Fifa 11 Xbox 360/PS3

Had to post this cause it had me cracking up. Surely the best post from the FIFA 11 forums:

cem_ea_id.xerutic said:
At the moment I don't have the energy to list all the issues with this years release, I'll add to this later. But let me start off with this......for those with no patience please understand this is not a seat of my pants one off blasting of this game and the folks involved with its creation. This is a look into modern business practices and the lack of quality that is infesting our world on all levels...including the entertainment/gaming level.


I am angry, livid and sad that a massive entity that 'produces games' refuses to get this series right. After all these years its is truly mind boggling the lack of respect they have for the footballing community. With the popularity of the sport worldwide the situation here is an absolute disgrace.


First off before any EA fan boys/girls go to negville on me let me give you some background. I have been playing the FIFA games since they began. I have witnessed every version, seen the ups and downs in full view.

This year is the absolute worst offering I have ever played.

I am not a 'noob' as you lot would say. I fully understand the game, I play it, I live it. I am a lover of the game outdoors and indoors. When I see a problem in this genre I can fully explain what I am seeing and can give accurate remedies. Furthermore I work in the development, programming and interactive design arena. My word is solid and while I may not have all the answers, I'm confident I am someone EA should be listening to.

This is one of the only games I really play. In fact I log most of my gaming hours on FIFA simply because I love the game and I enjoy seeing the real kits, real club names and accurate player profiles..an extension of reality.



With that out of the way lets talk about the FIFA development team at EA.

You are obviously talented but simultaneously embarrassing yourselves. You go through the motions but never really deliver. None of you should be proud of yourselves when you go home to your families, your pets, whatever you have at home. You should really look at yourselves and see what you are doing.

More so the execs at EA that are heavily involved with signing off on the FIFA series, you should be even more embarrassed. You are all disgusting money grubbing trifle sludge with no real insight into what the gamer really wants. And if Im wrong then you are even worse off, if you are consciously releasing this to the masses you are simply EVIL. Something I really don't doubt anymore.


Now onto the main issue here....


WHERE IS THE TESTING?

Who test this game before distributing it worldwide to paying customers? I ask this because clearly no one has really tested this, not an intelligent person that is. It must be a team of chimps doing your work EA.

The new features in FIFA 11 are great, really great, but they are meaningless when the game crashes or when the AI is well and truly flawed. This game is a block of swiss cheese, tasty but with way too many holes.

Whenever I purchase a new FIFA game I play it intensely to explore new features and expose any issues/bugs. The list is already massive.

I started a new career mode.
I use Chelsea, they have been my club since I was a kid, so no 5 star rifraf from you negative lot.
I play quick matches to fly through the season.
I play on Professional difficulty as I enjoy balanced gameplay. You lot who play World Class and/or Legendary are full of it. It is nearly impossible to enjoy oneself playing in these modes, even if you can win.
I made it to the end of March, after a FA Cup match with the Mancs.
The next match is Wigan, League play.
When I choose my team and press advance the 'warming up' bar appears and then crashes.
I have tried to advance after restarting the game several times and it does the same thing over and over again.
Let me note that this is not the first time this has happened...it has done this in older FIFA versions. (Clarify: The Career/Manager Mode not progressing or getting 'stuck')

My question is how can you not spot this problem in what I am certain is the most important mode in the game?
Are you lot at EA Sports blind mice? Or are you brain dead greed mongers?

Whatever the reason this is an absolute travesty and embarrassment on a human level. You are a disgrace to human potential.

The only reason you get away with this horrible evil behavior is because you make games. No one thinks a game developer should be held accountable, after all its just a game right? NO. Not this game. This is FOOTBALL not bowling or tennis. The most popular sport in the world and you are holding all us fans hostage with your lack of true effort and commitment.

If this was a world lacking law, someone should come up to Canada and crack your heads in with Blu-ray discs.

As you sit in your poshy offices and giggle at my post just think about what I am saying. What I am saying is the truth. And as you may laugh you cannot escape the TRUTH. The truth is you are selling flawed gloss that the common man eats up due to your cornering of the market. These people work their butts off to make it and the one thing that could be an enjoyable escape or relaxing moment has become a horrible angering nightmare, you should be ashamed.

How many posts, complaints, etc must you receive and read before you keep up your end of the deal?

You say "its in the game", well guess whats in this game? A horror show of human capacity that exposes the real problem with our collective societies of today, a lack of integrity and honesty with those you engage in commerce with and yourselves.

Open your eyes, start listening to the people that feed you. This game needs to be corrected now.

A proper bug list to come soon from me for the PS3.
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Placebo said:
Right...
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Oh please, lighten up. That post is hilarious. Great rant even if exaggerated.

Besides, his point isn't that off base - once you start upping the difficulty beyond Pro the only thing that really happens is the CPU stats are boosted, does more tricks, and there's more pressure. Increasing the difficulty in FIFA 11 doesn't increase the challenge as much as increase frustration.

