*The build of FIFA Street we played was an Alpha version of the game and was not representative of the final product. We played on the Xbox 360 and all online functionality was disabled*

FIFA Street: World Tour Preview

The first thing you’re tasked with in World Tour mode is creating your street football character. The player creation suite is very similar to that seen in the main FIFA series but the menu style has been completely overhauled for FIFA Street. The options you have at your disposal are good and you’ll be guided through the process of changing body types, skin colour, hair, eyes, face shape, etc.

The one notable absentee from the character creation suite in FIFA Street is the option to import a Game Face. This has been left out by design because the technology still doesn’t support multiple Game Face’s. So if you downloaded a friends FIFA Street player lets say, you wouldn’t be able to see their created Game Face. It’s a minor disappointment but none the less the interface is slick, the options are exhaustive and you should be on the pitch with a lifelike representation of yourself in no time at all.

Your first match in World Tour acts as a sort of tutorial really because you haven’t actually created your street team at this point. There are proper Tutorials available in-game too which guide you through the games core components and these are voiced by none other than EA SPORTS FIFA Podcast host Stevie Morgan. At the beginning of World Tour though its just you and a random collection of mates having a kick-about but once this match is completed, your rags to riches street tale can begin in earnest.

The team creation suite is also nicely presented and you have the ability to customise your teams badge from a host of pre-sets and setup kit options for home and away variations. The colour schemes you choose for your kits are also quite clever because they work in colour bands. So, if you choose blue as the primary colour for your home kit, all your players will turn out in blue but they may wear slightly different shades depending on the apparel (hoodie, football shirt, tank top) they have equipped. It’s subtly done but it adds a pleasing amount of depth to your squad’s appearance. Initially your kit options are quite limited but as you play through World Tour mode you begin to unlock more and more items and eventually you’ll be sporting the finest licensed street gear.

Then it’s on to naming your team and finally choosing your starting Nation. We chose the UK and were pleased to find that the game then asked us to choose a starting region within the United Kingdom. We selected the South East and the first Challenges and Tournaments available to us were in Maidstone, Guildford, Portsmouth and Brighton. Taking the regional detail to a level this finite is just fantastic and starting in Spain, Italy or anywhere else for that matter will invariably provide a completely different World Tour experience.

The World Tour map itself is beautifully presented and the variety of match types on offer even in the starting region is excellent. Some of the matches are one-off Challenges which you just need to win to complete and others are Tournaments which could be knock-out or league based. There are three match difficulties to choose from, Easy (Bronze), Medium (Silver) and Hard (Gold) which control the rate that you unlock new kits and accessories as well as game difficulty. Completing matches on Hard will unlock all three items available per match; on Medium you unlock two and Bronze just one. This gives you total control over game difficulty in World Tour and if you do get stuck at any stage, you can always retry the same Challenge at a lower difficulty or revisit it when you have better players.

And that rather neatly leads me on to the way that your players develop and improve during World Tour mode. When playing in matches your squad members will accumulate XP for beating players, performing tricks, scoring goals and generally playing well. This will eventually result in them leveling up and having points to spend on upgrading their attributes which you can choose where to assign. Once enough XP has gone in to particular attribute categories your players begin to take on specific squad roles. So if Player X has a high Defence skill that makes them a “Stopper” and if they have high shooting they could be classed as a “Finisher”. It’s similar i guess to the traits system in FIFA 12 but you now have the kind of control over player development that you’d expect to see from a traditional RPG rather than a sports game.

There are a number of ways you can choose to populate your street team one of which being you hand creating each team member individually by using the character creation suite. You’ll also have the ability to download characters that your friends have created, or simply fill your squad will randomly generated players. The option to add real life footballing stars to your World Tour team happens a bit further down the line and some challenges will even allow you to hand pick one member of the opposition to join your team as an additional reward. You also have complete control over the apparel and accessories each of your squad players wear, which makes putting your own unique stamp on FIFA Street incredibly easy and satisfying.

