Read about how we complete our reviews. You can check out the review process here, and then you can scope out the scoring guidelines and scoring rubric.

Day One: Initial/Gameplay Impressions


Unlike the action on the field, the bread and butter offline modes this year for FIFA 12 remains relatively unchanged. Rather than revolutionary changes, we’re treated to smaller enhancements and fixes.

Manager Mode

For starters, the manager mode's presentation is, as usual, slick. Having official licenses definitely help, as team logos and various player photos fill the screen for appropriate news stories. The league table and top scorers are also prominently displayed. While that might sound cluttered, it really isn’t. It’s a very nicely designed interface. 

The mode’s transfer logic does require some suspension of disbelief. Some transfers are quite believable, as during my first two transfer windows many players that were rumored to be on the way out in real life. Sneijder and Kaka did change clubs to Man City and Chelsea, respectively. However, there are also weird ones too. Funny enough, in my game they almost always involve Arsenal. First, they sold off Aaron Ramsey, the bright creative midfielder, to City. And as his replacement, they bought — wait for it — Esteban Cambiasso for 23 million. Selling off a youngster and buying player who is on the wrong side of thirty is defensively solid, and for a price higher than 15 million is way off. This game will drive Wenger into many a water bottle destroying rampages, that’s for sure. And in my second season, they’ve just gone and offloaded Jack Wilshere to City. At least City is buying every player under the sun, so that’s realistic.

Transfer negotiations also seem a little easier this year, not in terms of the difficulty in getting your man, which is still dependent on the price you offer, but in terms of around what price you may get clubs to budge. This is because in the transfer screen you are now presented with a dollar figure from your chairman that indicate a realistic offer. It might seem like a small thing, but it saved me plenty of hassles as I didn't have to access the negotiation screen as many times as I usually do with transfers.

Speaking of negotiations, at the end of every transfer window the game goes into deadline day mode, which is really just a flashy way of giving you ten extra turns to negotiate before the transfer window shuts. The running tally of amount spent and players moved — and the action does seem to get faster and more furious on deadline day — are nice touches.

In terms of team management, players will now approach you with more issues. Sometimes it’s performance related, such as being tired and asking for a game off or wanting more playing time. Other times it’s a transfer issue, like being unsettled in the area and wanting a change of scenery. Most of the time the solutions are clear cut and easy, like starting the player in question in the next game, or transfer listing him. Again, it's a nice touch, but this is one concept that can certainly stand more fleshing out.

You, the manager, can also talk to the media regarding different topics, such as the upcoming match, the opposing manager, or a player on either teams. You are then presented with an option to say something positive or negative about the subject. It’s a fairly basic addition, and to be honest, I haven’t seen any pronounced effect on the on field play.

For youth management, scouts are back in FIFA 12. They are responsible for finding youngsters to add to your youth academy. Obviously the better quality the scouts are, the pricier they get. As you set them up in various places around the world, they present you with potential targets at the end of every month with an estimate of their potential ability-- initially a large range, like anywhere between 72 to 91. The more the prospects are scouted, the narrower the range becomes. But beware, in your quest for certainty by scouting a player for many months, other clubs will nick them from under your nose before you're ready to commit. This is both realistic and fun, as you now have to risk the chances of signing a bust. What is, however, slightly unrealistic is the fact that if your scouts are good, there is a good chance they will find great prospects in any of the countries on the scouting list. Look, I’m a fan of Junior Hoilett and Owen Hargeaves, and I think Canada is making good strides towards having a better program, but it’s just not very realistic that I can find four players that can potentially be an 80 plus -- pretty much world class -- player in any given year.

Youth, of course, goes hand in hand with player progression, something that was essentially broken in FIFA 11. I’m glad to report that everything seems to be fine and logical so far. Young players start out usually around the 30-50 mark, and most of their early improvements are made on the physical side of things. There are no sights of illogical regressions, a la FIFA 11, either. Form also seems to affect how fast a player grows. The better they are playing, the quicker their attributes rise. I have seen anywhere from a two to five point increase for players during a season, with players in their late teens/early twenties progressing especially quickly. However, I say all this with the caveat that I am only in the middle of my second season, so unfortunately I’m unable to tell how things will be seven or eight years down the road.

For realism buffs, however, there are some minor letdowns. Firstly, UEFA licenses aren’t in the game, so you’re going to have to be content with playing in the European Cup as opposed to the Champions League. And secondly, after making a brief appearance in FIFA 11, the option to change the weather in career mode appears to be gone again. I did play matches both in the night and in the rain, so it’s not like in FIFA 10 where every single match was a bright and sunny game. But I’m also playing as Newcastle, and one rainy game in every ten matches or so seems quite a bit on the low side.

All in all, the refinements in the manager mode are much welcomed, and make the mode a fun play for a while. However, its overall longevity is still somewhat questionable, as the immersion factor not as high as it can be. The mode’s tasks and events (e.g. scouting and player unhappiness) are realistic and interesting, but most of them involve really only pressing one button and waiting for the results to show, which gives the sense that you’re watching most of those things unfold with having an active role in them.

Player Mode

Player Mode, on the other hand, is really starting to feel stale. Perhaps that’s because it is virtually unchanged from FIFA 11.

The best thing about it is the revamped, slower nature of the on-field gameplay, is that the wingers and strikers aren’t the only ones to have all the fun. Now your created center midfielder can try to unlock defenses, or your centerback can try to defend with Tactical Defending.

Otherwise, it’s essentially manager mode with player lock on, without the ability to transfer players. There is, unfortunately, very little interactions with your teammates or managers, so the mode gives you nothing to do except to play game after game. Without a doubt, this is definitely the weakest part of the game.