The Backpage | CREATE YOUR OWN FIFA 12

Football journalist and FIFA fan Darren Cross looks at transforming FIFA 12 with Creation Centre, and how to download a team of legends made especially for you…

I’m writing this week’s Backpage minutes after bagging a last-minute winner over Barcelona with Man. United, thanks to some brilliant link-up play between strike partners Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke.

David May also deserves a mention at centre-back for keeping Barça’s Rivaldo quiet, and I have to give David Beckham credit for hitting my opening goal with a trademark free-kick.

No, you haven’t accidentally stumbled across a FIFA blog from 1999. This is FIFA 12, and all of the above happened thanks to my new favourite FIFA feature… Creation Centre.

Creation Centre is one of those things that seems to have passed under the radar of many FIFA players I know. This is understandable; there are so many game modes available and a lot of players tend to specialise in just one or two. Some exclusively play Head To Head Seasons or Ultimate Team, while others spend more time in Career Mode, either as a manager or using their virtual pro, so it’s easy to see how they may have missed it.

But Creation Centre offers something completely different. It is absolutely worth checking out, and in this week’s Backpage we’re going to look at what I think makes it so good, and why you should try it out for yourself.

There’s even a bonus team in it for you, but more on that in a moment.

So, why am I banging on about Creation Centre being great?

For starters, it can take you less than a minute or two to freshen up your game by downloading a couple of brand new teams to your console. Just sign in on www.ea.com/uk/football/creation-centre then search through the teams until you find one you like the look of. Bookmark it, then fire up your console and select Creation Centre from the Customise FIFA menu.

You’ll see the team you just bookmarked as being available, so now all you have to do now is tick the box and you’re away; one brand-new team for you to use in Exhibition, Tournament, Career Mode or even Unranked Head To Head.

And there are loads to choose from.

I went for Man. United’s treble-winning 1999 team and downloaded Barcelona Legends to give them a bit of competition, but there’s a huge variety available. For example, on the first couple of pages right now there are Brazil Legends, England Allstars, Arsenal 01-02, Classic Holland and Shakhtar Donetsk. Something for everyone.

I find these teams are great for when a mate or two comes round for a few games of FIFA. They add real variety to the team selection process so we don’t have to mess about wondering who to be. Best of all, once we get bored I go back on the site and download a couple more. I should point out here that your first few downloads will be free, but after a while there is a cost involved, albeit a relatively small one. I had three free teams before the game prompted me to purchase more allowance through the in-game store, which I did for 160 MS Points.

For me though, the real fun is in creating players and building my own teams and I’m up to two so far.

The first is a comedy team full of FIFA look-alikes of all my mates, and I created it for the sole purpose of using it when they come round. Games with this team are hilarious. We’ll either go 2v2 using the Home and Away versions of our team or all play on the same side together against the CPU, and the banter starts before anyone’s kicked a ball. First off everyone wants to see what ratings I’ve given them, which inevitably leads to comedy arguments about why they only have 10 for Stamina or 11 for Ball Control.

It’s all in the name of realism.

Then everyone waits to have a look at their digital version running out on to the pitch. It’s one of the few occasions when no-one presses the ‘A’ button to skip straight to the action.

Finally the game starts and we all hog the ball as much as possible with our own player. Honestly, you’ve never seen a team play less like a team than when one of the lads realises he’s in control of the FIFA version of himself, there are skill moves popping out all over the place and regular shots from 40 yards out.

No-one minds though, and even the celebrations become team events as everyone tries to get their player on to the screen before busting out The Robot or a double backflip – all human players can join the celebrations when a team-mate scores. It’s absolutely brilliant.

The second team is one I’ve made for you.

It’s called Backpage XI and it’s basically a collection of my favourite players of all time, from Schmeichel in goal through to Cafu at full-back, Ruud Gullit and Maradona in midfield and Romario up front with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

I’ve edited everything from the players’ shirt numbers and commentary names to the way they look, the boots they wear, how they play and the traits they were known for. Try taking a free-kick with Ronald Koeman or Roberto Carlos to see what I mean.

I’ve even edited the name of the stadium, designed a kit and uploaded a sponsor for my shirt, which all-in-all took me about an hour and a half. It is possible to build your own team much quicker though – Creation Centre can generate things like players’ attributes if you tell it to, so you can spend as much or as little time on your team as you like.

Get on the website and have a go yourself, it’s so easy and using a team that you made really does add something extra and unique to your game. Just remember to use the Quick Save feature often in case you accidentally close your browser and lose your work, which I did. Twice.

Once you’re done you can decide who gets to see your team. Save it privately so it’s only viewable to you, or make it public and let the rest of the community have a go.

You’re not just limited to custom teams and players though, you can download whole tournaments that others have made or – if you’re feeling really creative – design your own.

If you want to save the creation process for later and just take a look at the team I made for you, go to the Advanced Search option and type in Backpage. Make sure you cap the B – I spent a frantic minute thinking I’d accidentally wiped my team because it wasn’t showing up in a search, before realising it was case sensitive.

Please feel free to tell me what you think to the Backpage XI, or give me a shout to let me know about teams you’ve created that you want to tell other FIFA players about. I’ll retweet any of your teams on Twitter if you tweet the name to me a @Darren_Cross

See you next week.

Darren
twitter: @Darren_Cross