FIFA 12 PREVIEW PART 2

Greetings football fans and welcome to the second part of my preview.

After our last look at the main interface changes of FIFA 12, we now move on to the game engine changes. As all hardcore gamers can attest to, while it is important for a game to look nice, the primary concern is that it must play well.

To that end, David Rutter, lead producer of FIFA 12 over at EA Canada, has boldly promised “a revolutionary year for FIFA … especially in the gameplay department.” And indeed, true to his claim, FIFA 12 does sport several unique features over its predecessors. But are the self-proclaimed “holy trinity” worthy of deification or merely false gods? Let us examine them individually in greater detail, starting with the most-hyped of the trio, the fancy, new Impact Engine.

After a long development phase lasting several years, the Impact Engine has finally been included for the first time in this year’s game. Touted to enhance collision variety, accuracy, and momentum preservation, this is, Rutter claims, the biggest single technological breakthrough since the series made the transition to the current generation of consoles.

From what I could see during my short time with the game, the way the players seem to physically joust and clatter into one another just seems that little bit more realistic. Gone are the obviously canned collision animations of yesterday.The game seemed fluid and dynamic, in keeping with the claim that the collision physics produce differing results each time depending on the way the players are moving at the time and the physical forces involved in the challenges. A definite leap in the right direction for a game obsessed with translating the  utmost realism from stadium to screen

Have you guys ever experienced those awkward-looking collisions in the previous editions of FIFA where the players seem to “clip” through one another after a tackle or aerial challenge? Well, thankfully, that is all now a thing of the past. The players seem to be more solid, physical entities, bouncing off torsos and other assorted outstretched limbs and body parts realistically instead of melding into some form of strange Dr Moreau-esque monstrosity at each coming-together.

Also, the Impact Engine also apparently directly affects injuries sustained by players during a match, but I was not able to cause an injury and not for the lack of trying, might I add. Sliding tackle after sliding tackle flew in in my pursuit of that elusive injury, though in hindsight, perhaps I should have tried it specifically on someone fragile like a Jonathan Woodgate or even better, Owen Hargreaves. These guys could have injured themselves from a particularly violent sneeze, let alone a scything tackle from behind. But I digress.