FIFA 10

The things i'm most annoyed about are the things which were advertised as improvements/fixes and just aren't...
The prime example being Manager Mode which has actually gotten worse (in 09 you could make it somewhat realistic by setting "rules" for yourself).
Another being the giant Virtual Pros supposedly being slow and not very agile... what they didn't mention is that you get slow midget 33 rated centre backs who make these "slow" giants seem like Ronaldo.
Another being the addition of snow... what they didn't mention was that you have to play it with a white ball.
Another being gameface... what they didn't mention was that it only does the bottom half of the face and a lot of the time you end up with asian eyes and the wrong skin tone.

I could go on... they falsely promoted things which are actually fucked up.

Commentary improvements is another bare face lie an all.
 
I'm sure you can change the colour and style of the ball in MyFifa settings prior to playing the match.
Yeah that's true and I do this offline, but in online Clubs games you have no idea what the weather settings will be until the match loads... You have to hope the host (home team's captain) has a coloured ball as their default or you end up with white ball + white pitch...
 
nerf - I want the CPU to be a challenge as well, I just don't think that EA are going about it correctly. CPU or not, there needs to be some perspective with the reaction times. I don't mind the CPU having an advantage in terms of reaction times since I don't see myself as a fighter pilot. I just feel that there needs to be an even balance across as many areas of the CPU's game as possible, rather than massive spikes of advantage in some areas over others. We all want a challenge from the CPU and most of us accept that there will always be restrictions in what EA can achieve in simulating the behaviour of a human player. However I fundamentally don't see instantaneous reactions as something where you can suspend your disbelief.

Similarly, you can't blame custom tactics as the fundamental problem leading to identikit passing whatsoever - tactics should define how you use your abilities, not what your abilities are. It's the actual ability of the players to make every pass, whether human or CPU controlled. If the Burnley reserves passed like Burnley reserves then the harder AI should be balancing this out with good judgement of what pass is likely or not to succeed. They probably are, but when they can hit perfect passes 60 yards regardless of pressure or which foot they use they have little need to show that they can diversify. A player should beat a lesser player despite a disadvantage in team choice mainly because of their judgement of what they can achieve with their weaker tools. This is the case in PES; it has to be the case in FIFA to make each contest unique.
 
I don't disagree, but on the other hand it does raise a question over exactly how difficulty should be implemented.

If I deliberately elect to play on Legendary, surely things like instantaneous reactions and perfect passing is symptomatic of making the game more difficult for me? Isn't that the sort of thing that should be ramped up for maximum difficulty, and if not, how else should they achieve it?

Presumably the game as a whole will be balanced at Professional (being 'Normal' difficulty). At that level the AI will make the smartest decisions (what action to take) that it is capable of, so there's no question of the AI somehow being smarter on World Class and smarter still on Legendary. Instead it might become faster to react, it might become more aggressive, it might twist randomised elements (accuracy cone etc) in its favour. It needs to do those things in order to provide you, the seasoned, resourceful and intelligent gamer, with a challenge that will keep you invested rather than bored.
 
I played PES 2010 at lunchtime in HMV today and I now appreciate FIFA 10 more than I did. 360 dribbling makes such a huge difference. I was playing Multi-player and I am up against his full back, now I am in FIFA mode so I try and move the ball to the outside near the touchline and then dribble back inside. That’s what was in my head but the game had me running the ball straight out of touch. Until Konami move with the times it looks like PES is gonna be always left on the shelf for me.

PES 2010 feels very stiff and robotic to me. The guy I was playing said he played FIFA 10 for the first time last week and he could feel the huge difference with dribbling and physicality. Said he never noticed hw stiff PES was till he played FIFA.

When it comes to gameplay FIFA is a clear winner for me!!
 
Last edited:
I don't disagree, but on the other hand it does raise a question over exactly how difficulty should be implemented.

If I deliberately elect to play on Legendary, surely things like instantaneous reactions and perfect passing is symptomatic of making the game more difficult for me? Isn't that the sort of thing that should be ramped up for maximum difficulty, and if not, how else should they achieve it?

Presumably the game as a whole will be balanced at Professional (being 'Normal' difficulty). At that level the AI will make the smartest decisions (what action to take) that it is capable of, so there's no question of the AI somehow being smarter on World Class and smarter still on Legendary. Instead it might become faster to react, it might become more aggressive, it might twist randomised elements (accuracy cone etc) in its favour. It needs to do those things in order to provide you, the seasoned, resourceful and intelligent gamer, with a challenge that will keep you invested rather than bored.

