Fifa 12

So here we go again. The annual iteration, the roster update, the Fifagravy train chugs on… Except, EA Canada has never really been into the idea of making the same thing over and over again with just a serving of updated team sheets, a couple of fresh modes and a new photo of Rooney for the cover.

After several hours of play, it's the latter that's emerging as the most important transition. As you'll know, the old trick of hitting the A button to send an AI defender hurtling toward the attacking player like an Exocet missile in polyester shorts is now gone. Well sort of. It's a little more complicated than that.Fifa 12 is … different. For months, EA Sports has been banging on about its three major changes to the match mechanics: close control, the player impact engine and the new tactical defending option. Turns out they weren't bluffing.

In Fifa 12, there's a multi-layered system that now lets you hold the A button to "contain" the man on the ball – it brings the player you're controlling right up to him and you'll automatically attempt to shepherd your opponent into disadvantageous positions. It's neat, it's effective and it allows you to chain into a proper tackle, like a football beat-'em-up.

That's pretty much as close as we get to the auto-defend nature of previous Fifa incarnations. Meanwhile, the jockeying function, accessed via the left trigger, allows you to face the incoming player and create a barrier between him and the goal; this can also be combined with the "run" button in order to deal with sprinting opponents.

Many Fifa fans will find this forces a radical shift in their defensive philosophy, moving from a mobile approach of darting slides from the back and side and head-on nipping tackles, toward a zonal, more rigorously planned approach, where players get into position and block out attacks, only tackling when the ball is clearly there to be taken.

Initially, I struggled to separate the contain and jockey functions – they're both about controlling the incoming player, after all, and for ages they seemed interchangeable. But then there's the "team jockey" option, sitting over on the right tab button.

When held, this sends in a teammate to fulfil the more static goal protection, while you either move to cover any possible crosses, or run in and sweep the ball away. The Contain function is more erratic and independent; it's reactive.

AI seems solid, though often a lot more so from defenders blocking your path than from team mates interpreting your play. I've found on numerous occasions that you'll wait in vain on the edge of the box, your finger
poised over the through ball or flair pass buttons just praying for someone to start a run behind the centre backs. Of course, hitting the shoulder tab commands another player to make a run, and this works beautifully in midfield, but personally, I'm just not getting it to play out while close to the 18 yard area. Practice, I suspect, will be the key.

More often than not you need to move away or pass back and rebuild the attack. And against computer-controlled teams on the highest AI settings you'll find it incredibly, maddeningly, gut-wrenchingly difficult to score, while they'll sometimes breeze through your best defensive endeavours as though playing in a parallel dimension.

Ah, but when things do go right, when that chipped ball into the stride of Edinson Cavani ends up rocketing in the back of the net, it can be euphoric stuff; and you are only ever hours of practise and two or three brilliant passes away from the next dose.

Honestly though, the real beauty of the game is in its two-player mode – that's what gets the five stars in the end. I know I'll be playing this all year, mastering new aspects, trying new teams, experimenting with the EA Sports Football Club, watching the online leaderboards. A year's worth of play is good value, and value is important in this day and age.

So, yes, here we go again. The annual iteration, the roster update, the accusations of cashing in, cashing up, moving on. Fifa is a symbol now of what the games industry has become – a digital Hollywood, a hit factory, with behemoth franchises, caged in and milked for all they're worth; a grinding production line of choreographed retail launches and endless DLC updates. It used to be just the annual sports titles, now it's everyone.

And yet out of this can come a game like Fifa 12. A game that isn't perfect, and that won't suit everyone, but that absolutely reeks of effort, of care, of love for the sport. Blast EA and its peers for the way they run their businesses if you want to, but recognise this: with friends, with practice, with a will to re-think your approach to defence, Fifa is an absolute joy to play.