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EA SPORTS FC 26

The argument of "play it yourself first" is invalid because visually speaking, animations are so clearly POOR

Been watching these authentic gameplay videos and then I saw one random users video on twitter with FIFA 17 gameplay.
Went back to FIFA 16 and FIFA 14 (PS4) videos as well and man it is so frustrating to see that these games that are 10+ years old are at least 20 years ahead of current FIFA titles in terms of fundamentals of football.

People say more animations are better but its been the reverse case with EA.
Motion captured worked nicely for them. Having limited animations was actually cool but with the HYPERMOTION, the entire animation generation process is so unnatural.
The way players turn, walk, run etc.

I am seriously thinking of switching to gaming PC if these old FIFAs (FIFA 17 and FIFA 16) have mods.
FIFA 17 looks and feels like so much better!

EA what have you done!
Honestly for simulation lovers, the ground up build up is required cause the current animation engine is total goner!
 
Finding this really easy on legendary in authentic mode on career, , I’m not someone who normally does that well at first so it’s kind of boring?
 
The lack of user tackling here is concerning to me. Several times I saw the CPU team go near the player, and the CPU defenders attempting automatic, contextual tackles, but I rarely saw the User team do the same. I believe that a problem with the FC's (starting with 24), is that Player Defenders are so acutely unaware of tackling when close to a player, that you are entirely left with the manual tackling mechanics which are unrealistically harsh. If you attempt a tackle and miss, your defender is put so much out of position and is so severely penalized/immobilized that it's almost not even worth to attempt it. So what's left? Well at least in FIFA 23, when you were jockeying and got close to a player, the defender would try an automatic "contextual" tackle (or at least TRY to block the ball somehow). I'm not seeing anything like this here, and it is discouraging. I'm not saying everyone should play Legacy Defending (which has been broken in the FC's anyway), but Tactical and Advanced have to be logical, and not so frustratingly passive, or punish the player so much for even attempting a (gasp!) manual standing tackle..
This is a really great point I think, and why user defending feels like waiting for two flies to crash into each other.

Finding this really easy on legendary in authentic mode on career, , I’m not someone who normally does that well at first so it’s kind of boring?
This issue comes from the fundamentals being so warped IMO - with pass accuracy so high (rarely below 89%), and the game so end-to-end, if you "fix" one thing (say, taking rocket speed repositioning away from defenders) the balance is broken and it becomes far too easy.

But then the only counter-fix on offer is to make something else totally unrealistic to prevent goals (e.g. make the keepers superhuman, which they've done in the past) - because a REAL fix would mean making everything more grounded and realistic... Which is a lot more work.

(I'm not finding it too easy I must say, but I'm scoring the exact same goal over and over - through ball to winger, pass back to edge of box, score - because while build-up play is nice, you never actually score from it, because when defences get tight you're just going to pass directly to the opposition player for no reason.)
 
The argument of "play it yourself first" is invalid because visually speaking, animations are so clearly POOR

Been watching these authentic gameplay videos and then I saw one random users video on twitter with FIFA 17 gameplay.
Went back to FIFA 16 and FIFA 14 (PS4) videos as well and man it is so frustrating to see that these games that are 10+ years old are at least 20 years ahead of current FIFA titles in terms of fundamentals of football.

People say more animations are better but its been the reverse case with EA.
Motion captured worked nicely for them. Having limited animations was actually cool but with the HYPERMOTION, the entire animation generation process is so unnatural.
The way players turn, walk, run etc.

I am seriously thinking of switching to gaming PC if these old FIFAs (FIFA 17 and FIFA 16) have mods.
FIFA 17 looks and feels like so much better!

EA what have you done!
Honestly for simulation lovers, the ground up build up is required cause the current animation engine is total goner!

Thats exactly the point. Plus the player models, lightning etc. dont look that great either. So overall it just does not look realisitic AT ALL. Compare this to a NBA oder even PES 21 and its so hard to udnerstand where we are with football games. I mean they were on the right track with FIFA 22 with realistic but also responsive animations. Now the game loks like a parody of the sport.

Slowing down animations doesnt help either when they are broken to begin with. For me realism is also the outcome (goals especially) which are also mostly not realistic at all.
 
