Well fans of the game in Asia can certainly expect better things as Korean publishing giant Nexon appear to be in the final stages of sealing a partnership to distribute the “next” EA SPORTS FIFA Online title. Rumours of an EA takeover bid by Nexon were doing the rounds a few weeks ago but it appears the source of these rumblings was actually FIFA Online, with EA looking to utilise Nexon’s free-to-play expertise in the region.

Whether we’ll see FIFA Online again on Western shores is anyones guess, but it’s promising that EA are still persisting with the game in Asia and if this partnership takes off, we could see it replicated here in the future.

Anyone still feeling burnt by EA’s decision to turn-off FIFA Online? Would you like to see it return? Anyone dislike the way they market the game in Asia…

Source: Bloomberg/Eurogamer

Quicker than we ever could have imagined the FSB calendar has rolled round to April 24th which means just one thing – UEFA Euro 2012 launch day!

The much debated FIFA 12 DLC component is live now on Xbox 360 and PC so get yourselves over to the relevant store and start that download. Remembering of course that it will set you back £15.99 and you will require a copy of FIFA 12 to be able to play. If you experience any problems with the download, there are some tips here.

PS3 users are going to have to hang on until 4am (25th April) UK time. Don’t ask us why, but we’ll let you know as soon as it’s out.

*WARNING* Some users have reported issues downloading and installing Euro 2012 on Xbox 360. As with the last patch the issue can be resolved by deleting all User Generated Content from Creation Centre and trying again.

Once you’ve had a chance to get to grips with the DLC and you’ve read our Review, hit the comments and share your thoughts on Euro 2012. What’s good, what’s bad and is it worth the entrance fee?

FIFA 12 on the PC was pirated an estimated 3,390,000 (yes million) times and on the Wii an estimated 860,000 times which along with the platforms where FIFA 12 didn’t feature in the Top 5 (Xbox360/PS3) still represents a huge amount of lost sales for EA just 3 months after release.

EA SPORTS caused a minor uproar during 2011 when they announced that FIFA 12 PC would not have LAN capabilities as a measure designed to discourage piracy, but from the figures above it’s clear that step hasn’t worked.

Piracy is a topic which touches a nerve for many gamers and some really big questions now need to be asked about how viable future FIFA titles are on the PC platform especially. So with that in mind..

Do you think EA would be within their rights to ditch the PC platform for FIFA 13 all together?

Source: TorrentFreak

Robert Magee – George Best

My favourite player of all time is George Best. I’m from Northern Ireland and although I wasn’t alive for the majority of his playing career, he is a hero among Ulstermen! The reason he is my favourite player is that while Northern Ireland was in a state of conflict and people were being killed nearly on a daily basis – George Best provided a platform for everyone to be united and in support of him, no matter what religion or background they were from.

For someone from a country as small as Northern Ireland to make it big and become, undoubtedly, one of the greatest footballers ever to grace the sport is a huge achievement. His death brought the whole country to a standstill and he’ll always be missed.

Dan – Kevin Pressman

Favourite player of all time is so hard to nail down, but my earliest footballing memories all concern one man. Kevin Pressman wasn’t an international superstar, in a career spanning three decades he never won anything, he never got further than a short UEFA Cup campaign and 3 games at England “B” level (a travesty, by the way), but he was a legend at one the country’s biggest clubs for nearly twenty years and spent much of that time as the club’s undisputed number one.

He was a character, as most Goalkeepers are, and truly loyal to his club, from the heights of making over 200 starts in the Premier League and starring in a team that made five Wembley appearences in three years to the heartbreak of relegation to England’s third tier, Pressman stayed with Sheffield Wednesday, despite being regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League. Indeed, when forced out of Wednesday by Chris Turner, the man whose challenge for the number one slot he had seen off some years earlier, Pressman did jump back up a division, playing with Leicester, Coventry and Leeds in the Championship, before going to Northern Ireland and helping Portadown to UEFA Cup qualification, picking up the fans’ player of the season award along the way. Even at the age of 41, the evergreen Pressman was considered a viable option as Scunthorpe’s back-up keeper in one of their recent Championship adventures.
A true legend in the blue half of Sheffield, and still a name that sends a shiver down the spine of those in the red half, Pressman’s displays in Steel City Derbies are the stuff of legend and his 19 years at Sheffield Wednesday took in some of the best and worst times that one of England’s most famous clubs has ever seen and his claim to the number one shirt was unsuccesfully challenged by some of the best keepers around, the likes of Chris Woods and Pavel Srnicek came and went but Pressman remained a constant.

