FIFA by EA Sports is one of the most played sports game in the world. Earlier, it faced heavy competition from PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) in terms of game play, but since FIFA 11 was released, it has improved in leaps and bound. FIFA 12 is the best from EA Sports so far. The brilliant individual player control and intelligent CPU game play along with numerous new features in various modes has made it the best football game in the market.

FIFA 12 Arena

Let’s start with the game play; the player control has been massively improved. Unlike earlier versions of FIFA, FIFA 12 has slowed down the game speed which gives the gamer a fraction more time to swiftly control their player by just jogging or jogging while pressing the Pace control button, it also makes skill moves easier to perform during matches.

FIFA 12 Side Selection

FIFA 12 On going Game Screen

You can make the game play more realistic by turning off numerous Auto assist options like pass power, and direction  from settings. Some players have specialties. For example Wayne Rooney has engine, distance shooter and clinical finisher specialties; this makes his distance shooting more effective in scoring goals and also has high scoring percentage inside the box. This brings the skills of individual players in the games closer to what they are in real life. If a player has a clear view of goal then he will score 8 out of 10 times.

FIFA 12 Rooney Scoring

FIFA 12 Real Life Collision Impact

EA Sports has also introduced levels in FIFA 12 which helps to find suitable opponents  during online play and ranking yourself with your friends. Penalties have also changed in FIFA 12, which now has a meter. You have to shoot when the pointer is on the green patch. When shot at either end of the bar, the player usually slips, which is fun to watch. The intelligence of the CPU can be described by the fact that if a player like Peter Crouch is in the penalty box, the winger of his team will cross the ball immediately (note: Peter Crouch is 6 feet 7 inches tall), but if a shorter striker is present it will try to cut in with the ball. Midfielders like Fabregas are quick in picking out passes because of his high vision compared to Michael Carrick or Ji Sung Park.

FIFA 12 Detailed Player Movement

FIFA 12 Scoring by head

EA Sports also added a new style of defending called Tactical defending. Generally, people who have played an earlier version of FIFA used the sprint plus standing tackle button to win the ball. But the Tactical defending takes it to a new level and is extremely challenging for players. In Tactical defending, you have to control the direction and speed of the defender plus jockey and contain the opponent, then tackle only at the right time to win the ball, just as in real life. Tackle early, the player will go past you and tackle late, you will foul them. Tactical defending is very difficult to get used to, and frankly speaking, I couldn’t get used to it and switched back to old style of defending. However, many people will surely like this new style.

The most played mode in FIFA is the manager mode. I love this mode as it gives me a chance to do whatever I want to do with my team. In FIFA 12, the interface has been completely changed with most of the default screen occupied with News from around the football world. The news of your club and your players’ performance are highlighted here.

FIFA 12 Manager Mode Default Screen

Rotating your squad is also a big challenge, as Form and Morale affect the attitude of the players. If you don’t play a certain player for a long time he’ll wish to leave the club. His form and morale will also dip as a consequence. Giving a chance to new players frequently will give their form and morale a boost, and you will be notified when that happens by a pop up message from that player after matches. The scouting network has changed a bit. Now you can simultaneously send three scouts to different locations. Sending and calling back a scout takes a few days, unlike earlier, where they could be called up immediately and sent to another location. As a manager, you can now get involved more deeply in the game because of the newly introduced option to comment on your team or opponent team before certain matches. You can use this opportunity to praise or motivate your team or any individual player which will increase the morale. At the same time, you can comment on the opponent team or players. Some people love to buy and sell players in manager mode, but the club budget can hinder the fun. In FIFA 12 you can choose your budget allocation between transfer budget and wage. You can decrease the wage bank to increase the transfer budget.

FIFA 12 Manager Mode Budget Allocation

Apart from Manager Mode, one other mode which I like is Virtual Pro. You can create your own professional player and then complete the various accomplishments to increase his ratings. This is very addicting because of the fun of the accomplishment. The online playing option has been improved, and now you can play with players of your level, who will be automatically searched for. Various options, like online tournaments, increase the fun. But you need to have a fast and unlimited internet connection to play online. My 512kbps internet connection is slow to react to my controller action, hence it is difficult to play. An internet connection of 1Mbps should be good enough for a smooth experience. There is also a FIFA 12 Store where you can buy various additional features from EA, like Live Season, in which the player form in game is updated every week based on their real life performance. There are many other additional features which you can buy.

