By FRANCO PANIZO
NEW YORK — The day so many soccer fans in the United States have been anxiously waiting for is finally here, and the prepared reasons for missing work have surely already begun hitting employers' desks across the nation.
EA Sports' FIFA Soccer 13 hit shelves at midnight on Tuesday and its highly-anticipated release is sure to satisfy the cravings of gamers who have been needing a new fix after playing last year's edition ad naseum. FIFA13 should provide that fix, with its new gameplay features and added teams (like Venezuela and Bolivia) making the video game an even deeper and more entertaining experience.
SBI saw a glimpse of what the game is like at Monday night's Launch Party in New York City, where celebrities like Snoop Lion, New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz and more than a dozen of New York Red Bulls fans were in attendance. And we can tell you that the game is much more difficult but rewarding to play.
With FIFA13's new first-touch control, long gone are the immaculate traps that seemingly every player could execute despite the difficulty and speed of the passes sent their way. Players will now take rough and realistic first touches and they can kill even the most promising attacks, which at times is frustrating but makes for a more rewarding experience when you do find the back of the net.
EA Sports has also fine-tuned the impact engine that was introduced in FIFA12. The hiccups that plagued the engine last year were not prevalent on Monday night but that was only in limited matches, so they could still be in there even if in a more limited capacity. Regardless, the games played smoothly and some of the animations looked like near-perfection, such as a headed goal we saw one on corner kick where a centerback rose up to meet the ball.
Those new features build on an already-steady foundation and may have possibly given the FIFA series its best edition to date. The game is more challenging and realistic than its predecessors and feels closer to the real game we all watch on TV with its new additions, making FIFA13 a must-have if you're a soccer gamer.
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Are you getting FIFA Soccer 13 this year? Which team are you looking forward to playing with? What new feature has you most interested?
Share your thoughts below.