Over the last few years, the brains behind the FIFA series have favoured an ultra-realistic style of play that aims to make everything that little bit trickier. Gone are the days when you could waltz the not so twinkle-toed Pascal Cygan through your opponents back line, before slotting the ball casually into the bottom corner: we're in an era of tactics, of patience, of careful probing and, ultimately, a more satisfying pay-off when you do get it right.
The series is now so close to a perfect recreation of the beautiful game that the differences between instalments are minimal. Save for a few tweaks under the hood FIFA 13 is essentially the same, admittedly superb, game as FIFA 12. That's no cause for complaint in the eyes of some - "if it ain't broke don't fix it" goes the old adage, and FIFA certainly ain't broke by any stretch of the imagination. However, many players are hungry for more dramatic changes than EA's strategy of edging closer and closer to reality can deliver.
FIFA's default control settings make you feel good about yourself. They'll adjust the power of passes to make sure they reach a teammate, automatically aim through balls into the path of the intended target, and make sure shots go in the general direction of the goal. Think of playing FIFA as a driving lesson - you're the learner merrily steering the car where you please, but there's somebody in the passenger seat to help you out when you need it most.
As you'd expect, turning this assistance off gives you total command of everything your team does. Essentially, it means that the player you're controlling will do exactly what you tell them to - passes go in the exact direction that you point the analogue stick with exactly the amount of power you decide, and the same's true for crosses, shots and through balls. This will result, at least at first, in many car crashes.
You'll feel like you've woken up in the Prime Minister's shoes. There's endless power at your fingertips but you simply don't have the know-how to do anything useful with it (insert obvious David Cameron joke here). Five yard passes will go astray, crosses will fly harmlessly behind for goal kicks and corner flags will all but shake in fear every time you line up a shot. You'll have gone from footballing god to an inept gorilla with two left feet in a few flicks of the A button.
At this point many will turn back, reverting to the comfort of the default controls. But there will be some purists who persevere, some who grit their teeth and carry on, and for those who take the time to get used to the new system, the rewards will be great.
To get to a level anywhere near your previous, assisted self, will take a good number of hours. Don't expect to be able to master the manual controls overnight, but when it does happen - when you realise that you can, again, carve open defences at will - you'll never be able to look back.
10 comments so far...
Grummy on 1 Nov '12 said:
What I got from this was 'Manual control is awesome, it makes you feel great, unfortunately you'll suck at it for hours, and once you DO get to grips with it, you'll still suck, get hammered online, and need to tweak all the options to make life easier'. Well I've got an idea, instead of, say, avoiding online, dropping the difficulty and play much longer games, why don't you just turn assisted control back on and make your life easier and actually enjoy the game again?
What you are actually doing is limiting the game in one significant area, then just choosing which options to use to make the game easier for you. All for some sense of smug superiority that nobody with even a whit of self esteem would care about.
Yeah, I'll pass. It sounds like a load of garbage to me.
Also, when EA fix the plethora of real problems that Fifa has been dragging around with them for the better part of 2 years now, then you can start talking about it as if it is near flawless.
Clanger67 on 1 Nov '12 said:
KernowDevil23 on 1 Nov '12 said:
Makes my decision to ditch FIFA for PES even more worthy!
fracturedrich on 1 Nov '12 said:
ive got both fifa is for pussys pes is for the hardcore even the manual controls fifa is way to easy online people havnt got a clue and are way to fast to hit the power button when 2-0 down pes way better
Dudushe on 1 Nov '12 said:
I'm sorry OXM but I will be cancelling my yearly subscription of your magazine as it's clear to me that you cannot be trusted.
The Fifa series has been plagued with problems for the past 2 years. Fifa 12 only really started working in February which is an absolute disgrace when you consider the game came out in September.
I was one of the stupid people who bought Fifa 12 on the day of release and was further stung when purchasing the Euro DLC, (which didn't work), also on the day of release.
It's clear to me that you have a mandate at OXM to keep certain developers happy but by entering into what can only be construed as biased journalism, you are hoodwinking the paying public into buying faulty products.
every time you post an article about how great Fifa is, you are just re-enforcing the lie as even an cursory glance at the Fifa 13 forum will tell you all you need to know about this latest chapter in the disaster.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Grummy on 1 Nov '12 said:
On behalf of the OXM team, as someone who has been around here a long time and seen the best and worst of this magazine, I would like to tell you to get a bloody clue. Seriously, try reading the reviews and other articles, visit the forums and see the threads that are running, there is a plethora of evidence to tell you how wrong you are. Just how stupid are you? You outright accuse OXM of lying to assuage developers with absolutely 0 evidence.
This is one single article, an opinion piece no less, from an intern, which focuses purely on the entertainment value, and worthiness of one aspect of the game. How can you be so arrogant as to assume that because Sam enjoys the game so much, and finds this one aspect worth writing about, that this must therefore mean that OXM in general are lying outright? Question, how exactly is there any benefit to OXM lying about it? Everyone has their own opinion, you may not agree, but that gives you no right to say such things as you have done.
Also, seriously? You're really going to cancel your subscription just because you disagree with one guys opinion about one single game? Just how fickle and pathetic are you? Seriously mate, you're an ill informed cretin. In the future you should keep your gob shut rather than reveal that fact to everyone.
OXM ETboy on 1 Nov '12 said:
Hi Dudushe. What sort of problems have you been having with FIFA 13? Let me know and I'll look into it.
FishyGinger on 1 Nov '12 said:
And that would be zing from the fat baby
ItchyRash on 2 Nov '12 said:
I'm not going to say that there aren't any issues at all with this FIFA or that EA don't have faults but I can't remember there being any problems with my copy of FIFA 12 and while I don't yet own 13 plenty of my mates do and none have reported there being any problems with their copies. Not everyone will experience the same glitches you are. In fact, as frustrating as it clearly is for you, chances are you're in a minority. That doesn't excuse EA if there are problems but maybe OXM just didn't have any issues with the version they played and so scored it accordingly. The problem with using EA forums as evidence is that a large proportion of people posting there will be posting about the problems they are experiencing, whipping one another into a frenzy and making it seem as if the problems are more widespread than they actually are. I'm not saying you're wrong or you shouldn't be frustrated but accusing OXM is stupid. Perhaps they, along with the many other just don't have the problems you do.
This great conspiracy that game mags are paid for good reviews is getting old
OXM ETboy on 2 Nov '12 said:
As ItchyRash suggests, it's very hard to get a handle on whether one user's technical difficulties are evidence of a widespread problem. I tried it with Homefront last year and didn't get very far. At the end of the day, the only people in possession of sufficient supporting data are the publishers, and they sure as hell aren't sharing any of that gold with us weasel reporters
I'll keep my ear to the ground, though. It's not like FIFA 13 isn't worth writing about...