The live finals of the FIWC in Dubai start in just a few hours and run through to Wednesday the 23rd, featuring 24 contestants that have earned their place by playing in various live and online qualifiers held since October, all battling it out for $20,000 and a trip to the next Ballon d’Or Gala.

Today (21st May) the draw starts at 14:30 GMT followed by the first round. All streamed on Twitch.tv

Tomorrow (22nd May) will see the second round of group matches beginning at 10:00 GMT, again streamed live.

Wednesday (23rd May) is 100% knockout, starting with the quarter finals at 14:00 GMT running right through to the FIWC12 final.

Sweetpatch are all over the event, so to keep up to speed you’ll want to be following them on Twitter and keep checking their Facebook Page for updates.

If you’re interested in watching the events unfold you can check the FIWC page on Twitch.tv.

When the initial Euro 2012 announcement was made the most interesting feature was without doubt the new “Expedition Mode” which to begin with was shrouded in mystery. I’ll be honest; we got pretty excited about EA’s vision for the mode (as I’m sure you did too) but sadly that enthusiastic hype didn’t quite materialise when the DLC launched on April 24^th.

Even though Expedition Mode didn’t fully deliver this time around that doesn’t mean that the idea itself is a bad one and with a few changes we firmly believe that it could become something quite special. So without further ado, let’s find out how to make Expedition Mode great.

The Map and Progression

One of the first analogy’s we were given about Expedition Mode was “It’s like Risk the board game” and at a first glance this appeared to be true, however the way you expand your European dominance is in fact nothing like our beloved Risk.

In Expedition Mode the nations are bound by their qualification group which makes sense in terms of natural seeding, but not when you’re traversing the Expedition Mode map. To plug the geographical gap EA added “Roads” to link countries together, but there’s something about a link that bridges large volumes of nations you can’t actually play, that just doesn’t feel right.

The Fix: Instead of the qualification group model another way of making Expedition Mode feel more coherent would be to group nations based on their location – Northern Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Southern Europe. When you beat a nation you unlock the ability to play any other country that shares a border with it and links across seas are provided accordingly.

To expand to another European location you’d have to beat everyone in the zone you’re currently in and the new region would also have to be adjacent. For example if you completed Western Europe, your next available region would be Central Europe and so on.

As well as making geographical sense, this model would also provide the visual eye candy as you watch your European dominance spread across the land in swathes of your custom team colours. Think, Dad’s Army title sequence.

Match Volume

Quite simply, Expedition mode contains far too many matches that you’re forced to play as part of the modes core design. Playing each nation once (53 total) represents over ten hours of match time alone so how EA expected us to plough through 150+ matches offline, I really don’t know. Especially when the Qualification stages were binned because telemetry showed that most players skipped them. Time can indeed equate to value in some instances but what Expedition Mode forgot about in its fantasy quest was quality and variety.

The Fix: To complete Expedition Mode you should only have to beat each nation once and the game certainly shouldn’t force you to play nations more than that as a way of slowing down your progression. If people want to play nations more than once in the hunt for better players that’s fine, but it has be a player choice, and not part of a rigid structure.

Player Rewards

The main goal of Expedition Mode is to build the ultimate European dream team on your way to dominating the continent. However the way player rewards are structured doesn’t really lend to that because you actually end up spending two thirds of your time in Expedition Mode receiving reserve and substitute players who certainly aren’t in that “dream team” mould.

The other issue is that the player rewards are completely random. On the one hand that creates natural variety but what it inhibits is the ability to strengthen the areas of your team which need the most attention. If you have a poor pair of centre backs but you randomly receive strikers from the first five nations you beat, how is that helping your squad?

The Fix: The first thing to do would be to get rid of reserve players as rewards completely. They aren’t any better than the players you get assigned at the start of the mode so why would you want to play matches to acquire them? If player rewards focussed instead on the first eleven and substitutes only you’d be guaranteed to get a player much better than your initial squad every time, which is sort of the point.

It would also be nice though to have the ability to choose the type of player to receive, eg defender, midfielder, forward. This would slash the random assignment odds to a much more digestible probability and even if you didn’t get the exact player you wanted, you’d still get someone capable of filling the role you’d identified.

The ability to choose player roles would also enable you to think tactically when playing weaker nations. They might have a very average team overall but most nations do contain at least one star player, which you’d be able to try and target with this reward system, avoiding much of the dross.

Big Nation Spamming

Expedition Mode prevents big nation spamming quite simply by preventing you from unlocking big nations at all. You normally have to play a few smaller nations at least twice before they’ll be unlocked and then you have to build a road to them as well.

Our geographical design would see that change, so especially when you hit central Europe containing Germany, France and Holland in close proximity the potential to get great players fast is clearly an issue. Expedition Mode shouldn’t hand you a great team on a plate but it certainly shouldn’t prevent you from acquiring great players at all.

