FIFA 11 Career Mode Thread PS3/360

[ibra77]

I recognize what you're talking about but I would have to take another closer look and do a real life comparison as usual to make any definite statements about what is right and what is wrong and what needs to be changed about the AI pressure and defence in general. I will say this though, if you are not confident on the ball in real life in pro leagues then what tends to happen often is you get run through and often end up falling over. It happens all the time, especially with young players. as they get more confident and more experienced they get use to the physicality and pace of the game. My experience has been just that, it's no longer even a factor. Don't get me wrong the pressure is nowhere near 100% realistic (some cases it's too much and other cases it's too little) but it's playable, and the point of just about all my posts, it's much more realistic than the type of games they've made in the past. It's a step in the right direction.

Lastly, their is always the option of changing the AI settings. Set up the defense so that the AI contains instead of pressuring. Adjust the wingers and forwards to have low defensive work rates. It's a pain but it works and it may make it even harder to score in some cases and make you more susceptible to counter attacks. So you'll have to adjust tactically.

Tripping is a definite problem for me, players seem unable to skip over late tackles which should be something automatic. Highlights how far behind EA on some things are b/c it something so basic and yet it dramatically affects the game and they've left it out.

YouTube - 22' Neymar skill

I can deal with, but it's when the AI rampages 'though' you from behind when you're supposed to be able to shield the ball that gets me.

If i get time i'll post specifically about the "rampaging through" thing you mentioned in the tips and tactics section. But I would encorouge you to explore yourself, learning how to deal with these "probelms" is what's good about the game.

 

[mfmaxpower]

Yeah I found this exact same problem. I fininshed second in the Premier League with Man Utd on World Class, but never lost a single league match. I also scored less goals than the top half of the table entirely, and conceded less than everyone.

I think the goal difference shows up the very problem with the gameplay itself. It's frustratingly hard to score against an AI that is very defensive no matter who you play against, and it's largely too easy to defend. The AI relies almost entirely on counter attack, again, no matter what team you play against, which leads to many narrow wins and 0-0 draws. Occasionally the AI seems to crumble late on and you get a 3 or 4-0 scoreline, but mostly I've stopped playing recently because games are dull - you barely get a realistic number of goals either for, or against.

^^FIFA in a nutshell. I've largely given up on FIFA 11 but in my most recent CM I had won my league while scoring the fewest goals of all teams, with no small margin separating me from the team with the next worst scoring record.

This result was consistent with my other CM's, was not a problem in previous FIFA's (at least not to this degree), and judging from comments here and on the other forums is indicative of a widespread issue. Like LTFC said, FIFA 11's unrealistic and unbalanced goal difference statistics is representative of the game's underlying deficiencies.

Realism aside, who the hell wants to play such a joyless game, much less a full season or career of such drudgery. What a shame too because with such a fantastic year of football in the real world I'm dearly wishing for a quality video game to match (I've given up on PES 2011 too).

 

[Aidan-lfc]

Thought i'd post on this thread as I LOVE Fifa 11's Career Mode, I just wish that for 12 they would not so much add to the game, but rather concentrate on fixing it. They still need to fix the player growth system, and maybe add a player+cash deal option to for me, make it the ultimate Career Mode. That addition plus the fixing of the player growth for me would make it a good Career Mode for FIFA 12.

 

[nerf]

Hi Marcel.

 

[Placebo]

LOL

 

[klashman69]

Hi Marcel.

 

[PLF]

 

[JammyJ]

Hi guys,

Can anyone tell me if i can get my virtual pro into the manager mode which i am playing? I've already started the manager mode so i am not sure if i can? I am currently Bristol Rovers and would love to acquire my VP!

 

[ibra77]

IFA 11's unrealistic and unbalanced goal difference statistics is representative of the game's underlying deficiencies.

Time to increase the difficulty maybe?

It's a consensus anyway that the AI needs to attack better and try to dominate games and play with a lot more variety. Doubt anybody would ever argue otherwise as that's an obvious weakness in the game. My only fear (and I'm sure EA's too) is that when they get it right or improve it people are going to be saying that the AI is too good and cheats b/c they won't invest the time in truly learning how to defend, when to attack, how to neatralize threats etc etc. The saga wll continue.

