What else is new with FIFA 12?

There's a FIFA 12 trailer to watch and our FIFA 12 preview concentrated on the three major gameplay additions – but they weren't the only things we experienced in our four-hour hands-on with the game. Read on for what else we found out about FIFA 12 or head to our '10 things we want now in FIFA 12 feature for what we think it all points towards.

1. CPU intelligence
This is what EA Sports are calling ‘pro players intelligence’, meaning that specific CPU players have some very specific skills sets that will alter how they play but also how the players around them react. The two we were told about were ‘aerial threat’, where a team with Peter Crouch  will play more balls into his head and ‘vision’ where players like Fabregas can see more of the game (in a quite literal sense – we were shown that the CPU Fabregas can see much more of the pitch, and therefore where players are running so can pick passes out more regularly than other players).

It was hard to see this actually happening when we were playing against the CPU, although you could see that there were more balls up to Drogba (but more as a way to hold onto the ball and play midfielders in) and the better players certainly passed and moved with more regularity – Lampard and Fabregas often running the game against us (depending on whether we were Chelsea or Arsenal – the only two team in the pre-alpha – translation: very early -  version we played).

2. Injuries and tiredness levels that make sense
Or ‘true injuries’ as it’s known, is part of the impact engine discussed in our FIFA 12 preview and should mean that those random game (and sometimes season) ruining injuries are a thing of the past. That’s if EA Sports has got the physics in the impact engine right – it will track in-game and game-to-game if a player has an injury and where on the body it is. If you send on a not-fully fit player with, say, a knee injury and he’s clattered or twists his knee he’s not only out the game but could be out for a long rest.

The same with fatigue levels. Where in the past if you sprinted all the time you would tire out your players and see them slow down in the game or be run-down for matches to come now you’re also risking injuring them. This should, though, be mitigated by the changes to defending and close control meaning there’s less need to run around like a Robbie Savage in FIFA 12.

3. Drop balls
FIFA fair play to the fore here. Drop balls after stops in play are automatically kicked back to the opposition.

4. New menus A new year means new menus. Slicker and tucked away at the bottom they look pretty. We still spent a while trying to find out how to change the controller settings, as we do every year.

5. Bells and whistles
While things look very similar year-on-year – or at least they do right now, this being a very early version of the game – there are changes to the way things are done. There’s a new default camera angle (that’s quite a lot like the other one but makes you think twice, like seeing someone’s twin for the first time), and the pre-match swoops and graphics are impressive and certainly make a nice change (this is more ‘broadcast’ – ie like on the telly). We’re also told the crowds and the lighting are improved although we were too excited about the gameplay changes to really notice that much.

6. ‘Complete authenticity’
You have to marvel at the amount of licensing EA Sports gets through in a FIFA game. For FIFA 12 there will be ‘over 500’ clubs and ‘more than 15,000’ players. But what about the stadiums, that’s what we say.

7. The PC version
We only played the Ps3 and Xbox 360 versions of FIFA but producer David Rutter says the PC version will be revealed in July. That’s what we know, or have seen, is in FIFA 12. More what we’d like to see based on our FIFA 12 hands-on head to ‘10 things FIFA 12 needs to deliver on’. FIFA 12 release date: October 2011 (to be confirmed but based on previous years we can be pretty confident).

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