Fifa 11 Xbox 360/PS3

[Trance_Allstar]

The thing that makes it most horrible is that this doesn't happen just now and then, but it is ubiquitous throughout the game. It is completely overbearing. Nearly every tackle made by every cpu player of every cpu teamis like this. It's as glaring as if they forgot to put the ball in the game and hoped nobody would notice.

The thing that adds insult to injury is that in so many of these unbelievable, instantaneous tackles, the desparate outstretched cpu foot doesn't just get enough on the ball to push it beyond your player, but it instead results in a 40 yard pixel-perfect pass. Look at your example. The defender slides in but his sliding tackle somehow sends the ball flying away as if he was taking a goal kick. I've had examples where cpu defenders have come in and slide tackled me from behind, curved their leg around me and scooped the ball out and the ball has shot off back up the pitch in the opposite direction, in the air, straight to cpu player on the wing. The accuracy of the pass in itself would be questionable, but this was from a slide tackle facing the completely opposite direction.

There's just no need for EA to have made it as bad as this. Cartoon football indeed.

Can't see it being patched. That is the "flavour" of this year's edition - really hard defences. I'm guessing there must have been complaints about FIFA10 that it was too easy to skin cpu defences or something, so this is their solution.


Conversely, I'm finding playing online 1v1 to be quite good so far. Responses to button presses are a bit sluggish at times, but there seems to be more evidence of player individuality (although it's really just some player are fast/agile, whilst other are slow/sluggish) and also possible evidence of pro-passing. And so far, I've not come across any pressure abusers, other than where you obviously have to, in the defensive 3rd.

So 2 matches forward from the first video, I am playing aganst Örebro, a Swedish team. They have been attacking the entire game, and I have had to fend them off repetedly (I am playing as the worst team in the Swedish league right now so no surprise).

So it's the end of the game and I get a rare breakaway chance. I hit a throughball to an already sprinting teammate. And then the defender, who at one point comes to a complete halt as my player sprints past him, does this:

YouTube - AI Defender catch-up behavior in FIFA11.


Brilliant. I work all game for this chance, and then I get cheated out of a clean breakaway because the defender has better acceleration off the spot than an F1 car. After being pressured for the entire game and working my ass off for this chance I feel like punching the wall right now.

 

[Murkurial]

In hindsight I am starting to feel I should have trusted my gut and not bought it.

I am as well. Every time I was a live match I get the urge to fire the game up but with FIFA 09 (didn't play much of 10) it was always with the hope that THIS time I'd be able to play the game even a little bit like what I saw on TV. Now I KNOW that I can't and that giddiness usually wears away by the time I see the startup screen.

What makes it worse is that the game freezes so much online that I simply cannot get a game to play in the first place. And forget Online Team Play. If I can't boot a guy who insists on picking the GK or playing "ANY" along with me, I can't play the mode.

So far, after about 7 online matches and a few off, I can see how, if someone was expecting and would be happy with a slightly improved version of Fifa 10, that they would be very happy. But for me, I could accept that level of improvement from WC, but not from 11. Fair or not, my expectations are way higher, and so far I can't see myself spending a lot of time on this game. For people like Derlei who say 'stop whining', we didn't join a forum to not voice our opinions.

The biggest plus I see so far is that if you play a patient game online, you can really have a big advantage over pressure abusers. So far, I have played about 7 games, and have yet to lose.

I think where you can really see the lack of individuality, though, is when you're playing a team you may realize who you're playing the ball with, but you never quite realize on your opponents team which player is which. What I mean by this is that, for example, I just played Bayern (won 4-0) but the whole game I never had to think about Ribery vs Robben vs Scheinsteiger - none of them ever stood out to me in any way or another. I felt like I might as well have been playing against a generic bunch of good players. When I play PES, I feel like I have to key in on certain players and, even when I'm not controlling them, I know which player is dribbling, shooting, crossing etc just by looking at them.

I have a huge advantage in terms of possession, but I can't score (could be the manual controls). Once I get near the penalty box, if I don't take a shot from outside the box, I'm getting barged off the ball. And then the ping ponging from the other squad gets me scored on.

