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?

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[OSUFan_88]

Re: FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

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]

Re: FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

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.

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]

Re: FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

...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.

[benzino]

Has anyone else noticed how time consuming it is to increase the dollar amount for a transfer offer? The increments are in $100 and sometimes you need to increase your offer by MILLIONS of dollars to make a reasonable offer. It can take up to 5 minutes to do this.

[kelvinmak]

Re: FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

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

Slide tackles can still be hit and miss at times, but I do notice more fouls called when players are tugging each other. In fact, most of the penalties I've won are when the opposition were pulling on my striker.

Has anyone else noticed how time consuming it is to increase the dollar amount for a transfer offer? The increments are in $100 and sometimes you need to increase your offer by MILLIONS of dollars to make a reasonable offer. It can take up to 5 minutes to do this.

I forget the equivalent on the 360, but the triangle button on the PS3 lets you enter the amount.

[kerosene31]

Re: FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

I think it is a very fair review. We need to stop letting EA slide on these simple AI things. The defensive AI is terrible. How hard is it for your CPU defenders to at least keep between the striker and the net? NHL has the exact same problem. The defenders stand in position then completely ignore the speed of the attacking player, causing way too many scoring opportunities that should never happen. If you don't take control of a CB yourself early, you are likely going to get put in a very, very bad situation. You can counter this yourself, but try playing on career mode where you only control a certain player and watch your defense cause all sorts of problems.

[ImaGamer_OS]

Hmm...a little wary of this review when discussing the game play flaws. Is there a lack of understanding on the reviewers part in terms of the game of football? Possibly, possibly not.

[StormJH1]

While the number itself "feels" a little low, this review did give me a new perspective on what we should expect from this game. I don't like a lot of things about the defense - it was the main reason that I left Legacy Defending on in FIFA 12 - I needed the ability to quickly steal the ball after my other 10 players did nothing to try and take it away. I am trying Tactical Defending this year, but if the primary control they give you is to "contain" (prior to lunging violently with the B button), then it would make more sense if your teammates would try to box in the ball carrier and steal the ball while you are containing. This simply doesn't happen.

But it's not really an "A.I." failure, because the CPU defense does know how to do these things against you on offense. It's a design decision. Your defense is programmed to stand off because you have control, and I wish they found a middle ground there.

Still a very fun game, and much improved.

[dubcity]

Re: FIFA Soccer 13 Review (360/PS3)

Excellent review. Most in-depth, accurate and fair review of FIFA 13 I've read. Sounds like you played the game for more than a just a couple of days, unlike 99% of the other ones. Maybe it's because this review is tailored to non-casual sports gamers.

[JohnPhillip]

I use classic controls. So I dont really see many problems on the defensive end. I turned Marking to 55. Anyway I dont think this game deserves less than a 9 for how fun and deep it is. Though I can see how someone can see the game as an 8.5 on default.