This is a solid football simulation that needs a new Career mode

Sep 28, 2012 12:47 GMT  ·  By

FIFA 13 is a huge game that offers a wealth of content for any football lover who can hold a controller (or get by with a keyboard and mouse setup), but for this Quick Look at the most recent installment I plan to focus on the Career Mode of the game.

As always, it offers a choice between Management or just being a player and then allows the gamer to pick his team and a few basic options for the season.

I picked my beloved Liverpool in a bid to build a new team and lead it towards long-term success and quickly got off to a less than glorious start by getting defeated in a pre-season friendly by Napoli.

I play six-minute halves with the A.I. on the Professional level and it offers a stiff challenge, especially when it comes to the defensive.

The computer knows to put bodies in front of the ball to block shots and defend in depth and I often found myself unable to score even if I had 8 or 9 shots on goal during a match.

There’s also danger when the A.I. attacks, mainly because it’s very capable of spotting running forwards and delivering solid passes to their feet.

Overall FIFA 13 feels very close to the real spectacle of football and the unpredictability adds emotion and tension to every match.

The simulation section seems a little bit more sluggish than in FIFA 12, probably because there are more details to keep track of.

EA Sports has also failed to make transfer offers realistic, with a number of players like Van Persie or Messi still over-priced when compared to their usefulness and solid mid-range players going for sums that would make a lower tier team able to pick up someone like Suso from Liverpool.

On the plus side, the presentation in the Career modes are much more attractive and there’s a nice felling of organic progression for a league over the long term.

Worth a full Softpedia review? Yes.