 

[mfmaxpower]

Time to increase the difficulty maybe?

It's a consensus anyway that the AI needs to attack better and try to dominate games and play with a lot more variety. Doubt anybody would ever argue otherwise as that's an obvious weakness in the game. My only fear (and I'm sure EA's too) is that when they get it right or improve it people are going to be saying that the AI is too good and cheats b/c they won't invest the time in truly learning how to defend, when to attack, how to neatralize threats etc etc. The saga wll continue.

You miss the point. The criticism is not that FIFA is too easy but that it is massively unbalanced, as indicated by consistent results in CM by numerous FIFA players and on different levels of difficulty.

It's a catch-22 for many of us: why on Earth would I increase the difficulty (although frequently I'm playing on Legendary anyways) when my team's goal scoring record ranks at the bottom of the league rankings by a large margin? Conversely, why would I decrease the difficulty when the AI already struggles to score? (And just to head-off a possible simple solution: no, I rarely play with top teams, and yes I play all manual controls.)

The bigger question, and again the indicator of a larger under-lying problem, is why is it that we can score so few goals and yet not only rarely lose but frequently win our leagues?

Once again, it's because FIFA 11 is fundamentally flawed and massively unbalanced between offensive and defensive play, favoring defenders through unrealistic movement physics and overly effective tackling animations, among other things.

I'm not saying getting the correct balance is easy - it's not and it's probably the hardest aspect in designing football games - but in the end it's the most important element, and sadly FIFA 11 is the most unbalanced FIFA in years.

 

[ibra77]

You miss the point.

Didn't quite miss the point. You should increase the difficulty b/c your winning your league even though your not scoring much. Increasing the difficulty will cause you to concede more. Why would you do this? Because it would creat a more balanced game. The point isn't just to win is it?

Your saying it is the most unbalanced Fifa in years. I'm willing to assume that is true, but what does that mean? I say it's unbalanced because the AI defense has been improved by leaps and bounds and actually presents a challenge, yet the AI offense has not been improved to the same effect although it has clearly improved from 10. My point is to say that the improvement in gameplay far out weigh's the decline in balance. Frankly the CPU AI was shamabolic in previous games compared to 11, it was both easier to defend and easeir to score. At least now it's slightly more difficult to defend and a lot more difficult to score (hence the greater imbalance). Depsite this, it's still a much better game in my opinion.

i think if you could go back and check the GD's of previous fifa's you'd find that your GD was much higher than teams with similar rank, but people probably weren't complaining as much because it's fun to score and pretend like you worked for it. That's just the casual nature of video games. This game presents a more serious challenge.

I don't think I'm having the problems your having anyway, at least not to that extent. I'm going to check my GD later.

 

[klashman69]

Didn't quite miss the point. You should increase the difficulty b/c your winning your league even though your not scoring much. Increasing the difficulty will cause you to concede more. Why would you do this? Because it would creat a more balanced game.

He's playing on Legendary though

 

[ibra77]

He's playing on Legendary though

have you won the league on legendary maxpower?

 

[PLF]

Anyone know if transfer funds carry over to next season and get added to it on top?

I'm playing as Leeds and am in January now. I've raised $9M but am quite happy with my squad and thinking of just saving it for next season where hopefully I'll be in the Premiership and have a huge battle on my hands with these players. Right now I'm sitting top of the table and think I'm okay with the current set up I have. Don't really need anyone else.

Will this $9M stay there and on top of that, get something next season especially if I get promoted? Or will it go away somehow... and 'replaced' in which case I'm better off spending it now.

Anyone every not spend their full budget in a season?

 

[Placebo]

Yes it will, you only get new funds based on your achievements in league/cups so they'll not look at it and go "well you have a lot of money so you're getting none for promotion", after all you earn very little competition money and they give you absolutely nothing extra to help build your new squad once you get promoted (usual badly designed career mode from EA).