Once you’ve played through and won the Regional street matches its then on to the National stage where we had matches in Aberdeen (2v2 Panna), Liverpool (6v6 Futsal), Belfast (3v3 Freestyle) and many more. Again the variety is fantastic and when you start playing in bigger tournaments like the Futsal one in Liverpool, where there are proper stands, a big crowd, a referee and more professional teams to play, World Tour really begins to flesh out in front of you.

In the limited time we had with FIFA Street the National level was as far as we got in World Tour mode but after that you eventually advance to European and then finally World events where you’ll come up against the very best players and teams the game has to offer. It’s a mouth-watering prospect and I for once can’t wait to venture in to World Tour in more depth once the game comes out in March.

What’s also unclear is how the online aspect of FIFA Street will integrate with World Tour but even with the online functionality disabled we were able to see leaderboards for each Challenge on the World Tour map, so you will be able to compare your offline scores against your friends. That’s really important because there needs to be more to World Tour than just completing every match on Gold and unlocking items, so it’s pleasing to know that a competitive element between you and your friends will also be persistent in your World Tour experience.

Verdict

Playing through a games core single player component is always difficult in such a short space of time and we did have to fast path a lot of the upgrading and customisation in favour of just playing matches to advance the mode. That’s probably a blessing in disguise to be honest because there’s so much to customise and micro-manage about your FIFA Street team, that delving in to it with full code is probably the only way to do it justice. None the less, for those of you that like tinkering, FIFA Street has more than enough options to quench your creative thirst.

Even at Alpha build World Tour feels surprisingly complete and the variety on offer in the different match types, locations and tournaments makes it feel truly compelling. It’s very structured, very coherent and your path to success is literally laid out in front of you. That’s not a bad thing necessarily because you can complete the matches in any order you choose, but ultimately you’re locked in to World Tour’s grand design. Perhaps the rigid challenges could have been complimented by some dynamic ones which initiated randomly, I don’t know? I’m knit picking a bit here and that in itself is a good sign because during the four or five hours we poured in to World Tour I struggled to find anything that I really disliked about it and Tom was the same.

I think everyone can imagine how FIFA Street will fare online this year and the sense of style, fun and banter it brings to the FIFA franchise makes it almost guaranteed for success in that field. Offline is where some people would have been worried about World Tour being perhaps under-cooked or a bit thin on depth but that’s certainly not the case from what we experienced.

The team have focused so much time and energy in to the little details of World Tour that the only way to truly appreciate it in all its glory will be to run multiple game saves with teams from different starting regions. That’s going to increase FIFA Street’s replayability immeasurably and any question marks surrounding its longevity can be firmly cast aside because of that. The team at EAC traditionally produce offline modes which have a definite beginning and end with great success (World Cup 2010) and FIFA Street’s World Tour mode might just be the best of the lot.

We’re headed to EA Guildford (probably already there to be fair, this post was scheduled) to check the game out and report our findings back to you lot.

We’ll be writing some bits up and recording a podcast at the earliest opportunity, but if you’ve got any pressing questions that just can’t wait then the best place to get in touch with us today is on twitter.

We’ll be checking the @fifasoccerblog account regularly, but you can also get in touch with us at @tem1985 and @dave797

We’ve been using the hashtag #FSBFIFAStreet to gather questions, so if you can tag your tweets with that, it’ll help us find them.

We’re incredibly pleased to announce that we’ll be heading off to EA Guildford on Monday 16th January to get some hands-on time with a not final FIFA Street build and we want to take your questions about EA’s rebooted street football offering with us.

Detailed FIFA Street information has been a little scarce recently and we’re sure everyone has their own pondering’s about FIFA Street and just how it’s shaping up. So, if you have a question about the gameplay, the new match types, the presentation, the arenas, game modes or anything else for that matter hit the comments and ask away.