I also know exactly what you mean about the lack of individuality. Playing online as Arsenal or Lyon, I frequently confuse Pjanic and Gourcuff and Toulalan, as well as Fabregas and Nasri. There simply isn't enough to separate them that forces me to acutally stop for a second and think about what each player can do best. I of course know what they can do best, but long, defense splitting passes don't work on manual. I'd probably just have to blast one out near the sideline. To be fair I play on Tele cam w/ it zoomed all the way out and I often have no time on the ball online to even stop and look at the player with the ball because I'm passing it so quickly after receiving it.

Brilliant. I work all game for this chance, and then I get cheated out of a clean breakaway because the defender has better acceleration off the spot than an F1 car. After being pressured for the entire game and working my ass off for this chance I feel like punching the wall right now.

Crazy thing is, people do this to me online (catching up), but I, rightfully so if I'm out of position, can NEVER catch them. What do they have turned on? Sometimes I'll actually be near them while their making the run and they still outrun me but I cannot outrun ANY of their defenders, no matter the team.

Analog sprint is a joke btw.

 

[Placebo]

Brilliant. I work all game for this chance, and then I get cheated out of a clean breakaway because the defender has better acceleration off the spot than an F1 car. After being pressured for the entire game and working my ass off for this chance I feel like punching the wall right now.

Did you check which defender it is and compare the stats between the two players?

 

[Trance_Allstar]

Did you check which defender it is and compare the stats between the two players?

Thought about it but didn't as I was playing. Will check it now though.


So the player, number 19 in Örebro, is M. Almebäck.


Stats for him is:

Acc: 82
Sprint Speed: 86

So he is a quite fast CB. Looking at their lineup he is in the starting eleven, and this was around the 80th minute. He should have been quite tired.
So I am scared to think about what the hell it would have looked like if someone like Dani Alves was in the same situation? There are 17 more acceleration points to potentially add to this, and already it looks like the Örebro defender is being pulled by a line from the right side of the screen as he accelerates.

 

[WILDSTER180774]

ea can't seem to get the balance right in anything they do. Last year it was too easy to get thru defences and sprint away but now all defenders can run like Linford Christie when the AI choose. If I can't out sprint Terry when I'm using Walcott then somethings wrong

 

[Jimmy G-Force]

I bought both, but aim to sell my copy of Fifa to a friend if playing with manual online is not the worth. Rushed to play a full CM season just to see how it worked out and if I could rescue some fun from it.

By the posts I do, you'll see the game is being annoying and boring to say the least. Finishing is awesome! Some animations are awesome! And sometimes, you can do team moves that are jawdropping. But that consitutes only a very small fraction of the time (5% maybe?) and the rest is plainly annoying. CPU AI is even worse than before, there is no eprsonality to be found anywhere and all the teams do the same all the time, playing like online cheesers.

I have half a season of PES ongoing, with Bilbao, and though the game is technically a turd, I'm having more fun than with Fifa, mainly because of individuality and the difference of teams and the single player campaing.

PES It's definitely a turd technically, compared to Fifa. There are several things that need a lot of work to be decent (AI awareness, animation blending, some reaction times, shooting mechanics and some ball physics...). But you see, I'm liking PES a lot more for single player, I reserve my final judgement on Fifa (right now is crap) until I can play full manual online with the people I care to play.

It's a shame about Fifa because technically they have the best engine and best code possible to create a marvel, yet they continue to go down the "dumbed down" route. What they have done with movement in general and tackling is beyond my mind.

I'll write about PES in a more deeper post later in the pes thread.

I read this alot on these forums, but I genuinely dont understand what people mean ? I'm the first to admit that when it comes to programming, I really dont have a clue, so you need to enlighten me here.

Do you mean the graphics are better on Fifa ? Do you mean that the programming is more technical, ensuring less bugs ? Does it mean Fifa replicates football better technically, fundemental wise ? Better technical Ai ?