 

[EatonTJ]

Yes it will, you only get new funds based on your achievements in league/cups so they'll not look at it and go "well you have a lot of money so you're getting none for promotion", after all you earn very little competition money and they give you absolutely nothing extra to help build your new squad once you get promoted (usual badly designed career mode from EA).

Winning the lower divisions doesn't give any prize money if I recall correctly. At least it doesn't give enough to factor into meaningful transfers. And according to Google, this is pretty accurate, winning "the Championship" in England only nets 50K. I assume other countries lower leagues pay similarly.

So any increase in the coffers comes from an investment by the owner(s) of the club, both in real life and in the game. I think when I was promoted to the Prem I got 1-2 million and a very necessary wage increase from the board (of which my BAP took most).

Not having much investment made my first Premier League season very fun, and the board's goal was just to stay up. I was able to finish in a UEFA Cup place and which came with nearly 10 million in prize money. I cashed in on a few players and reinvested the money in a deeper squad and now I'm challenging for a CL place near the end of my 2nd season in the Premier League.

Unlike Placebo, I'm pretty happy with the money/rewards system in the Career Mode this year. When playing as a top club, you will have plenty of money to sign just about anyone you need either through selling off players or from board investment. Having so much money makes it easy to improve your squad and consistently win games... just like real life. Lower league teams operate on far less money making transfers more challenging, forcing me to buy a lot more "specialist" players that are great at some things, and terrible at others. With no "Sugar Daddy" owner at a smaller team, all money is earned from selling on players and prize money. Prize money is pretty low until you hit the top leagues and CL, which then enters you into an entirely new financial playing field. A pretty cool reward that is well earned if you take a club from the lowest division to the top.

 

[nerf]

forcing me to buy a lot more "specialist" players that are great at some things, and terrible at others.

I find this an enjoyable approach to building a squad, whether necessitated or by choice. For example at Bologna, I generally play with one striker and have two main competitors for the position. One is a smaller, lightweight, nimble chap with high attacking work-rate who as a result enjoys running the channels, the other is a big, slow, strong target man with medium work-rate who prefers to stand centrally and receive the ball with his back to goal.

You can extrapolate that to other positions, in varying degrees. Makes selecting your team a bit more interesting when you maximise the differences between your options - bit of relative variety.

Edit: Just had my star winger ruled out for 42 days with injury - ouch.

 

[EatonTJ]

I find this an enjoyable approach to building a squad, whether necessitated or by choice. For example at Bologna, I generally play with one striker and have two main competitors for the position. One is a smaller, lightweight, nimble chap with high attacking work-rate who as a result enjoys running the channels, the other is a big, slow, strong target man with medium work-rate who prefers to stand centrally and receive the ball with his back to goal.

You can extrapolate that to other positions, in varying degrees. Makes selecting your team a bit more interesting when you maximise the differences between your options - bit of relative variety.

Having spent far too much time surfing the transfer market screen with my Southampton CL I've developed a richer appreciation for EA's efforts in player variety. Aside from the obvious physical differences of fast/slow, short/tall, thin/muscular, etc., I have come to notice the (significant) differences in regards to work rate, and the mental attributes. EA certainly deserves some stick for dropping the ball in other areas of FIFA 11, but I am now 100% behind their efforts to improve "player personality."

The variety of combination of workrate, aggression, tactical awareness, and positioning is outstanding, and really opens up the entire player database for recruiting players of different specialties. Nerf's example of the different mental attributes of forwards is spot on, and it shows how, unlike in FIFAs past, you can really focus on attributes other than the physical ones. Sure, in past versions, you might sacrifice speed/acceleration for a player with higher shot power, or better passing power, but now I will sacrifice all sorts of skill attributes for players with higher aggression or higher (or lower if need be) workrates.

So despite the CM mode being mostly boring as far options outside of actually playing games, there is a far stronger core to the mode this year than in the last few years. Aside from improvements in players mentioned above, EA has also managed to improve the other teams' manager AI to respectable levels. Certainly it isn't there yet (for example, it would be nice if they changed formations, ever) but unlike previous years, AI transfers look realistic, AI line-ups make sense, end of the year tables reflect teams' overall ratings correctly, and the AI switches tactics correctly during games (ups attacking levels/switches to pressing tactic if losing late in games, lowers attacking levels/switches to counter attack tactic if winning, etc.).

