To add a bit more fuel to the debate, here is a Fifa review:
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/09/20/fifa-13-review
I believe PES got an 8.5 didn't it?
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Daniel Krupa:
"This unpredictability is at its most obvious when it comes to first-touch controls. Your players are no longer endowed with supernatural skill when it comes to taking balls out of the air or running onto passes at speed.
If you don’t use your skill, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll fumble the ball and lose possession.
It makes the game immediately less accessible. You’ll groan when your player takes a heavy touch when you’re through on goal, but that’s something which happens every week in the best leagues around the world. Yet it never becomes game-breaking or frustrating, and this is thanks to a rationale behind it all.
Several factors conspire to determine the quality of your first-touch: speed of the pass, spin on the ball, the speed and relative skill of the player receiving it. Over time, you’ll come to
learn how to improve your first-touch – for instance, don’t run on to a pass at full speed, or perhaps knock it on using the right analogue so you don’t have to take you finger off sprint.
This isn’t the only gameplay innovation. Last year defending was a focus for change with the introduction of ‘Tactical Defending’........"
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In a nutshell, that really is the reason why I will not bother with PES13 nor FIFA13 this year. Who gives a fuck if a heavy touch that consequently fucks up the entire play that lead up to it, happens every week in the best leagues around the world?
What a load of complete and utter bullshit. You want to know what also happens every week in the best leagues around the world?
You see, you actually see, how human beings can move their entire body one way, and then move the ball the other way; why? Because in real life, ball movement, and body positioning, are not one factor (as they are in both PES13 and FIFA13), but several factors that complement one another in multiple ways.
That writer (Daniel Krupa), is trying to "brainwash" the consumer, into believing that because now I need to release a simplistic sprint system (yes the sprint system is still very arcade/simplistic and requires little to no learning curve) before each first touch on the ball, because running on to a pass at full speed consistently produces a heavy first touch: is an actual improvement? The rationale behind it?
That a sprint system, which requires little to no learning curve due to the fact that the sprint system is completely and utterly shallow, clearly not taking into account momentum nor inertia nor many other factors involved in running and dribbling: well, the rationale behind the brilliant "first touch" system of FIFA13, is that you now need to release the sprint button, before having your first touch on the ball....
What a tremendous touch of brilliance..... We have evolved, from having to press and hold the R2 slow dribble button whenever we get close enough to the defender, to having to release the fucking sprint button whenever we get close enough to the incoming pass: an improvement? No. It's the same old fucking bullshit, supported by better marketing/advertising strategies.
The new improvements of FIFA13, as written by Daniel Krupa, can be summed up quite simply: "Over time, you’ll come to learn how to improve your first-touch – for instance, don’t run on to a pass at full speed, or perhaps knock it on using the right analogue so you don’t have to take you finger off sprint."
Or in other words, as I would put it: things such as running on to a pass at full speed and expecting the player to have perfect ball control, you cannot do such things any more, but does this system offer something new that you could not do before?
No...... ball movement and body positioning are still one factor, the game remains virtually identical, so these so-called "innovations" are nothing more than a slightly more sedated arcade game, that even though more sedated, at the core, remains identical.
It still is impossible to receive a pass, and before actually having your first touch on the ball, predetermine via first touch controls, that you want to control the ball with the right foot and then with the right foot pass the ball on to your left foot so that you can kick the ball with the left foot; or that you want to use your first touch on the ball, in an effort to chip ("sombrero") the ball over the defender in front of you, run past the defender, and then with your second touch on the ball, continue with the play.
The moral of this rant?
Minimizing/sedating the flaws of a system, does not actually amount to an "innovation" nor to an actual improvement, and it certainly does not make the system any less dumber nor smarter. Having to release the sprint button before having your first touch on the ball? Does not sound fun, not on paper, and I can confirm, not on the pitch.
There are many things that you will see in real life football, that can be effectively simulated by a video game. However, should "bad luck" be simulated? How does a heavy non-perfect first touch, that you can only try to control by controlling the acceleration of a sprint system that is highly automatic, amounts to something that is both consistent and fun?
Well it doesn't, slightly releasing the R2 sprint button after each pass and before each first touch, is not fucking fun: yes, it doesn't allow you to receive a pass and have a perfect first touch whilst running at full speed, every single time..... but (and this is the important point)..... having to slightly release the R2 button right before you receive each pass, does that actually requires enough skill?
It doesn't. With FIFA13, as with PES13, I'm expected to pretend, that because it is slightly more difficult for "speed exploiters" to exploit the obviously flawed game, that the game will be a more satisfying experience, when in fact the game remains the same insubstantial joke it's always been, with the only real difference being the fact that perhaps "speed whores" will not win as consistently as they did with FIFA12 and PES12.
And I'm sorry to say this, but consistently loosing matches against people who exploited speed, was never much of a concern for me: my disappointment with the game had nothing to do with the consumers who exploit the obvious flaws, my disappointment with the game was/is mostly determined by the limitations of the system itself.
So logically, the new "first touch" system that FIFA13 has introduced, with the clear intention of minimizing the importance of speed: well, I don't see why the game will be more fun (nor more substantial) to play because of it.... so even if the game is, as a result, more balanced or less in favor of speed, I still fail to see why improved balance automatically amounts to an improvement in terms of enjoyability: slower or faster, more balanced or less so, the game still feels too much "on rails" to justify me paying over $50 for the same old D-PAD "simulation" game.