FIFA 12 Post Match

Overall the game is the best that EA Sports have produced so far. Excellent and intelligent game play makes it the best football game currently in the market. The real life impact of collision between players brings the experience closer to real life. If you are a football lover then don’t think even once before buying FIFA 12, and if you haven’t played football, FIFA 12 will surely bring your interest to the game. I rate FIFA 12 a solid 9 out of 10. You can’t afford to miss this one.

EA and Sony have become recipients of yet another slew of criticism for the addition of some unsavory legal clauses in their Terms of Service (ToS). When you agree upon these clauses (whenever the user clicks on the I agree to the terms and conditions’ checkbox), you are essentially waiving your rights to sue the company over any legal issue with the use of its products. This is obviously completely unacceptable!

In the age of technology and considering that the products in question are digital distribution platforms, it seems completely cranky that the only way to get yourself released from these binding clauses is by sending snail mail with your dissent to the clause to the company’s headquarters! I mean, think about it, you buy the game online, download it from the net over wireless and you have to go out into the wild urban areas populated by terrifying cars and motorbikes just to send a piece of data to the company!

A bunch of gamers from Chicago have made their website called Gamers Opt-Out that allows you to send the opt-out letter online, for free. Indeed, it will not cost you a penny to send the letters to the respective companies. Just fill up the online form and the good folks at Gamers Opt-Out will send the mail for you. The site primarily functions via the donations received by other gamers that help send the snail mail (it actually costs money! How strange!)

Jokes apart, I think the people here have shown the world that concerned gamers do exist. Mad props to them! (If you can, please donate to them!)

In all honesty, Sony’s lawsuit prevention clause in its PlayStation Network Terms of Service (ToS) is quite fancy. If you agree to section 15 of its new ToS, you are essentially waiving your right to a class-action lawsuit against Sony Network Entertainment International, LLC (SNEI) and in effect you are giving the gaming giant free reign to do whatever it wishes to do with your account and registered games.

Electronic Arts (EA), the gargantuan beast of gaming decided that Sony’s ToS change is pioneering and went about copying that to its own End User License Agreement (EULA) for the Origin digital distribution store that it operates. If you accept these terms of service, you will be denied the right to sue and bring the company to trial by jury. Only individual cases will be considered against the giant.

By accepting these terms, you and EA expressly waive the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action.
YOU UNDERSTAND THAT BY THIS PROVISION, YOU AND EA ARE FOREGOING THE RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT AND HAVE A JURY TRIAL.
YOU AND EA AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.

One can opt out of both of these binders by submitting a written application to the company, but why is that even necessary when these clauses can be done away with entirely?

It is rather sad to see that these pinnacles of the industry put forth these gags against the civil voice instead of making sure that the service they provide is hassle-free and fair for both the users as well as the developers.

A more charming title would have been Dragon Age II Fades Away from Steambut not many readers might get the reference. Nevertheless, the title rings out true. The game has been removed from Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam. This comes on the eve of the launch of the new downloadable content (DLC) Legacyfor the troubled role playing game.

I say troubled, because it had tremendously huge shoes to fill. The shoes being Dragon Age: Orgins‘. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the game more than the original and its expansion pack Awakening, partly because of how Mass Effect-y the second game felt and the more streamlined quests. It did have a lot of bugs, some tawdry continuity issues and the same I never meant to say thatmoments in the dialogue circles.

On this matter, Electronic Arts’ SVP of Global E-Commerce said:

At EA, we offer our games and content to all major download services including GameStop, Amazon, Direct2Drive and Steam,

Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to sell downloadable content. No other download service has adopted this practice. Consequently some of our games have been removed by Steam.

We hope to work out an agreement to keep our games on Steam.

So it seems that Valve had some trouble with the DLC being downloaded on the game’s own launcher, or EA could not sort out licensing and payment terms for the game on Steam. Either way, it is sorry to see two large companies bickering about this. I hope more games are not taken down from Steam on the pretext of T&C violation and put on EA’s Origin.

Today, Electronic Arts announced that it was acquiring PopCap Games for $750 million in cash and stock, plus up to $550 million in earnouts over the next couple years contingent on some revenue targets. Rumors of the acquisition started last month, after a report by Techcrunch.