So after spending a lot of time with the CM mode (figuring out how to stop the game crashing from the tactic bug was HUGE) I'm now cautiously optimistic for some great improvements in FIFA 12. If they can add some more interactive management options in the vein of the Football Manager games and build on top of a better than it appears core, they've got my money yet again.

 

[EatonTJ]

Edit: Just had my star winger ruled out for 42 days with injury - ouch.

The frequency of injuries is pretty decent overall. I wish there were a few more, but I average 2-3 players injured for over 30 days each season, and then a handful of 7 day injuries on top of that.

I restrict myself to a roster of 25 players max, so injuries (like yours) can really change things. Makes things fun.

 

[Placebo]

Unlike Placebo, I'm pretty happy with the money/rewards system in the Career Mode this year. When playing as a top club, you will have plenty of money to sign just about anyone you need either through selling off players or from board investment. Having so much money makes it easy to improve your squad and consistently win games... just like real life. Lower league teams operate on far less money making transfers more challenging, forcing me to buy a lot more "specialist" players that are great at some things, and terrible at others. With no "Sugar Daddy" owner at a smaller team, all money is earned from selling on players and prize money. Prize money is pretty low until you hit the top leagues and CL, which then enters you into an entirely new financial playing field. A pretty cool reward that is well earned if you take a club from the lowest division to the top.

Maybe it's fine playing as a big club, but I don't play as a big club, I play as a team in League 1, so when I get to the premier league it's pretty hard to compete without some investment to rebuild the squad...

The frequency of injuries is pretty decent overall. I wish there were a few more, but I average 2-3 players injured for over 30 days each season, and then a handful of 7 day injuries on top of that.

I restrict myself to a roster of 25 players max, so injuries (like yours) can really change things. Makes things fun.

I disagree, way too low, I've played 3 full seasons and probably had 3 45+ day injuries and at best 6 7 day injuries, waaaaaaaaaaay too low to be realistic.

EA has also managed to improve the other teams' manager AI to respectable levels. Certainly it isn't there yet (for example, it would be nice if they changed formations, ever) but unlike previous years, AI transfers look realistic, AI line-ups make sense, end of the year tables reflect teams' overall ratings correctly, and the AI switches tactics correctly during games (ups attacking levels/switches to pressing tactic if losing late in games, lowers attacking levels/switches to counter attack tactic if winning, etc.).

Disagree again, they massively dumbed down the AI over Fifa09/10, AI teams seldom strengthen their squads, seldom adjust the lineups for player growth/ageing, seldom rotate for fatigue, never send out a 2nd team for weaker cup opponents, never change their formation for winning/losing, etc. etc. You can be in the 4th and 5th seasons and play against AI teams still with the exact same lineup, with a 41 year old Giggs playing, or a 44 year old Brad Friedel etc. etc.

 

[EatonTJ]

Maybe it's fine playing as a big club, but I don't play as a big club, I play as a team in League 1, so when I get to the premier league it's pretty hard to compete without some investment to rebuild the squad...

Well yes, the first year in the Premier league is tough with low finances, but isn't that the challenge of playing with a League 1 club? After the first year you can get several million pounds depending on how well you place and meet board objectives... that seems relatively realistic to me. In real life, it's not like promoted teams are suddenly wheeling and dealing for established players; they are typically taking players on loan or getting some cheap veterans, not getting any real money until proving they can stay up.

I suppose EA could have made some teams have more aggressive owners that invest a bit more at the beginning of the season (instead of waiting for the prize disbursement at the end of the season), but I don't think that makes their current system that far off from real life.

I disagree, way too low, I've played 3 full seasons and probably had 3 45+ day injuries and at best 6 7 day injuries, waaaaaaaaaaay too low to be realistic.

My first CM was like this, no injuries. This CM (started post patch, if that matters) has had quite a few more injuries. I agree though, there should be more.