Funny thing is Legendary is actually easier to play than World Class so it pretty much points at the balancing issues this game has.


The game needs EA to go through and set proper stats for each side and not all the lower league teams at a default of 70.

Add to that, balancing of the difficulty levels and you'd have a game that plays different every time.

Pro - Needs more attempts on goal from outside the box

World Class - More mistakes and needs the Pressure easing off a bit or random due to events in the game.

Legendary - Players make less mistakes and pressure needs lowering.

With own player AI also ramping up (They have done it for clubs)you'd have a perfect game.


The easiest way would be for EA to give us access of the global variables for the difficulty settings, which you could set how'd you'd like it and then there would be no issues, everybody would be happy.
 
I don't disagree, but on the other hand it does raise a question over exactly how difficulty should be implemented.

If I deliberately elect to play on Legendary, surely things like instantaneous reactions and perfect passing is symptomatic of making the game more difficult for me? Isn't that the sort of thing that should be ramped up for maximum difficulty, and if not, how else should they achieve it?

Presumably the game as a whole will be balanced at Professional (being 'Normal' difficulty). At that level the AI will make the smartest decisions (what action to take) that it is capable of, so there's no question of the AI somehow being smarter on World Class and smarter still on Legendary. Instead it might become faster to react, it might become more aggressive, it might twist randomised elements (accuracy cone etc) in its favour. It needs to do those things in order to provide you, the seasoned, resourceful and intelligent gamer, with a challenge that will keep you invested rather than bored.

No, not at all. Certainly not as a target objective for the developer. You shouldn't make a game harder by breaking the game. The only reason why games developers do this is as a shortcut, as an easy way of ramping up the difficulty without having to make the game any more intelligent. It's bad game design. Anything that reminds you that you are playing a computer and not a human is bad design as it takes you out of the action. It's only because standard platformers/FPS's do it to add replay value to a game that was fundamentally balanced on 'normal' difficulty. Whilethat's fine for a game that is meant to last a couple of weeks with any replay value being a bonus, applying this mentality to sports games that are intended to last until the next edition in the franchise is wholly wrong..
 
Last edited:
In an ideal world you're absolutely correct... but it assumes that a developer is presently capable of coding AI smart enough to match the most able human players out there. At this moment in time that's surely an unrealistic expectation, therefore we're left with shortcuts.
 
Eaton - that shouldn't be the solution. You shouldn't have to press hard against lower teams in order to stop them passing with the technique and precision of Barcelona. In fact you should be able to afford to relax against lower teams because they are more likely to make mistakes, so you don't have to be as tight to them. It should be the bigger teams where you have to look at pressing them into errors, and even then you should have to choose between that and holding your team's shape as two legitimate defensive tactics.

Have to laugh at this from the PES threads. Seems like no football game is safe from bugs this year.

If you are setting up your tactics the way you describe you philosophy, it's no wonder you are having problems. Not that you can't try to play however you want, but the strategy I go with is higher pressing (defending farther up the pitch) against teams that are lesser quality (and therefore will sit back and defend) and lower pressing (to counter-attack) against teams that are going to take the initiative and play attacking football.

If you don't press a lower side (especially if "lower" only means bottom of the Premier League table, so they are still a good team) then I would expect them to pass the ball "like Barcelona" if there is no pressure on them.

When I play against the CPU, when I put the CPU players under pressure, they make mistakes... and they stop passing like Barcelona. The 2 main differences between playing a team like Burnley vs. a team like Chelsea are:

1. When put under pressure, Burnley players make plenty of mistakes and lose the ball. Chelsea, on the other hand, is hard to put under pressure, as their players are better dribbler and their players are better at getting into supporting positions... BUT when their players are put under solid pressure, they make mistakes as well.

2. Burnley will sit back and defend, only pressuring me inside their own half. This makes life easy to possess the ball around the back, but more difficult in the attacking third, as they've parked a bus in front of goal. What Burnley will change to if they need to score (and the commentator will tell you, "they've got a more attacking formation") can be a higher pressure formation. If you aren't prepared for the change, it can definitely throw you off and might be why you think lower league teams are much better in the last 10 minutes.

Chelsea pressures the entire game, BUT, they also leave more defenders in 1 on 1s with your attackers (because they have great defenders, so they think they can) which can lead to more open attacking space if you can beat a man on the dribble or otherwise unbalance them.

