FIFA 12
Fifa 12 by EA Sports, is the simulation of the world’s most popular sport — Football, or Soccer as it is known as in the US. The aim is simple, score more goals by putting the ball in the back of the opposition net while keeping the opponents out of your own goals.
REAL TIME CONTROLS
In order to succeed at the aforementioned tasks, the game mechanics are divided into 2 depending on whether you have possession of the ball or not :
- Attacking Controls, when you have possession of the ball
- Defensive Controls, when you do not have the possession of the ball
There are some other controls but they do not influence the gameplay directly, like the Set Piece Controls, the Goalkeeper Controls or the Celebrations Controls that are triggered on scoring a goal. We will not talk about them because we will be concentrating on testing the Attacking and Defensive Controls (the core gameplay) with our Real Time Control definition.
Attacking Controls:
- Movement:
- Run
- Sprint
- Turn
- Jump to Head the ball
- Using the Ball:
- Straight Pass : A ground pass straight towards a teammate
- Through Pass : A ground pass into the space in front of a teammate to run on to
- Lobbed Pass : An aerial pass straight towards a teammate
- Shoot : A normal shot at goal, directed by the direction keys/analog stickAll these basic controls can be enhanced to achieve higher level of play. For eg., a Controlled Shot is less powerful but more accurate than a normal shot. Similarly we can have a Lobbed Pass combined with the Through Pass to perform a Lobbed Through Pass which is an aerial pass for a player to run onto.
- Skill Moves
They are tricks that are used to beat defenders or just show-off and have fun. Tricks like the Rainbow (where the attacking player flips the ball in a rainbow arc over his head and the defender in front of him) or the Step-overs (attacking player steps over the ball trying to fool a defender of his movement).
Defensive Controls:
- Movement
- Run
- Sprint
- Turn
- Jockey (Move facing the attacker)
- Jump to head the ball
- Defending
- Switch Players
- Standing Tackle/Clearance
- Sliding Tackle
- Press (Get closer to the attacker)
- Call Second Defender
- Goalkeeper Charge
Attacking Controls as Real Time Controls:
The running, sprinting and turning movements are fairly well fused together thanks to the 60 fps frame rate, giving a really good impression of motion. All the movements feel real. The shooting and passing animations work fluidly too.
There is a small lockout period in certain movements like dribbling (including most of the skill moves). The length of the lockout varies according to the speed of the dribbling. This is because we are in control of the avatar’s motions only when he is touching the ball. When the player sprints with the ball, the avatar knocks the ball a bit further in front of him and runs fast towards it. The player is able to control the direction or next move (direction, pass or even the speed) of the avatar only when he reaches the ball. While using the slow Close Control Dribbling, the avatar takes more touches of the ball in the same period of time, thus giving more responsive controls. There is an approx 825ms* lockout while sprinting and about 90ms* lockout at close control dribbling. While sprinting, the response time is > 100ms, so the Correction Cycle is broken but even then the players feel like they are in complete control of the situation because they chose to sprint instead of run/slow dribble. At the same time, when using Close Control Dribbling, the response time is coming at less than the time for response time of 100ms which is ideal. When combined with the fact that the game is giving continuous feedback, it maintains a continuous Correction Cycle. This gives a feeling of instantaneous response. Once the player has had enough experience with these 2 controls, his Perceptual Field is expanded and he understands better which type of dribble to use when and how much control he has over the outcome.
When we try to pass or shoot the ball, the avatar’s next move is restricted to executing or cancelling the shot or pass. Although the length of this restricted period varies with the intensity with which the player wants the ball to be hit. Holding down a shoot button increases the strength of the kick. The player’s Perceptual Field, thanks to his past experiences in the real world, tells him that the avatar should take his leg further back in order to kick the ball harder. The animation for a strong shot takes approx 500ms* compared to the 150ms* for a weak shot. In both cases, the animation starts but the player is still in control of the situation and can cancel the shot or the pass instantaneously (Response Time < 100ms) in case he has a better option like an easier shot or pass available. Thus throughout the process, the Correction Cycle is working continuously, letting the player perceive the shooting motion and movement of other avatars (Perception Process), analyze if this is the best option or there are better options available and send (Cognition Process) and send out an impulse in case there is a better option to cancel the process (Motor Processor).
So the Attacking Controls of FIFA 12 are Real Time Controls working at a frame rate greater than 10 fps, response time < 100ms and providing continuous feedback.