The Fix: Unlocking Spain shouldn’t be any more difficult than unlocking Luxembourg for instance. If you’ve beaten a nation that shares a border, you can play them. What you need to avoid though is people unlocking Spain, playing 20 matches in a row and then breeding a Catalan monster. So for the five Star nations you could have a three game cool-down, middle of the road nations could have a two game cool-down and everyone else none.

This would prevent spamming of the best teams, without being unreasonable from a design perspective and it would also encourage you to continue to explore the rest of Europe to enable second and third matches against the best teams if you wish to hunt for other players.

Team Form, Fatigue & Rotation

Ok, so we already know that playing nations three times over to get a decent player is annoying but what compounds that model further is that each time you play a nation, from their team selection, to their formation it’s an identical match. That makes progression in Expedition Mode feel like a real grind at times and whilst 53 nations is a huge pool of teams to choose from, if they all setup the same every time you play them, with no fatigue present, that variety gets lost.

The Fix: If FIFA’s form model was added to Expedition Mode it would at least add some variety to playing teams multiple times. If you saw Germany on the map in high form you may choose to avoid them for a few games whilst you acquire some better players. Alternatively seeing, Spain’s confidence in the gutter may prompt you to make an early assault.

Team Form would affect your dream team as well though and if you lose a match in Expedition Mode you should be punished not by losing a road, but by losing any built up form, morale and perhaps chemistry. The form of other nations should be changeable too and if you beat Germany in high form, that should reduce them to normal or low form, making any second game a bit easier.

The other big thing missing is fatigue, which means you can play the same team over and over and so can the CPU. Fatigue would shift Expedition Modes focus from creating the best team, to creating the best squad and that’s where it really should be in my opinion. It would also force the CPU to rotate their own team too meaning you at least get to play against different variations of line-ups.

Mosaic Madness

I’m actually a big fan of the Mosaic Pieces in Expedition Mode you’ll perhaps be surprised to hear. I think some of the more synonymous tournament images are great, and as a little reminder of previous happenings they add a lot of depth and history to the mode. However, as great as they are as a collectible, the mosaic pieces are not enough to carry the weight of an entire mode and as with the matches, there’s simply too many of them.

The Fix: As with the match volume the Mosaic Pieces (and any collectible for that matter) quite simply need scaling down. Reduce the volume to one received per match and make sure those 53 images are more killer and less filler. You shouldn’t have to work to get them either, they’re a pleasant addition, not the be all and end all. If anyone has collected all 183 mosaic pieces in Euro 2012 hit the comments and we’ll refer you to a great doctor.

Expedition Online

Ok, so you’ve played your matches and you’ve built your team of European football stars, what next? Well in the existing Expedition mode it’s sort of game over. When you create a team you feel happy with you just sort of stop playing, because there’s no where left to go. A lot of time and effort (53 matches = 10 hours+) has gone in to your custom team and yet you have no where to celebrate or test that squad building achievement.

The Fix: It’s a glaringly obvious suggestion but Expedition Mode online could be really special even if it would encroach a little on Ultimate Team. That said, I’ve actually got no problem with building your Expedition Mode team offline because I think that works a lot better, but once you have a team you’re happy with you have to be able to go online and test that against the FIFA community.

A watered down Head To Head Seasons format would have worked quite nicely with perhaps just five online leagues to progress through as opposed to FIFA 12′s ten. But surely within the Euro 2012 framework a version of the actual tournament structure to play online would be the way to go. You’ve conquered Europe to build the best team, now conquer online and prove you can beat the FIFA community.

Summary

As a first toe dip in the water, Expedition Mode actually did a fairly good job of showing that there is still plenty mileage left beyond the existing FIFA infrastructure that we’ve become so accustomed to. The presentation is also exemplary and EA’s new found design flair is a much underplayed strength which is now slowly spreading across the FIFA landscape.

What Expedition Mode failed to do sadly was to consider what FIFA gamers actually want, and there also seemed to be a lack of appreciation for the internal competition. If you can build a fantasy team in Ultimate Team with less hassle, apart from the Euro branding why would you play Expedition Mode? That’s a really important factor and 150+ matches and 183 mosaic pieces, shows it wasn’t considered nearly enough.

But, the idea is a fantastic one and with a few fundamental changes made it could offer something really different and fresh compared to the usual FIFA fare. I really hope that further down the line we do see Expedition Mode again, because as I’ve said a few times, the potential the mode has is truly massive but it has to be punchy, and aggressive in the way it progresses your European journey and not a grind.

A good start then but with just a little more risk, Expedition Mode has the firepower to be truly great.

Are you a fan of Expedition Mode in it’s existing format? What would you do to improve it? Hit the comments and let us know.

We especially recommend you check out the community roundup on the EA forums and the various press interviews if you haven’t read them yet.

