With Xbox Live and Playstation Network, online games are both fun and challenging. You can play with friends of choice or have the online network choose an opponent for you. There is a simple ranking system which you can learn more about here. However, there are more ways to get involved online than just playing 1v1 matches with other players. Head to head matches and the other three online game modes available in FIFA 12 are explained below.

 

Head to Head Matches

These are just traditional 1v1 matches of football. This does not differ much from the offline experience. There are two types of online games, Ranked and Unranked. Ranked affects your online rank and Unranked does not. Note that custom matches can be either of the two types. However, you cannot play ranked matches against friends. Also note that if you want to play ranked matches, you're probably best off just doing Head to Head Seasons, explained below.

 

Head to Head Seasons

Head to Heas Seasons is a new feature in FIFA 12 that creates a realistic league/season experience in FIFA. Basically, as you win games and accumulate points, you advance through "divisions" in pursuit of the top division: Division 1. Obviously, it's a bit easier said than done and that is why I suggest you take a look at our guide on Head to Head Seasons, it might help!

 

Team Play

Online Team Play is exactly the same as playing offline Career Mode - Player, except every player on the pitch is controlled by another online player. It's pretty tough to play well with other online players you don't know, so it's probably a good idea to gather some friends to play with. However, playing a quick match with random people is nice if you just want to get into a game fast.

 

Online Leagues

The Online Leagues game mode of FIFA 12 allows you to create a league for your friends to join or join a friends league yourself. It's much like the Head to Head Seasons mode explained above except it's just confined to whoever the league owner decides to invite.

 

Pro Clubs

The FIFA 12 Pro Clubs game mode allows you to create your own club and invite your friends or other online players to join. You play with your created Virtual Pro who you can equip with a Game Face to use, and you and your teammates can also download the game faces of the members of the club. You can either join an already created team or create your own and bolster your squad with other Virtual Pros. By winning Ranked Matches and playing well with your team, you can advance up the leaderboard by accumulating points. There is also an individual Virtual Pro leaderboard to see who ranks among the top Pros.