FIFA 08 Manager Mode Adventure Thread

I've started a game with Chester City to try and improve my finishing (playing with a half-star team is brutal). I created myself and signed myself, for a laugh. Playing on Pro mode so far.

Drew 1-1 with Macclesfield, drew 1-1 with Notts County, drew 0-0 with Darlington, won 2-1 against Wrexham (with myself scoring the winning goal - I was jumping and screaming and stubbing my toe on various things).

The cheating is evident but not as annoying as it used to be now that I've played against some brilliant people online. I've started using manual shooting, at first it was killing me but the first online game I played with it on last night, against Bobbybox's West Ham, I scored a screamer of a goal, 35 yards out, straight into the top corner. And my goal in this manager mode against Wrexham was a brilliant shot as well, bottom corner of the net. So I'll be sticking with it!
 
Hey JB - would you say that those two special goals you scored wouldn't have been achievable on semi/assisted shooting?

It's the one config that I've kept away from messing with so far but if there are more varied goals to be scored then I may dabble and see.

As it is, on my manager career, i'm going for the 15 season in 15 different countries after Placebo mentioned it last week.

I won the league with Inter, and the Italian cup, now i'm at Rosenbourg where i'm thru to the semi's of the cup and top of the league with 3 or 4 games to go (i have "simmed" quite a few games though due to boredom) - i plan to move to scotland next and try to challenge the "big two".

i noticed a little cheat though - if you let your best players run out of contract at the better clubs then they become free agents that can follow you around - for example, i managed to get a couple of Inter players to move to Rosenbourg which helped my team get to 4 and 1/2 stars as a result.
 
I wouldn't say they weren't achieveable, I'd just say that if you can hit a sweet spot the goalkeeper will have less chance of reaching it. But it's not easy, the difference between hitting the target and missing by an inch is so so tiny (in terms of the direction you have to press on the stick)... In the five games I've played with it on (one online and four against the CPU on Professional), I've only scored three proper goals and the rest have been rebounds, tap-ins or penalties.

I will keep trying with it because you can score belters, but it's very annoying when you can't score from five yards out (every chance I have that close I skew wide, every single bloody one).
 
What minute halves do you guys play on? With a realistic sim like Fifa it feels like I should be playing longer halves.. I'm only on 4 mins at the moment.
 
10 minute halves on Pro, feels like a good length for me, game has ebbs and flows, some matches are tight (just won 1-0 away to Real Madrid in the first leg of a 2nd round UEFA Cup game with my winner being scored in about the 72nd minute), some matches are high scoring (lost 7-1 to Villa in the first month, beat them 5-1 in the cup the following month) but the average is about 2-1 I'd say.
 
Christ, ten minute halves? I could never stick to that.

5 minutes is the minimum I would play, I've been playing on 6 minutes for the last 10 games or so and I think that's about right. 8 minutes would be my maximum.
 
How do you guys even have the time to score when playing 5 or 6 minute halves? I'm strugling like hell against the constant CPU cheating and thats on 8 min halves. This game is so frustrating at times, I just can't find any of my players in a good position so I can pass the ball to them. Tearing the house down atm. =D

Would be cool to see a video of a game that some of you guys play in manager mode to get a hang of it.
 
Ozkar said:
How do you guys even have the time to score when playing 5 or 6 minute halves? I'm strugling like hell against the constant CPU cheating and thats on 8 min halves. This game is so frustrating at times, I just can't find any of my players in a good position so I can pass the ball to them. Tearing the house down atm. =D

Would be cool to see a video of a game that some of you guys play in manager mode to get a hang of it.
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It's very hard to score consistantly and I know just how you're feeling, I put so many shots just wide... It drives me mad at times too with the "cheats"... I feel at times I'll never get to grips with the shooting mechanics.. Try to play controlled football, come back when there is no pass on, hold the ball and look for gaps or free team mates. Mix it up too and alter your tactics, this worked for me. Fifa is a love hate kind of game, but that's better than the hate, despise, despair game it used to be ;)

I'm amazed at the people who say they can score wherever and whenever they want.. :shock:
 
Nick Cave said:
It's very hard to score consistantly and I know just how you're feeling, I put so many shots just wide... It drives me mad at times too with the "cheats"... I feel at times I'll never get to grips with the shooting mechanics.. Try to play controlled football, come back when there is no pass on, hold the ball and look for gaps or free team mates. Mix it up too and alter your tactics, this worked for me. Fifa is a love hate kind of game, but that's better than the hate, despise, despair game it used to be ;)

I'm amazed at the people who say they can score wherever and whenever they want.. :shock:
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Good post mate. Yes I guess you have to be more patient. But let's just say patience isn't my gift from God. :lol:
Yeah the "cheats" are driving you mad from time to time. It's nearly impossible to nick the ball from the CPU and when you do, your players reaction are so slow that they just nick it back again.