You say also say a better engine and better code ? What does an engine do ? and what's better code ?

I'm not trying to be funny, I just really dont understand what you mean ? Forgive my ignorance Drekkard, just break all that down for me please so I can gain a better understanding.

 

[Trance_Allstar]

I read this alot on these forums, but I genuinely dont understand what people mean ? I'm the first to admit that when it comes to programming, I really dont have a clue, so you need to enlighten me here.

Do you mean the graphics are better on Fifa ? Do you mean that the programming is more technical, ensuring less bugs ? Does it mean Fifa replicates football better technically, fundemental wise ? Better technical Ai ?

You say also say a better engine and better code ? What does an engine do ? and what's better code ?

I'm not trying to be funny, I just really dont understand what you mean ? Forgive my ignorance Drekkard, just break all that down for me please so I can gain a better understanding.

Generally, when you see the word engine, I'd say we mean more advanced animation blending, more features, more possibilities for realistic physical interactions between player-player and player-ball, better control input mapping, tons more animations, etc.

 

[klashman69]

I read this alot on these forums, but I genuinely dont understand what people mean ? I'm the first to admit that when it comes to programming, I really dont have a clue, so you need to enlighten me here.

Do you mean the graphics are better on Fifa ? Do you mean that the programming is more technical, ensuring less bugs ? Does it mean Fifa replicates football better technically, fundemental wise ? Better technical Ai ?

You say also say a better engine and better code ? What does an engine do ? and what's better code ?

I'm not trying to be funny, I just really dont understand what you mean ? Forgive my ignorance Drekkard, just break all that down for me please so I can gain a better understanding.

He means in the way animations blend together i think! That's something which is good in PES, but not on FIFA's level TO AN EXTENT! What i mean is like i said before. FIFA gameplay put's certain things into a box and optimizes it. The whole game is about pressure/physical, OTT tricks and shooting animations so it goes overboard in making them look super pretty!

It's in that video trance allstar posted for example. Things that look strange and ugly in PES happen in FIFA but FIFA's smooths it out Hardly anything in FIFA compromises the gameplay aesthetically in terms of it looking nice!

 

[klashman69]

Generally, when you see the word engine, I'd say we mean more advanced animation blending,

Agree! Especially with things like how the players dribbling blends into rabona's etc..

, more features, more possibilities for realistic physical interactions between player-player and player-ball,

Disagree, i really hate the physical play with a burning passion, it's like watching a cartoon! It's FAR too over the top and unrealistic! Player interactions are similar just FIFA has more animation from what i've seen!

better control input mapping

Don't really know what you mean?

 

[nerf]

So he is a quite fast CB. Looking at their lineup he is in the starting eleven, and this was around the 80th minute. He should have been quite tired.

Centre-back stamina rarely depletes very much (they do do the least running of all outfield players, after all), so he probably wasn't tired. Your player might have been tired, though?

Those attributes make him very fast for a CB, too. How do they compare to your player's?

 

[Placebo]

Centre-back stamina rarely depletes very much (they do do the least running of all outfield players, after all), so he probably wasn't tired. Your player might have been tired, though?

Those attributes make him very fast for a CB, too. How do they compare to your player's?

Yup I agree, if it were JT v Nani or some such then yes it's something 100% to complain about but in this example it doesn't seem completely against the realms of possibility, I played half a season CM as Wigan and found that the likes of N'Zogbia and Rodallega can burn defenders even fairly quick ones like say Warnock of Villa and Bosingwa of Chelsea if I work it right, in fact I was quite surprised how many times during Wigan v Chelsea I managed to burn Bosingwa with N'Zogbia as Charles is only mid 80s speed/acc and I seemed to recall Bosingwa is pretty quick.

 

[StuartCulli]

Online this game can be fucking terrible. It's so anti-football, I'm thinking I'm gonna take it back. Really, really fucking disappointed.

 

[BobbyBox]

Online this game can be fucking terrible. It's so anti-football, I'm thinking I'm gonna take it back. Really, really fucking disappointed.