An asset in the goal and from the penalty spot, Pressman scored in two shoot-outs in his Wednesday career, against Wolves and Watford.
Even towards the end of his career, the big keeper was a showman, once, and memorably, nutmegging Newcastle’s Keiron Dyer on the edge of the Wednesday box before dribbling past a couple more bamboozled Magpies’ players to half-way line and unleashing a drive at opposite number Steve Harper’s goal.

But none of that is why Pressy is my favourite player of all time. The quality, the loyalty, the occasional comedy mean nothing next to the fact that this is the man who inspired me to play football, the man who I reminisce about whenever I don my gloves and the man who, despite his advancing years, I would still welcome back into Wednesday’s first team without a second thought.
The fact is, as the Kop’s chant used to go, you’ll never beat Kev Pressman.

Once again congratulations Robert and Dan and thanks to Bright Future and EA SPORTS for the FIFA Manager 12 prizes.

To enter all we want you to do is tell us who your favourite football player of all time is and most importantly why? All entries need to go in the comments of this post and the two best entries will then be selected by the FSB judging panel who’s decision is final. The codes we have for FIFA Manager 12 are worldwide so no matter where you live you can enter this competition.

**Please make sure the email address you have registered to post in the FSB comments is active so that we can contact you with your Origin code and instructions on how to redeem it should you win. The closing date for this competition is Friday 11th November at 5pm UK time**

Who is your favourite football player of all time and why?

Good luck and a massive thanks to Soren Stoss and the team at Bright Future for the prizes.

The download is available via the Official FIFA Manager Facebook page and you will need to “like” it access the download link.

FIFA Manager 12 Demo

If you’ve never played a FIFA Manager game before then i’d urge you to download the demo and at least give it a try. We were pretty impressed with FIFA Manager 11 as our review testified and if you’re looking for something a little different to Football Manager, you may just find this club management experience draws you in.

If you do decide to download the demo let us know your thoughts.

Whilst the FIFA 12 PC edition from Origin doesn’t have a “special” edition per se, it does come with free Ultimate Team packs just like the console variant, with x2 Gold Packs coming your way, each month for the first six months.

The PC version of FIFA 12 is pretty insane with its super high resolution, ridiculously quick loading times and console identical features. So if you’re going to buy it anyway you may as well get your name in the hat for this prize.

All details including terms and conditions can be found here.

We’ll be using this post to announce when things go live. Currently the expected times, according to EASPORTSFIFA are as follows:

PS3 (N America) – 13th Sept *from* 2pm PST

PS3 (EU) – 14 Sept *from* 5pm

The PC demo was expected from 10am, but it’s already live. Link below. It’s from the EA website and it’s the one I’ve downloaded.

*UPDATE* The 360 demo is now live on the dashboard. Access it as follows: Game Marketplace -> Titles A-Z -> E – EA Sports FIFA 12

*UPDATE 2* A few users have experienced issues with installing the FIFA 12 demo with FIFA 11 still installed on their machines. The simplest fix is to back up your FIFA 11 saves, uninstall, then install the demo. Thanks to JC in the comments for his help figuring that out.

*UPDATE 3* There have also been issues with downloads stopping at 99%. One fix we’ve seen is to turn your XBOX off, then try to download again, it should skip to 98% then straight to 100%. Thanks to BlueOggster from the FVPA for that. Let us know if it works for you.

Links:

PC Demo EU Link – 1.5GB

PC Demo NA Link – 1.5GB (Thanks to Dude Dudette for the NA link)

XBOX 360 Marketplace Link – 1.42GB

If you haven’t played FIFA Manager before check out our review of FIFA Manager 11.

As always click below so see in full resolution.