Yes tactics. Well I have not altered them very much. I normally choose "all out attack" when I'm one goal down at the end of games. Guess I'll have to try and play with them tactics a little bit more. But there isn't much to choose from is there?
 
What skill level are you playing on? I am pretty comfortable on Pro, can win the ball from the AI etc. (currently top of the Prem after 24 matches, still in all 3 cups), I'm going to change short passing to manual soon (then everything will be manaul except shooting), if I'm still comfortable with that then I'll move up to World Class :)
 
Ozkar said:
Yes tactics. Well I have not altered them very much. I normally choose "all out attack" when I'm one goal down at the end of games. Guess I'll have to try and play with them tactics a little bit more. But there isn't much to choose from is there?
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Find the best positions for your best players and try to alter the tactics to suit.. Not just the attitude, go in and alter your layout too. Not sure if it works but it made a big difference for me.. ;)
 
I have the team on all-out attack every game, offline and online... I find if I use anything else there's nowhere near enough people up the pitch. Even on all-out attack the midfielders tend to stay glued to the half-way line.
 
Jack Bauer said:
I have the team on all-out attack every game, offline and online... I find if I use anything else there's nowhere near enough people up the pitch. Even on all-out attack the midfielders tend to stay glued to the half-way line.
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Really? Guess I'll try that. I'm sick of having no one to pass the ball to when I'm attacking with let's say 3 players. Your teammates tend to take the most useless runs. It happens all the time, they run behind the defenders so there allways a defender in the way.
 
To me, the cheats of the cpu are killing the experience. Sometimes it just doesn't matter if I play better or worse.

There's always a play in which the cpu dribbles like maradona and crosses and it doesn't matter anything you do, the cpu will header and probably score. It doesn't matter if you have the best defenders, in the best position and do what is needed to clear the ball. Even Saviola wins my 1'90 defender and score. Not to mention the golakeepers, they are unable to stop any kind of cross. Funny when the cpu goalkeeper is all the time jumping for the ball.

All mixed with this feeling of "pes deja vu cheats" (the moment you score the difficulty is raisen, away matches are instantly harder, cpu players more agile, faster and stronger depending on you position in the league, the result, the minute of play...).

The thing is I'm starting to get bored of it, and I can't understand why developers kill the game with this plague. The game is getting fustrating like master league was in pes. Not because I don't win enough matches (I still can win the league and european cups now and then) but simply because cheats are not fun. You could tell if there were no cheats the game would be too easy. Well, I think most of the people prefer an easy game than an irritating experience. And if it was that easy, then I would pick very bad teams to raise difficulty.

But I don't like when you are constantly shooting more than 10 times and CPU shoots 3 or 4, and there's a big inertia towards the draw. It's the same balancing forces seen in pes all this years. And I hope they don't cross the line as PES did by putting this into multiplayer (in pes, at the begginning of a game, there was a kind of coin toss and one of the teams was stronger during the match, this was even admitted by seabass and made me hate the series and loose all respect for him 1 year ago).

The game is awesome in multiplayer and was awesome in single player until you begin to see there's only cheats in the poor cpu AI. Does any of you fell the same? I'm tired of tackling crap players and being unable to win the ball, or having 2 or 3 players hanging from the neck of a cpu player that won't loose posesion and will turn exactly at the same time I move the pad (very very lazy programming there, it's just pathetic).

I'm starting to think single player is over for me, and it's a pitty because when the game lets you play, it plays brilliantly.
 
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What skill level are you playing on? On professional I can beat everyone if I play well, lose to anyone if I play badly, early in the season I lost 2-0 to Fulham and they were down to 10 men for the last 30 minutes, now that's embarrassing!
 
If I play on Pro I can win every game if I put all my effort into it. On World Class I lose every game because every time the CPU player gets the ball they have glue on their boots and face away from you ALL the time.