This game has been shit online for ages, why the suprise? most of the time you play shit kiddies that exploit it etc. The best way to play online is with people you know etc.

Why did you think online would have been much better this time playing randoms?

The only reason I might of thought that playing randoms would have been better is with the pro passing being implemented properly online....but we knew already that they haven't put it in as they promised they would

Fifa need the balls to back up what they say, they are making themselves look ridiculous. After Fifa 10 and there promises and now stuff like this, I don't know how anybody would believe anything they said for Fifa 12?

Its a bit of a shame that they made all of these videos with them explaining everything that they are doing and how amazing it is going to be, then don't follow through properly with any of them? their word and what they say is becoming a bit of a joke.

It's weird how they spend so much money taking guys off to Canada to play the game and then just ignore alot of what they say? they need to respect these people a bit more.

I think this is a big reason why people are being soooo negative about Fifa now. We have been promised the world in some departments and they haven't delivered basically.

People are living with Pes faults and not complaining so much because Pes didn't promise much, so people don't feel betrayed.

At the end of the day, if Pes 12 improves alot more and Fifa 12 is another dose of half truths, then i can see Fifa being completely rejected by us.

It's such a shame, because as alot of people say, they could make an amazing game with what they have got and it is so frustrating that they probably will never reach their potential because of the market they are going for.

My only hope for Fifa is if they make the game settings for Hardcore and casual players. Things like sliders etc will be the only way hardcore players will get the game they will want imo. But knowing Rutter et al they will announce sliders and they wont be as comprehensive as we would like or effect the areas of the game that really matter.

Anyway end of rant

 

[Lons]

Online this game can be fucking terrible. It's so anti-football, I'm thinking I'm gonna take it back. Really, really fucking disappointed.

Why?

 

[Placebo]

Can someone with the UK manual please list the ports that need to be forwarded? I have the Nordic manual and I can't find the list of ports in there.

 

[klashman69]

Online this game can be fucking terrible. It's so anti-football, I'm thinking I'm gonna take it back. Really, really fucking disappointed.

Hi, sorry nothing against you and all, you a very good member here but from your negativity leading up to release, i don't see why you even bothered with this game?

You must of know if the demo wasn't good for you, don't buy?

I mean, i knew you would return this game in disgust way back months ago, why go through he motions ?

 

[drekkard]

I read this alot on these forums, but I genuinely dont understand what people mean ? I'm the first to admit that when it comes to programming, I really dont have a clue, so you need to enlighten me here.

Do you mean the graphics are better on Fifa ? Do you mean that the programming is more technical, ensuring less bugs ? Does it mean Fifa replicates football better technically, fundemental wise ? Better technical Ai ?

You say also say a better engine and better code ? What does an engine do ? and what's better code ?

I'm not trying to be funny, I just really dont understand what you mean ? Forgive my ignorance Drekkard, just break all that down for me please so I can gain a better understanding.

No problem:

- Animation blending in PES is quite bad. It was horrible in PES 2010 and has improved a lot, but it's still not on next-gen standards, that's the easiest way to describe it. I can see a lot of "jumps" when going from one stance to another.

- Animation assignation: That's something that is what makes Fifa animations truly great and people often ignores. Having thousands ans thousands of animations and choosing which one works in which specific moment, and use inversed kinetics to make it happen. Fifa has amazing animations for the RIGHT moment and right action. Pes, in the other hand, has a lot less animations. I don't know if the exact problem is the small number of animations to choose from or that the assigning process is badly programmed. I'm talking about a lot of crossing, heading, shooting and falling animations.

- Another big problem of pes is the collision detection between player vs ball. When you are running with the ball, sometimes the touches don't correspond with the movement of the balls or the legs. Sometimes, in between some tricks, the ball moves at its own as if the mocap data and the animation and the parameters passed to the ball don't fit well. Last year was horrible, truly amateur work as it was their first serious mocap time. Fifa, no the other hand, gets incredible results from the code they wrote for 08 and refined all these years.