FIFASoccerBlog – FIFA 13 All The Posts

EA SPORTS – FIFA 13 Announcement

FIFA Community Roundup – EA Forums

Eurogamer – FIFA 13 Preview: A Final Flourish?

CVG – FIFA 13 Preview: Is It Enough?

CVG – David Rutter Interview

MCV – Nick Channon Interview

Now Gamer – FIFA 13 Preview

VideoGamer - David Rutter chats new features, the brilliance of Messi

There’s plenty more out there of course but it’s all kind of the same information across the board. If there’s anything fresh you don’t think many people will have seen, add your links to the comments.

City clinched their first Premier League title with seconds to spare on Sunday in what has to be the most exciting finish to a season ever, but the Premiership is small fry (Just ask Dave…) THIS is far more important.

Congratulations to Winner Sean Holleran and runners up Ian Chamacho and Stefan Maslanka.

The top 20 ended up looking like this. You’ll notice that none of the staff are there, Dave finished in a respectable 36th and I was a 100 and something….

Must try harder next year.

We hit you guys with five huge FIFA 13 posts this morning detailing Attacking Intelligence, Complete Dribble, First Touch Control, Impact Engine and Tactical Freekicks. But now it’s time for Team FSB go in depth in the second podcast of the new series.

Joining your usual podcast duo Dave and Tom are NGB’s titan editor Asim Tanvir and the man behind Xaor’s Corner Mr Toby Ross. This one, is not to be missed.

Direct Download | Subscribe Via iTunes

Whilst at a recent EA showcase Mr Asim Tanvir of NGB sat down with Aaron Mchardy and got him to explain the changes we can expect from FIFA 13 himself.

You can blame the green tint on EA’s choice of back lighting at the FIFA 13 press event…

Click here to view the embedded video.

So we’ve been raining FIFA 13 content on you all morning and have a few more posts lined up, but it just keeps coming.

Thanks to a press release from EA this morning we’ve got a few more details including the run down of platforms the game will be released on, as well as some hints at what we can expect to hear about in the coming weeks/months and a little hint at the cover.

The press release notes the following:

• Improved Career Mode with major changes developed in response to requests from the most passionate fans of the franchise.

• New features to enhance the massive EA SPORTS FIFA online offering, including improvements to the wildly popular Head-To-Head Seasons mode

• Multiple new features and benefits to EA SPORTS Football Club, the live service that is the heartbeat of FIFA

• Complete authenticity with more than 500 officially licensed clubs.

• Additional new modes and features will be announced in the months ahead.

So that’s all pretty promising. The gameplay features we’ve posted today seem to have taken a fairly heavy influence from player feedback, so to see CM walking the same path is extremely heartening. “Major Changes” seems like a pretty bold statement, we hope that they live up to it.

“Multiple new features and benefits for EASFC” is an interesting one too, could be anything really although as some who plays a fair bit of FIFA on the go I’d like to see proper EASFC support for iOS. Maybe a centralised EA friendslist so that we don’t have to keep track of different people on different platforms?

No mentioned of UT just yet but given the fact that it’s made a shit tonne of money it’s safe to say that it’ll see some improvements.

“Additional new modes” is again a bit of a tease. Could it be something COMPLETELY new? Sounds like it, but I’m at a loss for what it might be.

As for platforms, FIFA 13 will be available for Xbox 360 (With Kinect Support), Playstation 3 (With Move Support), Playstation 2, Playstation Vita, PSP, PC, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS (no mention of DS), iPad, iPhone, iPod touch as well as “Other Mobile Platforms”.

That just leaves the cover. It’s not final, but it does featuring new signing Lionel Messi which was to be expected.

Phew. Thoughts?

We all know that every player in FIFA 12 is blessed with the perfect first touch but in FIFA 13 EA are looking to turn this on its head to provide a more realistic and diverse range of control touches. It’s a feature we asked for and here’s the detail we have so far on First Touch Control.

First Touch Control

Contextual First Touch

• In FIFA 13 the quality of a players first touch is now determined by a new context based system which factors in pass speed, pass type, ball height, player pressure, body position, motion, player attributes and also weather.
• There is now genuine separation between control touches and the ball itself, the ball is no longer “glued” to the players feet.
• First Touch Control is designed to create more “battle for possession” opportunities, allowing defenders to step in when an opposition player takes a heavy touch.
• Not every poor touch will result in you losing the ball. First Touch Control also works visually so whilst you might maintain possession the ball may “pop-up” or bobble making your next pass more difficult.
• First Touch Control creates genuine risk when taking a touch in a difficult situation. As a defender especially you’ll need to decide when to clear and when to take a touch. EA want the system to make you think more like a real footballer.
• Heavy control touches can be calmed by slowing from a full sprint to receive passes.
• In some instances having a slightly heavy first touch can work to your advantage because the ball will move out of your feet and in to space.
• First Touch Control aims to provide variation in first touch all over the pitch, rather than the uniformed perfect touch seen in FIFA 12.

