FIFA 13

Complete Dribbling


Moving vs Facing

Leap in dribbling tech likened to the changes from FIFA 09 to FIFA 10 in terms of progress. To quote Aaron Mchardy, it’s a “Way bigger feature than Precision Dribbling”.
Real world example shown of Nasri in his previous trophyless life cutting into the box from the top right hand corner towards goal. You see that whilst he’s facing goal, he’s able to move sideways without changing the direction he’s facing.
FIFA 13 example shown of a player dribbling through 360 degrees whilst continuing to face forwards, think of Streetball control from FIFA Street. It looks a bit like that, but without the players foot rolling over the top of the ball at any point.
Move direction and face direction have been seperated to allow all this to work.
In FIFA 13 you now have 360 degrees of movement and 360 degrees of facing.
Facing Up Defenders

FIFA 13 example shown of Cristiano Ronaldo taking on a defender on the left wing towards the corner flag. Being faced up to the defender allows him to slide right, then drop his shoulder and shift left quickly and round the defender just by dribbling and putting in a change of pace.
System was complicated in previous years, with overly complex button inputs to achieve various dribbling techniques. Now everything has been boiled down to the left stick and will work contextually without the need for extra input.
Second FIFA 13 example shown of Messi taking the ball down the right hand side of the pitch in a typical FIFA dribbling style, head down faced, squarely facing forward. As the defender in front of him closes in he opens his body up and faces a little more towards goal, allowing him to beat the player and put a cross in just with a quick burst of pace.
Angle of facing determined by by LS input and angles to goal, as well as the players speed and the position of the defender.
The facing system will not hinder player movement, the facing angle is based on the position of the defender or the position of the goal dependent on context.
360 Shielding

Separating facing from movement direction has also had a positive effect on shielding. Players can now move whilst shielding without leaving the ball in overly exposed positions like they would in FIFA 12.
Players have the ability to properly face away from defenders when shielding providing a wider range of protection when holding the ball up.
Precision 2.0

Influence taken from FIFA Street, players can now drag the ball around in a way similar to Streetball Control, but it looks a lot more natural than you’d think. It’s not just been cut and pasted as a feature.
FIFA 13 example shown of Walcott wrong footing a defender by aiming to go one way and then quickly going the other.
Narrows the scope even more than precision dribble, giving more finite control.
 
Attacking Intelligence


Decisive Runs

In FIFA 12 players only evaluated the endpoint of a run, meaning that as the position of players around them changed, they’d change their mind and end up not making a run that was of any use to you.
In FIFA 13 the entire length of the run is considered by the player when making run choices, meaning they can make their runs with more conviction and make runs that are no longer broken as the play changes around them.
Test bed example shown of a player making a run towards the top left hand side of the box with the ball being brought down the right wing. As the player approaches the area he decides that the front post is the best place for him to be and sharply changes his run, cutting round the defender and meeting the ball at the front post.
Players can now curve their runs around defenders to get themselves into the space behind.
Curving To Stay Onside

FIFA 12 example shown of player making a forward run, turning back to face his team to stay onside then needing to make another 180 turn to continue his run. The whole process was jerky and unintuitive.
Real World example shown of Van Persie against Chelsea curving his run and slowing slightly to stay onside without having to turn around.
FIFA 13 example shown of a player making a similar run to the FIFA 12 example, this time the player slows/stutters his run whilst still facing towards goal, resulting in him being able to take the ball into the path of his run behind the defender.
Players able to curve their runs out and back in to stay onside whilst maintaining forward momentum.
AI Players now have the tools/animations to communicate their intentions to you, so that you can better understand what they’re going to do.
Opening Passing Channels

Real world example shown of Van Persie making a quick change of direction whilst running into the box (off the ball) to lose the defender and open up space to recieve a pass.
FIFA 13 example shown of player being aware that they aren’t in a position to recieve the ball and cutting their run to lose the defender and open up a passing channel.
Second FIFA 13 example shown of a player making a curved run away from a defender to create a wider space between them. This not only allows for them to take the ball in their path but to also lose the defender completely.
Curving To Space Behind

