Fifa 11 "Festival of Fifa" hands-on Impressions

johnny_on said:
Played it yesterday for 4 hours straight and Rods big post describes it almost exactly as i see it.

Only things i saw differently was the stamina,i thought it was ok. I saw players chasing noticeably slowing down while running after my back four.

If i could have EA work on anything between now and release in terms of gameplay it would be above all defensive AI.... then directional error on Pro passing, making free kicks harder and adding back in the two players going for a header.

If they managed that we'd have a winner on our hands.
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I would add to those two offensive AI - playing the WC game last night I was getting really frustrated with my teammates' off the ball movement. Especially when playing manual controls, you see areas of the pitch just dying for a ball to be played to space but the chance is usually wasted and I'm screaming at my players, those lazy bastards! The creativity of play that manual provides is often completely wasted by the boring AI. (And I have my tactics set to risky for passes, at 100, hoping my players would make those runs, but still they disappoint.)

Free kicks I think have been fixed. At least they're far more difficult in the WC game than in 10, but I also suck at free kicks, so...

Is it really true that there's no directional error with PP? I find this absolutely shocking. I know it's been complained by many that the main result seen has been a slower bobbled pass, but really, no directional error?!
 
mfmaxpower said:
Is it really true that there's no directional error with PP? I find this absolutely shocking. I know it's been complained by many that the main result seen has been a slower bobbled pass, but really, no directional error?!
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Where did you see this, there is error but as most have said when you are playing with 5* teams you don't expect passes going astray that often, it needs tweaking though...
 
Nick Cave said:
Where did you see this, there is error but as most have said when you are playing with 5* teams you don't expect passes going astray that often, it needs tweaking though...
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I hope you're right. I am certainly not a definitive source, I was speaking after reading all the impressions, esp. Rod/Xaor's, and I believe he's mentioned a few times there didn't appear enough variety with poor passes.

You're 100 percent right, we really don't know the full story without playing with lower quality teams, and considering there are so many fans of playing with less than 5* teams, it's disappointing EA don't add three and four star teams in the demo. Especially when this is a year for individuality.

Nonetheless, Xavi still makes poor passes at times, they are just far far infrequent than lesser players, so we really should have see at least a few examples of greater directional error in passes, no?

Here's a theory: maybe FIFA have made the error to be mostly be with power b/c, with the power gauge marker, the game gives you immediate feedback at what you did wrong, whereas with directional inaccuracy, on the assisted settings you don't know if it was your stick direction, the player attributes, or context that led to the error? Yes/no/maybe/STFU?
 
Just back from Glasgow and cant believe I was even worried. I know the old pesimism will kick in and you all go, off on one but it really is majorly improved.

AI is for me the biggest step up. They track runs and close you down in their half far more effectively. You set someone to run and they will be followed with no delay. It takes passing around to open a gap (played on world class) and get in behind. Which I found rarely happened in the 2-3 hours i played. Its certainly a thinking mans game on that difficulty level.

Stamina did make a difference, towards the end of a game CR9 was blowing out his hoop after being sprinted for the match. It effected his touch and ability to keep the ball as well.

Anything else?????
 
mfmaxpower said:
I would add to those two offensive AI - playing the WC game last night I was getting really frustrated with my teammates' off the ball movement. Especially when playing manual controls, you see areas of the pitch just dying for a ball to be played to space but the chance is usually wasted and I'm screaming at my players, those lazy bastards! The creativity of play that manual provides is often completely wasted by the boring AI. (And I have my tactics set to risky for passes, at 100, hoping my players would make those runs, but still they disappoint.)

Free kicks I think have been fixed. At least they're far more difficult in the WC game than in 10, but I also suck at free kicks, so...

Is it really true that there's no directional error with PP? I find this absolutely shocking. I know it's been complained by many that the main result seen has been a slower bobbled pass, but really, no directional error?!
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In the demo of 11 i played the other day i had about 8-9 free kicks within range, i scored 3.