PopCap was started eleven years ago, and is now of of the biggest creators of social games like Bejeweled, Plants vs Zombies, Baking Life and Zuma Blitz with nearly 17.5 million monthly active users.

This isn’t EA’s first acquisition in the social gaming space. It acquired Playfish in 2009 for nearly $300 million and has subsequently been able to become one of the biggest names in social gaming with more than 30 million monthly active users.

With the PopCap acquisition, EA would become the number two social game company in terms of users, with over close to 50 million users, second only to Zynga, which has more than 275 million.

EA is still far behind Zynga, but with too much competition, acquisitions like these are the only way to grow fast in this exploding space of social gaming. Zynga is expected to raise close to $1 billion in the coming months, via the IPO route. Activision, EA’s closest competitor, may also be planning to snatch a few social gaming companies in the future.

EA may be in talks with PopCap Games, the creator of popular games like Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies about a possible acquisition. A report by Techcrunch suggests that EA may be planning to buy PopCap for a sum over $1 billion.

PopCap has raised just about $22.5 million in funding so far, so it would obviously mean a huge payoff for its investors and founders. With PopCap’s revenues hovering around the $100 million mark, the acquisition figure is at a 10x revenue multiple.

EA acquired Playfish in 2009 for around $400 million, but is still trying to become the dominant player in the mobile and social gaming space. With the PopCap acquisition, EA might just manage to do that. Other major players in the space include Zynga and Rovio Mobile.

With the acquisition, EA may be able to boost its games portfolio to rival that of Zynga’s.

The deal is expected to close in a day or two. We will keep you updated.

Need for Speed is easily the most recognized racing game franchise in the entire world. That is because mostly all games in the franchise fulfill the insane craving of adrenaline junkies the need for speed, per se with great visuals, astounding locations, thumping audio tracks ,and of course, the super fast cars that you take out for races.

Need for Speed The Run will take players on yet another action-filled joyride through different locales where players flirt with danger at 200 miles per hour. While there are no substantial screenshots or details of the game as yet, it looks like the game will deliver what it usually delivers fast cars.

Executive Producer at Electronic Arts, the publisher of The Run, Jason DeLong commented that we think that Need for Speed The Run is going to surprise people with its intense, thrilling story and big action feel. But the game would be nothing without hot cars and crazy-fast chases.

The game is being developed under the cutting edge new engine from DICE (the developers of Battlefield 2, Mirror’s Edge and other fantastic games) called Frostbite 2. The visuals and feel of the game is bound to be more immersive and gorgeous than any of the previous Need for Speed games. Not only that, apparently the game will also take immersive storytelling to a new level with cutting edge performances that will draw the player into a world with no speed limits, rules or allies.

Well, you are excited, are you not?

Well it’s about time if you ask me. Electronic Arts’ successor to the 2005 hit Battlefield 2 has just posted the the preorder incentives. Preordering Battlefield 3 gets you the first digital expansion pack Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand absolutely free! The expansion features a lot of the old, beloved, maps from Battlefield 2:-

Pre-order Battlefield 3 to receive the digital expansion pack Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand at no extra charge! This themed multiplayer expansion pack includes four legendary maps from Battlefield 2 boldly re-imagined with Frostbiteâ„¢ 2 physics, destruction and visuals. Completing the package are classic Battlefield 2 weapons and vehicles, unique rewards, new achievements/trophies, and more.

The Frostbite 2 is the new game engine that is powering Battlefield 3. The visuals introduced by the Frostbite 2 engine along with the physics (as detailed above) give quite the realistic feel of a battle being fought around you. I can only imagine how this game would be if I were to play it on one of those high-end rigs:-

Battlefield 3 introduces Frostbite 2, the incredible technology that takes animation, destruction, lighting, scale and audio to new heights.   Built upon this powerful game engine, Battlefield 3 immerses players physically and emotionally to the world around them like never before.

To find out more about Battlefield 3 and its immersive engine, do check out the EA UK site.

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING…is how the most recent Medal of Honor blog post starts. At that point of time I was wondering about a great many things. I was wondering if there would be a cow level in a Medal of Honor expansion, whether we would get to implement nether portals in the game (and get transported to a Minecraft world) or, very typically, whether pigs have wings.

But, oh no, I was never wondering whether Medal of Honor will have a sequel. I swear!