I still love my manager game, I've learnt a lot about formations etc. in the space of a season. I keep learning things to try online, I just played an entirely new formation against someone online and was amazed to see how much better the team played. But (as with all football games I find - bar SWOS because it has no difficulty setting per sé), I either win every game or lose every game depending on the difficulty setting.
 
I play on PROFESSIONAL - it's a perfect difficulty setting for me. Forget World Class, it's just ridiculous and not realistic (Derby getting 85% possession at Old Trafford - I don't think so!).

Really LOVING this mode still - it's simply brilliant. I notice some small things like not playing the cup final at Wembley but it really doesn't bother me after playing the shambolic Master League for so many years.

I have a question: After the first league cup game, all of the opposing teams seem to have NO ENERGY for a few games afterwards. Does this happen to any of you? I played Liverpool roughly 4 games after a league cup game and most of their players' energy bars were only half-full.
 
I am playing World Class and it gets annoying. I lowered to professional so I can win more or less all matches, with some exception. But I was not talking about results. It's that scripted crosses and headers mostly, and the ability to dribble automatically towards the right direction almost everytime that was getting me annoyed. Offline multiplayer is awesome, just played a cup with my friends today for 6 hours, I won with Germany in a rough final against England. Sorry for the english here, but I thougght they deserved a beating... another one, I mean. (don't taunt me!)
 
Yeah that's how I feel, you can have some amazing games offline (and online when there's no lag, which is most of the time I have to say). You win a lot of balls that shock you a bit, it puts me off sometimes actually because I think "I've done that exact same thing against the CPU countless times and nothing happens, why has it suddenly just worked?".

Looking at PES and FIFA I think what they're trying to tell us is that, even with the best programmer in the world, it's impossible to make a game with 11 players that can beat you without resorting to a bit of cheating. And if that's true... It's very sad.
 
Took a step down from WC to pro the other day. Havent played for a month or so so was really struggling. Found myself going back to pes style footie (which is automatic after so many years) with speed and reaction being the main elements....but that doesnt get you anywhere with fifa. So went lower and started to play more patient again. The main problem I have atm is finishing off 1-on-1's. The goalies in the prem seem to be able to stop nearly every one. Once Ive got that figured out I might step up again as most of the time I have the more possesion and better chances, just cant convert them atm.

Any tips for finishing off 1-on-1's? In the lower leagues it was easy and I scored nearly every one, the prem however is another story. Do I need to use r2/finesse or something?
 
tiktiktiktik said:
Any tips for finishing off 1-on-1's? In the lower leagues it was easy and I scored nearly every one, the prem however is another story. Do I need to use r2/finesse or something?
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I am quite a master at 1 on 1's mate. Make sure you are not sprinting and hold the left-stick (direction) diagonal-down-left or right for a slot pass the keeper. Power up AT LEAST half-way otherwise the keeper' just saves it. :)
 
Plan M said:
I have a question: After the first league cup game, all of the opposing teams seem to have NO ENERGY for a few games afterwards. Does this happen to any of you? I played Liverpool roughly 4 games after a league cup game and most of their players' energy bars were only half-full.
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Could someone shed some light on this please? Every team I play only ever have half-full energy bars at the most. Is it like this for everyone? (Obviously my energy bars are always full because I put the fitness to 10 at the beginning of the season).
 
No it's poor game design, same as AI squads not being improved (despite EA saying before release that the AI would look at improving their squads which is bullshit), AI players will stay in the same position until they retire, doesn't matter how much they decline, doesn't matter if there are better players in the squad, if someone is in the starting 11 they will always be there (barring injury/suspension) until retirement, then once they've retired they'll just stick in some squad player to cover that position, doesn't even matter if he doesn't play that position they'll just stick him in, for example West Ham, Solano the attacking midfielder retired, to be replaced until retirement by Dean Ashton, Dean Ashton at AM? Riiight. Newcastle's was worse though, Viduka the tall, strong target man retired and was replace by Aaron Lennon (who they bought off me), Aaron Lennon the tall, strong target man? Riiight.......

Some of this game is fucking awesome, some of this game design is fucking amateurish. Roll on Fifa09, they can have no excuse for the amount of little things fucked up in Fifa08 as all the squads and all the players have now been integrated into next gen, they'll just need tweaking and such, the game's overall design should be the primary focus.
 
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