FIFA 13 Demo Available Now - Post Your Impressions

[daddytorgo]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

I was also reading a post on the EA website and it made me realize something else I found odd about the demo, but couldn't put my finger on it. When you have the ball and are just moving with the left stick the game will automatically drop you into a 'crabwalk' animation to face up the defender the instant you get within three yards of someone. It is really kind of disorientating and also looks janky. On the EA forums they are also saying it effects passing but I don't know. The auto crabwalk is cancelled if you use the triggers to trick or sprint so I don't think a lot of people are noticing how odd it is because they are spinning 360s and sprinting 99% of the time. But if you try to play possession and slow the pace down it is something odd and annoying.

Noticed this too - very weird and kind of annoying.

All in all though, as an offline-only player (PS3), who hasn't messed with slow-speed and sliders yet, this plays better out-of-the-box then 12 did for me. First-Touch and the revamps of the Impact Engine have made it a game that actually resembles real football, and I'm excited to get home and make those slider-changes to see how it looks on slow (although with 3 minute halves I'm sure I won't be able to get much accomplished re: scoring).

Plenty of errant first-touches and balls ping-ponging around more realistically. 0-0 games on World Class difficulty (which, with 3min halves I expect). Not so much wonky stuff from the "Impact Engine" and I've seen a bunch of cool deflections. You can really see the impact of player strength in a positive way - small attackers get shoved off the ball legally, and powerful defenders can use their strength as an asset. Dropped it down to Legendary difficulty and manged to score a few goals - even a 2-1 victory a couple times.

I definitely notice an improvement in AI behavior - both from my attackers and from CPU attackers. More intelligent runs by teammates into channels, and I even scored a great goal on a counter attack where I slid a through-ball past two attackers onto a ST who was making a diagonal run. Also nice - managed to get a good ratio of on-frame to off-frame and score a couple times from the top of the 18, whereas in FIFA12 I found that to be tough for me.

Even on Legendary because of the first-touches and errant passes I lost possession a fair bit of the time - whereas on FIFA12 on Legendary I basically didn't lose possession unless I "wanted" to.

I think once i can get a good slider-set and slowing things down a bit I'll settle into playing on Legendary/World Class and having really competitive, realistic games.

[Gnemi]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

It remains to be seen if the Career Mode has been improved and by how much.

The problems with the useless Youth Academy and non-existent player development/growth will require substantial improvements to make it a viable mode beyond 1 or 2 seasons.

[Gnemi]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

Just to reiterate: for all of you who haven't yet tried changing sliders to ~46-48 for Speed, Acceleration, and Passing/Shooting, it makes a world of difference. You can spend both 3 minute halves of the demo with no scoring and few chances aka. actual possession and build-up football.

[ZoneBlitz]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

So now I am confused. I was really impressed with the demo.

First, the presentation and graphics (menus, animations, player models, etc...) just blew me away. Add in the announcing, crowd noise, etc... and licensed teams, and now the immersion is awesome. Then, playing the game, I was amazed at how much better it is than FIFA 12. While still not quite there, it made a significant jump towards simulation football as opposed to arcade football. That improve really deepens the immersion for me. Plus, the added realism makes it really fun.

I am really thinking about playing this game this year.

I tell you the truth, if FIFA added realistic computer AI, real football strategy, and teams that play like their real life counter parts, this game would obliterate the competition.

[jayhawkblue]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

Something I saw when I was playing the game earlier but didn't get a chance to play around with: match starting time. Now set to real times instead of just day, night, overcast, etc. Has anyone played an afternoon match where the sun is out to begin with and then it progresses into night as the match goes on?

[dubcity]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

So now I am confused. I was really impressed with the demo.

First, the presentation and graphics (menus, animations, player models, etc...) just blew me away. Add in the announcing, crowd noise, etc... and licensed teams, and now the immersion is awesome. Then, playing the game, I was amazed at how much better it is than FIFA 12.

I'm noticing the crowd noise improvements more and more. The crowd goes nuts when the home team steals the ball in their own penalty area, or when the anticipate a shot. It's a little thing, but it makes the game more fun.

[Broncos86]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

I'm noticing the crowd noise improvements more and more. The crowd goes nuts when the home team steals the ball in their own penalty area, or when the anticipate a shot. It's a little thing, but it makes the game more fun.

Count me as one of the individuals REALLY impressed with the demo. I just bought NHL 13, and I keep playing the FIFA 13 demo. The sound is excellent in the demo. I had an instance where I pushed a ball through and the defender had it, but I made a play on the ball near the penalty box. At first, the crowd got loud with anticipation, quieted a bit when they saw the defender with it, but then went into an uproar as I stole the ball and broke into the box.

I'm really looking forward to FIFA 13. For me, the gameplay is just compelling. I keep wanting to play match after match. The AI has been able to really lock me down if I just try to run it down the sidelines, or try some hokey strategy. They've been aggressive on me and I've had to back-pass quite a bit to maintain control.

