Pro's:
Great selection of Fighters, Great selection of Moves, Plenty of game modes, PRIDE (Both Exhibition mode and Career), Commentary is good, Graphics are good. Con's: Still the same problems as the last 2 games like Poor Animations, i.e. A hook, In Real Life if you Punch with your Palm facing toward the floor you will end up damaging your Wrist. The animation should be Palm facing inwards. Robotic movement, especially when dodging punches. Button mashing, Submission system (Elements are good, but you wouldn't expect some of the fighters to have such a Giant Blue bar that moves extremely fast, while yours moves extremely slow. Doesn't give your fighter in Career mode a chance when your selection of fights early on becomes too difficult for your own fighter to handle). You can't change Difficulty during Career Mode. Career mode is boring. You just Train and fight just like the last installments. Not really over 100 fighters, some copy and paste with Pride next to them and weight classes. Some fighters you have to Download, such as Nick Diaz and Overeem. Fighters Overated such as Chael Sonnen. Great Wrestler no doubt, but his Record in the UFC isn't the best. When I fought him, he stood up and traded. He was quick and accurate. When has he ever stood and traded? when has he ever been quick and accurate standing up? Some fighters don't use the skills they have, but they are stronger on weaker points, something you never see in Real Life. When rocked and down, you can move your head and block so you don't get hit. The Ref still stopped the fight even when my opponent MISSED every shot. Poor... Part of the Submission system has been taken from EA MMA. Also so has the variation of Rules and Surrounding such as Cage or Ring. It's the same game as the last 2. But better Graphics, more fighters, More Moves and Pride. Clearly the Button mashing, poor Animations etc remain exactly the same. THQ should never do another UFC game.
I don't think that it's just hating something because it's popular, although there are a minority that do. I also don't think the hatred is because of the game either. I think the hatred comes from the fact that 'fanboys' buy the game year in year out without there being much of a change and dismiss the faults that are brought to light by the more casual player of COD which in turn, has created an aura of self confidence/borderline arrogance by activision to not try harder and milk the series for all it's worth. Honestly when people bring up things like FIFA and games of a like, mainly yearly updates as a reason as to why COD should be defended to the bitter end, it just irritates me that little bit more. If you measure a game year on year then the amount of changes in the likes of FIFA, GOW, Assassins Creed and Uncharted etc, then you would struggle a little bit in naming them. But if you say, look at the changes in the games over the last 5 years (since MW) then you will see the differences in these games over COD are more prominent. FIFA 2007 - 2012 - Brand new game engine, impact engine, vast amounts of different shooting mechanics/ Animations, Running, new dribbling system and passing selections and Animations, penalty taking system, Set piece creation, player creation, New leagues/more international teams and you can customise the difficulty in the user settings and CPU settings like passing error, shooting error and goalkeeping ability. The list can go on Look at Uncharted from 1-3. Each one has a fantastic narrative, challenges, puzzles and characters that you can see in real depth and enjoy. They have online Multiplayer which has improved from UC2 to UC3 and the graphical changes from 1-3 are excellent. List can go on Assassins creed from 1 through to Brotherhood- Again each story is well thought out although at times a little confusing. Different challenges and side missions/collectables along the way. The also now have multiplayer, which for the best part is getting better and better. New animations and weapons for taking down enemies, different clothing and much improved graphics. List can go on You compare these to the likes of COD from COD4(MW) to MW3 and really over the past 5 years there isn't much to shout about in terms of changes made. The SP and the story are forgettable in each game, no real characters, Graphics haven't improved that much, neither has the sound quality or player/CPU animations (getting from standing down to prone is abit of a chore). The explosions are pathetic, as are the breaching of buildings (once you've seen one you've seen them all) and the knifing is still the same, just a swipe and then your done. It would be nice to see them actually grappling with the opposition before using the knife, because a swipe across the back won't really do it. Online, I haven't really played that much but from what someone told me THERE ARE A FEW BUILDINGS ETC THAT HAVE BEEN RECYCLED AND USED BEFORE IN EARLIER INSTALLMENTS. The only thing they've really done to balance the game out is using the killstreaks and perks and no real gameplay changes and even that isn't great. You can still use your overpowered Sniper rifle to "no scope" or "quickscope". Then there is the small and overpriced maps that have little to no real detail in and look more like cardboard cut outs. Is it because Activision are too insistent on keeping the game at 60fps (they seem to be using this as there main selling point) that they are unwilling to add anything new? or are they just milking it because a lot of people out there will buy it regardless because of the series' reputation from earlier installments? Either way i'm just glad i've rented, rather than fork out £35-40 for a game that has changed littler over the past 5 years. Its a lazy representation of a franchise that should be going from strength to strength instead, it's stuttering along and milking everything they can out of people. Disgrace.
