Moar Control!

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.