[daddytorgo]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

Just to reiterate: for all of you who haven't yet tried changing sliders to ~46-48 for Speed, Acceleration, and Passing/Shooting, it makes a world of difference. You can spend both 3 minute halves of the demo with no scoring and few chances aka. actual possession and build-up football.

This. Although by slowing things down and promoting actual buildup I find that it actually helped me score more.

[Panicshade]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

I find myself playing the random skill challenge that loads up before the match a lot before I finally go into the match. I am a very mediocre player so it does take me a while to catch on to what I have to do on some of them.

I wish they would have had the option in the demo to play those outside of the pre-match loading screens. I know they will be there in the full retail version.

[razorkaos]

finally tried the demo. playing on the 360, legendary, full manual controls, slow speed and sliders (speed-accel=46, pass speed=48, for both sides).

first thing i`ve noticed is that legendary looks easier than world class. on legendary, i can walk through defenders and get inside the box easily, and they block shots far less than on world class. cpu looks desperate on world class, and they really ignore build up and midfield play. sometimes, they make a 40yd pass through all my players, reaching a striker alone in the box. wing play is easier now, cpu seems to let you go down the wings without bother you. also, noticed that few problems are still in the game, like the bug when you play with manual player switching, and sometimes, the cpu refuses to accept you command to switch the player. it happens more often in the box, when you are trying to defend an air ball. still in the box, GK`s AI vs air balls is still ridiculous, they don`t try to intercept a cross by punching the ball, as would be obvious. Instead, they keep stepping on the goal line, watching the ball reach its intended receiver.

Attacking AI works, but it`s not as great as people think it is. Your strikers really make more runs forward, but 90% of the time, they run to the wrong lane. Most of the time, the striker runs towards a defender instead running to the open space. AI defenders look dumber too, making defending a lot harder as you have to manually retreat with some of your CB`s that suffer from Lucio`s Syndrom, when they think they are strikers...

Overall, the gameplay needs some improvement, but 13 its far better than 12. Presentation looks better too. Menu is cleaner than 12`s, and during the game, i`ve noticed even players warming on the sidelines and what should be the teams coaches. I`m curious to see how the brazilian commentary will be, once they put a sports presentator to comment the game, with a real commentator and former player on his side...

[razorkaos]

finally tried the demo. playing on the 360, legendary, full manual controls, slow speed and sliders (speed-accel=46, pass speed=48, for both sides).

first thing i`ve noticed is that legendary looks easier than world class. on legendary, i can walk through defenders and get inside the box easily, and they block shots far less than on world class. cpu looks desperate on world class, and they really ignore build up and midfield play. sometimes, they make a 40yd pass through all my players, reaching a striker alone in the box. wing play is easier now, cpu seems to let you go down the wings without bother you. also, noticed that few problems are still in the game, like the bug when you play with manual player switching, and sometimes, the cpu refuses to accept you command to switch the player. it happens more often in the box, when you are trying to defend an air ball. still in the box, GK`s AI vs air balls is still ridiculous, they don`t try to intercept a cross by punching the ball, as would be obvious. Instead, they keep stepping on the goal line, watching the ball reach its intended receiver.

Attacking AI works, but it`s not as great as people think it is. Your strikers really make more runs forward, but 90% of the time, they run to the wrong lane. Most of the time, the striker runs towards a defender instead running to the open space. AI defenders look dumber too, making defending a lot harder as you have to manually retreat with some of your CB`s that suffer from Lucio`s Syndrom, when they think they are strikers...

Overall, the gameplay needs some improvement, but 13 its far better than 12. Presentation looks better too. Menu is cleaner than 12`s, and during the game, i`ve noticed even players warming on the sidelines and what should be the teams coaches. I`m curious to see how the brazilian commentary will be, once they put a sports presentator to comment the game, with a real commentator and former player on his side...

one more thing: without the sliders, and playing with speed set to normal, this game feels strange and too arcadey to me.

[rckabillyRaider]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

Just to reiterate: for all of you who haven't yet tried changing sliders to ~46-48 for Speed, Acceleration, and Passing/Shooting, it makes a world of difference. You can spend both 3 minute halves of the demo with no scoring and few chances aka. actual possession and build-up football.

totally agree. And actually I drop my sliders even lower than that.

[Panicshade]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

the sliders for speed and acceleration at around 40 are still plenty quick enough and don't feel bogged down or anything

[Gnemi]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

I tried it at 42 and thought it felt like the players were running in mud.

[Panicshade]

Re: FIFA 13 Demo Available Now For PC & 360, Later Today For PS3 - Post Your Impressi

I tried it at 42 and thought it felt like the players were running in mud.

It seemed okay to me but I guess everybody will have their own opinions on how they see it.