Real world example shown of Park (The good one, not the Arsenal one) laying the ball off to Rooney in the box and curving around the defender in front of him, into the space behind, to recieve the return ball and take a shot.
FIFA 13 example shown of the same scenario. The attacker recognises that he needs to be in the space behind the defender and curves his run out, then back in so that when he collects the ball, he’s facing goal rather than the corner flag.
Second FIFA 13 example shown of play breaking forward, with a player in running slightly ahead of the ball carrier but with a defender in his path. Whereas in FIFA 12 the prescense of the defender would have forced the player to split his run at a roughly 45 degree angle and almost remove himself from play, this year he’s able to maintain the forward path of his run by curving around the defender into the space behind.
2 Plays Ahead

Players now think 2 plays ahead allowing them to position themselves much more effectively on the pitch.
FIFA 13 example shown of the ball being passed along the back line from left to right. As the LCB recieves the ball from the LB you can see the RB start to make a run forward as he’s decided that the RCB is likely to be the next recipient.
Second FIFA 13 example shown of a CM recieving the ball from the left wing. You can see both of his supporting midfielders on the right side start their runs early, meaning that they’re in a much more advanced position when they recieve the ball.
Players will put less emphasis on staying in formation and more on expected outcomes when deciding on where to position themselves.
Players will no longer wait for play to come to them before looking to get involved, meaning you’ll see a lot more off the ball movement.
Awareness of who is expected to recieve the ball next works with the new run types, allowing players to make concise runs into useful areas even if they aren’t directly involved in the play at that moment.
Other Bits And Pieces

Fatigue will be a factor with attacking AI. Particularly short term fatigue.
Attributes will be considered when calculating player movement.
To combat this additional attacking AI, EA have added Lateral Contain to the defensive system. This will allow defenders to not only close down/drop off but also to contain laterally to show an attacker down the line or inside.
 
First Touch Control


Contextual First Touch

In FIFA 13 the quality of a players first touch is now determined by a new context based system which factors in pass speed, pass type, ball height, player pressure, body position, motion, player attributes and also weather.
There is now genuine separation between control touches and the ball itself, the ball is no longer “glued” to the players feet.
First Touch Control is designed to create more “battle for possession” opportunities, allowing defenders to step in when an opposition player takes a heavy touch.
Not every poor touch will result in you losing the ball. First Touch Control also works visually so whilst you might maintain possession the ball may “pop-up” or bobble making your next pass more difficult.
First Touch Control creates genuine risk when taking a touch in a difficult situation. As a defender especially you’ll need to decide when to clear and when to take a touch. EA want the system to make you think more like a real footballer.
Heavy control touches can be calmed by slowing from a full sprint to receive passes.
In some instances having a slightly heavy first touch can work to your advantage because the ball will move out of your feet and in to space.
First Touch Control aims to provide variation in first touch all over the pitch, rather than the uniformed perfect touch seen in FIFA 12.
Passing Changes
New contextual pass types have been added to FIFA 13 resulting in players automatically elevating passes if a defender is in their way.
Passes in FIFA 13 can now be over-hit which introduces a risk/reward element between pass speed and First Touch Control.
The First Touch Control system has allowed EA to open up the pass speed range as players no longer take the perfect touch every time.
A new suite of animations for clearances have been added to FIFA 13.
 
