EA on FIFA 13 visuals improvements on Wii U, GamePad friends tab, more
EA has opened up on the many elements FIFA 13 has to offer on Wii U. Take a look at comments from producer Matt Prior below. Prior touched on the visual improvements made to the game, online functionality (including a friends tab that pulls other Wii U owners from the GamePad), and more.
Prior on the graphical improvements in FIFA 13 for Wii U…
“…and there are a couple of features that we have been able to graphically enhance. It’s not going to be miles ahead. But two things we have improved just in terms of the fidelity and quality are the pitch. If you have a look at the pitch texture there’s a lot more detail in it and we’re working on that as we speak to hopefully improve it even further.”
Pitch on how the team is improving the visuals of the crowd…
“One of the common complaints is the crowd, and if you look at the crowd on the Wii U it’s double the resolution. …we had limited resources in which to improve, so we wanted to make sure we got the biggest bang for the buck, if you will. Obviously the pitch is something you’re staring at like 90 percent of the time when you’re playing, so crowd and pitch were two areas we focused on.”
Prior on how developing the Wii U version of the game required covering more ground than on the other consoles…
“With new hardware, one of the challenges is—unlike PS3 and 360, where you’ve got a game, it’s finished, it’s done, and you build on top of it next year—we don’t have a game. So we have to build that foundation, and just like building anything, you need a solid foundation that’s stable on which to build.”
Prior on how the team focused on adding online to the Wii U version…
“We have to take a point in time when [the game’s] stable and then bring it over and then all the work we’re building on top of it, so in terms of where this is at, it’s not [FIFA] 12, ’cause there’s a lot of enhancements from 12, it’s not 13—it’s kind of somewhere in between at a core level. …obviously, on top of that we’ve got all the new Wii U functionality, so there’s a lot in our game that’s not in 360 and PS3.”
“We wanted to make sure we got the most popular feature in [versions for] 360 and PS3. Either online or offline, the most popular feature in it is an online mode called Online Seasons, so that’s in the Wii U [version]. Some of the more advanced [modes] that took many years to kind of come onto 360 and PS3, things like Ultimate Team, they aren’t on it at launch, but the biggest one in terms of popularity is.”
Prior on the friends tab that can be accessed on the GamePad…
“A friends tab that’s always there in the front end on the [Wii U GamePad] so you can tap it, you’ve got a list of friends. (It pulls from) the friends list from the Wii U console.”
“You can tap an invite to them, or you can tap a message to them. Obviously, touch screen messaging is much better than the 360 Live virtual keyboard where you’re moving it up and down. …we really want to connect friends and allow people to game with friends as easily as possible.”
Prior on how the GamePad touchscreen allows users a different way to control the game…
“We got people from within the studio who perhaps aren’t hardcore twitch gamers and put it in front of them and got their feedback, and it was interesting because instantly, you give them a controller and they’re like ‘what’s a button do?’ You give them [the GamePad] and tell them it’s ‘touch screen’ and instantly they kinda get it because mobile phones, airline entertainment systems, it’s all touch screen. So that touch screen ability is a real way into the world of people for us because people just instantly get it, which is great.”
“Because you can manage, you don’t really need that high-intensity twitch gaming where you’ve got to be concentrating all the time. It’s kind of ‘kick back, maybe put it down, and do a few management changes’. You don’t need to be panicking all the time.”
Prior on how the Wii U lets players choose how they want to experience the game and can even bring two players of different skill levels together…
“That’s one of the good things, right? It’s made FIFA almost multi-layered in the sense that how you want to participate with it, you can play as you would 360 and PS3, you can manage, or you can kind of combine the two with a friend and he can do the hard work.”
