FIFA 11 Career Mode Thread PS3/360

LTFC said:
@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.
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I do see a lot of what you see, I just don't have issues with it. I think the defensive challenge is fun to overcome, and makes the game worth coming back to. I don't have to create artificial challenges for myself like I've had to do with games past.

I also expect EA to improve the attacking AI, but I think they should get some credit with having some better dribbling this year. Certain players, like Messi and other super dribblers, are programmed really well and will punish aggressive human pressing.
 
This thread's dead. C'mon guys! Nobody playing CM mode anymore?! :D :P

I'm really enjoying my Leeds CM. In EPL now and causing up a storm being the 'shock' team among the big boys sitting 3rd right now 2 points off top of the table.

Got a 90th minute winner at home against United just recently which sent the fans crazy! This in a match where I was 2nd best for the vast majority and under immense pressure.
 
PLF said:
This thread's dead. C'mon guys! Nobody playing CM mode anymore?! :D :P

I'm really enjoying my Leeds CM. In EPL now and causing up a storm being the 'shock' team among the big boys sitting 3rd right now 2 points off top of the table.

Got a 90th minute winner at home against United just recently which sent the fans crazy! This in a match where I was 2nd best for the vast majority and under immense pressure.
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I'm still plugging away with my Southampton CM. Just started season number 6, after winning the prem and CL in back-to-back seasons (finished 3rd in my first season). Sadly, I just got rid of my last original squad member (outside of my BAP) but it was time to make way for some younger prospect to take that playing time.

I finally spent some big money for the first time and acquired Hazard (still at Lille) and Bale (bringing him back!) after Tottenham had fallen out of CL contention for a few seasons. I'm gonna make a run at an undefeated season I hope. Only lost 1 game last season, although quite a few ties.

My lineup in Season 6 will be:

GK: Smithies
RWB: Bale (It's a very attacking role, I've got 2 custom tactics built around him as the playmaker, very fun.)
CB: Subotic
CB: Opara
LB: Gibbs (on a free in year 2, he must have ridiculous potential as he's not an 85 OVR up from low 70s I think)
RCM: Diskerud
CDM: Rodwell
LAM: Eriksen
RW: Walcott
LW: Hazard
ST: My BAP

Most everyone is ranked around 80 OVR, except Diskerud who hasn't progressed since hitting 75 or so, but has all the right stats in all the right places for his role.

My key bench players are:
McCarthy (covers the entire midfield)
J. Rodriguez (starts at Porto, got him from West Ham after he torched me near the end of last season, looks a great fill-in for either wing)
B. Shea (tall winger, my aerial talent of the bench)
C. Davies (another American, super fast, dominates late in games at the forward position).

My only big purchases in total have been Hazard at 22M pounds, Bale at 16M pounds, and Walcott at 18M pounds at the start of season 4. Subotic and Rodwell were just under 10M pounds and everyone else was less than 2M I think. My squad has grown to 4.5 stars and I'm really happy with it.

I strictly adhere to a 25 man squad which has kept things fun. I'm getting a lot more out of FIFA 11 than I have any other FIFA CM. Feels like PES5//6 all over again.
 
Yeah I'm loving the game too and having lots of fun with it.

Your Southampton game sounds great. Nice to see Bale and Walcott back now that the red and whites have reached the top of the English game.

You said you got 3rd place in your 1st season back in Prem? Wow! Right now I'm on course for something similar and already far far away from the relegation battle I was supposed to be embroiled in. But I'm not entirely too happy with that lol. I wish I were scrapping it at bottom end of table. But I have nicked a lot of 1-0 wins in final minutes so I guess it's credit to my boys and some luck too and I shouldn't be too unhappy.

Plus this is still very early in the league, 1/3rd played. Chances are by end of season, I'm at best in mid-table and not in European competitions.

p.s. After this season, especially if you do get your unbeaten goal, don't you feel it's time to move on perhaps? To another league/country and experience another team?

And tell me about what kind of job offers you've had at the end of each previous season?

After my 1st season of getting promoted with Leeds, I did have a job offer from Stoke City also in EPL (hadn't been relegated) but of course I opted to stay and bring glory days back to Elland Road especially as I had the $18M transfer budget I hadn't spent in first year.

But should I receive tempting offers especially from abroad in future seasons, I may just elect to jump ship. But for now I've still got unfinished business with Leeds and EPL (which I've just joined) for a couple more years. Can't see myself stay with them for 5 more seasons though.
 
PLF said:
Yeah I'm loving the game too and having lots of fun with it.

Your Southampton game sounds great. Nice to see Bale and Walcott back now that the red and whites have reached the top of the English game.

You said you got 3rd place in your 1st season back in Prem? Wow! Right now I'm on course for something similar and already far far away from the relegation battle I was supposed to be embroiled in. But I'm not entirely too happy with that lol. I wish I were scrapping it at bottom end of table. But I have nicked a lot of 1-0 wins in final minutes so I guess it's credit to my boys and some luck too and I shouldn't be too unhappy.

