This is the nineteenth instalment to the ever popular fifa international football franchise produced by the Electronic Arts sports via the Canadian department and promised to change if not transform the football gaming world as we know it.

On the day of release ( 16th of September), two versions of the game was available, the ordinary game version consisting of the fifa 12 game and the ultimate edition which offered four monthly ultimate team gold packs (ultimate team would be discussed in much greater detail later on in this review), with each pack consisting of twelve random cards such as contracts, players,staff, manages, kits, stadiums and badges. Each packs also offered you the opportunity to aquire a rare card that could be an enhanced version of the above listed items.

As the name implies, fifa 12 is a football simulation video game based on and even imitates the real sport. The game boast fully licensed player names, clubs and likeness from Wayne rooney, Christiano Ronaldo and the ever green super human, heart of a lion Lionel Messi.

There are forty two national teams in Fifa 12, five of which were not included in fifa 11. But still missing this time around are key foot-balling nations like china, wales, Ukraine and my favorite team Nigeria player from these nations do feature in the game as their alter-egos in club modes. As far as leagues and clubs go not much has changed from fifa 11, 12 still has all the major leagues involves including all English leagues, French, Spanish, Italian, American and so on. For some reason though, it showcases clubs like Boca juniors and Orlando pirates as rest of the world even though they are clearly from argentine and south African leagues respectively strange.

56 stadiums made their homes in fifa12 nothing new here from its previous incarnate. The major stadiums included are Old Trafford, Emirates, Camp nou and so on.

Table of Contents as show in actual game: in fifa 12 this list is similar to that of its previous titles and changes made are mainly cosmetics. Below is a list of all the options you have in the game but i will only detail the ones which i feel has the most changes implemented on it.

1. EA Sports Football Club (EAS FC)
Leader board
News
Challenges
2. kick Off
Exhibition match
Be A Pro
Be A Goal keeper
3. Game Modes
Career Mode
Tournament Mode
Create a tournament
Live Season
4. Online Mode
Head to Head Season
Online friendlies
Pro clubs
Fifa Interactive World Cup
EA Sports Arena
Custom games
My fifa 12 online
5. Virtual pro
Accomplishments
Pro ranked match
Pro clubs
Edit pro
Download game face
6. Customize Fifa
Creation center
Edit teams
Edit /create players
My music and charts
Arena options
7. My Fifa 12
Credits
Fifa 12 profile
Interactive tutorial
In game manual
Replay theater
Friends records
8. Ultimate Team

9. Uefa Champions league:
A download-able content EA added in may 2012, the first time the European champions league game was not a stand alone title but an extra in fifa 12.Believe me this shows when playing the DLC for the first time, players are sluggish, do not have their real names and glitch graphics to say the least.

Most of the modes shown in the game's title menu are pretty much self explanatory, nothing new here. EA did not change anything here from the previous ten titles mainly just adding or expanding on a few of them. Below i will focus on the main additions to the games' mechanics as well as what i believe are the important reasons fifa has taken the rank of the number one football gaming experience on the planet.
When loading for the first time, the change in format is what draws the player in and whats' noticeable from the start is the EA Sports Football Club (EAS FC) feature.

EAS FC is an exciting new feature in fifa 12. As games play the game in any and every mode, they earn experience points. No matter what is done in the game and what ever mode the player chooses to play, experience points are earned. when a cap is reached on said earnings, they increase in level.

Before a ball is kicked on Fifa 12, gamers are prompted to choose a real world club which they would like to support, not to worry though this does not mean that you cannot play or use other clubs as you play through the game. Anytime experience point is earned, the chosen club earns experience points too and the club with the best total earning at the end of each week is showcased on a leader board for the world to see.

EAS FC further divided into three operate sections which can be accessed from the main menu at the start of every game.They include
leader board, challenge and news.
leader board: current experienced points earned and levels gained are shown on the leader board.
News show cases not only games progression through out the game but also that of their friends. what ever is achieved is shown here for all to see.

Challenge mode recreates or rewrites history. the game developers delivers all new challenges throughout the course of the the year by creating match scenarios of football games that has just happened.

Make or Break of FIFA 12
This section is based on my thought and what i believe has given fifa the edge over it's rival. Starting of with little tweeks which not necessarily Fifa 12 exclusive but where the reasons Fifa 12 is what it is today

Ultimate team mode
This is a download-able game mode expansion first introduced in the UEFA champions league game in 2006 introduced first in a fifa game in fifa 09. It lets users create their own teams by buying, selling, trading, and auctioning off their players with millions of other users. there is a currency used in this mode called surprising enough Coins which is earned by playing matches online and offline. these coins can then in turn be used to aquire not only stadiums, coaches, goal keeper coaches but also real world players of all skill sets, levels or attributes all can be used to create and customize unique teams.