Low power plus pushing up towards the goal, results in 1 in 3 going in. Thats too much, 1 in 15 is about right. It took no skill, id rather they put something in like the penalty system to add variation.

Pro passing stops the fast break mentality but doesn't involve the ping pong passers giving the ball away. It just is a slower pass, not one that goes wide of the mark like in the video they release explaining it.
 
Yeh freekicks need to be looked at in fifa. With any decent player the odds just aren't stacked against you at all.
 
Ok, so I'm just back from Gamerbase in Glasgow where I managed to get 3 hours of game time. First impressions....meh, it's alright, not as dramatic a change as I'd hope for if I'm honest.

Firstly I'd like to say that I played on full manual for most of the games.

Game Speed:

As has been mentioned by everyone who has played, the game speed is noticeably slower than FIFA10 or WC. The first game I played I immediately noticed how slow it was, but it wasn't until the next game when I started messing about with the settings that I noticed my first game had been set to Fast!! Christ, I thought, what a change and promptly changed the setting to Normal for the next game. Can't say I noticed much, if any, difference between the 2 but the most important thing is that the game runs at a much more realistic pace.

Defensive

I took this pic earlier

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WTF is this!? What defensive line?
Also, I was running up the left wing with Malouda and cut inside running diagonally into the box. Drogba was running for the penalty spot but was marked tightly. I decided to try to squeeze the pass just ahead of Drogba and just as released the pass button the defender decided to stop tracking Drogba and run out toward the 18 yard box, leaving Drogba with a simple side foot past the keeper.
On a more positive note it is harder to put the ball over the defenders head for an easy 1 on 1 chance. The defenders track back the attackers when you trigger a forward run.
Also it is very hard to get an opportunity to take a shot from distance because the defense close you down so quickly (not sure if this is a good thing or not)

Aerial Challenges

Well so much for multiple players challenging for crosses! I flung the ball into the box I don't know how many times and it didn't happen once.......gutted!!
There are a number of new heading animations which looked really nice and I also saw the AI score a kind of flick header across goal into the back post which looked very realsitic.
I had autoswitching set to manual so at first I was struggling to win headers as the player I was controlling was nowhere near where he should have been, but once I realised that I had to move my player into position my success rate improved but not unrealistically.

Shooting

Well shooting definately feels weightier than it does in FIFA10 but the pace the ball moves at is just too slow. Sure if you've got lots of time outside the box with Dani Alves or Frank Lampard there is more oomph behind the shot but inside the box it is impossible to hit a low hard shot. This is something I have always disliked about FIFA games and was one of the first things I tried out in the Arena. Far too often I was in a position to burst a hole in the net only to see a disappointing "soft as shite" effort.

Graphics

1. Pitches are much improved
2. Lighting from in game camera (I was using co op) is much improved
3. Cut scenes look very similar to FIFA10, lighting doesn't look as good as in game camera and we've still got the same old cartoony colour pallette.
4. Goal posts & nets in shaded areas are still grey
5. Most of the official faces are very impressive but can only really be appreciated by zooming in on replays if you're that way inclined. Unfortunately the improvement of the official faces just makes the default faces look much much worse.
6. The individuality in player animations is also noticeable in a lot of players. John Terry sticks out like a sore thumb.
7. Net customisation is very basic. I set net tension to loose and didn't really notice much difference. No option for changing colour btw. The only other net style is the 80s style triangular nets which isn't really what i was looking for.

Replays/Highlights

Positives:
1.Unlike FIFA10, I noticed replays being shown for near misses (not every one mind you)
2.Editable Highlights after a match is a great addition but I'm not entirely convinced of the selection of clips chosen and the length of clips leaves a lot to be desired.