Now, there will be some questions we can’t answer for obvious reasons, so there’s no point requesting player ratings or anything license related. Also this isn’t a guarantee that we’ll be able to answer every question you pose but we’ll certainly do our best.

You have until 10pm Saturday 14th January (UK time) to submit your FIFA Street Playtest questions and then we’ll be closing the comments to give ourselves time to collate the information for Monday.

If you wish to use Twitter to ask us a question about FIFA Street, tweet @FIFASoccerBlog and use the hashtag #FSBFIFAStreet

FSB Community, the floor is yours…

Checkout a full gallery of the FIFA 12 tournament on the Official Aston Villa website.

Interestingly on the EA SPORTS Football article it states “Stay tuned to easportsfootball.com for more exciting news on future club player tournaments!”

Interesting……

Thoughts?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Six weeks ago we sat down and spoke to the Career Mode development team and they asked us to rate the FIFA 11 managerial experience out of ten. The general consensus was that Career Mode last year was probably a 3/10 and the team in Vancouver agreed. But FIFA 12 is on the way now, riding on the crest of a revolutionary wave so how does the latest Career Mode offering stack up against last years managerial benchmark?

The Interface

The Career Mode layout hasn’t changed a great deal in FIFA 12, but to be honest there wasn’t any need for drastic overhaul anyway. What has happened though is an incredible amount of polishing, fine tuning and the addition of some really intelligent design choices.

The first being the in-game calendar which now embeds at the top of the homepage when you ‘advance’ through the mode. It’s a simple change but it keeps the mode feeling cohesive and maintains visibility of the big football stories evolving around you. The calendar icons which indicate upcoming friendly, league, cup and European matches are properly colour coded too, which means there’s no magnifying glass needed to decipher the minute badges seen in FIFA 11.

The speed at which Career Mode advances is certainly better too, although when the transfer window is open, it definitely slows up to accommodate for the extra information. Besides loading times the main thing which disrupts the flow of Career Mode is the constant stream of emails. The good news is that you can now deal with multiple transfer negotiations in one email, rather than receiving an individual email per player. What I think the game needs to do though, is prioritise emails better and only interrupt Career Mode advancing if an email requires genuinely urgent attention. It just feels a little bit stop, start, stop, start for me at the moment and there can be lack of fluidity between game weeks.

The media pane has also seen some welcome changes giving you the ability to view news stories in full now, without having to open a separate window. The information contained within the media stories is good and the transfers, offers and rumours we saw throughout the play test were all plausible, without being ridiculous.

The most important thing though is that the Career Mode homepage now feels and acts like a command centre for everything you accomplish as a manger. Whereas before it was just an index which would send you spiralling through unnecessary sub menus and grey drudgery. As I said at the start, there’s been no drastic overhaul to the interface but the aesthetic changes that have been made make Career Mode a genuinely pleasant place to experience your managerial journey.

Transfer Negotiations

Without doubt the best thing about any managerial simulation is the buying and selling of players. Nothing compares to the feeling of making a huge marquee signing for your club and there will be plenty of opportunity for this to happen in Career Mode, I assure you.

One feature I know everyone wanted was the ability to loan any player regardless of their contract status and thankfully it’s now in the game. You no longer have to rely on the game to offer up a decent selection of young loan talent as you can now in theory make a loan move for anyone, should their circumstances fit. As a test we tried to loan Xavi from Barcelona and were immediately slapped down and with our tail between our legs we swiftly moved on to other targets.

The other ‘most wanted’ transfer feature however, player plus cash deals, did not make the cut this time round. We spoke to the developers about this at length and whilst they do have a system which will make player plus cash deals work, they weren’t happy at all with the results being displayed by the CPU. Quite simply the AI to support, the valuation, whether a club want a player offered for exchange and the ensuing contract negotiations, just isn’t there yet. Player plus cash deals are a lot more complex than we realised and I’m happy the team are spending extra time to get it right, rather than adding it to Career Mode half finished.