Plus this is still very early in the league, 1/3rd played. Chances are by end of season, I'm at best in mid-table and not in European competitions.

p.s. After this season, especially if you do get your unbeaten goal, don't you feel it's time to move on perhaps? To another league/country and experience another team?

And tell me about what kind of job offers you've had at the end of each previous season?

After my 1st season of getting promoted with Leeds, I did have a job offer from Stoke City also in EPL (hadn't been relegated) but of course I opted to stay and bring glory days back to Elland Road especially as I had the $18M transfer budget I hadn't spent in first year.

But should I receive tempting offers especially from abroad in future seasons, I may just elect to jump ship. But for now I've still got unfinished business with Leeds and EPL (which I've just joined) for a couple more years. Can't see myself stay with them for 5 more seasons though.
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It's funny, I was also disappointed to have gotten 3rd in my first top flight season as well. I was hoping to have a more realistic struggle to stay up, although I did take solace in that I finished far behind 2nd and 1st (Liverpool had nearly 100 points). I can't remember exactly, but as I recall there was a huge logjam of teams between 3rd-14th place that where only separated by a few points and it seemed I took advantage of a very balanced season. The prize money for 3rd is what enabled me to get Subotic, which was an enormous upgrade to my defense. Getting a dominant CB is huge in defending and attacking set pieces. Made a big difference.

The closest I got to leaving was the Ajax job after getting 3rd. But I didn't want to turn down Champions League action and I hadn't won the Prem so that challenge was still there. After seasons 4/5 I only received other Premier League offers (Man City every year and others) and I wasn't really interested in switching to another team in the same league.

Plus, if I switch teams, I think I lose my BAP, correct? I like to think of myself as a player-manager (although I'm just playing regular manager mode) and part of the fun is getting little accomplishments as I play my CM.

I think I may end up starting a new CM if I can figure out another team takeover. I don't like the way EA does the regens with their missing faces and identical footwear. It starts to look a little weird and the CM world become less interesting. Plus with the new transfer update out, I would likely buy all new players this time around.

Any recommendations for a non English club? I might start a German second division side and see where it takes me. I really wish there was a way to transfer your BAP with you when you left as manager.
 
I see. It sucks that you haven't been getting offers from abroad in recent years. I wouldn't wanna move to another team in domestic league either. But to jumpship to a new country and culture and team and new players (some I don't even know) would be interesting.

2. Bundesliga teams, I'd go for Hertha Berlin. The capital city deserves a club in the top flight and a major club in the country. Germany's pretty much only country (and for such a big one) to not have that! There's potential there and maybe you can bring them glory days and give the football fans in the capital city some much needed and long-awaited joy! Alternatively, you can bring 1860 Munich back to Bundesliga after 6-7years of absence and enjoy your local Bavarian rivalry with the giants Bayern Munich.

But if you like a sleeping giant or big team languishing in lower league, why not try to bring Nantes or Real Betis back to glory days and into top flight and establishing them? Both teams have big potential and are currently outside top flight.

La Liga isn't the same without the Seville derbies anyway and the two clubs have gone in opposite directions in recent years. Perhaps it's time to bring Los Beticos back into top flight and have them embarrass Sevilla and give the fans some of their pride back?
 
The recent roster update tempted me to start a new CM with Villa again (third attempt!) because of Makoun, Bent etc. So my Bologna game has gone on the backburner.

I'm experimenting with 15 minute match length instead of 10. Obviously it makes getting through the season take a long time, but per individual match it feels a lot better to me. Allows the match to develop and change. For my first go I wasn't fully prepared and lost 5-3! :D I have since adjusted and the scorelines are more normal now.

I'm finding the difficulty level engrossing. Playing 15 minute matches, on Legendary, with fully Manual controls, and without using either Primary or Secondary Pressure (ever), is a great challenge. Every goal and every point is very satisfying as a result.

Trying to keep the Legendary AI at bay for such a long match-length requires endless concentration. Any slight slip at the back, any un-blocked cross or passing lane, any missed interception can be crucial. I find that football games are always so much more intense and enjoyable when each small action feels important and the stakes are high. It becomes boring when you can play on autopilot.

Which leads me on to the only drawback to this CM: that the Villa board demand a top 4 finish. As much as I like a challenge, frankly at the moment that seems way too ambitious. I'm struggling down near the bottom after the opening few weeks. I feel like I'm adjusting and getting better with each fixture, but still, it'll take some effort to climb that high... so this could well be another short-lived effort.
 
Busy with my Liverpool CM in the 2nd season. It's tough, am nearly halfway through and have only won 4 matches, drawn 7 and lost 3. Oddly enough my tactical switch, more attacking, has made the games better but the results are worse then last season. Haven't managed to find the magical balance of winning and attacking.
 
I started a new CM a couple of weeks ago with Man Utd.
8 games left in the league, plus an FA Cup final against Liverpool to go. Currently level on points with Chelsea, who have a better goal difference. The next fixture is away to Chelsea so possible title decider!
City (who signed Aguero & Bosingwa) & Arsenal aren't too far behind, so have an outside chance...