Negatives:
1.I don't know if it was just the console I was using, but all replays were very juddery, not like FIFA10 framerate issues, this was different, almost like lag in an online game.
2. Same shitey camera angles
3. Length of clips as mentioned above

Passing

I'm not going to go into all the intricacies of pro passing as it's been mentioned enough, but what I will mention is that I tried a first time 180 through pass with David Villa and he fell flat on his arse and the ball rolled about 2 feet from where he lay :))
I wasn't having much success with the R1 lob pass as it kept being intercepted but perhaps I just need to practice it more.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but on a side note, I was scrolling through the available teams and suddenly Arsenal were there when they hadn't been previously. Don't know if it was a glitch but I managed to get most of a match played with them before the PS3 I was using crashed (scored a peach with Chamakh too)
 
Arsenal will be in the demo but they are meant to be unlockable - they didn't unlock when I was at the Emirates (which sucks, as a gunner) - but in the demo I think they are meant to be unlocked after 5 wins. Not sure if that's 5 FIFA Superstars wins, or just 5 wins though.
 
stuartyd said:
Shooting

Well shooting definately feels weightier than it does in FIFA10 but the pace the ball moves at is just too slow. Sure if you've got lots of time outside the box with Dani Alves or Frank Lampard there is more oomph behind the shot but inside the box it is impossible to hit a low hard shot. This is something I have always disliked about FIFA games and was one of the first things I tried out in the Arena. Far too often I was in a position to burst a hole in the net only to see a disappointing "soft as shite" effort.
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I'll be extremely disappointed if shooting physics is once again crap. Got better in the WC but sometimes shots that appear to be hit with power hang unrealistically in the air; sometimes they look like they don't have enough velocity behind them to be airborne.

Appreciate the honest and balanced impressions, and they seem consistent with those impressions I trust the most - positive if underwhelming.
 
I don't find it difficult to hit a hard low shot - what I find harder is to get a dipping shot. Depends on your assistance settings - if you're on full assisted you have near enough no control over anything.
 
Rodelero said:
I don't find it difficult to hit a hard low shot - what I find harder is to get a dipping shot. Depends on your assistance settings - if you're on full assisted you have near enough no control over anything.
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I'm on all manual. Hard low shots seem easier to hit than higher shots with power. This doesn't happen that much with top quality players but when you drop to your lower rated strikers, FIFA seems to think they have no strength in shot at times, and the physics of it can be unrealistic. It also happens to on finesse shots, where they'll float just a bit too much. Generally this has improved in the WC game so it's not a major problem, but I'll still hit the odd shot that looks more like I'm hitting a beachball than a football.
 
Rodelero said:
I don't find it difficult to hit a hard low shot - what I find harder is to get a dipping shot. Depends on your assistance settings - if you're on full assisted you have near enough no control over anything.
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In my experience on FIFA 10 you can only hit truly "powerful" shots with players who have an extremely high shot power attribute (Gerrard, Hitzlsperger, R.Carlos etc)... With others, no shot really feels like it has any venom to it, and with lower league players it's a complete joke (it's why I hardly used Coventry on FIFA 10) how weak all the shots are - you see powerful shots at every level of football, so EA have no excuse.

FIFA's shooting is very strange, and I havn't seen evidence in the vids so far that it's that much better in FIFA 11.

There are some things about it that you can put your finger on such as the way the shots constantly rise, the way you can't hit the ball cleanly at an angle or when standing still, but a better way to describe it would be that it's unnatural to a footballer...

In situations where you'd have a dig at goal in real life, you find yourself turning them down because you already know the outcome...
This forces you to attack in ways where you can create the same type of shooting opportunity over and over, because you know it works.

The unrealistic/scripted keepers don't help either.

That's what PES did so well... it gave you the feeling that you could actually score from anywhere because of the way the shooting worked and the way the keepers had human-like reactions...
 
I think the shot power thing is really just poorly designed/designated stats. It's the typical: they aren't in a top club so they can't be top players thing.

They said they were trying to deal with that this year, we'll have to see.
 
