Greetings, football fans! Firstly, must apologize for my tardiness in updating the blog. End-of-year exams are around the corner and it’s been absolute hell! But I digress, you guys deserve better. Hence this mega-update post! Leading up to yesterday’s official launch of FIFA 12, several events had been organized in the past week centered around […]
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Experience the full FIFA 12 game @ Challenger Funan this weekend!
Greetings, football fans!
News has broken that EA Singapore are having a early preview of the complete FIFA 12 game at Challenger Funan this weekend, 24th and 25th of September 2011!
Don’t know about you guys, but I am most definitely going to be there to check it out! More FIFA is never a bad thing, eh?
Hop on over to the official Facebook event page for more details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=291836547496507
Spread the word far and wide! Bring all your friends and let’s have a blast! See you there!
FIFA 12 DEMO OUT NOW FOR PC, XBOX 360 AND PS3!
Greetings, football fans!
The title really says it all, doesn’t it?! What are you waiting for then?!
Head over to XBOX Live Marketplace or the PSN Store to grab it for your respective consoles. For PC gamers, head over to http://bit.ly/fifa12_pcdemo! Get downloading and have a feel of the game for yourselves!
Well, sorry to post and run but hey, my FIFA 12 demo is waiting to be played…
Till next time, happy demo-ing!
EA SHOWCASE 2011
Greeting football fans!
EA Singapore recently held their annual media showcase for their upcoming games lineup for the rest of 2011 and early 2012 at Se7en in Iluma on the 8th of Septemer 2011. And somehow I managed to weasel my way into this prestigious event. Jealous much?
Before entering Se7en, I was handed a press kit disc and a blue wristband, kind of like those you get when you are admitted into hospital. Standard stuff for these events, I guess. Probably could use the images in the disc for future posts…
Exclusive Press Kit
Don't really know why I am showing you the wristband but I think it's cool...
To kick things off, we were given a short run-through of the upcoming titles and their main “selling points” by Diana Tan, Marketing Manager for EA Singapore. The games on show truly emphasized EA’s vastly diverse portfolio from the casual (The Sims 3: Pets) to racing (Need For Speed: The Run) to role-playing games (Kingdom of Amalur, Mass Effect 3) and of course, sports (SSX, Grand Slam Tennis 2, FIFA Street and obviously, FIFA 12).
So many nice games... so little time to play them all..
The highlight of the day however, besides the scrumptious buffet spread generously provided (no pictures, was too busy eating), was the FIFA 12 showdown between our national football team custodian, Lionel Lewis, and Mio Stadium presenter, Soo Kui Jien. The two were introduced to the audience by Andy Penders, another personality who is surely familiar to most local football fans. Andy also acted as the colour commentator for the match, peppering the proceedings with bits of his signature irreverant humour. Both competitors admitted to be carrying injuries: Lionel injured his hip playing against Iraq for the Lions in a match we sadly lost 0-2, while Jien was nursing a rather less serious-sounding case of sore thumbs from excessive FIFA 12 practice.
The gladiators square off on stage.
With the FIFA veteran Lionel choosing the all-conquering Barcelona, it seemed likely that Jien, a self-confessed FIFA newbie who keeps getting trashed by Lionel in practice, looked set to have his hands full even with the mighty AC Milan at his disposal. The match itself turned out to be a very close affair with only a solitary goal from a penalty, cooly slotted away by Lionel after a rash challenge in the box by Jien, who earlier did admit he had the tackling prowess of a certain recently-retired Mr Scholes. Probably explains it then. Cue the mind games from Jien, who rather vociferously argued (in jest, of course) to the non-existent referee that it was never a foul but in truth, a blind man could have seen it. His passionate appeals to the crowd only succeeded in generating great peals of laughter.
Oi! Referee Kayu!
The mad rush for the few available demo stations began shortly after the final whistle. Luckily, most of the attendees were already well acquainted to each other so while waiting, we just stood around chatting and cracking jokes. I have always loved how the gaming media industry is so closely-knit. Every gaming event is like a school reunion!
Mass Effect 3
Need For Speed: The Run
Battlefield 3
Last but certainly not least, FIFA 12!
Personally, I just can’t wait for EA’s upcoming range of titles and of course, for their 2012 showcase! Wonder if I’ll get another invite next year?… *hint hint*
(P.S. Sorry for the terrible quality of the photographs. All I had on me was my iPhone 4. Yes, I do realise I should have brought along a proper camera…)
FIFA 12 PREVIEW PART 4
Greetings, football fans! Welcome to the last of our 4 part preview of FIFA 12. This week, we are taking a look at some of the new modes included in FIFA 12.