Impact Engine


The Fixes

The Impact Engine in FIFA 13 has a much better understanding of how to resolve complex collision situations. When players fall on each other, new logic has been added to get players to roll away rather than trying to stand up together.
Joint tensions and strengths have been realigned from the bottom up to resolve issues with broken limbs and players exploding off one another. In FIFA 12 joints strengths were quite simply too strong, this has now been resolved.
Referees now have a much better understanding of contact situations and will react much better to collisions and obstruction.
Push Pull

Push Pull can now happen all over the pitch in FIFA 13 wheras in FIFA 12 it was restricted to only the player with the ball and the defender in contact.
Players will now be genuinely affected in Push Pull situations and can now be knocked off balance by defenders. This could result in the player losing the ball, a freekick or it could cause an off balance shot or pass.
A new range of off balance player animations have been added to FIFA 13 to compliment this.
Defenders now have better decision logic to chose whether it’s more effective to Push or Pull in different situations. For example, defenders will now use their body to step across attackers to push in front of them.
Referees now have a much better understanding of Push Pull situations.
New intelligence has been added so that defenders will shield the ball as it runs out of play.
As a defender in FIFA 13 you need to find a balance between what you can and can’t do to unsettle an opposition player using Push Pull.
 
Tactical Freekicks


Attacking Options

You will now be able to have up to three players over the ball in freekick situations.
Anyone of these players can perform dummies at the freekick and once they have run over the ball they remain active as a passing option for the kick taker.
Tactical Freekicks will allow you to create your own options from dead ball situations as well as shooting or crossing for team mates already in the box.
A new suite of shot animations have been added to FIFA 13.
A new suite of goal celebrations have been added to FIFA 13.
Defensive Options

To combat the multiple dummy runs the defensive wall can now reform after jumping for the first time, allowing them to try and block for a second time.
Players can now be added and subtracted from the wall, allowing complete control of your defensive setup depending on the location of the freekick.
In FIFA 13 you can now set a charging player from the wall to close down freekicks which are passed, or tee’d up for more powerful shots.
In FIFA 13 you can now creep the wall forwards to shorten the distance to the kick taker.
Creep too far though and the referee will push the wall backwards and or book a member of your team who was present in the wall.
 
AI thinking two or three steps ahead...?

Dribbling working just with the left-stick contextually...?

Ballcontrol becoming realistic with error...?



Sounds all good, hopefully the talk about the dribbling means that proper footplanting and a realistic inertia/momentum-model got implemented.

If yes and they do all this in a satisfactory way, it will not only look but also feel like football.

After that what then remains to be done properly is the tactical side (PES is lightyears ahead in that area) of the game but I guess that would be too much to ask for, maybe for fifa 14?
 
henrys hand said:
AI thinking two or three steps ahead...?

Dribbling working just with the left-stick contextually...?

Ballcontrol becoming realistic with error...?



Sounds all good, hopefully the talk about the dribbling means that proper footplanting and a realistic inertia/momentum-model got implemented.

If yes and they do all this in a satisfactory way, it will not only look but also feel like football.

After that what then remains to be done properly is the tactical side (PES is lightyears ahead in that area) of the game but I guess that would be too much to ask for, maybe for fifa 14?
Click to expand...

Yep this game is sounding like PES but with upto date graphics, animations and sound. That can only be a good thing!!!!

Yeah i think we need to wait til new engine/gen for a complete tactical side overhaul.
 
Same as every year, it's just gameplay with the first announcement. You prob won't get any Clubs news till the arse end of August.
 
I made some notes of the video we watched shortly after the webcast. Not sure if there's anything new in there - FSB were pretty thorough.

I don't really want to be subjective about what we've seen yet (though I think I said a couple of things looked useful or cool, which tbf they did), but I do feel quite positive about these changes at this stage, and I think/hope there will be a significant impact on tactical variety as a result. The AI changes alone seem like they will remove a lot of the tactical inertia that makes teams play almost identically at the moment.

I am a bit annoyed that sites like Eurogamer have talked about these changes as being conservative - on paper, to football fans, these changes seem at least as big as adding impact engines etc.


FIFA 13 Community Webcast
Nick Channon - Producer
Aaron McHardy – Lead Gameplay Producer


Attacking AI
• In FIFA 12, players would make odd runs. Stop-start runs, or strikers running out wide. This is because of how the game analysed potential runs. The game would just look at the end point of a run, and not really think about how useful the run would be at various stages through the course of the run. So if a defender moves so that the end point isn’t as useful, the player would look for another destination. Would become jittery, or the run would end up being something silly.