A major plus point with transfers though is that the CPU will now make offers for players not transfer listed by you consistently. And when they do want one of your star players they can be ferocious in their attempts to sign them. I rejected four increased offers from Juventus for Dimitar Berbatov before eventually agreeing to sell him for 22 million. The bidding started at just 12.5 million, so it was very clear to me that Juventus had identified their primary target and were prepared to get their man at any cost, which was really satisfying to see.

For transfer negotiations to go to the next level I’d like to see some more contractual options around performance based incentives, now common place in today’s game and I’d also like the ability to set an asking price for a player if a bid comes in lower than my expectations. In my opinion there’s still an awful lot of work to do to flesh out Transfer Negotiations fully. The features that have been added this year do their jobs well, but the experience of buying and selling isn’t quite as inspiring as it could be.

Scouting and Youth Academy

After a period of absence longer than anyone expected, scouting is finally back in Career Mode and the implementation is top drawer. Firstly, it’s key to point out that the scouting system is for unknown youth players only and not players already present in the FIFA 12 database. It’s about unearthing a hidden gem and not finding out whether Xavi has a pass accuracy rating of 84 or 85.

To begin your scouting adventure you’ll need to hire one and you’ll be presented with four scouts initially, ranging in ability. The better the scout, the more money they cost, so lower league clubs will need to get by with lesser rated scouts to begin with. Personally, I think every club should start with at least one scout as default rather than having to sign one, but that’s a minor gripe. You can have a maximum of three scouts at your club and these can be chopped and changed as Career Mode progresses.

It will take a few days for your scout to join your club (just like a player transfer) but once signed you then need to decide on a region to send them to. The interface for doing this is excellent and it’s very similar to the team selection in FIFA World Cup 2010, clearly a favourite of Simon Humber’s. After selecting a region you then choose the type of player to search for, their position and so on. It will then take your scout a few weeks to set up a scouting network in that region before players begin to be suggested on a monthly basis.

The scout reports are presented really well too and you’ll be shown a potential OVR rating range (45-84) that the scout thinks a player could potentially reach. The more months you scout a player for, the tighter that range becomes, but if you wait too long rival clubs will step in and sign players should they be revealed as future superstars.

I’m torn about whether scouting should be used for players that already exist in FIFA 12’s database, as well as unknown youth because scouting the very top stars is an obvious waste of time. We already know Messi is a great player and that Sneijder can pick a pass.  But for gauging the potential ability of younger players already in FIFA 12, I really think this scouting model could be applicable and I hope it expands in future Career Modes.

Of course once you’ve signed a youth player they will be added to your Youth Academy, and from there you can track their development and when the time is right, give them some game time. Not every player will reach their full potential and you will invariably sign some duds, but after the scout has made his recommendations it’s down to you as the manager to cultivate raw potential with the aim of creating the next world superstar.

Team Management

There is one massive issue with Team Management in FIFA 12, which I’m afraid I just cannot get past. It isn’t solely a Career Mode issue either, because it annoys me in each and every FIFA 12 game mode available. The usability of the squad and formation management systems in FIFA is just, terrible. Changing a player’s base position requires a degree in Astro Physics, and that’s only if you can handle the sheer volume of button presses it takes to get in and out of the sub menus.

This isn’t just a FIFA 12 problem though because the Team Management menus are shared EA SPORTS technology, which is why it’s so bloody difficult to get rid of them. We hate them, the developers hate them, but until next year at the earliest we are well and truly stuck with them.

However, there is a new addition which makes the arduous squad management much easier to digest. The Alternate Selection system. Now, when you scroll down to your right back (for example) and press ‘triangle’ the player will highlight. You then use the d-pad to scroll left and right and the game will suggest replacement players for that position in order of suitability. It works brilliantly, firstly to reduce the volume of button presses and secondly the players it suggests are spot on. It’s a wonderful example of how simple innovation can work wonders and I can’t praise this inventive change highly enough.