Thats exactly the point. Plus the player models, lightning etc. dont look that great either. So overall it just does not look realisitic AT ALL. Compare this to a NBA oder even PES 21 and its so hard to udnerstand where we are with football games. I mean they were on the right track with FIFA 22 with realistic but also responsive animations. Now the game loks like a parody of the sport.

Slowing down animations doesnt help either when they are broken to begin with. For me realism is also the outcome (goals especially) which are also mostly not realistic at all.
Hit the nail on the head!
That next-gen FIFA 21 version with those super realistic animations (Firminho and others) and FIFA 22 as well! (So good!)

HYPERMOTION is the worst thing that has happened to FIFA games!

Honestly, CARD trading, ugly colors, awful presentations and graphics aside, EFOOTBALL offline gameplay is pretty stick and rich in footballing fundamentals. Sad part is, they are never going to give us the rest and offline modes.
 
Gameplay has sped up already since the update. I think simulation mode sliders are better than authentic sliders. Passing is sluggish. Still have kits clashing with ref, laggy menus, players that are too large, hardly any fouls, crossing is still poor, players ball watching… the list goes on… Not too impressed really.
 
The argument of "play it yourself first" is invalid because visually speaking, animations are so clearly POOR

Been watching these authentic gameplay videos and then I saw one random users video on twitter with FIFA 17 gameplay.
Went back to FIFA 16 and FIFA 14 (PS4) videos as well and man it is so frustrating to see that these games that are 10+ years old are at least 20 years ahead of current FIFA titles in terms of fundamentals of football.

People say more animations are better but its been the reverse case with EA.
Motion captured worked nicely for them. Having limited animations was actually cool but with the HYPERMOTION, the entire animation generation process is so unnatural.
The way players turn, walk, run etc.

I am seriously thinking of switching to gaming PC if these old FIFAs (FIFA 17 and FIFA 16) have mods.
FIFA 17 looks and feels like so much better!

EA what have you done!
Honestly for simulation lovers, the ground up build up is required cause the current animation engine is total goner!
Fifa 14 and 16 have the biggest fifa modding community i think
 
Played a couple online season games and my initial impressions are positive.

Good

Defending and player-switching are much more intuitive. I don't feel like I'm actively fighting my players to get into position and can easily cut-off obvious plays. In EA FC 25 you could know what the opponent would do but sometimes felt powerless to prevent it.

Dribbling is decent, fluid, responsive.

AI positioning is more alive. Using a 4-3-3 with wing-backs and getting loads of overlapping runs without feeling too exposed. In EA FC 25 playing without 2 DMs felt like suicide.

Bad

Shooting is too easy - most shots are instant goals and it's harder to misses than score. Physics feel a bit off as well, can't quite put my finger on it, but body shape needs to have more influence so there's more mishits. Smashed in a low cross which my player put top-bins with ease while at full sprint, converting those types of chances should be more difficult.

Passing is lifeless - sadly a regression to older FIFAs where pass placement is an afterthought. Doesn't matter if wrong foot, under pressure, bad angle, it's always going to find a team-mate. This is the biggest flaw IMO, as it makes build-up non existent.

Overall

It's a decent enough arcade football game that should keep me entertained for 6 months or so. Is it a good representation of real football? Probably not, but I did feel the games I won were a byproduct of using football fundamentals and haven't yet come up against any weird gimmicky glitches.
 
FC IQ is still rubbish. Players standing around watching and when they do move to support or make runs it’s like they’re on railroad tracks. FC 24 was the last game to have decent player intelligence. Also, players often still jog when you need them to sprint, particularly on defense.
 
Not trying to make this about PES - but just saying, the ONE thing I really like about PES which is why I have hardly touched my copy of FC 25

Is the 1 vs 1 dribbling and the feeling of weight transfer you get in PES.

So I can fient left or right and send the defender the wrong way or create space - you know what I mean

Shame this isnt in FC games
 
Not trying to make this about PES - but just saying, the ONE thing I really like about PES which is why I have hardly touched my copy of FC 25

Is the 1 vs 1 dribbling and the feeling of weight transfer you get in PES.