• In FIFA 13, players analyse the usefulness of the entire run. Much more stable and assertive. Shows a striker making an effective near post run from the far edge of the D.

• Added the ability for strikers to curve their run and slow down, keeping their hips forward and maintaining most of their momentum until the pass is made. Shows Van Persie v Chelsea as real world example.

• Show Van Persie v Sunderland, stopping a forward run and cutting inside, losing his defender to create space for a shot.

• Show a FIFA 13 testbed example of a striker curving away from his marker to create some space and open a channel for the passer. So forwards don’t just run along with their marker in tow – they look to lose their marker and create passing space.

• Show Park Ji Sung’s goal in preseason where Giggs plays a nice first time pass into space. Park curves his run around a defender – in FIFA 12 a straight line would have stopped him making that run. They show a similar curved run in FIFA 13.

• Another curved run shown – striker inside centre circle on the break, can run either side of a defender running straight at him. Curves run to dodge defender and carry on towards goal; player can now pass to him in a threatening position, rather than him running off to the side of the pitch a la FIFA 12.

• Overall intention is to make more sophisticated, fluid attacking play, whereas FIFA 12 was quite rigid and lifeless. Tactical defending created a lot of space on the pitch, but the AI didn’t use it. Now they do.

• AI now makes runs thinking 2 moves ahead. Shows players passing around the back – the LB has the ball, facing the LCB. The LCB is seen as the likely ‘1st move’, as he would be in FIFA 12. But the RCB is also thinking about where he should be once the LCB receives the ball. The RCB is seen as the 2nd move. So both players are thinking about how to contribute to play. The RCB sidesteps away into space. And as the LCB receives the ball, the next 2nd move is determined (in this case the RB). So the RB starts moving up the pitch into space as the LCB gets the ball. So in FIFA 12 these players would stay in position and not really contribute until asked. Now they do.

• Show another example – LCM receives the ball, the RCM makes a move forward, and the RM runs down the flank losing his marker. The LCM passes to the RCM, he then turns and releases the RM who is now through on goal.

• Third example. ACM has the ball at tip of diamond. RS is most likely passing option, LS is 2nd move. RS makes a move slightly wide and towards the box which his marker tracks; the LS is also curving a run off the shoulder to lose his marker, receives the through ball across the edge of the box from the RS, and shoots (and misses).

• Defending has not yet been changed really – Def AI was designed to be separate from Attack, so they could replace Attack system and the Def would adapt to face what’s put in front of it. So a lot of work still to be done in terms of balancing and tuning to deal with the new Attack, but Aaron says because of the way def was designed, it is already holding up ok. Balance is important to them so they won’t be releasing a game that is a goalfest.



Complete Dribbling
• Considered as big a change to dribbling in football games as 360 movement.

• ‘360 degree mobility’. Direction of movement and direction you’re facing can be separated. Show Nasri’s goal vs Fulham for Arsenal as an example.

NASRI GOAL

• Shows Ronaldo moving towards a full-back, facing the defender and moving to his 2 o’clock, able to then cut back outside quickly and wrongfoot the fullback because the direction he’s facing leaves that option open to him.

• Can use Messi-style ‘facing up’ at jog speed, basically running sideways to face the defender, before then sprinting the same direction of movement. Looks like typical Messi.


• New version of precision dribbling allows you to shield the ball while on the move (facing away, rather than facing up). Uses L1(?)+LS. Again, looks nice, organic, and useful to boot. Esp compared to FIFA 12's precision dribbling, which I thought was a bit pap.

• FIFA version of the Street Control (keeping the ball in one close area, with your foot on the ball to move it around). Shows Ronaldo shifting the ball from one foot to the other. Looks like the L2+RS-back trick in FIFA 12. Shows Walcott shifting the ball right and then left, sending the defender the wrong way and buying him space infield for a pass. Like a much more sophisticated version of the L2 dragback that can go in several directions. Controlled with the Left Stick.