- Ball physics are off a lot of times. They have improved a lot from last year, and from the demo also (WE demo had much better physics than Fifa), but still some shots are quite ridiculous. I mean, it's great that if you are unbalanced you shoot badly, but the "bad" shots in PES are pathetic ballooning balls that are poorly executed. The movement of the ball in this moments is far from reality, and floats too much. In passing, generally there are very awkwards moments of the ball having sudden friction and sometimes even stopping dead in odd ways. The same for some shots.

- Collisions between players: here is a disaster. There aren't. Not that I want PES to have the rugby collisions of Fifa at all, but please, some contact, some barging, some body checking. I've had instances of PES 20011 when a player goes literally THROUGH another one. This clipping has been there for ages and is affecting a lot the game. If I have a big, strong defender, AT LEAST I expect him to slow down the attacker when they contact. Right now all the players feel "clippable". PES needs an improved system for collisions (call it engine or new code, it's the same in programming terms). They will ned, though, a lot more of animations and a lot more of code to creat realistic bounces od bodys and all that, something EA started in next gen years ago and we all know they have overdone it with time (what a pitty), but the EA code is amazing in the way that detects collisions and makes the game act accordingly with the righyt outcome for the most part.

- AI: PES has all the individuality that Fifa lacks. And you feel it's a TEAM working, not a buncho of generic players that hardly move from their position (Fifa). The chaotic feel of PES sometimes is good, as footballs can be chaotic sometimes, while Fifa is always very rigid. That said, PES has a BIG problem of AWARENESS. Players can ignore the ball is next to them, players can ignore a through pass (specifically with though passes) or won't detect danger soon enough. Playes also won't have any "urge" feeling when a loose ball is in the area., you know... it's one of the first things you see in PES that is quite off. I don't want zombies in my team blatantly ignoring the play around them and that happens too much. In Fifa I've had instances, but are only minimal.

More to come I have to go dinner and my wife is calling me!!!

@ Trance and Winston: watch my posts about my feelings with Fifa in a complete CM. The "speed catching up" gets ridiculous with time and with silverware involved, the tackling gets absurd and the brutal acceleration turning around the pivotal leg are there to stay. This game is doomed in single player if you have a minimal respect for reality. Play more and it will get worse, mind you.

 

[Trance_Allstar]

Agree! Especially with things like how the players dribbling blends into rabona's etc..



Disagree, i really hate the physical play with a burning passion, it's like watching a cartoon! It's FAR too over the top and unrealistic! Player interactions are similar just FIFA has more animation from what i've seen!



Don't really know what you mean?

Well, I was meaning more the accuracy of physical interactions, like how in FIFA the foot almost 100% will always touch the ball for any interaction down to the millimeter, when players collide you can usually see a relevant collision animation based on the force that is applied. I agree that the barging is completely unrealistic most of the time, but not from the purely physical perspective, the players are bumping into each other after all. I didn't mean the engine in FIFA is necessarily better configured, but there seems to be alot more detail to each aspect that the devs can tweak and use.

Yup I agree, if it were JT v Nani or some such then yes it's something 100% to complain about but in this example it doesn't seem completely against the realms of possibility, I played half a season CM as Wigan and found that the likes of N'Zogbia and Rodallega can burn defenders even fairly quick ones like say Warnock of Villa and Bosingwa of Chelsea if I work it right, in fact I was quite surprised how many times during Wigan v Chelsea I managed to burn Bosingwa with N'Zogbia as Charles is only mid 80s speed/acc and I seemed to recall Bosingwa is pretty quick.

Well, if you look at my player, he is taking long quick paces, and the opponent player speeds up to full speed in less than 2 seconds (I was manipulating the shoulder buttons for the replay so I didn't do a full-speed capture). Look especially at the first 5 meters when the defender moves from stationary past the half-way line. After 4 steps, the defender has, from stationary, reached the same speed as my already sprinting player.

My point is not only with how fast he is in relation to my player, since I can't really check the stamina of the opponent in any way. From the stationary position, by a casual estimate, I would say he moves about 10-11 meters in 5-6 steps? So from a stationary position he takes, on average, 2 meter strides?


