That sounds like last years Madden where defenders would warp towards the ball, turn around to find the ball despite facing the wrong way so they will have never seen the ball being thrown or being able to jump up to double said players height



EA really seem to struggle with things like that in sports game.

So far having played the demo a bit more I'm getting frustrated with it. Rather than fix the problems that fifa 12 had they seem to have just added more.

Controlling the ball is very difficult and a lot of sloppy touches going about making it hard to keep the ball. when making a break the defenders always seem to catch my strikers ridiculously easily. and it's a lot harder to get a shot on target from distance because everything is just blocked. even if you think you should have more than enough room.

And just like fifa 12, you know when the opposition are going to score. you can see it coming and theres nothing you can do about it. It will no doubt grow on me, and ill still probably get it because I'm just as bad as the rest of the sheep in the world who buy it no matter what.

Just played the 2nd PES demo and it is definitely and improvement on the first. I downloaded the FIFA demo as well but haven't played it yet.

I've been a fan of FIFA since this generation of consoles and my initial impressions of the demo won't change that. I've had a couple of hours on it tonight and my impressions are:

- League positions commentary bit is just silly, no commentator would say that in a CL game, if they did they would wrap it in a more natural statement, like "Juve are struggling at the moment, currently languishing in 14th but that's not a problem City are facing, the Champions are unbeaten and top of the Premier League". Not "The home is currently 14th in their league, the away team is currently 1st in their league".
- The players seem smaller in the default camera angle and you have a better view of the pitch
- The overall feel of the game is good, it's impressive for a demo
- Defending controls are again really good, FIFA has this nailed
- AI attacking movement is significantly better
- The first touch is sensational now. With skilful players you can do some wonderful things, with Robinho I've managed to volley the ball over the head of a defender and score from a lobbed through ball and I made Noccerino catch the ball on his foot and turn 180 degrees with it. Conversely play a poor pass and the player will struggle to control it, or play a lofted pass to a centre back and they'll control it with their shin and end up scrambling to clear it. Really impressive stuff.
- AI in general seems far better, even on medium difficulties the AI will attack and counter attack with pace. It actually tries to score on the lower difficulty levels now, which it's never done on previous games. I always had the problem of not being able to score on the highest difficulty, but then very, very rarely conceding on easier levels. That could be fixed on this evidence.
- The AI makes mistakes, which I don't remember it doing before. It will miss place passes if you put them under pressure, slice crosses and shots and mis control passes. The AI also reacts to what you do. For example if you are defending and follow the player with the ball, on FIFA 12 I would be able to spot who he was going to pass it to and either intercept or tackle the player he passed to as soon as he got the ball. On the FIFA 13 demo, they spot that and keep the ball, turning with it.
- Refereeing seems good. It really does. I've not come across any daft moments with it yet, nor with the impact engine.
- I've not seen any evidence of AI defenders stupidly catching players they weren't in a position to. This happens if you just use sprint, as the player is just running with the ball. It would happen in real life too. Using right stick properly is now crucial. You use it to control the ball and also to knock it ahead of yourself when sprinting. I got Abate clear from a corner and knocked it passed a centre back on the half way line with a flick of right stick and there wasn't an AI player on the screen bar the keeper by the time I reached the goal, rounded the keeper (right stick again) and fell over with an air shot as the ball had run on too far.

Having said all that and despite having my mind made up to buy 13 within an hour or so, it's still FIFA. If you are one of those that moaned about previous games, don't bother with it. It's current gen FIFA tweaked about as far as it can be.

Let's be honest though Saddened, they could release FIFA '96 again and you'd still say it was a stupendously complete game that epitomises fairness and balance. As you say, it's still FIFA, so the same old crap that we moan about every year will still be there, because it's FIFA and its aim is never to change or to develop, but to add gimmick in the most simple of ways to generate an immediate positive reaction. I've not played the demo but I bet I enjoy it, I bet I like quite a bit of it, but I won't buy it on the back of the demo, I'll wait to see how people are after a few weeks with it, as once the dust settles on a new FIFA, it resorts to the same old crap. Mashing closing down buttons, stupendous counter-attacking and the random.

I changed all the controls massively to try and make them as close to the pes controls as possible. But this left me confused as to how to do any skills with the ball at my feet, or any of that first touch stuff that Saddened mentioned. Being able to move with the d-pad was pleasing.

I'm going to give the demo a bit more time, probably at the weekend, because this was the first time in a long time that I actually enjoyed playing a fifa game. Scored a very nice goal too!
But if I can't figure out how to adapt my control settings to incorporate the skills and first touches I probably still won't buy it, because without any of that stuff I'll just get crucified online/at the highest difficulty settings etc.

The skills are done with L2/left trigger. Hold that down and mess with the right stick, there are plenty of tutorials on youtube, just search for FIFA 13 skills. Most of them are useless, but ones that get you passed defenders, like the ball roll (Hold L2/LT and hold right stick left or right when a defender moves to tackle you) are good.

The first touch is also done with right stick. When the ball is coming towards your player, flick the stick in the direction you want to control it. For example if you have a player closing you down from your right, flicking it left will make the player control it into the space and away from the defender. If you play a lofted pass over a players head, flicking right stick in the opposite direction will make the player try to flick it back over their head. Right stick is also the easiest way to take players on. For example with a winger sprint down the wing to the byline, then flick right stick at 90 degrees and he'll try to flick it past the fullback.