As I said at the start this isn’t a Career Mode or even a FIFA 12 problem but when you’re in a mode which is trying to serve up a realistic management experience, you just can’t have something so restrictive in an area so fundamental. A new Team Management system needs to be priority number one, for FIFA 13.

Transfer Deadline Day

This one has been on the community wish list for a while now and its one of the new Career Mode features I’m most excited about for when release day comes round. Transfer deadline day is now a fully fledged mode of its own, attempting to bring the real world drama of the final hours of trading to life in Career Mode and boy does it succeed.

Transfer deadline day is broken down in to eight hourly slots which allow you to conduct multiple rounds of transfer negotiations. The communication back from clubs is prompt and deals can go through extremely quickly, if terms are agreed at the first time of asking. But when the drama really ramps up is when you struggle to agree terms and the hours begin to tick dangerously past. I’ll be honest, I caved and offered more money than I should have to force a deal for Ashley Young, but in the heat of deadline day drama you need to act on instinct.

In the top right of the screen, counters keep track of the number of deadline deals which have been completed and the total amount of money spent. Which when combined with the rapidly updating media pane provides excellent visibility of the transfers happening elsewhere in Career Mode. Most importantly it gives you the feeling that you’re personal agenda is only a small part of something much, much bigger.

In FIFA 11’s Career Mode the transfer deadline day passes with a whimper and poorly constructed news article. In FIFA 12 it passes with an adrenaline filled, mad dash, to get that one crucial signing in the bag for your title challenge. As a sensible manager you’d have all your signings tied up well before any last ditch drama. But to be honest, I’m tempted to leave all my transfer dealings until deadline day in FIFA 12, just for the rush. Without doubt a AAA addition to Career Mode.

Squad Report

Another new addition to Career Mode is the Squad Report system which allows you to track and compare player growth and statistics throughout the season. The design and layout of the Squad Report is really well constructed and it works brilliantly to provide a top level, managerial overview of your entire squad.

The screen is split in two (as always) with the left panel showing a list of your squad members and the right hand side showing player’s stats in full. Player growth is tracked very simply by green or red pluses and minuses, so you can see at a glance where a player is improving. You can view player form and morale (which are both back) within the Squad Report but crucially they have been added to Team Management as well.

The Squad Report screens also track player statistics across the competitions you take part in. One thing which always used to annoy me was that the game would never show you how many yellow cards a player was away from a suspension in different competitions. So as a manager you never knew whether to rest a player to protect them for a crucial match, the following week. Thankfully the Squad Report now has this information along with other many other useful player statistics.

My one criticism is that the Squad Report is so brilliant and so helpful, why isn’t it plugging in to every facet of Career Mode and Squad Management? It’s a more efficient way to view and compare player stats and most importantly its displayed full screen. And because it isn’t weaved in to the fabric of Career Mode deeply enough, the Squad Report feels a little bit tacked on at the moment, almost separate. Its influence should be consistent in all squad based decision making for me as it’s simply too good an implementation for this opportunity to pass by.

Player Stories

As well as looking after transfer policy and getting results on the pitch, you’ll also need to handle the games biggest egos in Career Mode. Player Stories can pop up at any time and are based on a number of different scenarios including, morale, retirement, form, wanting to play, new signings and many more. It is then down to you as the manager to deal with the situation appropriately and live with the consequences.

The best example I saw of Player Stories at work, actually happened during the Career Mode play test six weeks ago and the scenario involved big spending Man City. Who with their financial muscle targeted ‘best player in the world’ Lionel Messi. After much negotiation they eventually managed to get their man for £80 million and 250K per week wages. I know most people were annoyed by ‘player affinity’ preventing massive transfers between big clubs last year and this deal proves it’s now possible.

After Messi had made his much anticipated Man City debut, a Player Story appeared from David Silva stating his unhappiness at the new acquisition as he didn’t feel he’d get enough game time whilst superstar Messi was in the team. Personally I though that was a fantastic reaction to the transfer story, however it then got even better. After Silva’s moan the Man City board stepped in saying that they would leave it up to the manager to decide whether to sell Silva but would support any move to keep him against his will, in a word, awesome.