• New contextual pass types have been added to FIFA 13 resulting in players automatically elevating passes if a defender is in their way. 
• Passes in FIFA 13 can now be over-hit which introduces a risk/reward element between pass speed and First Touch Control.
• The First Touch Control system has allowed EA to open up the pass speed range as players no longer take the perfect touch every time. 
• A new suite of animations for clearances have been added to FIFA 13. 

So there you have it, that’s FIFA 13′s First Touch Control in a nutshell. On paper we think this could have a huge impact not only on how FIFA 13 plays on the pitch but also how it makes people behave behind the controller. Hit the comments guys and we’ll do our very best to answer any questions.

Pleased with this one?

Next up in the webcast details bonanza is Complete Dribbling. This is what we saw.

Complete Dribbling

Moving vs Facing

• Leap in dribbling tech likened to the changes from FIFA 09 to FIFA 10 in terms of progress. To quote Aaron Mchardy, it’s a “Way bigger feature than Precision Dribbling”.
  
• Real world example shown of Nasri in his previous trophyless life cutting into the box from the top right hand corner towards goal. You see that whilst he’s facing goal, he’s able to move sideways without changing the direction he’s facing.
• FIFA 13 example shown of a  player dribbling through 360 degrees whilst continuing to face forwards, think of Streetball control from FIFA Street. It looks a bit like that, but without the players foot rolling over the top of the ball at any point.
• Move direction and face direction have been seperated to allow all this to work.
• In FIFA 13 you now have 360 degrees of movement and 360 degrees of facing. 

Facing Up Defenders

• FIFA 13 example shown of Cristiano Ronaldo taking on a defender on the left wing towards the corner flag. Being faced up to the defender allows him to slide right, then drop his shoulder and shift left quickly and round the defender just by dribbling and putting in a change of pace.
• System was complicated in previous years, with overly complex button inputs to achieve various dribbling techniques. Now everything has been boiled down to the left stick and will work contextually without the need for extra input.
  
• Second FIFA 13 example shown of Messi taking the ball down the right hand side of the pitch in a typical FIFA dribbling style, head down faced, squarely facing forward. As the defender in front of him closes in he opens his body up and faces a little more towards goal, allowing him to beat the player and put a cross in just with a quick burst of pace.
• Angle of facing determined by by LS input and angles to goal, as well as the players speed and the position of the defender.
• The facing system will not hinder player movement, the facing angle is based on the position of the defender or the position of the goal dependent on context. 

360 Shielding

• Separating facing from movement direction has also had a positive effect on shielding. Players can now move whilst shielding without leaving the ball in overly exposed positions like they would in FIFA 12.
• Players have the ability to properly face away from defenders when shielding providing a wider range of protection when holding the ball up.

Precision 2.0

• Influence taken from FIFA Street,  players can now drag the ball around in a way similar to Streetball Control, but it looks a lot more natural than you’d think. It’s not just been cut and pasted as a feature.
• FIFA 13 example shown of Walcott wrong footing a defender by aiming to go one way and then quickly going the other.
• Narrows the scope even more than precision dribble, giving more finite control.

So that’s Complete Dribbling. Obviously we haven’t played it yet so it’s hard to fully understand how it’s actually going to feel but everything we saw was promising and the simplification/contextualising of the controls can only be a good thing, surely?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Freekicks in the FIFA series have certainly been neglected over the last few years but in FIFA 13 EA are adding a wealth of new features under the banner “Tactical Freekicks“. Here’s what we know so far.

Tactical Freekicks

Attacking Options

• You will now be able to have up to three players over the ball in freekick situations.
• Anyone of these players can perform dummies at the freekick and once they have run over the ball they remain active as a passing option for the kick taker.
• Tactical Freekicks will allow you to create your own options from dead ball situations as well as shooting or crossing for team mates already in the box.
• A new suite of shot animations have been added to FIFA 13. 
• A new suite of goal celebrations have been added to FIFA 13. 

Defensive Options

• To combat the multiple dummy runs the defensive wall can now reform after jumping for the first time, allowing them to try and block for a second time.
• Players can now be added and subtracted from the wall, allowing complete control of your defensive setup depending on the location of the freekick.
• In FIFA 13 you can now set a charging player from the wall to close down freekicks which are passed, or tee’d up for more powerful shots.
• In FIFA 13 you can now creep the wall forwards to shorten the distance to the kick taker. 
• Creep too far though and the referee will push the wall backwards and or book a member of your team who was present in the wall.

So that’s Tactical Freekicks, and I’m sure you’ll all agree there are some really promising additions there which should allow plenty of variety should you choose to utilise them. The controversial update is of course the ability to creep the wall forwards so, hit the comments and speak your mind.