Disagree again, they massively dumbed down the AI over Fifa09/10, AI teams seldom strengthen their squads, seldom adjust the lineups for player growth/ageing, seldom rotate for fatigue, never send out a 2nd team for weaker cup opponents, never change their formation for winning/losing, etc. etc. You can be in the 4th and 5th seasons and play against AI teams still with the exact same lineup, with a 41 year old Giggs playing, or a 44 year old Brad Friedel etc. etc.

I'm in season 4, and Manchester United have a pretty youthful lineup. Evra's off to Real Madrid and the 2 Brazilians are at the outside backs. Diouf is in the middle alongside Fletcher, and Nani and McGeady are the wingers. Rooney and Berbatov still up front. Chelsea have similarly made a decent youth movement, picking up Nilmar and Lennon giving an injection of pace. In the winter transfer window, Chamakh was injured at Arsenal, they then loaned Adebayor from Man City (yes, would never happen in real life), and then Bendtner submitted a transfer request, I assume in response. And unlike in FIFA 09/10, these new transfers aren't just given the #2 jersey and rotting on the bench. They all play. Not nearly as terrible as 09/10.

They still do field full squad's for early round cup games as far as I can tell, but I don't know how they are managing fatigue. I haven't noticed opponent players doing the "fatigued" animation early in matches, so I'm not sure how they manage it.

Yes, they still never change formations, but they do change tactics appropriately, which is something. Like I said, certainly not perfect, but not the total train wreck from last year.

 

[ibra77]

Here is what my table looks like.

----------GF--------GA---------GD-------Points
Inter------42-------12---------29-------48
Genoa----38-------16---------22-------42
Juve----34------20-------14------42
Fior-------35-------17---------18-------40
Samp-----34-------20---------14-------37
Palermo--34-------19---------15-------36

Milan came 2nd last year but lost Ibra and Prince who were on loan, and Pato is injured as usual. They bought Higauin but he was never inserted into the starting line up by the AI. Only made 4 appearances in over 20 games.

The fact that I play 15 minute halves probably has something to do with my balanced GD. More time to score and also difficult to keep concentration for that long on defense without making mistakes. I concede quite a bit, but the problem is that the AI only really capitalizes on mistakes and only rarely outsmarts me to score. They do score some really good goals at times, not the case last year so there is improvement.

There is enough to work with anyhow to make the game play decent as far as balance goes.

 

[Suuuuupertalk]

Hi guys,

Can anyone tell me if i can get my virtual pro into the manager mode which i am playing? I've already started the manager mode so i am not sure if i can? I am currently Bristol Rovers and would love to acquire my VP!

Not sure there's a way to do this, you have to go as a player manager I think. If there's no option as a manager only then I'd have to assume that there is no way to sign your VP

 

[wabak]

If you set your virtual pro's team as Bristol Rovers in the edit your pro bit, then when you start a manager mode he should be there. I don't think you can do it after you've started though sadly.

 

[Suuuuupertalk]

Didn't quite miss the point. You should increase the difficulty b/c your winning your league even though your not scoring much. Increasing the difficulty will cause you to concede more. Why would you do this? Because it would creat a more balanced game. The point isn't just to win is it?

Your saying it is the most unbalanced Fifa in years. I'm willing to assume that is true, but what does that mean? I say it's unbalanced because the AI defense has been improved by leaps and bounds and actually presents a challenge, yet the AI offense has not been improved to the same effect although it has clearly improved from 10. My point is to say that the improvement in gameplay far out weigh's the decline in balance. Frankly the CPU AI was shamabolic in previous games compared to 11, it was both easier to defend and easeir to score. At least now it's slightly more difficult to defend and a lot more difficult to score (hence the greater imbalance). Depsite this, it's still a much better game in my opinion.

i think if you could go back and check the GD's of previous fifa's you'd find that your GD was much higher than teams with similar rank, but people probably weren't complaining as much because it's fun to score and pretend like you worked for it. That's just the casual nature of video games. This game presents a more serious challenge.

I don't think I'm having the problems your having anyway, at least not to that extent. I'm going to check my GD later.