Rob92 said:
In my experience on FIFA 10 you can only hit truly "powerful" shots with players who have an extremely high shot power attribute (Gerrard, Hitzlsperger, R.Carlos etc)... With others, no shot really feels like it has any venom to it, and with lower league players it's a complete joke (it's why I hardly used Coventry on FIFA 10) how weak all the shots are - you see powerful shots at every level of football, so EA have no excuse.

FIFA's shooting is very strange, and I havn't seen evidence in the vids so far that it's that much better in FIFA 11.

There are some things about it that you can put your finger on such as the way the shots constantly rise, the way you can't hit the ball cleanly at an angle or when standing still, but a better way to describe it would be that it's unnatural to a footballer...

In situations where you'd have a dig at goal in real life, you find yourself turning them down because you already know the outcome...
This forces you to attack in ways where you can create the same type of shooting opportunity over and over, because you know it works.

The unrealistic/scripted keepers don't help either.

That's what PES did so well... it gave you the feeling that you could actually score from anywhere because of the way the shooting worked and the way the keepers had human-like reactions...
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shooting in FIFA is restrictive...
 
Rodelero said:
I think the shot power thing is really just poorly designed/designated stats. It's the typical: they aren't in a top club so they can't be top players thing.

They said they were trying to deal with that this year, we'll have to see.
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From the demo I didn't see it to be honest, maybe different in the full game but it has been an issue with FIFA for a while so I doubt it...
 
I doubt it too to be honest, nor did I notice it. I just think it comes down to the way the databasing is done. They won't give a high shot power to a poor striker, and generally they don't give high stats to all round poor players.
 
Am i the only one who is just getting more confused?

Some people say AI defensively is good some say rubbish, some say shooting is good, others say rubbish.

Its hard what to think about it.

Also extremely disappointed that whole multiple players going for headers thing has been taken out?
 
They're never going to give realistic attributes to shot power as long as the accuracy error is so small. Many lower level players can shoot hard, but more often they'll miss the target or miss-hit the ball so that it's weaker and not where they really aimed. But they CAN shoot hard, and that is what FIFA won't let them do.

Just like fast players in lower leagues have bad ball control so each touch on the ball while sprinting fast have error and might be so bad that they have to slow down to keep control of the ball. Same thing here, since FIFA doesn't care about the touches, they can't make them fast because they would be too good in the game. If you have a speedy player that can run top speed with perfect touch of the ball each time - he will be a monster.
 
SoulMan said:
Am i the only one who is just getting more confused?

Some people say AI defensively is good some say rubbish, some say shooting is good, others say rubbish.

Its hard what to think about it.

Also extremely disappointed that whole multiple players going for headers thing has been taken out?
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That's what you get with 6min demo and top teams, people will see and read in all sorts from seeing the same thing..
The multi challange thing will be in there, it may not have been in the demo or it may be rare, they have not said it's gone...

Gab_ said:
They're never going to give realistic attributes to shot power as long as the accuracy error is so small. Many lower level players can shoot hard, but more often they'll miss the target or miss-hit the ball so that it's weaker and not where they really aimed. But they CAN shoot hard, and that is what FIFA won't let them do.

Just like fast players in lower leagues have bad ball control so each touch on the ball while sprinting fast have error and might be so bad that they have to slow down to keep control of the ball. Same thing here, since FIFA doesn't care about the touches, they can't make them fast because they would be too good in the game. If you have a speedy player that can run top speed with perfect touch of the ball each time - he will be a monster.
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This has to be worked on for future games, EA has to move away from the pick up and button mash or at least give us the ability to de-tune it...:PIRATE:
 
SoulMan said:
Am i the only one who is just getting more confused?

Some people say AI defensively is good some say rubbish, some say shooting is good, others say rubbish.

Its hard what to think about it.

Also extremely disappointed that whole multiple players going for headers thing has been taken out?
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That's just normal though. Some people say a film is good, some say it's rubbish.
Make your own mind up when you play it.
 