Anyways, I really don't think the CPU cheats in any way. I would describe this as one of the better parts of FIFA (at least FIFA 09, haven't played 10 yet). I'd like to see some video though, and figure out what is happening.
 
Yeah that's true and I do this offline, but in online Clubs games you have no idea what the weather settings will be until the match loads... You have to hope the host (home team's captain) has a coloured ball as their default or you end up with white ball + white pitch...
you serious? lol
 
@Nerf:

Great post above with the two videos, really shows you what FIFA does well.

nerf - I want the CPU to be a challenge as well, I just don't think that EA are going about it correctly. CPU or not, there needs to be some perspective with the reaction times. I don't mind the CPU having an advantage in terms of reaction times since I don't see myself as a fighter pilot. I just feel that there needs to be an even balance across as many areas of the CPU's game as possible, rather than massive spikes of advantage in some areas over others. We all want a challenge from the CPU and most of us accept that there will always be restrictions in what EA can achieve in simulating the behaviour of a human player. However I fundamentally don't see instantaneous reactions as something where you can suspend your disbelief.

3 things:

1. I agree that the reaction level of the CPU on legendary is much higher than the other levels... however, there are still huge differences in reaction times between players of different skill (from my observations) AND having played on Legendary for so long, I'm used to it and I can react as quickly if not quicker. To me, it's not CPU cheating, I expect all professional athlete's to have fast reactions, and they aren't so fast that I think it's unrealistic.

2. I also initially had trouble clearing crosses, corners, lofted-through balls, etc. from the penalty area on legendary difficulty much to my GREAT frustration. What helped was when I was able to identify when the mistakes would happen, mostly when I was trying to have my defenders players do something extremely difficult (typically, trying to make them pass it out on a clearance or something). What has nearly eliminated the "ball bouncing around the box for the CPU to score" problem, has been switching to a more realistic approach to defending of my penalty area. Now, instead of expecting a defender under pressure to battle for a header AND accurately head it (using the pass button) to a midfielder outside the box I use the clearance button (the shoot button in the defensive area) to simply knock clearances away from the attackers or out of bounds if necessary. When not under pressure I can still pass it out, but otherwise, safety first.

Doing this has eliminated all my frustrations.

Similarly, you can't blame custom tactics as the fundamental problem leading to identikit passing whatsoever - tactics should define how you use your abilities, not what your abilities are. It's the actual ability of the players to make every pass, whether human or CPU controlled. If the Burnley reserves passed like Burnley reserves then the harder AI should be balancing this out with good judgement of what pass is likely or not to succeed. They probably are, but when they can hit perfect passes 60 yards regardless of pressure or which foot they use they have little need to show that they can diversify. A player should beat a lesser player despite a disadvantage in team choice mainly because of their judgement of what they can achieve with their weaker tools. This is the case in PES; it has to be the case in FIFA to make each contest unique.

3. One of the complaints several people have made is their frustration with their teammates AI. What I think might be happening (instead of "cheating") is that the people complaining don't yet understand how the tactics/formations sliders actually work in the game and as a result, the people aren't playing "correctly" in line with their tactics/formations.

I don't mean this as an insult, as I didn't understand how the tactics/formations settings actually changed the gameplay until I really spent some time experimenting with it. It had a similar learning curve to the Football Manager games.

To me, what is really cool in FIFA 09 as compared to the PES series is how much better teammate AI is in FIFA. I used to tinker with tactics in PES for hours on end and could never get players to do what they can do in FIFA.

However, a problem with this level of tactical control is that it can screw up a "pick-up-and-play" player who just wants to select a new team and play a match without examining the tactical settings. If the human controlled player doesn't play according to your team tactics/formation settings then you can get very frustrated at your teammates behavior... but it's really your controlled player that's screwing up, not them... if that makes sense.

If the tactics are setup for short passing, long balls won't succeed too often which can frustrate players that didn't examine the tactics. If you are playing a team with low crossing settings (i.e. Barcelona in FIFA 09) you will absolutely not succeed pumping great crosses into the box, as there won't be any teammates there to head them in. This isn't a problem with your teammates AI, it's a feature of the tactic/formation settings... and it is absolutely brilliant once you get into it.

They probably are, but when they can hit perfect passes 60 yards regardless of pressure or which foot they use they have little need to show that they can diversify.