The most imaginative idea that gives ultimate team its appeal comes to light when purchasing in-game "CARD PACKS".
Card packs are categorized as Gold (5,000 pts), Silver (2,500 pts), or Bronze (500 pts) these are the basic packs in each category but from time to time, the developers add more expensive but lucrative packs to the mix. Card pack contain random cards, so the user does not know exactly what he or she will get in them. if a player does not have enough coins to obtain a pack, they can opt to aquire said pack via using real world money as well.

My thoughts on Ultimate team: Even though this was not a feature first seen on fifa12 but in fact fifa09, i believe it still shapes the replay-ability aspect of the game. The fact players has full customizable control of their team, club and football players, this makes the possibility of creating any type of club team, national team and dream team a reality and i only play this mode to date. The fact you can take your custom team online also adds to its appeal.

User controlled celebrations:
Another feature first seen on fifa 09 ( Fifa 09 is the best fifa football game ever) enable a player choose from a variety of pre-loaded celebrations. this adds individually to the game and gives a player areal sense of involvement in the game. while other rival titles off similar styles, only the fifa franchise gives the player hundreds of celebrations to choose from

Skill moves:
A huge array of skills and tricks are available to use from the start and you are only limited by the agility of each individual player on the pitch. Each footballer has a particular skill rating 1-5 stars, where a one star player can do only the most basic of skill moves like the ball roll, a five star footballer can perform the most advanced tricks such as the hocus pocus, waka waka and so on. Again other titles have similar additions but non can match the ease and fluidity in which a gamer executes skill moves in fifa 12 giving it the edge.

The EA sports team behind the game where only too happy to introduce (Boast more like) three major improvement that they believed would change and enhanced our gaming experience this time around these were;

Tactical defending
The biggest change in the series since fifa international soccer i believe. it was a complete overhaul of the way defending is undertaken as a whole. in the past players defended the ball from attacking players individually.e on an 1on 1 basis with the occasion use of another player to help press a troublesome attacker.the entire series of defensive stats was based solely on the use of one button that would help press an attacking player and also steal the ball if the opportunity arises all that changed with the new system. With tactical defending, gone are the days of the one button defending and in come defense by luck and containing.

You defend as a team with this new system and and formulate a strategy to acquiring the ball from the attacking opposition. this is done mainly by crowding out the attackers and the tackling when the opportunity presents it’s self. the big difference from the previous system is the penalty for missing a tackle is much greater . if you miss, the recovery time is painfully long too long in fact.

Tactical defending my thoughts: This was a bad idea on the developers' part as it stunted the flow of an otherwise fluid game of simulated football. Before the game was involved two teams playing end to end free flowing football and now, well just contain till your opposition gets frustrated then tackle, counter attack and score.

Precision dribbling
Along with minor improvement in the 360 degree player control system introduced in fifa 10, in game player can not only dribble in 360 degrees but also turns are sharper and tighter then ever before when dribbling past other players and can now be done at walking pace at the touch of a button.

Precision dribbling my thoughts: excellent feature and is more than just cosmetic. skillful games benefit from this the most as they can take quick turns and slow the game down and speed it up better than ever before.

Collision detection
A new addition to fifa 12 ( yes there are a few). now if an in-game player collides with another, they both react (depending on what part of the body touches) how they would if a similarly accident happens in a real game. hence footballers will shift their balance or adjust their weight accordingly and if collision is severe, even injure particular body parts.

My thoughts on collision detection: Good idea at first, but after playing the game i feel it needs a lot of work. it was sid to mimic real life but does not, players tend to be elastic and bonce off one another and then create a chain reaction as the collision detection kicks in. for example if you had five player A-E, and A and B collided, more often than not B would bounce of A and in to C where the detection would kick in again causing C to bounce off B and in to D and so on and on. As far as i am concerned, this should be scraped from the games mechanics.

General game play after all these so called improvements seems very similar to fifa 11, passes are highly inaccurate, game play tends to freeze on occasion, collision detection is too sensitive making of a host of comedic errors when it occurs and the referee, well what can i say about the way the game is being refereed. for starters its quit acceptable but on a few occasions they do call the match wrong, like they are officiating a different match. off-side call are often wrong and because of the now notorious Collision detection, penalty calls are far from definite too. seems the developers were intrested more in impressing new customers by adding flashy new features, than keeping the legion if die hard customers happy and did not bother fixing the issues in the franchise.

Summary
Fifa 12 has come along way in the fight for football supremacy but i only took the fifa franchise seriously when the 09 version was realized and believe that the changes made over the years has only been cosmetic and that more emphasis has been made to bring in or change mechanics for me that really worked. why do such a thing surely if the game is loved as it is, you as a games developer would add more to it instead of removing what people like and adding what you believe works.
if it isn't broken don’t fix it concentrate on what is broken for example the game crashes a lot, freezes more that ever before and also most important fix the EA Servers, they are slow and not maintained.
These are the main issues that players been complaining about the last 5years focus on these issues instead of resting on your laurels.
Even with all its glitches and server issues fifa 12 is still head a shoulders above it's nearest rival and is very much worth its weight it gold.

Recommended: Yes