That’s just one example of course and already you can see that Player Stories are reacting really well to Career Mode events. My only worry is that over multiple seasons the stories the game portrays may begin to repeat themselves and the wow factor that the Messi/Silva saga provided could be lost. Only time will tell I guess but if the scenarios stay varied then Player stories could be a real tale of success in FIFA 12’s Career Mode.

Commentary

As I’m sure you all know by now, Martin Tyler and Alan Smith will be taking the English commentary reins in FIFA 12 and having listened to them in action, I think people will be surprised at the impact Alan Smith in particular has on the game. But aside from the general gameplay commentary there is also a lot of specific dialogue focussed entirely on Career Mode.

When your first match of the season comes round the commentators discuss your clubs ambitions for the season, where you’re squad may be lacking and in some cases even the clubs history. This adds so much to the immersion of the mode and the fact that EA have dedicated so much recording time to Career Mode, shows their intent to improve this aspect of the mode going forward.

Another brilliant addition is the use of multiple commentary teams for league and cup competitions. David Rutter informed us that you’ll have Tyler/Smith for Career Mode league games and then Tyldesley/Townsed for cup matches. If you desperately hate one of the duos then you can pick and choose yourself, but I can’t see why you’d want to? Variety being the spice of life and all that.

The success of the specific Career Mode commentary is going to come down to how in depth it actually is. As soon as you start hearing the same lines over and over the spell is broken and whilst repetition is inevitable in a game like FIFA, it can and should be minimised.

Bugs/Glitches

It’s worth noting, before I plough in to my verdict that we did encounter some bugs during our time with Career Mode. Which to be honest when you’re playing alpha code is to be expected. The vast majority of things we flagged up were met with the response “already fixed” which was pleasing to hear but I just want you guys to be aware of the full picture.

Verdict

I’ll be honest with you. This is not going to be the all singing, all dancing Career Mode that everyone ‘dreams’ of having to compliment FIFA’s gameplay. There are just too many big things still missing to call the mode anywhere near complete or perfect. This feeling is also enforced by some of the aging tech still being utilised by Career Mode, like the Team Management interface. This in my eyes has no place in a modern day football game and should be cast aside at the earliest opportunity.

It’s also worth mentioning that whilst all the above features sound great, the success of Career Mode this year is ultimately going to come down to the modes stability and reliability, long term. If we start getting widespread game save corruptions, players disappearing and regular crashes, much of the excellent work done in the features department will be irrelevant. Career Mode is as much at the mercy of bugs and glitches as it is to the actual innovation by the development team.

Having said that, for the first time in about three years I’m actually seeing genuine progression in Career Mode and when you see things you fed back to the devs six weeks ago, now in the game and flourishing, it makes it all of this worth while. Career mode seems to have a defined vision now and you get a real sense that the team in Vancouver know how to achieve it.

If FIFA 11’s Career Mode was a 3/10, this year’s is probably a strong 6/10 maybe even 7/10, if we get the stability we crave. That’s a pretty huge leap in one development cycle and for the first time, in years I actually believe that under Simon Humber’s stewardship, Career mode can continue to develop and improve year on year.

Career Mode is good this year and it will be the most playable and enjoyable Career Mode we’ve seen this generation. The ‘great’ however, may take just a little longer.

No pressure Simon…

You have no idea how hard its been to keep that a secret  but thankfully the lid on Career Mode has now been lifted. Which means we can give you a run down of the new features which grace FIFA 12′s Career Mode. We won’t be posting any opinion/impressions yet because we’re playing a newer build of Career Mode today and want to take that in before nailing our colours to the mast.

Career Mode: The New Features

Visuals: Visually things are pretty similar but the whole front end has been nicely polished. The calendar for advancing matches now embeds in the main screen allowing you to track news and events while the game progresses. You can also halt the advancement at any time if you want to stop and read an article or deal with a transfer deal. There are new colour coded calendar items for league, cup, friendly and European matches too.