I think increasing the difficulty merely makes the game more unbalanced. It becomes even harder to score, yet you can still defend easily because the AI only has a few set ways of scoring. You can see in the AI's build up play, if that's even what you would call it, that it focuses on trying to put the ball into certain specific areas where it can almost find a sweet spot to score against you. So making the game harder just results in an larger amount of draws and very few defeats at the very most.

I'd also argue that the AI defence has barely improved at all in terms of AI intelligence. Sure, the game is harder, but only because EA added the jostling/physical challenges to FIFA10 and have cottoned on to the fact that they can abuse this to make the game 'harder'. The AI is perhaps slightly better in terms of positioning and cover, but in the main, it can defend effectively by making it so that AI defenders and midfielders can sprint and close you down in totally artificial ways. AI players can sprint for 90 minutes and change direction at full sprint in the blink of an eye, so if you bypass someone charging at you with a pass, the guy who you passed the ball to already has the same player on his tail because by the time you've controlled the ball, the same AI player has changed direction and hounded you down over 10-20 feet at full speed, with no real consequences to his stamina and no realistic sense of inertia.

The sprinting/stamina issue makes it so that the AI can close you down, non-stop, for 90 minutes. And a lot of the time, bypassing and pulling defenders out of position with passing is combated by making the AI able to cover an unrealistic amount of ground, again with seemingly limitless effects on stamina, and can get back into position purely because of this. Positioning IS better, but picking apart a defence can be a chore because there's always someone who miraculously gets back to cover when really they shouldn't be anywhere near the run of play.

If you add to this the lunatic defending, where the AI completely manipulates the game's jostling system so that they can close you down, and often (even if you're shielding the ball) just railroad straight through the back of you and take the ball. This isn't intelligent coding, it's a game making the physical part of the game completely one sided. Same can be said of the way AI defenders can magically catch you up over a 10 yards, even if they're slower than your attacker. By facing AI defenders who can unrealistically charge straight through you, irrespective of player size, then of course it makes the game seem harder, but in a completely artificial way.

As for the attacking side of the AI, well it's appalling in my opinion. Someone somewhere on the net wrote about FIFA11 and how the AI is almost incapable of playing anything resembling possession football against you, and it's true. It defends, defends, then breaks with quick direct passes to those 'sweet spots' I mentioned earlier. Take a look, the AI will actually pass the ball backwards probably two or three times in a match. It's ONLY about power, pace, direct attacking and quick breaks. It just feels like you're playing a computer routine rather than anything organic, somehow much more so than in older versions of the game which baffles me.

On a different note, CM is totally bizarre. EA re-wrote the mode so that they could update fixes etc on the fly, but this hasn't happened. We've had the same number of patches, or there or there abouts, that FIFA10 had before this re-writing of the mode. As a consequence of re-writing the mode, for some reason that I'm not entirely sure of, they've stripped almost everything out of the game. Even FIFA09 had a far more immersive MM.

I presume then that next year's FIFA12 will feature about two or three things that were already in older versions of the game, all so that the code can be patched far more easily - patches that we're not getting anyway.

 

[EatonTJ]

...Same can be said of the way AI defenders can magically catch you up over a 10 yards, even if they're slower than your attacker...

Oh, you're one of those people.

I agree with you that the AI offense isn't as creative, or as concerned about possession as they should be... and I'll agree with you that the CM mode needs a lot more attention... but complaining that the AI is getting artificial speed boosts and is "cheating" has been said over and over again with no proof offered.

I have played way too much of FIFA 11's career mode, and have never seen a non-fatigued Theo Walcott chased down from behind by some plodding defender. I score on breakaways all the time with players of 80+ speed who don't get caught from behind, even by defenders with similar speed. If you have a lead of a few yards with a quick player, you are straight to goal in this game.

If this is truly happening to you, post videos so we can see it.

 

[PLF]

I'm outpacing defenders with Ross McCormack of Leeds all the time as well and scoring majority of goals by break-aways and then rounding the keeper.

His speed isn't even 80 I think.. it's high 70's....