If you look at a video from, to take it to an extreme, a 100 meter dash, where the runners, one could argue, really accelerate as fast as humanly possible, we can see that for the first 10-12 meters, each runner takes about 8-9 steps.

YouTube - Usain Bolt 100 meter 9.72 secs world record [high quality]

YouTube - AI Defender catch-up behavior in FIFA11.

So basically, the player in my video animates as if he had moved only about 60-70% of the distance that a 100 meter runner had moved (taking 5-6 steps), yet he still catches up to my player (stride lenght is individual but it does not differ that much unless the height is very different). You could argue that he just has a longer stride, but try accelerating from a standstill and take 50% longer strides than you are used to. Not exactly efficient, comfortable, or even really possible.

And really, look at the 100 meter dash video. Those are the fastest humans in the world, and they really need to work hard in the beginning to gain some speed, the first few steps (the first 5-10 meters). Contrast my FIFA clip and the 100 meter dash a few times back and forth, and see if you also notice how the FIFA defender just floats off as he follows me. Also the FIFA player has 80 minutes in his legs.

Keep in mind, this is also in contrast to the fact that sprinting in general in FIFA11 has been toned down. The player in the FIFA video seems like he has just skipped the first 8-10 steps of a normal acceleration animation and just goes straight to the long-stride part. My game was played on slow game speed.

 

[Placebo]

But we know acceleration is exaggerated for game purposes, has been since forever and was discussed by a producer in a recent video (maybe the stamina one?)...

 

[klashman69]

Well, I was meaning more the accuracy of physical interactions, like how in FIFA the foot almost 100% will always touch the ball for any interaction down to the millimeter,

Oh ok, man, cool.

BTW, this isn't the case about players always touching the ball 100% of the time in fifa! i've seen players kick air and the ball magically moving in fifa quite a lot, it happens in every football game so I'm not too fussed tbh.

I distinctly remember (I think it was the moment when i started to really see how shit this game was!) It was a tournament i setup with national teams just to get a feel for the game. When i was through on goal (Czech Republic vs Australia) and the CPU made another 100% perfect tackle! What pissed me off the most was his foot in the replay was about five inches away from the ball It was basically a scripted CPU cheat tackle!

The CPU on legendary/worldd class is programmed to make challenges which even if they foul or if they don't even touch the ball, it will go in their favor! It just killed the game completely for me. Bad enough the balance is so shit! In PES you do see instances of this but what i like is how it rarely if ever comprimese the game (just the odd random bug innit )

when players collide you can usually see a relevant collision animation based on the force that is applied. I agree that the barging is completely unrealistic most of the time, but not from the purely physical perspective, the players are bumping into each other after all. I didn't mean the engine in FIFA is necessarily better configured, but there seems to be alot more detail to each aspect that the devs can tweak and use.

i dunno, need to play the game again but 80% collisions seem exaggerated and cartoony, i have a video of a player running into someone and they seemed to fall down as if their bones all broken and his body turned to jelly!

With FIFA the awe of how well the animations blend together wears of in terms of fun and novelty quickly but in technical terms, i think there's a lot to be discussed. I have the belief it just all about it blending together nicely rather than them having as much much substance to what correlates on the pitch which it's given so much credit for.

 

[Trance_Allstar]

But we know acceleration is exaggerated for game purposes, has been since forever and was discussed by a producer in a recent video (maybe the stamina one?)...

Right, and with sprinting in FIFA11 made alot less effective, we now have situations like the video I posted.

My main gripe is more that the situation I posted doesn't happen when you sprint after the ball with a striker and would need that type of speed, it only happens when defenders need to make sure you don't get clean on goal. The system doesn't seem linear but will give different situations different physics/biomechanics.

 

[ono5985]

Before i do my review i'll explain my history. Generally i end up buying both games. I loved Fifa 09, didn't like Fifa 10, tolerated Fifa World Cup on manual. I haven't really enjoyed a PES since 05 & 06, although i played a fair bit of PES10 on the PC. I play Fifa on Legendary with 10 minute halves, unless i'm playing 'manual' where i knock the difficulty down a level

So...