My squad...
Had quite a few players out on loan, and some have started to return so trying to use them against 'lesser' teams.
I brought in Bale for £18m to be Giggs' eventual replacement, but trying to stay away from any other marquee signings. Was tempted to go for Sneijder, telling myself it was to replace Scholes, but my teenage VP has done well on the rare occasion I've needed to rest Scholes & Carrick together. Inter kept upping their price anyway so will look elsewhere now.
Sold off a lot of fringe players (including Gibson - yay!), and £9m for Owen in the winter window was too good to pass up. Some of the returning loan players might be next!

Aside from Bale, I also went for Wickham (Ipswich) who I intend to loan out during the 2nd season, as well as a transfer listed Coleman (Everton) & Henderson (S'land). I sold Neville to an obscure european team to tie in with his retirement, so Coleman will challenge Rafael for the RB slot. Rodwell was listed, but ran out of time to get him, so might try again in the next window.
My main targets for the 2nd season are a keeper to replace VDS, and maybe a young winger / playmaker to replace the soon-to-be-sold Obertan & Bebe.

I'll post again when I've finished the current season :)
 
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Well Phil Wride has been incorrectly (based on my information) telling people an update is being worked on and I was told that wasn't the case and that Phil was going to be spoken to.
 
I checked one of the Sticky's on the offical forum yesterday and someone posted some info from EA Rom who advised that a new 'update' is being worked on at present, the details of which are supposed to be released this week. It mentioned addressing the two most complained about issues but went no further than that. I am hoping that one of these may be player growth in Career Mode. I assume that micro-pausing may well be the other.

I'd post the link except the firewall at my work won't let me access the EA forum. From memory it was under one of the patch/ update Sticky's.
 
I wouldn't expect any qualitative changes. They'll probably fix micro-pausing and some kind of Clubs related issue, and that'll be it.
 
Yeah, i'm not holding my breath about any progressive changes to CM. After the debacle surrounding the release of the initial patch and the way that EA has supported previous FIFA's you'd be a fool to expect too much. Having said that i had totally written off any chance of EA delivering any updates to 11 so i am hoping to be pleasantly suprised.
 
murphyr said:
Yeah, i'm not holding my breath about any progressive changes to CM. After the debacle surrounding the release of the initial patch and the way that EA has supported previous FIFA's you'd be a fool to expect too much. Having said that i had totally written off any chance of EA delivering any updates to 11 so i am hoping to be pleasantly suprised.
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So, have you written off EA or do you have hope? Your posting is confusing on that point.
 
The "update" will probably be some info about FIFA12, like "more passion and immersion"... :s
 
Question about team tactics: do you change them depending upon whether you are playing at home or away (e.g. play counter attacking away and possession at home) and if so do you see a difference in results?

I've never done this in the past because I haven't felt that teams played different enough to necessitate changing my strategy but now I'm wondering about differences in difficulty levels between home and away games, so I'm thinking of playing around with my tactics. Thoughts?
 
mfmaxpower said:
Question about team tactics: do you change them depending upon whether you are playing at home or away (e.g. play counter attacking away and possession at home) and if so do you see a difference in results?

I've never done this in the past because I haven't felt that teams played different enough to necessitate changing my strategy but now I'm wondering about differences in difficulty levels between home and away games, so I'm thinking of playing around with my tactics. Thoughts?
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That's a resounding yes from me. Given that I play with a Liverpool I rarely play defensive but If I'm playing a good team away from home, it makes all the difference in the world how I set up my defense. The AI itself playes differently Home and Away.
 
I tweak settings and tactics before every match and during as well if I need to depending on who I'm facing and who's their striker, defenders, etc.

And yeah usually I play with a DMF for example against top sides or away from home for most matches where as normally I play with 2 CM's instead of a hard tackling but limited attacking-wise DMF. Has helped me grind out results away from home and keep opposition at bay.
 
Liverpool Game Highlights Liverpool 1-2 Blackpool


Key points

- I won 6-1 in the previous matchup against Blackpool so I'm tempted to say that my game plan failed. A strange game as I played well and created a number of clear cut chances but couldn't finish.

- Misfit Merieles got a rare start and showed his potential. Should have scored at least once. His movement was excellent.

- Carroll's link up play was the highlight of the game, he did all the hard work assissting the lone goal, and provided many opportunities for his teammates.

- Not getting Suarez, my top scorer, enough involvment in the game was probably a big mistake.

YouTube - BlackpoolHighlights
 
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That was a beautiful diagonal pass at about 1:14 (Suarez?) to play Carroll in. I love stuff like that on Manual.
 
Ibra, this might seem a totally strange question, but what camera do you use to play the game? I just can't seem to get on with anything other than broadcast, but then my shooting in that view is terrible for some bizarre reason....

But watching that video makes me realise how shit I am at this game!
 
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