FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

[RaychelSnr]

Last year, FIFA 12 bought itself a tremendous amount of goodwill. The game revolutionized the series’ gameplay by successfully rolling out three big new features — tactical defending, precision dribbling and the impact engine— without any significant disasters. Because of that, a lot of us were quite willing to overlook some of the match engine’s slightly rougher edges. So it’s not a surprise that for FIFA 13, the team at EA Canada decided to polish those rough edges up rather than introduce more significant wrinkles to the game, and for the most part they do so successfully. But is it enough to catapult FIFA 13 to becoming an all-time classic?

Read More - FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

[OSUFan_88]

Hmmm...interesting.

Think it's a harsh review, although totally agree about the defending. It's pretty rough with the AI defending.

I'd add an extra point. 9.5 for me.

[DirtyJerz32]

8.5 for 13 and a 8.5 for 12? How's this the best ever? Wouldn't the score indicate so? Sorry I'm a little confused. I could see if there were two different people doing the reviews, but you did 12's so that's why I'm confused. How can you call this the best one yet, when you gave last years the same score?

[kelvinmak]

Quote: Originally Posted by OSUFan_88

Hmmm...interesting. Think it's a harsh review, although totally agree about the defending. It's pretty rough with the AI defending. I'd add an extra point. 9.5 for me.

For me, I really do think that's the hardest .5 to get, that difference between 8.5 and 9.0. Without the AI defending stuff, the game could easily be looking at 9.5. But it's one of those things where every game, regardless of whether it leads to an opposition goal or not, it rears its head and makes you go, "hmm, something's not quite right here." It just affects such a fundamental part of the game that I felt I couldn't bump it the 0.5 to make it a 9.

Quote:

8.5 for 13 and a 8.5 for 12? How's this the best ever? Wouldn't the score indicate so? Sorry I'm a little confused.

I can't speak for our other reviewers, but to me there's an expectation that a new release will be improved, to a certain extent, compared to last year's.

Theoretically, if FIFA 13 was exactly the same game as FIFA 12, it'd be an 8.0, or 7.5-- because while the game is still good and won't look out of place this year, it stayed the same. (I'm obviously generalizing quite a bit here, but hopefully you get the gist.) That a game received the same score as the year before, I think, indicates that the game improved by pretty much the amount we've expected it to.

I think that if we score games based absolutely (or at least, too heavily) on whether it has improved upon the previous year's without taking into context our expectations (ie. that a game has improved and so it should automatically be a higher score-- again, I know, generalizing quite a bit), it will take us back down that road where every game got 8.5s and 9.0s and there's nowhere for us to go, up or down.

...And of course there's that defending thing that didn't get fixed

[MindArt]

I'm tired of this minor changes of Fifa from year to year, it's the same as Fifa 12 no doubt! They need hard work on gameplay but I don't feel at all that EA sport is tries to do their best.... they don't deserve my money

[DirtyJerz32]

Quote: Originally Posted by kelvinmak

...And of course there's that defending thing that didn't get fixed

Personally, this statement right hear warrants a lower score. I would've given it a 8.

It's been like this for years, but nothing has been done about the players teammate AI. This is the sole reason why I'm not buying Fifa this year.

Having to worry about all the defenders in the box as well as the player your controlling is not fun IMO. It shouldn't be this hard nor should I have to worry about my teammates doing what is expected.

[pk500]

Very good review. About time a reviewer wasn't a lemming swimming upstream with the rest of the gaming press, calling FIFA 13 the Sports Game of the Year. It's a solid soccer game still with some evident AI weaknesses and very limited offensive strategies by CPU-controlled teams.

Well done, Kelvin -- 8.5 is a very fair, accurate score.

[milin]

I have a question. Are fouls called more than in '12? That was my main gripe with that game.