• Complete dribble is context sensitive to an extent, so people of all abilities get to use aspects of it. Movement speed during these moments is identical whether complete dribbling or not; however you can use shoulder button modifiers to deliberately use complete dribble, and modify the speed.


First Touch
• Show the amazing ‘Dinho first touch – say FIFA 12 was too much like this, because no real first touch mechanic was in place.

• Show 50-rated ball control defender taking a very comfortable touch. No sense of stress or effort. Also show Walcott sprinting onto a hard pass and taking a good touch.

• Show examples of real players taking looser touches – the ball bouncing up, or pinging away, because the touch was hard. Also Drogba using a loose, heavy touch to wrongfoot a Wolves defender.

• New first touch system is not random – it’s based on pass weight, height, which foot is used (I think?), weather conditions, and amount of pressure. Can use all this to match quality of touch to quality of player.

• Shows Drogba chesting a long ball down. Ball pops off chest a yard or two, has to move to ball in order to carry it away.

• Shows a (West Brom?) player take a very loose touch –long ball dropping over his shoulder, takes touch 5 yards or so to his 4-5 o’clock, has to run back and gather the ball. Not sure if direction is due to error? Looks great though. Shows Blackburn defender collecting deep cross in the rain, ball pops right up to head height, has to wait for it to drop down before he can change direction. Shows David Luiz control a long ball with much more composure.

• Defender should pressure attacker at point of first touch to encourage loose control; defender should look to hoof the ball clear or pass it away if under pressure, rather than risk loose touch and attacker dispossessing. Should make you ‘think more like a defender’, like tactical defending. Show examples of defender being dispossessed due to loose touch rather than clearance, and example of Gervinho taking a long diagonal ball first time towards goal, the ball popping up, and the defender getting across by the time the ball drops. If Gervinho had slowed down at point of touch, ball would have stayed closer to him.

• How do you avoid lob through ball exploits? Say that, so far, the introduction of first touch actually reduces lob through ball effectiveness. Without first touch, easy to take difficult passes down and get ready for the shot. Now it’s much more awkward.

• Brian asks about Passing speed. Pass speed has been improved because of first touch control. In 11 and 12, passes could not really be overhit because a hard pass was just as easy to control as a soft one – so why play a soft pass? Now, you can hit passes harder because there is a side effect.



Impact Engine Improvements
• Lots of little improvements, just covering the key ones for now.

• Shows the Carroll Kiss. Zooms in, little heart outline at point of kiss…

• Did a bad job in FIFA 12 working out who was on top (NSFW etc).

• For 13, improved how entangled players get up – player on top uses roll away animation, player underneath waits before moving.

• Also show ‘broken arms’, hooked on the player behind. Looked at things like that, and players exploding away from each other. Worked out it was due to unrealistic strength values used in 12 to get better results in certain cases. They’ve now more or less sorted this.

• Stumble animation when being push-pulled. Can use it to put player off balance and take another touch (hopefully not as bad as recent PES’s!). Can also use push-pull to force striker off balance at time of shot.

• Game does better job knowing when to push and when to pull. In 12 defender behind striker might push, keeping the striker ahead of him, rather than pulling to bring him closer! Now sorted.

• Have coded refs to far better understand when push-pull is illegal – strikers can actually be pulled to the ground or pushed over.

• Can push-pull before a player gets the ball.

• Defenders can use their body to block off the attacker when he’s knocked the ball past – when you press the StandTackle/PushPull button and the ball is well beyond tackle reach, the defender will move in front of the attacker. Also have options to shepherd the ball out (using L2+R2?), or get in the way of the attacker and let a teammate pick up the loose ball.

Tactical Free Kicks
• 3rd kicker option. As 2nd and 3rd kickers make dummy runs, you can pass to them (or the guy waiting for indirect free kick). Left up to you for creativity.

