You have to hand it to the folks running EA Sports’ marketing department. Every year they come out with some catchy names for their game's features that never fails to get you excited -- no matter what the feature actually is -- just because it sounds so damn cool. For FIFA 12, it is "The Trinity" of improvements, which conjures up memories of either a leather-clad Carrie-Anne Moss or Sunday school. But hey, it sticks in your head.

Okay, so there's sizzle, but will the end product live up to the hype?

With so little actual gameplay footage floating around at this point, let’s assume these features do exactly what they say on the tin. If the new tactical defending will revolutionize the way defences contain attacking players, there will surely be a collective "finally!" let loose across the OS boards.

As good as the last few games have been, FIFA has never been known for playing a methodical brand of football. You lived and died by the speed of your wingers, as most build-up play eventually led to a lung-bursting run down the flanks, followed by a cross or a cutback. As such, playmakers who weren't particularly fast became wasted in the middle of the pitch because defenders -- AI or human -- simply rushed up field and closed down space with unrealistic quickness. In short, there was just not enough space in the middle of the pitch to elude them.

So with the new tactical defending feature, which hopefully provides a more disciplined style of defending, and the precision dribbling that enable players -- especially skilled ones -- to show off their control in tight spaces, here's to hoping FIFA 12 will finally give midfield playmakers the one thing they need to shine: time. Or at the very least, the ability to buy time by using some deft touches to elude the now less aggressive defenders.

However, one slight reminder to temper your expectations: FIFA’s AI teammates aren’t exactly Ronaldo (the original one, especially) when it comes to making devastating runs, so in addition to the improvements on the ball, let’s hope your teammates can do more than just run in a straight line to complement your revitalized playmaker.

This is perhaps the feature that took up the majority of the spotlight in all the promotional teases so far, but the new Impact engine is actually the one I'm most unsure about. Granted, the description sounds quite impressive: The game will remember a player's injury history and calculate accordingly, and now there are organic collision animations depending where the contact occurs. However, the word from E3 according to many, including our very own Chase Becotte, is that matches have been overly physical, amped up affairs.

To be fair, there are still months until release, and the developers can tone it down, but color me just a little skeptical as to how much EA is willing to tame their showpiece feature. As well, how will the virtual referees respond to the new organic collisions? Now that tackles aren't as straightforward as before, so it will be interesting to see if EA has kept up on the officiating side of things. If the developers haven't, this could get ugly, especially online.

As good as these features sound, it's possible that many FIFA players are willing to trade all of them for a Manager mode, Career mode or whatever the developers decide to call it this year that is playable for more than a few seasons. But so far we have not heard yet from the FIFA devs. Again, it's still (relatively) early days, so for sure at some point there will be the onslaught of blogs and videos about a "revamped" Career mode.

But it's going to take an awful lot for FIFA 12 to win back us manager wannabes after all the hullabaloo with FIFA 11's Career mode (lack of player growth, harsh sackings, silly transfers and so on), and if you care enough to remember even further back, when bugs and broken promises haunted FIFA 10's Manager mode.