Scouting: Yes, scouting is finally back in Career Mode but only for  youth players players. You can hire up to three scouts and send them to different regions around for a duration of your choice. The scouts themselves vary in quality with the best scouts demanding the most cash. To get accurate data on the quality of the youth prospects in a region you may need to scout multiple times, however if you wait too long a rival club could step in and sign the player you’re after.

Youth Academy: And once you’ve scouted your young prospects and decided to sign them they get added to your Youth Academy. From here you can track their development and when the time is right either move the players in to your first team squad or realise you made a terrible mistake and send them packing.

Player Stories: Throughout the season players will now approach the manager voicing their concerns or happiness at certain decisions. The topics range from injury worries, lack of game time, unhappy about a new signings, being played out of position, morale, retirement and many, many more. How you deal with these issues is entirely down to the manager.

Transfer Deadline Day: Is now a fully fledged feature of its own in Career Mode and on transfer deadline day the game advances hour by hour to allow you to wheel and deal before the window slams shut. You also have the option to stall transfer deals to allow your self more time to decide between multiple targets.

Form and Morale: Are both back and will need to be delicately managed over the course of the season. These two features plugin to the ‘Player Stories’ system where players will become and unhappy for any number of reasons.

Player Growth: Is allegedly fixed, but we’d need to play for multiple seasons to confirm this. However one very positive example came up when playing a Career Mode as Southampton. Just 3 games in to the season Alex Oxlaide Chamberlain recieved a substantial amount of growth receiving around 10 stats improvements. Most were just +1 but there were a few, +2 and +3 upgrades too. Which when compared to FIFA 11′s +1 growth for an entire season is surely a good sign. Alex is a player who you’d expect to have fairly rapid growth too so the scenario seemed to fit well.

This post covers the Career Mode features we saw six weeks ago but we’ll bring you an updated post with impressions as soon as we’re back from the Guildford play test.

Monday 11th July: FSB Timeline

8:00am – The first post drops on FIFA Soccer Blog, all about the visuals.

8:10am – A second post, very much of the audio persuasion.

8:20am – A third article arrives, from Paris with love.

8:30am – Our fourth and final post will round things up nicely.

Then the live tweeting from Guildford will begin, so make sure you’re following: @Dave797 – @Tem1985 – @Adam_Bhatti – @Suffwan and @FIFASoccerBlog for all the latest on FIFA 12 gameplay and most importantly Career Mode.

Fasten your seatbelts…

We want to know the top three things you want us to either investigate, look out for, or test when playing Career Mode. So hit the comments using a very simple 1), 2), 3) format and we’ll take these suggestions with us when we visit Guildford. Then once we’re back, we’ll do a big FIFASoccerBlog Q&A as we did after playing FIFA 12, earlier in the year.

**Disclaimer: We cannot answer questions about, player ratings, kits, boots, leagues and hair styles. Anything remotely related to licensing is a no, go area.**

We have some exclusive FIFA 12 Career Mode content dropping next Monday (11th) and we’re hoping to give you a timeline of events for that very soon.

Hit the comments, what do you want to know about FIFA 12′s Career Mode?

This latest news has come from the second FIFA 12 European press tour which today visited Paris demoing the latest version of Career Mode, which we’ll be getting out hands on next week. Anyway on to those tweets from our Belgian friends FIFABlog.be and David Rutter himself.

“@FIFABlog Also PC is REALLY the same as PS3/X360. On a high-end PC it’s magic. #FIFA12″

“@Ruttski it plays the same on all spec’s supported – you can make it prettier resolution on PC if you have the oomph!”

So more good news then for FIFA 12 PC which seems like its going to be the first genuinely competitive FIFA in terms of graphics and gameplay to hit the platform for some time. Will this bring back the golden age of mammoth FIFA PC “Super Patches” and updates? We certainly hope so.