* The times were measured by slowing down youtube videos (thanks to HTML5) and measuring the average time between touches of the ball during specific runs using a stopwatch
Defensive Controls as Real Time Controls:
Again, when the game runs at its average frame rate of 60 fps, the images feel well fused together giving a feel of real motion. The running, tackling and sliding movements of the avatars feel well joined together.
Unlike running at different speeds while attacking, while defending, the player feels 100% in control of the avatar he is controlling without any lockouts. The player can chose to run, sprint, press or jockey (run while facing the attacker and ready to tackle) while defending. In a nutshell, he is getting an instant response in a continuous loop giving him the feel of real time controls.
When he goes in to tackle though, there is a lockout period depending on the type of tackle. But even during this period, he is getting a continuous feedback. The standing tackle takes about 200ms* whereas the sliding tackle took anywhere between 800ms* to 1100ms* before the player got a feedback to next command. Again, these numbers make sense from the game balance point of view but from a feedback loop and response time point of view they are long and lock the player out.
So we can conclude that the Defensive Controls in FIFA 12 are Real Time Controls too.
* The times were measured by slowing down youtube videos (thanks to HTML5) and measuring the average time between touches of the ball during specific runs using a stopwatch
SPATIAL SIMULATION
The game world of FIFA includes 1 ball, 11 avatars for 2 teams each, 1 referee, 2 linesmen, a field and a well rendered arena with crowd. The fields varied in quality, some are bumpy and dirty while some are well manicured carpets. The ball reacts differently to these different surfaces. It reacts and feels differently to the weather too. In light rain, the ball would zip around the field, giving a sense of skidding off the surface while it would stop half way through on a watery pitch thus indicating a heavy pitch. The ball even bounced off the advertising boardings giving a sense of solid, unmovable objects.
The 11 avatars on each side and the officials (the referee and his linesmen) also interacted with the ball. If the ball hit a referee, he would stumble the ball would bounce back off him. The same with the defenders trying to stop a ferocious shot. The avatars kicked the ball around displacing it by different distances along varied trajectories depending on the input from the player.
The avatars interacted with each other through EA’s Player Impact Engine that was introduced. This engine no longer executed pre-defined and programmed animations of collisions and other impacts among the avatars. Instead it calculated those at runtime. The results were mostly awesome but sometimes led to 2 avatars colliding and falling randomly again and again for 5 seconds.
The simulated space also had boundaries which were defined mostly by the laws of the sport. But whenever the ball went beyond this boundary, the game reacted to it. Similarly, the avatar who got injured and was receiving treatment on the sidelines is visible just beyond these boundaries.
So the player had a great sense of the Simulated Space around him.
POLISH
EA Sports and FIFA 12 have always been known for their polish. Whether it is the likeness to the real world athletes and stadia or weather effects, FIFA has always been far ahead of its competitors.
Firstly, all the players look exactly like their real world counterparts (thanks to their 3D Face Scan technology). All the licensed stadiums have been recreated to near perfection with lighting, sun’s position and even the entrances to the field kept in mind. The crowd provides the atmosphere, reacting with “oohs!” and “aahs!” at the right times and celebrating with the home team when they score.
The referee and his 2 linesmen add another layer of polish along with the cut scenes accompanying moments at the start/end of match, showing yellow and red cards to players or injured players being carried off. The referee is an AI controlled entity, mostly passive but when he needs to, becomes active.
The particle effects at the feet of the avatars when running on a wet field with water is indicative of how wet the field is. A brown, yellowish looking field gives a feel of a dry and bumpy field. Rain/snow falling depending on what time of the year it is add a sense of weather. A better contrasting field with 4 shadows of all the objects on the field give a sense of night.
Thanks to the Player Impact Engine, now small players are easily pushed away by stronger, heavier players. You can really see why the avatars reacted the way they did in replays because the Impact Engine is creating animations at real time, giving the game a real polish that pre-animated and programmed avatars will never have. Quick players fall down at the slightest of touches when running at high speeds. Thus giving a real sense of weight and size and other physical features.
The sound of the ball being kicked hard or soft varies. And the sound of it hitting the back of the net in a goal is different and one of the most satisfying sound. The color commentary provides the last piece of the “Polish Puzzle” summing up all that is happening on the field with the right emotion and rarely repeated dialogues, filling in the dull, empty areas of the match experience with trivia and history.
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