• Wall can reform if they jump early, and get ready to jump .

• Can add players to wall. Can also edge forwards, but ref can book one of your wall .

• Player in the wall can charge forward – if faked, then can reform and then charge out again to block indirect kicker (for eg).

• No mention of improvement to free kick taking itself, re: trajectories or better use of the left stick.


Misc
• Refereeing decisions have been improved

• CPU AI much more human, more ‘inviting’ at lower difficulty levels.

• Fundamentals: Lateral contain movements – can move sideways, not just forward and back, to show player on weaker foot or block off the cross. Still looks too instant.

• New pass type – better players can lift ground passes over defender’s leg.

• Players can make headed goal-line clearances that go over for a corner.

• Apparently lateral contain makes a big difference – much more fidelity and tactical edge to defending now.

• EA have budgeted some free time into their dev cycle for adding cool little things that will add something to the game.
 
Tons of labels for the improvements, contextual bla, active bla, first bla... They are becoming empty after usingthem too much.
 
bobfifalas said:
Tons of labels for the improvements, contextual bla, active bla, first bla... They are becoming empty after usingthem too much.
Click to expand...

It's the usual PR-namegame, features are labeled in such a way so that they are easily recognizable and referenceable.

I don't care about the PR at all, but I'm interested to play Fifa 13 myself to see if the changes in ballcontrol, dribbling and AI made the game more like football.

And I hope a realistic inertia/momentum-model got implemented alongside these changes, cause otherwise it's all for nothing.

The tactical side of the game needs though a major overhaul as well, but I don't expect anything substantial on that front for Fifa 13.
 
Fitst Touch Control is a wonderful addiction, it may give a better feeling of unpredictability that i miss so much In Fifa, the fight for ball possesion can be more interesting, the need for a second touch to shoot or pass properly after a not so good first Touch can improve the realism nicely.

I just hope they implement this "feature" properly, not like the pro passing In Fifa 11 that was nothing contextual (logical), based on my personal experience on the demo.
 
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My understanding of english can be suspect so please anyone help me understand better the "complete dribbling"
 
Same sh*t different year ;).

For how long will people get overjoyed with such lame PR? Haven't you had enough in past 3 years? ;)

Wait for the demo... On paper every FIFA should be the best game ever :D. Yet we know, it isn't.

Can't wait to see the demo. Though not going to be impressed by graphics (not on PC, no way), but if they improve the gameplay... Who knows. Maybe I will buy 2 copies again like I did with 10 (10 on PS3, 11 on PC :P).
 
Press release sounds good but surprisingly short. They'll need to be more specific regarding the AI for me to get my hopes up.

They had to use the word "revolution" again didn't they? There's one every year... Brilliant PR.
 
While all of those new features are great to read, am I the only thinking?

1. In Fifa 12, attackers could only run in straight lines and had no thought to context?!

2. In Fifa 12, attackers would shadow their defenders instead of looking for space?!

3. In Fifa 12, all players had the same first touch settings?!

I mean, seriously?!
 
Are you really surprised about the 3rd? In FIFA 09 I think it was every player could even trap a ball from behind perfectly with their NOSE... good times.

I like the sound of some of these things. But I'm not sure their AI changes actually means more realistic movements and teamwork. Probably improved, but it's a big difference between that and actual patterns from real life.

First touch is great, finally, but why only FIRST touch and not EVERY touch? They had some running examples, but even with a bad first touch, I guess every other touch while sprinting is perfect again? Meaning everyone has predictable movements while running. That's not even close to how it is in real life.

Also if any of the people that has seen this webcast are allowed to comment on the big one, momentum/inertia, it would be appreciated. I guess maybe it's the same as ever, since not being mentioned. Momentum/inertia and that every player can't dribble perfectly with both feet is quite high on my list I think. How about putting off some dev time to fix that instead of new flair passes ;)
 
henrys hand said:
It's the usual PR-namegame, features are labeled in such a way so that they are easily recognizable and referenceable.

