FIFA 13 at Gameplanet NZ

FIFA 13 Goals of the Week Round 2 trailer

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 03:30:00 +1300

Players score them, developers put the best in their weekly compilation and showcase them to the entire FIFA community.

FIFA 13 review

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:03:00 +1300

FIFA 13 second-guesses itself a bit too much to be a truly unequivocal success, but its focus on faithfully emulating a fickle sport pays dividends.

FIFA is a series with a reputation for small improvements every year, as well as occasional departures from success that seem to rile fans immensely.

This year’s changes are significant and easily identifiable; AI has all-new 'positioning intelligence', there's no longer near-perfect touch control, the career mode now includes 'internationals' and skill games and the EA Sports Football Club has been introduced. The former being tutorials with reward schemes and the latter a dense role-playing football game based on real-world football happenings.

The game goes out of its way to make itself accessible, though, which immediately puts it on the right foot. The interactive tutorials focus on simple defending skills, and these – coupled with additional skill games that focus on offence – are invaluable, and provide new players with both the opportunity to become acquainted with the game's basic mechanics and a taste of just how much skill a player needs to actually master them. Meanwhile, the rudimentary reward scheme skill games quantify player development in a tangible and helpful way. It's a great first step, even if some skills reveal themselves as incredibly difficult to get right very early on. Lobs and chip shots, for example, are insidious.

FIFA 13 Match Day Trailer

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 10:28:00 +1300

EAS FC Match Day in FIFA 13 features up-to-date player form, team news, and commentary from all the top leagues in real-world football.

FIFA 13 players banned for Ultimate Team exploit

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 08:57:00 +1200

A number of FIFA 13 players have been permanently banned for taking advantage of a browser exploit within the game’s Ultimate Team web app.

The exploit gave the unscrupulous access to restricted packs of football player cards featuring big-name players which were then sold for profit, flooding the market with stars like Messi and Ronaldo in the process.

"Yesterday, a very small number of users attempted to gain an unfair advantage on the FUT web app," said EA via its FIFA 13 Twitter account.

FIFA 13 Attacking Intelligence trailer

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:51:00 +1200

Line Producer Nick Channon explains how he believes the new Attacking Intelligence in FIFA 13 is a great improvement on last year's game.

FIFA 13 First Touch Control trailer

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 09:29:00 +1200

The way players control the ball has been transformed, says EA, by eliminating near-perfect touch for every player on the pitch, and creating more opportunities for defenders to win back possession. Poor passes are harder to control, enabling defenders to capitalise on errant balls and poor touches. Factors such as defensive pressure, trajectory of the ball, and velocity of the pass all factor into a player's success.

FIFA 13 career mode: transfers trailer

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:38:00 +1200

Producer Santiago Jaramillo reveals what to expect from the improved transfer system in FIFA 13's career mode.

FIFA 13

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:43:00 +1200

There has never been a console generation that has lasted as long as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era. That’s hardly a breakthrough insight, but it is one that has created an interesting set of circumstances. We’re now in territory every bit as uncharted as a new console generation. Developers and publishers have never been as acquainted as they are right now with the hardware and software development kits they’re using today, and if it’s true that we need to know the box before we can smartly think outside of it, then there has never been a better time for developers to innovate in the true sense.

Nonetheless, sports game franchises should be particularly prone to stagnation in such protracted conditions. Licenses usually require the publisher to bring a new product to market every year, and for a genre with more mainstream appeal than most, it’s been a very long time indeed since sports games have been able to appeal to their broader audiences using that briefest, most powerful message: “This new one looks way better.”

It should be unsurprising that publishers are prepared to confess to a little waywardness – walk for long enough in the desert and anyone can start going in circles. Madden, admits EA Sports boss Andrew Wilson, hasn’t been as innovative as other titles from the label’s stable.