So I can fient left or right and send the defender the wrong way or create space - you know what I mean

Shame this isnt in FC games

This does exist in EA FC. Most effective way to beat a man is to vary the dribbling pace between L1, R1, then R2. Draw them in and burst away.

Feints are missing though, or a least not very intuitive. FIFA 15 and 16 did those very well, you had an 'off-the-ball' feature where you could move your body one way then quickly go the other. I think those games had my favourite dribbling mechanics of all football games if I'm honest. PES 19 probably next closest.
 
FC IQ is still rubbish. Players standing around watching and when they do move to support or make runs it’s like they’re on railroad tracks. FC 24 was the last game to have decent player intelligence. Also, players often still jog when you need them to sprint, particularly on defense.
Basically whatever they did with CDM in FIFA 21(where they started being statue), they have applied it to all positions. So you have a game where players barely move(both offensively and defensively). It's static and boring.
 
I'm really amazed at the comments on Twitter, from the general public (not "sim-heads").




Don't just read the above - scroll to the comments underneath (CLICK HERE to open it in a separate tab to make it easier).

This is astonishing to me - the points they are raising are the same ones we raise here, and they're online players...

"Why is it cartoony fast, why is the AI so static, why is nobody defending, which makes it so boring" - I'm really shocked.
 
Let's keep hope because this year we have 2 distinct teams, we already know that the updates will also be separate, I believe that with the feedback from the beta at launch we will have several modifications, people are not liking the game in its current state!
 
Another thing I like, it's now possible to hold on to the ball without worrying about a defender ploughing straight through the back of you.

Don't want to get ahead of myself as it's my first day on the game and I'm sure annoyances will emerge, but I feel like all my major grievances with last years game have been addressed.

It's still a bit too open and fast for my liking, but if they toned down the pass speed and accuracy I'd be more than happy if this was the full release.
 
I'm really amazed at the comments on Twitter, from the general public (not "sim-heads").




Don't just read the above - scroll to the comments underneath (CLICK HERE to open it in a separate tab to make it easier).

This is astonishing to me - the points they are raising are the same ones we raise here, and they're online players...

"Why is it cartoony fast, why is the AI so static, why is nobody defending, which makes it so boring" - I'm really shocked.

The main difference between us sim-heads and them online players is that we know what we want, but they don't. It's as simple as that. Our intentions are the same, but the end product is different. They are asking for the opposite of what is needed, but they don't believe their own words. They're always fickle, unfortunately.

I'm just happy that we can re-visit old games like 16, 17, 19, etc. and have fun with it at this point.
 
It's still a bit too open and fast for my liking, but if they toned down the pass speed and accuracy I'd be more than happy if this was the full release.
I've heard that there's a dedicated "live gameplay team" (responsible for patching the game) for both "Competitive" and "Authentic" modes this year - which I wasn't expecting - so hopefully we do see changes like this through the lifespan of the product.

If pass speed was slower and error was introduced, it would be so much better - but I think it would probably throw off the gameplay balance too much for them to commit to it. Suddenly all build-ups would fail because of the lightning speed of defensive repositioning and constant defensive pressure - but tone that down and then it's far too easy because there's so little defensive AI...

Also, I truly don't think "pass error" can exist, in the sense of passes being off-target, because the ball isn't truly free - so I would bet that's a "needs a new game" thing.
 
I'm really amazed at the comments on Twitter, from the general public (not "sim-heads").




Don't just read the above - scroll to the comments underneath (CLICK HERE to open it in a separate tab to make it easier).

This is astonishing to me - the points they are raising are the same ones we raise here, and they're online players...

"Why is it cartoony fast, why is the AI so static, why is nobody defending, which makes it so boring" - I'm really shocked.

So if everyone wants the game to be a certain way, why is EA refusing to change? Why are they so hell-bent on this hypermotion/rigid positioning system? I think it's due to the quality of the engineering team.
 
So if everyone wants the game to be a certain way, why is EA refusing to change? Why are they so hell-bent on this hypermotion/rigid positioning system? I think it's due to the quality of the engineering team.
I think it's more the fact that they have a game that makes billions of dollars as it is, and there will be someone at the top of the tree whose job it is to make sure that any changes aren't so drastic that they could potentially put off the core userbase and lose money. Sadly.
 
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