Re: FIFA 08 (Next Gen Chat)
My comments in the survey were purely about 5v5 mode.
I'm limiting my comments to the 5v5 on-line mode of the game as, for me, this excellent mode is what made FIFA08 a game worth having and is surely the beginnings of a revolution in football gaming. I'm not even going to go into any of the actual gameplay/AI/physics issues, nor any of the numerous bugs, but simply concentrate on "administrative" issues which should be relatively easy to implement and would make the general experience more satisfying and less prone to being spoiled by people who deliberately set out to irritate.
These points are in no particular order.
1) Only team captains can pause a match. This currently is one the most crippling aspects to the FIFA08 5v5 on-line experience. A match kicks off and immediately somebody pauses.....for no good reason other than to annoy everyone....we wait for the full 30 seconds as he refuses to press READY, eventually the play starts again, the same person pauses again!!). And so it continues and people start to quit the match in frustration. I can see no legitmate reason for anyone else other than captains needing to pause a match. If people are going to play on-line, they should have the courtesy to ensure their control/visual/sounds setting are already set as they wish them so as not to have any need to interrupt the match to alter them.
2) Because only captains can now pause, they should be limited to only 3 pauses per match (they also have half-time for additional changes) but these pauses should last more than 30 seconds - say 45 seconds - to allow more time to make considered, legitimate changes. As mentioned in point 11 below, his team-mates should be able to see what changes he's making (ie. see the same tactical/formation screen the captain sees), so will be more appreciative of the time spent during the pause, rather than the current system where we're left sitting staring at a frozen image, not knowing if the pause is for legitimate reasons or is it just someone pausing for malicious reason as per point 1.
3) Further to the above, anyone disconnecting should do so without the need to pause the game. They should simply be able to quit the session without interrupting the action and a message would appear on the other players' screen to inform them that user x has disconnected. No need to pause at all.
4) Option to prevent players choosing ANY player. Too many matches have multiple players endlessly player-switching, resulting in much confusion and general mayhem. These matches are not worth playing.
5) Option for captains only to choose ANY player. It can be useful as team captain to take control of all the non-human controlled players, generally organising the play of the team, particularly in defence as most players pick midfield or offensive positions.
6) Option for captain to boot people from the waiting room/lobby. This is critical because there are frequent occassions where people linger in the waiting room, deliberately not picking a team and pressing READY, flicking back and forth between teams, clearly in order to aggrivate the other players. With such a long waiting time of 5 minutes, this is a serious problem that must be addressed.
7) Following on from the above, an option for the session starter to start a match even before 10 people have pressed READY.
8) Kit selection - too often, matches have kicked off with both teams wearing similar kits and the match is rendered unplayable, eg both teams in all white.
Three possible ways of improving this:
a) make kits much more visible in the lobby (ie. not hidden behind players names as they join the session and press READY)
b) option for session creator to set both teams kits and the opposing captain cannot change them (assuming, as per point 8 below the option is in place where teams are dictated by captain)
c) kit selection made available in a final screen of it's own before the match kicks off.
8) The session creator should have an option to stop other people joining a room and change which teams will play, ie. it should be possible for a session creator to set up a match as Bristol Rovers v Wycombe and not have someone join the room and change Wycombe to Barcelona (yet again!!). If someone joining the session doesn't like the teams on show, they can leave that session.
9) During the formation screen prior to kick-off, currently only the captains are aware of what changes they're making to formation/tactics/line-ups. Everyone on his team should be able to see his changes. This is a fundamental requirement.
10) During the screen where people pick which position to play, players names should also be shown. A formation diagram should also be visible. We want to see which player we're picking and where they'll play in the chosen formation.
11) When a captain pauses a match to make tactical changes, these should be visible to his team-mates. If he's switching from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3, it's important the other players know he's done this so they know of any change in their position/role. Likewise with substitutions - it should be made clear to any player being substituted that they're now controlling a different player (including removing the option to skip the substitutions cut scene which contains this inforamtion).
12) There should be an option for a captain to subsitute a human player and that human player can no longer participate in the remainder of that match. That player should be given the option to spectate for the remainder, or quit the session. This option is critical because it would have the added benefit of overcoming the frequent occassions when players deliberately start scoring own goals or tackling their own team-mates, generally trying to spoil everyone's fun. This option should be one of the pre-session options so people know this option is available to the captains before they join.
13) Option where red cards awarded to players should mean that human player can no longer participate in the remainder of that match. They should be given the option to spectate for the remainder, or quit the session.
14) When you join a room for a "quick be a pro match", all the options set up for that room should be made visible (eg. 5 minute each half, off-side rule is on, which stadium, red cards mean you're off for the rest of the match, etc).
i was a non beleiver of fifa till i played it. it improved much more than the previous versions.
. I took off my CAM and put on a CB. And tried as best I could to create a chance, but nothing doing in the first 60 mins. With 30 mins left I resorted to the long ball, and it was only in the 90th minute that it became effective. A long ball up to Kone, who flicked it on for Iversen to run onto and Iversen carried on into the box, then slid a lovely bass across to Kone, who JUST beat the defender to it and got some kind of contact on the ball and it slid into the net. 10 seconds left on the game clock!!!
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