There's plenty of people saying Legendary is miserable this year, and with good reason - while the CPU is more of a challenge offensively, playing slightly more intelligently, the defense on Legendary can be unrealistically difficult. Everyone on here has examples of CPU defenders doing things they shouldn't be capable of doing.

Nice way to try to discredit an entire post by picking out one sentence. It's an exaggerated rant that hits the right tone for a lot of us who are frustrated with EA's product and lack of support.
 
Just had a great offline h2h tournament with the peeps and this game might be the best football game I've ever played IF:

1. all manual passing controls, if not all manual controls
2. no use of the tackle or teammate press buttons

#2 makes a massive difference for this game, if only I could get the CPU to use it! Seriously, I think it was nerf or someone who first recommended it, but refraining from using the tackle buttons makes this game thoroughly more enjoyable, even when playing against the CPU. It actually makes defending a challenge while lessens the midfield slugfest feel the game can have.

On the other hand it's sad that defending is now so easy that it's basically automated. If you don't know what I'm talking about, for the next few games try to limit yourself to using the tackle button only in your final third, or not at all. Surprise, surprise, you only need the sprint button combined with the jockey button to play defense in FIFA 11!

We have manual passing but this game is becoming so simple and automated we now need manual defending.
 
I've been going without pressure butons for a while now. It's actually a lot more fun as well as challenging.
I don't even use them online and I still play decent defense. I just play smarter now.
 
mfmaxpower said:
this game might be the best football game I've ever played IF:

1. all manual passing controls, if not all manual controls
2. no use of the tackle or teammate press buttons
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Wouldn't play it any other way :TU:

As for the crazy rant above: it's a shame that the exaggeration and melodrama will prevent it being taken seriously, when deep down there's a valid point about EA's mockery of the concept of 'Quality Assurance'. I understand that bugs will exist to an extent, but it becomes embarrassing when there are bugs in 11 that were present in 09.
 
nerf said:
Wouldn't play it any other way :TU:

As for the crazy rant above: it's a shame that the exaggeration and melodrama will prevent it being taken seriously, when deep down there's a valid point about EA's mockery of the concept of 'Quality Assurance'. I understand that bugs will exist to an extent, but it becomes embarrassing when there are bugs in 11 that were present in 09.
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The more I play without using any of the defense buttons the more i notice how unbalanced FIFA 11 is in favor of the defensive side of the game. I mean, what were they thinking making it so that the auto tackling is so effective to make the defensive side of the game require such little thought or skill?

I know what you mean about that rant, though i think we're way beyond the point where there should be any doubt how people feel regarding the game and its bugs. When it comes to "quality assurance" and FIFA, I think it must be one of two things, or a combination of both: 1) EA have laid off a large amount of their workforce recently, as a result of the poor economy, and the FIFA devs are understaffed; and/or 2) the FIFA devs are not good enough/competent.

Personally I'm hoping they get their shit together because when this game is good, it fucking rocks.
 
I just got tired of career mode for now. I played 3 seasons with Crystal Palace on Pro difficulty setting and Pro Board setting. Here's a list of positives and negatives.

Positives:

1) Player fatigue is a factor now, you need a squad of at least 23 players if you are looking to be in 3-4 competitions towards the end of the season.

2) transfer system is well done. Even other teams seem to be involved in reasonable transfers. Rivals do not usually trade players. Market values and negotiations are realistic.

3) Schedule, weather is great improvement over last season. Although rescheduling of games is not perfect (I'll mention why in the negatives).

4) minor celebration video when you win a competition compared to nothing last year.

Negatives:

1) Growth System. Growth system seems to focus more on the decline of players rather than improvement. Training and reserve games are completely out of the equation in the current system. If you take over a team in FIFA 11, the reserves of your squad and rarely used subs are almost guaranteed to decline in attributes regardless of age/abilities because they are rarely used in the starting eleven. This is completely unrealistic, instead I expect training with the team (subs) and playing reserve games to at least keep their abilities more or less intact. If some of the reserve players perform well I expect a recommendation to include them in the first team squad.

All you get in this game is a message from the assistant coach that so and so player has potential, you can use him. Then a few weeks later after he is put on the subs bench (the guy is only 18)u get a message that his attributes have declined and he's not performing well because the game only acknowledges first team action and ignores training/reserve games.

Also, players do not develop special abilities, I am talking young players who are 17-21. This should be considered.

In the future, I expect a complete rework on the growth system with all the above considered and proper progress percentages on each attribute after each week. Obviously, first team action in a European game should have higher experience points/progress than subs bench or reserve games. However, all should be part of a players development. I am working with the whole squad and not only 16-18 players.

2)Retirement. I noticed retirement bug but this is after the fix. I would rather have retired players pop up as young guns again with toned down attributes like Winning Eleven since later on playing with completely random named players isnt fun. Random named players should continue to pop up but I expect retired players to make a return to keep value in CM after many seasons.

