14 DAY TRIAL // EA Sports has opened up the FIFA Ultimate Team web game for fans of the long running football simulation series before the launch of its newest installment, which will be out tomorrow in North America and on Friday in Europe.
Those who own FIFA 11, 10 or 9 are now able to use their legacy log in details to access the EA Sports Football World website and then access the Ultimate Team mode.
Players are able to manage their dream team, bid on player auctions, create new tactics and trade players.
It seems that there's enough interest in the Ultimate Team mode that the website has been taken offline a few times, although it seems that EA Sports has since stabilized the situation.
The Ultimate Team game mode is an extension of the FIFA brand and allows players to create their own fantasy teams using a number of cards, some of them representing actual players and some linked to tactics and other on the field advantages.
After a team is created gamers can pit them against those made by their friends and there are also options for trading cards.
Players have reacted well to the Ultimate Team concepts after it was introduced in FIFA 09 and EA Sports has expanded on it since then, making it a unique selling point for the franchise.
FIFA 12 will be playable on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the Nintendo Wii, the PC, handhelds from Sony and Nintendo and devices from Apple powered by the iOS.
The game offers a number of improvements to gameplay, aiming to bring the simulation closer to the real feeling of football when it comes to both attack and defense.
The biggest chance is the Player Impact Engine, which eliminates canned animations and allows actual physics to determine what happens when players interact with each other and with the ball.