I bought the game yesterday morning, and to be honest i'm having serious regrets. I've already checked Ebay to see how much copies of Fifa 11 are going for. I'll just break the game down into positives and negatives....

Positives...

• Pitches look very nice

• Some animations look really nice. Noticed some very nice touches that have persuaded me to play the game for a little longer

• Goalkeepers are excellent in comparison to PES

• The crowd noise is a little better. Still not great but there is a hint of an atmosphere

• Commentary is again good in comparison to PES

• Shooting feels quite nice, as does scoring.

• CM mode looks much more professional, although Leighton Baines has just been bought for £13m.



Negatives...

• The game is too fast. Even on slow. Again.

• The pressure is too high. Again.

• There's little player individuality. You can tell the difference between a defender and a skillfull striker, but nearly everyone can turn on a dime.

• There's little team individuality. Yesterday i played 3 pre-season friendlies against Auxerre, QPR and then Hamilton. Each team played pretty much the same - on rails.

• The game is on rails. Much like Fifa 09 and Fifa 10. The pass 'round the corner' is always on and you can just zig-zag your way upfield

• Players feel like they are wearing jet-packs. Sounds odd, but as soon as player become human controlled, the seem to wobble on the spot like they're floating just above the pitch. There doesn't seem to be a connection between the player and pitch, almost like there is no friction whatsoever.

• The ball seems like it is coated in elastic. Very much like the point above, the ball seems to wobble along the pitch. It looks very odd.

• Ai's passing accuracy is ridiculous

• Some instances of passing is very slow. Which is odd.

• The players are too responsive.


Final thoughts...

IMO EA are very close to creating a disaster of a football simulation. A combination of the problems are contributing to this.

First of all the game is too fast and the pitch is too congested, because of this and the fact that teams operate with high pressure. The ultra unrealistic responsiveness of the players and the fact that players seem to hover above the pitch also helps to create this problem. There's no inertia between the player and the pitch and for me this is a big problem.

Last season i did a lot of work on Fifa forum to try and help the game with stat editing. It seems the same core problems exist this season. PES has come on leaps and bounds. To the Fifa players it feels robotic, but it helps with the inertia and the player individuality. It also helps with the game speed. Besides, it only really feels that way if you're used to the super responsiveness of Fifa.

Despite this negative review, there is some good in Fifa. I can half see why some people prefer Fifa 11 to PES 11. It has it's plus points. For me they are just outweighed by it's negatives which are big gamebreakers for me. These problem might not bother other people. It's horses for courses and there's no definite answer to which game is better. I just personally know this game isn't for me and i'm pretty disappointed with it.

 

[drekkard]

Right, and with sprinting in FIFA11 made alot less effective, we now have situations like the video I posted.

My main gripe is more that the situation I posted doesn't happen when you sprint after the ball with a striker and would need that type of speed, it only happens when defenders need to make sure you don't get clean on goal. The system doesn't seem linear but will give different situations different physics/biomechanics.

Well, it's even more stupid than that. Try to have a defender sprinting. Then press and hold pression or tackle. Defenders suddenly have a "plus" of acceleration/speed when going towards the tackle. That makes everything even more ridiculous.

Someone said before he was being caught up when running but he couldn't catch up the opponent. Try literally holding the tackle and scondary pression buttons, and suddenly your defenders will have an extra "humph" to their acceleration in short spaces.

I'm not talking about running for a ball 30 meters away, but for thos instances where 5-10 meters are covered in only one or two strides.

 

[Shearer_God]

Online play on this game is absolutely atrocious.

Slowly getting bored of just playing kick off matches - the only thing keeping me going is playing with my VP and get the accomplishments. It's probably the only part that works properly as career mode is far from perfect still.

 

[winston]

I bought the game yesterday morning, and to be honest i'm having serious regrets. I've already checked Ebay to see how much copies of Fifa 11 are going for.