Sorry forgot to change my score to 9. Also its LEGACY DEFENDING YOU CAN CHANGE IT TO NOT LEGENDARY. Also forgot to mention the game is near enouh fully customisable, from game speed to however you want it to play in the USER GAME CUSTOMISATION SETTINGS.
FIFA 12 has taken another step forward in trying to make the game as realistic as possible. *note if you've got problems with the movement you can make it better. Go to gameplay options and then to User player options. You will find horizontal bars you can move up or down. Go to PLAYER MOVEMENT FREQUENCY and push it up to the top and then to FULBACK positioning and push that up too. You should find that the game moves alot better. after extensive play I give it 8.5 Pro's: Countless animations meaning greater variety of shots, passes, headers and tackles. Defending is more satisfying although big learning curve. Manager mode is better than last year and the fatigue leading to injuries is a great addition letting you know you need to balance it out and rest some players more, or take the risk if you really need the player. The amount of teams you can be. Creation mode! havent done it yet, but apparently you can create leagues, teams and players and put them in career mode. Tight dribbling controls meaning greater freedom of movement, showing the amount of touches a player actually has on a ball when dribbling and pulling off skills is more satisfying than ever and the added contextual skills and dribbling makes it less predictable. Customisation of options and playability. Assisted, semi-assisted and manual for shooting, passing, crossing, lobbed passes, through balls ect. Fast, medium and slow gameplay options, 2 different types of Nets and how loose you want them to be and if you hate the new defending and you want it to be easier, you can go back to the FIFA 11 settings. All in all you feel you have more control of what the player you control does, whether defending or attacking which gives you a higher sense of responsibility when it comes to a win or lose situation. Goalkeepers are very good this year and the saving animations are very good, e.g. when you are in on goal and close to the keeper he will change his angle more and close his legs if the shots are close to him and the diving across goal if they get the rebound is a fantastic addition. Very good physics engine Cons: AI movement is pretty poor and im sometimes left wondering when im attacking what my options are. It feels as though I have to go it alone abit too much. We all get that using alot of skill moves to outfox the defenders and running in on goal to dink it over the keeper is fantastic, as is the occasional 30 yard screamer, but there has to be more options and a greater number of ways to play FIFA. Although the Physics engine is good, it can also be very stupid when your players run into eachother, giving the ball away and having big gaps that get exploited when 2 sometimes 3 of your players are lying on the floor. Referees are still awful. Spending your time one on one with someone like Pato and as you think he has got past you, you stick a leg out and knocks the ball out of play in dramatic fashion. Then the ref points to the spot... horrible. Dribbling is also a con as it can sometimes mean its one paced and struggle to get past a player, although I've had no problem winning the ball in a foot race with a player like Messi against a slower defender, on the ball Messi is a bit slower than what you would expect form players of his calibre. Player ratings: Arshavin, Walcott, Defoe, Bale ect are seriously overated. I wouldnt say Bale is 2 points ahead of someone like Modric and I definitely wouldnt say he is better than Pedro, Sanchez, among a few others. I also wouldn't put him on the same level as Aguero, just one behind Silva (who is better than Modric but not in FIFA) and one ahead of Pato, Suarez and yaya Toure. There are many more but Im going to stop now and just play the game and enjoy it.