I don't care about the PR at all, but I'm interested to play Fifa 13 myself to see if the changes in ballcontrol, dribbling and AI made the game more like football.

And I hope a realistic inertia/momentum-model got implemented alongside these changes, cause otherwise it's all for nothing.

The tactical side of the game needs though a major overhaul as well, but I don't expect anything substantial on that front for Fifa 13.
Click to expand...

This. Actually tons of good things in Fifa games. But that's the main reason I only play Fifa maximum 10 games a year, I don't feel the players:RANT:
 
Definitely peaked my interest. EA certainly know how to PR and say the right things, their video presentations are always flawless.

Don't buy too much into it though, isn't this basically admitting Personality+ was an absolute scam? What about that video they demo'd of passing vision in practice? I don't know if its a case of just being a really shallow cosmetic implementation, or just a last minute scaling down by the lead developer to not compromise the casual market.

Either way, reading that has definitely given me incentive to try the demo this year.
 
Agree with Danny here. It all sounds good but both points you raised were meant to improve gameplay and I haven't noticed them much. If players are going to think 2 plays ahead, then we should expect the whole team to be positioned accordingly. But players need to provide options, not just be shadowed by defenders who are also thinking 2 plays ahead, or conversely, not moving to cover the space.

Balance is the key, which is what they've said.

Personally, I'd love to see the contextual dribbling of FIFA street introduced and tricks be made contextual rather than button mashing options.
 
info0 said:
Same sh*t different year ;).

For how long will people get overjoyed with such lame PR? Haven't you had enough in past 3 years? ;)

Wait for the demo... On paper every FIFA should be the best game ever :D. Yet we know, it isn't.

Can't wait to see the demo. Though not going to be impressed by graphics (not on PC, no way), but if they improve the gameplay... Who knows. Maybe I will buy 2 copies again like I did with 10 (10 on PS3, 11 on PC :P).
Click to expand...

IMo each year there has been improvemnets in the gameplay 10>11>12 etc...

Though some only slight
 
Wow... EA really focusing on the things that matter this year it seems. Impressive. Let's hope all this is true.
 
I'm going to take my usual stance when it comes to EA Sports PR.

They know how to talk the talk, they are the masters at it. Rarely though do they actually deliver on the hype they create.

My cynical/pessimistic views on the "main features":

Impact Engine - Not new, basically they're trying to come up with an elaborate way of saying it's tweaked.

Tactical Free Kicks - How useful will this actually be?... When we first got the ability to add a second kicker to do lay-offs etc. (PES3? earlier?) it probably sounded good in theory but added precious little to the realism or effectiveness of set pieces.
How about the "Set Piece Creator" from FIFA 10? EA pretty much made up a song and dance about that and it was so broken they didn't even allow it to be used online.

Attacking AI - This is a priority and I just hope they can execute this time around. It's still hard to forget their boasting about their super-smart "300 decisions-per-second" AI in FIFA 07 or 08 when it was actually piss-poor.

First Touch - Another priority, and their description makes it sound like they understand the issue at hand. As Gab says though, why only first touch?

Complete Dribbling - I'm pretty sure this is a feature they removed at some point? In FIFA 08 I clearly remember a command that allowed you to face towards the goal but dribble in any direction, and it pissed me off how it was absent in FIFA 09. Previous football games have allowed you to face up to a defender or sidestep away from challenges, and I remember scoring a goal very similar to that Nasri example in PES5 using sidesteps.

As always, I'd love to be proved wrong and have EA hit the nail on the head with every aspect, it's just that from experience I've learned to expect the worst when it comes to EA and their promises.
 
I like playing Fifa but it still didn't create the feeling that I relive the real thing. When I play more than 5 games, the matches looks like the same...Also all defenders are great and alle fast midfielders do play the same game. It doesn't matter if I'm playing with Holtby or Ozil and that's a miss.....Fifa must find a way to put Player Individuality in the game.
 
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