Of the new modes, the coolest one, in my humble opinion at least, looks to be the EA Sports Football Club, henceforth referred by the much more manageable EASFC. Much like the gameplay innovations mentioned in the previous posts, EASFC is a completely new addition to the series. It is a rather unique concept that is truly unlike anything you or I have ever seen before in a sports game or indeed, any game.
Perhaps the most apt way to descibe it would be a sort of “Facebook for FIFA”, if you will. It has been billed as a platform for the millions of FIFA player worldwide to connect to one another and through the game, effect some sort of social.
Indeed, it is a level of social networking for gamers the likes of which have been thus far unavailable. But EASFC also promises much more than just merely somewhere to interact and issue challenges to other players of the game.
(Disclaimer: These features are subject to change as the EASFC platform matures but these are tidbits of info I have managed to gather so far from the Alpha Build)
Anything and everything a player does in FIFA 12 promises to be rewarded with XP points. Everything from playing a friendly match to much heftier tasks like creating players in Creation Centre is a XP-rewardable action, though I would reckon the amount would vary depending on the difficulty of said task. Obvious, but hey, you never know…
All that hoarded XP will go not only towards leveling up your own rank (mostly only useful for striking a sense fear in newbies you play online) but also to contribute to the bigger picture of the Support Your Club mode, which in essence, will hopefully be the world’s largest interactive football league.
So, the premise is that I, as a Chelsea fan, will earn these XP points to not only boost my own online ranking but also play own little part in Chelsea’s continued well-being in said interactive league. As will all the other Blues fans around the world. And Manchester United fans for the Red Devils, Real Madrid fans for the Meringues, Woodlands Wellington fans for the Rams… Okay, maybe not that last one but you get my drift.
Based on the fervent support and/or obsessive XP-whoring of their supporters, clubs will then be placed in the appropriate leagues with other similar-tiered teams, regardless of the actual nationality of the club’s actual league. Interestingly, it is entirely possible for team like the Seattle Sounders, with the catchment area’s wealth of IT and gaming enthusiasts, to be placed in a league above the likes of Manchester City, who for all their own money and diehards are actually located in a relatively poor area of the UK .
How? Simple. It’s not just about who contributes the most total XP but rather the AVERAGE XP per supporter that is taken into account. So fear not Nottingham Forest fans, after 30 years, you could be back rubbing shoulders again with the likes of Barcelona and AC Milan at the top echelons of football, provided your supporters are decently handy with the game, of course. Smaller clubs can finally compete on an equal footing with the giants of world football. Gone is the gaping divide between the perennial haves and have-nots. And we may finally get to settle once and for all the age old question of which club’s fans have the most passionate FIFA players of all.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa game brought with it the insanely popular Scenario mode and if you’ve played that before, you’ll have an idea what the new Challenges mode entails. However, EA promises that Challenges will be of a much larger scale and that there is a whole development team solely dedicated to constantly updating the mode with cool new things to do all year round with playable scenarios based on the most exciting matches and storylines as they occur in real life.
You’ll be dropped into a game with pre-defined teams, players, scores and more, and your objective will be to complete the challenge we give you. Whether it’s to recreate history or rewrite it, you’ll get to relive all the great storylines in the world of football, earning valuable XP for yourself and your club as you do.
Taking a leaf out of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit’s book, FIFA 12 includes its very own take on the former’s wildly popular Autolog system. The News Feed system that will share your FIFA news and accomplishments with your friends on the fly, so they can see what you’ve been up to and you can see what they’ve been doing. The addictive thrill of rubbing your friends’ noses in real-time with your newly-attained skill move accomplishment or the burning desire to trump their latest win that just propelled them to the top of your friends leaderboard is undoubtedly going to be a driving factor to play more FIFA 12, and one that never feels like a chore.
And while you’ll be kept informed of all this activity in the game, you’ll also be able to share the news outside the game, whether on the easportsfootball.com website or on social networking sites. Cause sharing their shame on Facebook is just that much
sweeter, no?
All in all, do all these new bits and pieces warrant a purchase of a copy of FIFA 12? I’d say a resounding HELL YES! No self-respecting football fan should deprive himself of the chance to play the game which I daresay that promises the most authentic interactive adaptation of The Beautiful Game.
Singapore's Ultimate FIFA Fansite 