 12 was available three days early to purchasers of the EA Sports Season Ticket. The release date of the FIFA 12 demo was announced at the Gamescom event in Germany on 16 August; the demo was available from Xbox Live Marketplace and EA's Origin Store for Microsoft Windows on 13 September 2011, though the Playstation 3 demo was not available in Europe until the following day.

Gameplay

Three major gameplay changes have been implemented in FIFA 12; these are the Impact Engine, Tactical Defending, and Precision Dribbling.

In development for 2 years, the Impact Engine improves collision variety, accuracy, and momentum preservation. A new advanced procedural animation system is used along with collision physics to produce different results depending on the players and physical forces involved. This affects all players, so even those off the ball may have collisions. The Impact Engine has been cited as a game changer, making FIFA 12 less structured and synthetic than its predecessors, and has been described by producer David Rutter as the biggest technological change to the series since the transition to the current generation of consoles.The Impact Engine also directly affects injuries sustained by players during a match.

The new Tactical Defending system aims to change the approach to defending by placing equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling. When defending there will be more of an emphasis on slowing attackers down and containing them, and pressuring them into making mistakes. This is intended to be a more manual form of defending, requiring greater timing and precision when compared to the defensive "press" system used in previous FIFA games. The old system, now dubbed "legacy defending", where a button press causes an AI player to home in on the player in possession of the ball, can still be used offline, and in online friendlies and custom unranked matches.

FIFA 12 brings to the pitch the game-changing new Player Impact Engine, a physics engine built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. Revolutionary gameplay innovations inspired by the real-world of soccer make FIFA Soccer 12 deeper and more engaging. All-new Precision Dribbling delivers a higher fidelity of touch on the ball for attacking players, while Tactical Defending fundamentally changes the approach to defending by placing equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling. Plus, CPU players have been infused with Pro Player Intelligence, the next generation of player intelligence and performance. Stay tuned for more features to be announced in the coming months.

(Relase Date: September 27, 2011)

FIFA 12 Trailer: