A couple of quick thoughts on what I think is a pretty good demo. Keep in mind that I played FIFA 11 for about 2 weeks before trading it back in, so there may be a few things that I noticed in the demo that were in the FIFA 11 game.
6 games played on WORLD CLASS, Normal game speed, and the TELE -BROADCAST camera(THANK YOU for putting this back in the game!)
*HUGE difference in playing styles between the teams. Barcelona needs to be contained and absorbed to the best of your ability. They use a lot of the skill moves and short quick deadly passing that you would expect them to. I was dominated as OM and lost 3-1.
I then took on Borussia Dortmund and the entire feel and pace of the game were completely different.
*Too early to get a good feel as to whether or not there will be a lack of fouls issue. A couple of the games I played, I was able to draw three fouls against the CPU(with a strict ref) and in a few others there were no fouls. I'm more optimistic about this not being an issue because I think with the controls being a little tighter it will be much easier to draw fouls.
*AI Defending. There were more than a few times when I saw my defenders standing around doing nothing except leaving Messi by himself at the top of the 18yd box to easily receive a pass and do his thing.
Yes this is a bit of an issue, but I believe it can be minimized by using this new Teammate Contain button. I have always played off ball defense in this game and relied on the second defender press button. With the new teammate contain button, it is much easier to assist the back four in marking while containing the CPU mid-fielders by holding down the RB. I would normally control a CDM or CM and contain all others with my CPU teammates.
This has resulted in the CPU regularly passing the ball back and also forcing them to build an attack. Additionally, I noticed that my CPU teammates from OM had a much easier time containing the mids from Dortmund as opposed to the likes of Xavi and Iniesta.
*Slide Tackles are very difficult to pull off and even more difficult against the more skilled dribblers...and they should be. There is an obvious push to get player to contain and not sprint and slide tackle for 90 minutes.....thankfully.
*Player Impact Engine. I had been prepared for this to be one of those over cooked, over done, in your face, EA features, but I've only seen a handful of animations. Looks good so far.
*I suck at penalty kicks
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The thing that I am most happy about is that this is the first FIFA game EVER where I can literally be dominated from a possession standpoint. NO matter what level I was playing on in earlier versions of the game, if the CPU got 50% possession it was a small miracle. Barcelona had 60% of the possession compared to my 40% as OM. The main reason for this is that the CPU is not constantly pushing forward and shooting, shooting, shooting...They work and attack based on personnel.
*Should be interesting to see how the sliders effect gameplay.
*I also noticed that the game gets a little sloppier towards the end of the game the passes were more off target as were the shots.