14 DAY TRIAL // One of the new elements that FIFA 13 brings to the long-running franchise is the new Skills Games, which pop up as matches are being loaded or can be accessed on their own from the main menu of the game.
I initially had no real interest in playing them and I came into FIFA 13 looking to quickly get to grips with the main changes, launch a new career as the manager of Liverpool, my favorite team, and then get a solid multiplayer rivalry going with my co-workers.
But the developers at EA Sports were very smart and introduced a random Skill Game in the loading space before all matches, where previous game in the series allowed the player to just run around the pitch and practice his moves.
The Skill Games manage to accomplish the same objective of preparing the player for the match but they do it organically, allowing the player to practice a set of moves that will then become very important to him if he wants to actually be competitive in FIFA 13.
And they are addictive in a way that only Facebook and mobile games have been for me in the past.
I sometimes actually fail to press Start in order to launch an actual match in FIFA 13 just so I can practice a little more, and there are times when I start the game and find myself heading away from the Load Career option in order to try and reach another level in the shooting practice.
The only problem I have with the Skill Games is that they might become popular enough to make them one of the core features of the FIFA franchise and usurp the focus on the matches, in a manner similar to how Ultimate Team became a selling point in the last few years.