14 DAY TRIAL // EA Sports, the simulation-oriented division of publisher Electronic Arts, has announced that two of the biggest stars of English football, Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney and midfielder Jack Wilshere from Arsenal, have been drafted to star on the cover of FIFA 12.
This particular cover will be used for the version of the game that will be sold in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Middle East and in Scandinavia.
Different star players will be used in other markets in order to appeal to more local club loyalties.
Wayne Rooney has long been seen as the best forward in England, even though he has had a pretty dry scoring spell during the first half of the season, while Wilshere is seen as being the great big hope of the nation.
When American football stars are chosen for the cover of the Madden NFL 12 they are said to be affected by a sort of curse which makes their next season less than impressive, but no such phenomenon has been seen for the FIFA cover stars.
EA Sports has said that FIFA 12 is one of the most innovative titles in the series' history, because it introduces significant changes to the attack and defense phases and also to how the players interact with each other.
The Player Impact Engine makes sure that actual physics are used any time two players interact and also have the ball to worry about and the game no longer uses any pre-made animations to simulate contact.
I had some hands-on time with FIFA 12 at E3 and the changes really have an impact on the experience.
FIFA 12 will be launched on September 27 in the United States and the usual three days later in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe and players will be able to enjoy it on the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, the PC, the PS2, the Nintendo Wii and the usual slew of mobile devices.