I like FIFA, I've made no attempts to hide that. FIFA is a good game, it's easy to pick up and play but also has depth and with the increased movement on this one, it'll have more variety too. It's always had better game modes than other football games and they keep improving those. To be fair to EA they've invested big time in FIFA and it shows. I don't think major surgery would have been a good idea, as changing the whole engine, once you've committed to it, is a big risk. I've never said it is perfect, it's clearly not, but it is significantly better than it's competition. I must admit I can't wait for the next gen new engine games, that really can't come quickly enough.

You'll buy it, you know you will

I think the fifa demo is pretty good. I like the first touch thingy but every shot seems to be blocked and what have they done with the 2nd defender press?

Apart from the blocked shots and the game seemingly getting Mannone's stats and Casillias mixed up (Mannone makes some wonder saves he wouldn't get close to in real life) it's a pretty good demo although the movement seems a tad heavy.

Really struggling to see what's changed so much with this demo. Scored some belting goals which is usually the way with the demos.

I usually reserve full opinion until I've played it against my mates, as the way they play the game - the way the game seems to be played by the majority of online people - is one of the most frustrating aspects of the game. The closing down/pressing doesn't seem to have changed, I'm not really sure if this new first touch thing makes any difference, nor does it really change how a defender will always just muscle you off the ball, regardless of how well you think you do. I'll play it on the harder levels against the CPU later to see if they actually play better, or just get given superpowers to overwhelm you, rather than outplay you.

Anyway, my favourite aspects have been the control without sprinting, it isn't as sluggish and a change in direction now seems natural, rather than robotic. Players now seem to check their runs more naturally, sometimes taking slight pauses and slight direction changes to stay onside or get into a better position. I've played some excellent through balls that now seem to give a greater chance for the first time shot, before it was all about giving the defender the best chance to intercept, now it seems to be about giving the attacker a better opportunity to shoot or score. Whether my opinion changes on this after I play my mates remains to be seen, but I've enjoyed being able to utilise space properly for once, rather than chucking out 50/50 passes that are usually fruitless. The crossing seems better, but the 'automatic player change' seems to be very poor at the moment, I'll give manual a try but it's often lagging behind, picking the wrong player and often just ignoring my smashing of L1/right stick flicks.

With regards to negatives, I've found the collisions to be inconsistent and backwards, I'm constantly making full on tackles but the player in possession seems to use me as a cushion rather than lose the ball. It sometimes feels like I'm tackling their players for absolutely no reason, as every time it's knocked away I either knock it out for a throw, knock it straight to the opposition or simply come out second best, it's a tad annoying, but the effects of losing stamina still seem non-existent, so sprinting around chasing players, whilst annoying, can probably be coped with as the opposition will have to do the same to me. I've found the skills to lag compared to when I input them, I seem to be waiting an eternity to do the most basic of things which has left me not to bother trying.

I will go on with a few more later, I've seen the teleports and I'm assuming it's a glitch, if not then the game is a write-off.

When does this happen? I can't say I've seen it and I've played a good few hours on it now. Is it where a player disappears and then reappears somewhere else? Or just the old issue of defenders catching faster strikers?

Not sure if it's the same as other people, but for me it isn't quite a teleport. Basically, the defender could be running up field, five yards away, but he'll suddenly turn and move about five yards in an instant to suddenly be in front of my player and facing him. If I can get a replay and upload it, I will, but the movement is quite ridiculous. There are scenarios where the defender catches the forward when he really shouldn't. As an example, I was Aguero before, I broke through and took a big R3 flick touch, the ball went about 10 yards in front, the defender was 3/4 yards behind but he got to the ball shoulder to shoulder with me and ousted me. I get it when a player is dribbling with the ball on occasions, but the sprinting with the ball is so 'loose', defenders shouldn't be able to catch up with a player as easily as they do. If the attacker was able to change direction and have greater control whilst sprinting, I'd understand defenders catching them, but the sprint dribble is poor and sloppy, it gives poor defenders too much of an advantage.

Having now played the FIFA demo, I still concur that it's gash.

Has anyone noticed the font on the network settings bit at the start of the FIFA demo? They are identical to the horrible PES fonts. Is this a bit of humour from EA, after the PES team cried about them copying them all year?

That's the worst kind of fanboyism there is. At least when I big up FIFA and trash PES I actually put reasons.

Finished episode 3 of The Walking Dead earlier. Damn it's immersive

Not very good ones, but reasons none the less

I've just started playing it based on your recommendation. Seems pretty good so far, even if I've got far more affinity with the other characters than the one I'm controlling. He seems such a douche.

You warm to him as it progresses. Some of the characters you really grow to like... others (one in particular, i bet when you come across him you'll know who i mean) are complete arris-holes. It's a great game, and a good change of pace for me from my usual games.

How do you perfrom things such as diving headers and over head kicks on the fifa 13 demo?

Why can't I download the FIFA demo? I have silver membership but it doesn't give me the option to download it anywhere?

Premium demos are always gold only.

I don't know the official answer but I've found that double tapping red/circle works, but it's obviously context sensitive so you need to be in the right position relative to the ball for it to happen.