 

[TikTikTikTikTik]

@ Eaton,

I think Winston posted a video quite some time ago about the defensive players having ridiculous reactions meaning a player can "catch up". I don't think it is actually catching up, but more the speed of their reactions means it has no effect if you time you movement correct to unbalance the defender as they react at such a speed that they are on you in a flash.

My issue, atleast one of them, is the 360 defending lock-on. Once I get clear with a fast attacker I won't get caught most of the time, however actually getting clear is so frustrating as they just lock-on and seem to go into an animationcycle. I don't mind it if you are next to the player as that will happen in real life, but even when infront of them it's like the defender is just holding on to your shorts creating an atomic wedgy.....

 

[Suuuuupertalk]

@Eaton, fair enough catch up isn't that much of an issue, but the game does clearly boost the AI's physical abilities in terms of reaction times and body strength to simulate a tougher opponent. It's a necessary thing for the engine to do, because if it couldn't do this then it would get slaughtered by most players.

Prime example of this is on the lower difficulties. The AI doesn't plough through the back of you, nor do your own players bounce off medium sized defenders like they were running into a brick wall, but then the AI can't cope. Playing passes around becomes more enjoyable because the AI stands off a bit more, but tactically, it's easy to exploit and the game is too easy. The reality is that an international match for example should see you have more time on the ball to pick passes etc, but your opponents are still tough because they are tactically organised. FIFA 11 doesn't allow for this. It replicates organisation by throwing bodies back and then having them be able to tackle through you in order to get the ball, and in packs that can chase you down then get back into position seconds later. In FIFA, the AI can commit to a tackle whenever it wants because most of the time there are no consequences in doing so. It's why so many people do this online. Double press defending is still king without affecting tactics.

Increase the difficulty, and the AI increases defensive cover by shoving 9 players deep in their own half, and turning into physical supermen, which is why 99% of all AI attacks I see are quick breaks from deep, usually in the form of long passes high and out to the wing, looking for a cross and header. This 'better' defensive AI makes the game play more like rugby than football at times.

But just to make it clear, I'm not accusing the game of cheating, it is rarely good enough to win in my CM, but it does have a ludicrously one dimensional AI. I personally blame FIFA's faults on the jostling system they brought in for FIFA 10, introducing physical play to that extreme has allowed EA to get very very lazy with their own defensive AI. Attacking wise, I can hardly see any improvements apart from the odd roulette move it now tries.

If you don't agree, fair enough, but I can see the differences between Pro and Legendary difficulties, and they're separated in the main by how the game uses the 'jostling' and physical challenges.

 

[EatonTJ]

@ Eaton,

I think Winston posted a video quite some time ago about the defensive players having ridiculous reactions meaning a player can "catch up". I don't think it is actually catching up, but more the speed of their reactions means it has no effect if you time you movement correct to unbalance the defender as they react at such a speed that they are on you in a flash.

My issue, atleast one of them, is the 360 defending lock-on. Once I get clear with a fast attacker I won't get caught most of the time, however actually getting clear is so frustrating as they just lock-on and seem to go into an animationcycle. I don't mind it if you are next to the player as that will happen in real life, but even when infront of them it's like the defender is just holding on to your shorts creating an atomic wedgy.....

I tried to find the post, but couldn't... but I think I remember that video, and not really being convinced it proved anything one way or another. I think it was of an attacker attempting to beat a defender at the top of the box with a "knock-on" of the right stick, but the defender beats the attacker to the ball by reacting quicker? I thought the video showed the defensive AI playing the attacker pretty well, using physicality to not let the attacker get by. Just like my coach said in real life ("Either the man gets by, or the ball gets by... never together.")

However, the defensive lock on halo that you are talking about is a bit of an issue. Although it is a cool way to differentiate stronger defenders from weaker (bigger halo for stronger/better defenders), for the better defenders it does seem slightly over-powered. Although, I have found you can break away by veering a bit of course getting free of the physical jostling and hit top speed again. As a gameplay feature, I think it's great. I was a forward in my limited pro career and I hated when defenders did this to me, so it's cool that it's in the game.