Reviews// FIFA 13

In Manager Mode if you become a good enough manager at club level you're also able to take control of your national side, which makes this the most complete single-player football experience there is on offer. Well, maybe apart from New Star Soccer.

Ultimate Thrill
Ultimate Team is still fantastic. It's a game mode that started off as a simple idea distributed as DLC and is now considered a major selling point for the series. Not much has been added this year but if you enjoyed the game mode in the past you'll find no reason to fall out of love with it this time.

The only real addition to modes of play are the addictive Skill Games. Used in place of the arena loading screens they offer little mini games of increasingly challenging tasks including passing accuracy, shooting speed, lob shots and more. They can also be accessed in the main menu and they're a nice little way to train yourself up on the more advanced playing techniques.

Football Talk
The Xbox 360 version of the game is treated to Kinect functionality, and although the concept is a nice one, it really hasn't been used to its full potential.

Calling out substitutions works and saves you going through menus, but you're only able to use the Kinect features when playing alone. If you play online you still have to sit and wait while your opponent pauses and makes his subs the old fashioned way and I can only assume this is to stop any unwanted changes when chatting to your friend over voice coms.

It's an understandable design decision, but a disappointing one that feels as though the feature is only put in to have that purple band on the box.

FIFA 13
There's no doubt FIFA 13 is the best football game EA has delivered and arguably the best football game to be released, but all these tweaks and minor improvements aren't enough to make this feel like a completely new game.

Those coming from FIFA 12 will appreciate the work done but will also notice how much is left untouched. There are a few cases of not fixing the broken, but a few complaints still remain in the series.

The main issue is how on rails it feels when played side by side with PES 2013. Each pass feels magnetically attracted to the receiver. Each shot follows one of a few lines towards the goal. Where PES manages to replicate the manic nature of the beautiful game, FIFA reduces it to a set of rules.

There's also the issue with the speed that the game plays out. FIFA 13 is lightening quick. Too quick in fact... to the point where the original concept of the game representing the real sport is completely chucked out of the window. Although this means that end-to-end play is more likely, it does dip the series in a coat of 'Arcade Football' stench.

No One Likes Us. We Don’t Care.
Despite all this, looking at it as a standalone product there is no doubt how huge this game has become. Loading it up for the first time is quite a daunting task, because you simply won't know where to start.

You can play against the competent AI, or you can play side by side with friends. You can take it online against randoms or compete in two-team leagues against anyone on your Friends List.

There are Manager modes and Be-a-Pro modes; you can take other players on 1-on-1 or you can join 21 other players and take part in a full-on football war.

Most of you will find your favourite mode and stick with it. I know many people who have never been online. I also know many that haven't even stepped into the world of 'Career Mode'.

That's what is truly fantastic about this game. The years and years of additions and improvements have culminated in this giant package that will offer fans hundreds of hours of play, whatever it is they are looking to get out of a football game.

Those who have fallen out of love with the series will find nothing here that will drag them back. Many have now turned to the vastly improved PES series and it's understandable. Too much of the same thing can get tired and boring.

But those who are happy with what EA is doing will spend another year with a fantastic football game full of modes, teams, players, stats and some of the best presentational work you will see in any game on any console.

As for those who are picking up their first football game for a few years, there's no real contest. They should get this.

Pros
+ The best football game on the market
+ One of the biggest packages on offer in gaming
+ Gameplay improved, if only slightly

Cons
- Not a big enough step forward for the series
- Gameplay doesn't capture the unpredictability of the sport.

SPOnG Score: 8/10