Nevertheless, yes, it seems that Danger Close is closing in on the sequel for Medal of Honor. The reboot of the original war shooter (before most of the original developers quit and became Infinity Ward, developer of the hugely popular Call of Duty series) in a modern garb saw much takers. 5 million takers, to be exact:-

Just recently, EA announced that the reboot of Medal of Honor was a big success with over 5 million copies sold. We wanted to take a moment to thank each of you for supporting us, our new studio and our storied franchise. We would especially like to thank all of the long time Medal of Honor fans out there who have stuck with us over the years.

Since our launch last October, we’ve studied, listened and absorbed much of your feedback and are very excited to be marching forward on the next title.

The last line rings out a bell for all Medal of Honor lovers. The next titlehere is the sequel, and EA is so happy with the sales figures that they are actually commissioning it. Considering that EA’s other shooter Battlefield 3 has also been seen in the developer forest, grazing and getting developed it will be fun to see exactly what the direction of Medal of Honor 2 will be.

Electronic Arts is one of the biggest brand names on the iPhone App Store. It has a huge catalog of very impressive games which are priced in the range of $0.99 to $9.99.

For Christmas however, EA is offering all its iPhone and iPad games for just $0.99. That’s about 70 games for just $0.99 each.

It can’t get any better than this for holiday shoppers. So storm the App Store and buy all the EA games you want.

It is a limited time offer which will end soon, probably by Christmas or New Year. Hurry!

PS: TouchArcade has a list of all the iPhone / iPad games on sale.

iPhone/iPod touch Games:

Battlefield: Bad Company 2, 99 ¢
Cause of Death: Can You Catch The Killer?, 99 ¢
Heroes Lore III, $1.99 → 99 ¢
High Caliber Hunting, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Pictureka!, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Reckless Racing, 99 ¢
Mirror’s Edge, $4.99 → 99
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Need For Speed Shift, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Need For Speed Undercover, $4.99 → 99 ¢
NBA Elite 11 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99 ¢
MMA By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Fifa 11 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Fifa 10 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Madden NFL 11 By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99 ¢
NCAA Football By EA Sports, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Tiger Woods PGA Tour By EA Sports, 99 ¢
The Sims 3, $6.99 → 99 ¢
The Sims 3 Ambitions, $4.99 → 99 ¢
The Sims 3 World Adventures, $2.99 → 99 ¢
SimCity Deluxe, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Spore Creatures, 99 ¢
Spore Origins, 99 ¢
Lemonade Tycoon, 99 ¢
Monopoly, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Risk: The Official Game, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Battleship, 99 ¢
Connect 4, 99 ¢
Boggle, 99 ¢
The Game Of Life Classic Edition, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Clue, 99 ¢
Trivial Pursuit, 99 ¢
Yahtzee Adventures, 99 ¢
Scrabble, $2.99 → 99 ¢
R Type, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Star Trek, 99 ¢
Skate It, 99 ¢
The Simpsons Arcade, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Dragon’s Lair, 99 ¢
Surviving High School, 99 ¢
Command & Conquer: Red Alert, 99 ¢
Zombies & Me, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Mass Effect Galaxy, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Wolfenstein RPG, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Anytime Pool, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Tetris, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Sudoku, 99 ¢
American Idol: The Game, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Littlest Pet Shop, $2.99 → 99 ¢
Pandemonium, 99 ¢
Snood, 99 ¢
Mystery Mania, $1.99 → 99 ¢
Jewel Quest Mysteries, 99 ¢

iPad Games:

SimCity Deluxe for iPad, $6.99 → 99 ¢
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit for iPad, $9.99 → 99 ¢
Need For Speed Shift for iPad, $9.99 → 99 ¢
Madden NFL 11 By EA Sports for iPad, $12.99 → 99 ¢
Mirror’s Edge for iPad, $9.99 → 99 ¢
Reckless Racing HD, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Pictureka! for iPad, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Tetris for iPad, $7.99 → 99 ¢
Yahtzee HD, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Boggle for iPad, 99 ¢
Scrabble for iPad, $9.99 → 99 ¢
Command & Conquer Red Alert for iPad, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Clue: Secrets & Spies A Hidden Object Game, $4.99 → 99 ¢
Snood for iPad, $4.99 → 99 ¢

Source: EA