Re shooting, I only find it a problem inside the box. The only way to hit a shot across the ground is to tap the shoot button which simple results in a weak trundler or a side footed effort. If you look at Theo Walcott's goal against Blackburn yesterday, he hit the ball so hard across the ground that it burst the net. You would never see a shot hit so hard across the ground in any recent FIFA game.

Re goalkeepers, I agree that they seem somewhat scripted when it comes to the saves they make. I've never looked into this in much detail but it feels like the goalkeeper already knows what direction the ball is going before the ball has left the attackers foot.
 
stuartyd said:
Re shooting, I only find it a problem inside the box. The only way to hit a shot across the ground is to tap the shoot button which simple results in a weak trundler or a side footed effort. If you look at Theo Walcott's goal against Blackburn yesterday, he hit the ball so hard across the ground that it burst the net. You would never see a shot hit so hard across the ground in any recent FIFA game.

Re goalkeepers, I agree that they seem somewhat scripted when it comes to the saves they make. I've never looked into this in much detail but it feels like the goalkeeper already knows what direction the ball is going before the ball has left the attackers foot.
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Shooting seems to be scaled dynamically as you get closer to the goal. IE a 50% powerbar shot from 30 meters travels at speed A, while a 50% powerbar shot from 10 meters travels at speed Ax0.85 or such. The fix for this is easy, just remove the dynamic scaling and keep the system linear regardless of pitch position.

Not sure why this seems to happen, it could be because they feel the goalkeepers are too poor to handle realistic shot powers from close range, or the defence AI is too poor, leading to an unproportional number of goal chances, and this is one way to try to subtly reduce the amount of goals, by handicapping players shooting ability. Regardless, if they just tried to further improve the realism of shooting inaccuracies and consistency, adding some more penalty for shooting while unbalanced, and also adding in more types of mishits, that should make up for it. Also they could reduce the turning capabilities of the player in possession to a more realistic level, which would further bring attacking play towards realism. It's a bad way of doing it if they see that something is not working realistically (ie too many goals per match, players too consistent with getting shots on goal from close range), and instead of bringing unrealistic aspects closer to normal levels, they compensate by adjusting another system so that it is unrealistic.
 
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Gab_ said:
They're never going to give realistic attributes to shot power as long as the accuracy error is so small. Many lower level players can shoot hard, but more often they'll miss the target or miss-hit the ball so that it's weaker and not where they really aimed. But they CAN shoot hard, and that is what FIFA won't let them do.

Just like fast players in lower leagues have bad ball control so each touch on the ball while sprinting fast have error and might be so bad that they have to slow down to keep control of the ball. Same thing here, since FIFA doesn't care about the touches, they can't make them fast because they would be too good in the game. If you have a speedy player that can run top speed with perfect touch of the ball each time - he will be a monster.
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And this is why FIFA's critics often argue that EA don't "get" football - although it seems to be going in the right direction, FIFA tends to emphasize the wrong skills and abilities. Like Gab said, oftentimes the difference between an elite forward and one of lesser quality is first touch and ball control. However, according to EA's model, Madden's NFL players, with their speed and strength, would be equally good in FIFA.

SJP76 said:
That's just normal though. Some people say a film is good, some say it's rubbish.
Make your own mind up when you play it.
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Mediocre films tend to get mixed reviews; great films, however, tend to get great reviews. When a film/game lacks a consensus, it all comes down to who you listen to.

So to the person mentioning confusion over the impressions, I would suggest being more selective of who you believe, as all impressions are not equal. I tend to be wary of those previews that are only positive or only negative, and give greater weight to those that attempt to be more balanced.

True, there remains quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the game and many of its features, but the most fair and balanced impressions point to an improved game overall but not a great leap forward. When it comes to the nuances of the game, it's probably best to wait to get your hands on the game. I haven't played the game myself, but that's my impression of the impressions!
 
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