As an example of how I adjust tactics, if I wanted to stop the CPU from completing 60 yard passes across the field then I would change my defensive width to a pretty wide setting... 75 or so. If the problem was the CPU was completing 60 yard long balls down the center, then I might add a sitting midfielder in front of their target player. I can tell you that the CPU AI is only exploiting a flaw in your tactics, I don't think it's a flaw in the game itself. The CPU is being a good competitor.
 
Last edited:
Eaton,


Thanks for the considered posts, however (no offence) you're covering ground that we already have weeks ago. A lot of us were where you are back then when we first got the game in terms of general positivity.

They also skirt around some of the points I was making, rather than addressing them.

Re: your first reply:-

I meant pressing as in, harrying them and being shoulder to shoulder. Not the height of your defensive line, as FIFA uses the term.

Assuming you're a similarly matched side (which was the perspective I was speaking from), unless you want to camp out in your box and hope for a breakaway or a draw, your midfielders should be up in Chelsea/Barcelona/Arsenal/any Italian team's face at every opportunity trying to win the ball and the midfield battle. You need to be very disciplined to keep your shape whilst still putting bodies into the midfield fight but that's generally what 4-2-3-1 is used for nowadays.
When playing against a lesser side you can afford to pick a less physical or defensive lineup because their attack is not as capable of breaking you down, and you can put the emphasis more on dominating possession and creating chances.

However in FIFA, whether you press tightly or not makes little difference to the quality of the passing on show. I wish I shared your belief in this, but I haven't shared your experiences so I just can't, and neither can most people in here judging by the past few weeks.

1) The reaction times I'm talking about have more in common with those of a housefly to those of a human. I'll save the next example I fall victim to - you'll see. It's indefensible.


2) the inability to clear the ball is NOT because I'm trying something difficult. I'm talking about a simple "clear the effing thing" header on a ball that is a perfect height for a very capable header of the ball (Terry, Vidic, Bassong etc) to clear. They stand and watch the ball approach. You press square to head the ball away. He chests the ball down, and their striker who was chasing the inaccurate cross comes in, dispossesses you 10 yards out and scores. It's frighteningly common for me, whether I alter the timing of the button press or the number of times I press it.

You'll bump into this with time, and you'll be really annoyed when it happens. I will save a vid of this too.


3) You've not really covered the point I was making, which was that if all teams pass just as accurately, as is currently the case, then there's no need to change tactics to accommodate your weaknesses at passing or to exploit those weaknesses in others. I don't care about friendly AI here. At the moment the passing for 5 star teams is faster than that for lesser teams, but that seems to be the only variable. This is an opinion the vast majority of people here hold, chiefly because it's true, but also because it really shouldn't be.

It's completely wrong, and eliminates that key gameplay component that PES has been using to eke out as many years of sales as it can out of the PS2 engine. It's what gives its single player the depth it has. It's why realistic formations mostly triumph against silly ones in PES's past (don't know about now). It's PES's last realistic bullet point for claiming it is more of a simulation than FIFA.

It's why, as I've posted before, I could play as Accrington Stanley vs Man Utd on fully assisted and ping the ball around the pitch in the exact same way I could as Man Utd. The only difference was the speed off my players and the ball, and the fact that finishing my several one-on-one chances was a complete nightmare (at least shooting is balanced!).

Tactics are about using what you have or have not got, as well as taking their attributes and general playing style into account. Know your enemy and know yourself etc etc. When an utterly vital part of what they have, or don't, is almost completely muted, then the depth of the game is reduced hugely from what it could be.
 
Just won an XBL head to head using tottenham on semi vs some guy with full assisted and arsenal :lol got the underdog achievement. :D

It was a tight match to start but i won 0-3 eventually. Felt bad and let him have a free run at goal at the end. He missed :(

BTW is anyone else having a problem playing a pro ranked match? it can't find anyone so i'm stuck doing head to ehads until anton shows for clubs. :(

BTW2: I had a shot with Huddlestone in the match and it was an absolute RAPIER. The ball roars towards goal. It just missed. I actually smiled. :LOL:
 
Last edited:
Yeah gameklip it just puts me in there and loads and loads, until it gives a message saying "No game session found". The EA servers seem to be a bit dodgy today, was trying to have a game with Milanista earlier and it was taking ages to load up.
 
I just got to say that this a game is absolutely great in clubs. The depth to VP is great. The game is so much more playable than last year that playing with 6 players is not a disadvantage. 8-1-1 so far.
 