Dude you've had the game for only 2 days! You really need to give it some time. Play it for the next couple weeks until you get to really understand it. Do that and I'm sure you'll find in a fortnight that you're grateful you didn't sell it on Ebay for a tenner, because you'll get so much more satisfaction from snapping the disk in frustration at how crap the game is.

 

[winston]

I have half a season of PES ongoing, with Bilbao, and though the game is technically a turd, I'm having more fun than with Fifa, mainly because of individuality and the difference of teams and the single player campaing.

PES It's definitely a turd technically, compared to Fifa. There are several things that need a lot of work to be decent (AI awareness, animation blending, some reaction times, shooting mechanics and some ball physics...). But you see, I'm liking PES a lot more for single player, I reserve my final judgement on Fifa (right now is crap) until I can play full manual online with the people I care to play.

I'll write about PES in a more deeper post later in the pes thread.

Someone has posted in the PES thread that the retail version is faster, but less responsive, than the demo. Not true, surely? That would be very bad. I fear speeding up PES would take it perilously close to being just another FIFA, where any of the subtleties are lost in the rush. And making it less responsive at the same? That would be a double whammy.

Anyway, looking forward to your write up.

 

[nerf]

Someone on here mentioned about not using 100% pressure and mashing A to tackle against AI (just block passing lanes until final 1/3). That's exactly what I do! The game plays out in a more realistic manner.

Yeah, I can't recommend this enough if you play against the CPU. I'm doing this and loving it. I've set myself a rule when defending whereby I can't use either Primary Pressure or Secondary Pressure unless the ball is in my own penalty area.

It significantly changes the way I defend. Instead of just lazily charging into any old tackle when within five yards of the ball, I really have to think about when to commit, when to jockey, when to try and show the opponent wide or into traffic... much more tactical. Defending becomes more about timing and positioning, as it should be, and winning the ball back is more frequently done by trying to force an error or interception rather than always just brute-force tackling.

I'm also dominating possession less, as the CPU is able to keep the ball for longer because I'm not just diving in to win it back straight away. Give it a try, I reckon.

 

[Rob92]

I'm glad I didn't give into the temptation and buy this game... All of my suspicions about it, and how it would play out online have been confirmed in one way or another by someone, and seemingly the only people enjoying it are the ones I knew would do unconditionally anyway...

Maybe next year...

 

[klashman69]

Yeah, I can't recommend this enough if you play against the CPU. I'm doing this and loving it. I've set myself a rule when defending whereby I can't use either Primary Pressure or Secondary Pressure unless the ball is in my own penalty area.

It significantly changes the way I defend. Instead of just lazily charging into any old tackle when within five yards of the ball, I really have to think about when to commit, when to jockey, when to try and show the opponent wide or into traffic... much more tactical. Defending becomes more about timing and positioning, as it should be, and winning the ball back is more frequently done by trying to force an error or interception rather than always just brute-force tackling.

I'm also dominating possession less, as the CPU is able to keep the ball for longer because I'm not just diving in to win it back straight away. Give it a try, I reckon.

Hmm, I've tried stuff like this every year in every FIFA game. Just wonder how long you will keep this up. What usually happens is it's a good supplement for a more balanced game until 30 games later when you get bored of playing the same match over and over!

Reminds me of my Full manual 15 minute manager mode on FIFA with St Pauli. First 3-4 matches felt very 'realsitic' until i just ended up getting bored after the next 6-7 or so. Just the same match repeatedly.

Always interesting to see if you onto soemthing!

 

[WILDSTER180774]

I'm sorry but this game should not have been released in such a poor state. I can't even start a Career Mode. It crashes every, yes every, single time when I click advance on the page where you select your settings just after you selected your club. MM in FIFA 09 and 10 were bad but at least I could play the fecking thing. FIFA gets worse when it comes down to bugs. There really is no excuse now to the amount of serious issues with this game. How the hell did it get these good review scores? The mind boggles. Will be trying PES now for sure and I think it's time to go back to my first love. Come in Fifa11, your time is up.
Anyone got Ann Robinsons email?? Shockingly bad by EA this year.