The end of one year and the start of the next is always a good time to hand out the gongs and statues for the best games of the previous twelve months, but FIFA 13 can holds its head especially high having been voted the 2012 AbleGamers Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year.
The award is handed out by AbleGamers, a non-profit organisation that helps people with disabilities enjoy mainstream games. FIFA 13 earned the award for introducing multiple "world first" features designed to make the game accessible to all players.
"FIFA 13 is the first high-end mainstream sports game to allow users to control the entire game with only a mouse," explained the AbleGamers announcement. "For disabled gamers with Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, and even one-handed gamers, the ability to play such a sophisticated sports game with simple controls that can be handled by a trackball or mouse mean gamers who may not have been able to enjoy iconic sporting activities like baseball, football, hockey or soccer can now take part in the fun."
FIFA 13 was also praised for offering "remappable keys, customisable colour options, high contrast and intuitive menus and visual cues for all audio input". The option to change the pace of the game, as well as the efficiency of the AI, was also singled out for celebration. "For those with cognitive disorders and motor impairments, the ability to set the game to an acceptable rate of speed enables those with even the most severe of disabilities," said AbleGamers.
The turn-based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown was also lauded for its "perfect" implementation of features that will allow disabled players to fully enjoy the game.