FIFA is winning the annual battle of virtual football. The EA Sports title upped its game for the 2010 edition and has since become the game of choice for professional players and the wider public – FIFA usually holds the top spot in the gaming charts for months after release. Today, gamers had the chance to try out the latest version for the first time, after weeks of teasers, previews and press events. Is FIFA 13 up to the job?

Before we get to the match itself, there are some minor details to note. Before you get into the main menu, we still have to pick which language we want the game to be in. This has annoyed some players, who feel it would be much easier to just select a language once and have it saved to remove the need for this button press. As I said, it’s something minor but it is still there. The game starts with a little live action piece showing Lionel Messi, the game’s new cover star, firing a shot into a net. We’re then asked to press start.

If you haven’t played the demo before, it will ask you to sign in or create an Origin account. This is just the fancy new name for an old EA account so previous players of FIFA should have one to log in with. After that’s out of the way, you can sort your controller settings out and pick your favourite demo team.

We’re then into our first match, powered by the new Matchday feature. I went in as Arsenal against Borussia Dortmund. The first evidence of the Matchday feature I had was some players not being available through injury, so Vito Mannone was standing in for Wojciech Szczesny. Other players had their overall rating altered to fall in line with their recent form. So, into the game we go.

The match ended 0-0, as I was still trying to feel my way into the new game, but in the event of a draw you do have a penalty shoot-out. I lost the penalties, hitting one too hard and hitting the post. The penalty system is, however, unchanged. The match itself was quite impressive, with an added hint of randomness. The ball can cannon of a defender’s shinpads and disappear into the stands for a throw, last ditch tackles are more reckless, and there are a lot more deflections – it seems that this year at last it’s possible to have a shot deflected into the net.

There was a great sense of relief when I discovered that the referees have been sorted finally. No longer (I have now played six games) are perfectly timed tackles penalised with a penalty kick and a red card. In fact, the refs are quite lenient. The free kick count went right down, and I don’t think I got one in a shooting position, so I haven’t been able to try out the new tactical free kicks.

Skill games are more than just something to pass the time away, they’ll actually help you get better in matches. In the demo the skill games manifest themselves in the loading screen when you’re waiting to kick-off a match. I had a dribbling game, lob passing, ground passing, free kick and penalty challenge in my few matches so it seems there is a good range of different games to master.

So, the Fifa 13 demo looks like it’s shaping up to become the full game that will occupy our evenings for yet another year. It’s well worth pre-ordering and it has made the best of the engine it has. Next year we should get some really exciting advancements with maybe an early build on a next-gen console.

There’s a lot involved in the demo, and I can’t cover it all here, so if you have a question then feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll see what I can tell you.

If you fancy giving this football sim a try, take a look at Origin for the PC, the Xbox Live Marketplace or the PlayStation Store. The full game is out on 28th September.