Anton are you doing any club game today? if you are i'm free atm. shame i can't improve my pro online ranking atm cause i'm 10times better than what it's listed at (and have played a shitload more games than the 1 it lists...)

BTW. What skill do you guys reckon is the most effective for online play? I use the fake shot alot. with 360 dribbling you can turn off in any direction after the fake. I did the roll-fake on someone today and they quit out :LOL: IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I SWEAR. ;)
 
Last edited:
Yeah we'll do clubs every day. You gonna be on later like tuesday? Right now I cant be on for that long. Later we're gonna even more guys on. So tell me why you're not in first in the league? What have you been doing with these extra
two weeks you've had to practice?
 
Last edited:
Eaton,


Thanks for the considered posts, however (no offence) you're covering ground that we already have weeks ago. A lot of us were where you are back then when we first got the game in terms of general positivity...

...
...
...

I agree with you 100%. Playing full manual against CPU above professional makes the game go totally wrong. And the stats-boosting (that is in fact a cheat even if some people don't like the word) is lame. That's why sliders are blatantly needed to customize the game to your liking.

There's another bltant cheat that cpu does, and it's related to dribbling and general movement.

CPU ALWAYS knows were are you going next. You can dribble because your player is faster or because sometimes (and only sometimes) they react later to the direction change. But YOU NEVER fool them. It's impossible.

In the same way, when they have the ball and you approach to them, they instantly know and turn just the other way.

These things (reading the user input and reacting perfectly to it everytime, just as in sliding tackles perfectly avoided the same frame you began the sliding animation) should be toned down.

You should be able to fool the cpu the same way they fool you.

And by the way, CPU players in World Class or Legendary have less inertia than yours. You can count the frames in the turns they make, they are a lot faster (not measured, it's the feeling I and the majority of people have about it) than your players doing sudden turns.

If only there was an effort to put ERRORS in the CPU behaviour, the game would be even better, and it's not that difficult to introduce this things in AI, really. We're not talking about smart AI, just that depending on player STATS, a cpu player can be fooled and don't follow your exact trajectory 95% of the time.

As a last comment, something that seems absurd is that all this is aplicable in deffense and midfield, while in the final third things get a little softer and sometimes you can do things inside the area you wouldn't dream to do in midfield. And to me, that feels just the opposite to how it should be!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yeah we'll do clubs every day. You gonna be on later like tuesday? Right now I cant be on for that long. Later we're gonna even more guys on. So tell me why you're not in first in the league? What have you been doing with these extra
two weeks you've had to practice?

been playing friends mostly and offline. you don't get points for that. also played manager mode and b a pro. only started online proper about monday. i'm 5-0-3 atm.(W/D/L) with a streak of 3 currently (getting used to playing online).

but yeah i'll be on till about 2.30am GMT tonight. i can join anytime b4.
 
From what ive heard they did not fix the tatics glicth(all teams on Championship still have the 70s) :(

I don't think the patch touches any edited squad stuff, all my Ground changes are still there too... :CONFUSE:
EDIT: (did u try to download a new squad update to check it?) I never thought of that will have a look in a mo...

They said they will look at this with a squad update but don't hold your breath... :P
 
I don't think the patch touches any edited squad stuff, all my Ground changes are still there too... :CONFUSE:
EDIT: (did u try to download a new squad update to check it?) I never thought of that will have a look in a mo...

They said they will look at this with a squad update but don't hold your breath... :P

February it is than :(
 
@romagnoli

Like I've said, I've yet to play FIFA 10. I was trying to address more of the "cheating" problems that people have been claiming had carried over from FIFA 09.

So I can't weigh in on the reaction times in FIFA 10, but I'd like to see a video of it the next time it happens, so thanks for that.

Also, I've heard the complaint about chesting the ball instead of heading it on both ends of the pitch (failure to clear defensively, failure to score offensively) and it sounds like a flaw in the game. I assume it happens to the CPU as well though, correct?

As far as pressing effecting the CPU opponent's ability to pass, I hope the situation is not as dire in FIFA 10 as you claim. In FIFA 09, I could harry the CPU team into making bad passes (i.e. inaccurate to my team, or before the CPU teammate was in a position to receive, or sometimes forced straight out of bounds) on a consistent basis. I certainly hope this hasn't been lost in FIFA 10, but I wouldn't know having not played it.

But if you are claiming that pressing didn't effect the CPU teams in FIFA 09 (and still doesn't in 10) then I'm not sure what to think, as my FIFA 09 experience was different than yours.
 
Back
Top Bottom