3) Re-scheduling sometimes causes an barrage of games during March and April. I had to twice play two consecutive games in two days(zero days rest) after several league games being rescheduled which is completely unacceptable. as to be tweaked.

4) More emphasis on winning a league title or cup. For crying out loud, I got Crystal Palace promoted to the PL and all I get is a cut scene and an email congratulating me for winning and telling me about additional transfer budget. Next email says my job is under review given season objectives. League celebrations should be all over the news. There should be parade pictures of the players carrying the shield/cup and celebrating. Newspapers should keep talking about it until the next season. If you win a league early, celebration should be right then and there.

Here's a good idea, there should be an achievements room for every club with the entire history of trophies won (until 2010 this year) when you start the season. Each trophy should be listed along with winning coach, winning squad + squad picture. If you manage to add to that you should be able to see a record of your achievement/photo of winning squad.

Make me feel like I won something. I reached 5* reputation and the only club interested in was Sunderland after winning the PL, FA cup and EUROPA League.

5) International duty. I haven't come across this. Maybe it's in the game and I haven't noticed yet. All latest international squads should be updated and players selected should be involved in International friendlies/qualification/tournaments accordingly.

Dunno. I just had a couple of thoughts.
 
I may start playing the CM on Pro difficulty with more manual control settings, the AI at World Class and Legendary is just pissing me off beyond belief. Legendary sees the AI sprint around at 100mph, foul the crap out of you on a regular basis and get away with it, and finish every single chance they seem to have.

World Class offers a hard defensive team to break down but for some reason now I'm conceding a goal from a f***ing cross and header in every single match I play. I just can't control the defender. I press the button to jump for a header when the cross comes in, but the AI seems to make their player just win the header every time. It's gotten beyond a joke to be honest. Seriously, I haven't conceded a goal via a shot with an AI player's foot in over 1 year of the CM game time. Yet I let in a goal from a header nearly every single match.

It's really bizarre!

One other thing, has anyone else noticed that the AI refuses to ever pass the ball backwards? I tried the game on Legendary in particular and it NEVER EVER went backwards, instead relying on sprinting forwards like a steam train and doing skill moves.........

I think it's back to basics for this game now. I used to play Pro in FIFA10, somehow managed Legendary on Word Cup 2010, but now it's back to Pro for me despite not losing a single game in my first Man Utd season in CM. I still drew nearly as many games as I'd won because of the well documented problem of facing teams who 'park the bus' and are impossible to break down when the AI decides.

Does anyone play the game on Pro with semi or manual controls? Does it 'feel' better than the higher difficulties? I want more of a challenge but the tackling dynamics of the AI, the biased ref (on Legendary he got in the way of my passes FIVE times in one game, each time the ball bouncing straight to the AI!), and the unfair physical advantage the game offers itself against you.

Is the game still challenging on Pro with manual controls? I may give the ball away a lot at first, but can the AI actually do anything with the ball? Considering that World Class is incapable of doing anything other than crossing and heading, I'm not keeping my hopes up.

It's a shame, because underneath, when the game plays well, it plays fucking brilliantly, like Mfmaxpower said.
 
@ LTFC.

I play on Pro for the exact same reason. On World Class and Legendary, all challenges become almost impossible to win. It's unfortunate because I expect the difficulty setting to affect the reaction and depth of the CPU AI and not the stats or abilities of players. Even when playing 5* against 1* teams you lose way more 50-50 battles than you'd like.

I play on Semi Controls, you will still find a lot of teams supposedly on par or stronger than you to be parking the bus on Pro but at least the challenges and 50-50s are fair so you will always be able to generate more counter attacks. I played 3 seasons with CP on 4 minute halves and was able to score in a lot of games.
 
EA Sports, it's in the game ... but it's wrong: Apology over Fifa 11 Imps error

1833738-vlarge.jpg

A screenshot of the corrected Lincoln City home shirt as it will appear in FIFA 11 when an update is released by EA Sports.

COMPUTER games giant EA Sports has apologised to Lincoln City fans after a blunder left the digital Imps wearing the wrong kit.

FIFA 11 was released in a blaze of hype and publicity earlier this month on several consoles, including Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

But the company has admitted failing to update the City shirts to include the new sponsor, collar and pattern changes made during the summer.

EA Sports, famed for the catchphrase "it's in the game", told the Echo it was working on correcting the error and hopeful of releasing an online update within the next couple of weeks.
Click here for more

Senior PR manager at EA Sports Shaun White said: "Currently Lincoln City are featured in FIFA 11 in last season's kit, with the old sponsor.

"We are aware of this error and we apologise to the club, sponsor and fans and we are working towards a fix featuring new club sponsor, GoCar."

Lincoln City chief executive Dave Roberts said he was pleased the situation could be rectified.

Mr Roberts said: "While we are extremely disappointed for our new shirt sponsor GoCar, we have been impressed with the speed of the response from EA Sports.

"We understand they can provide an online update for the game, so it should be corrected."

FIFA 11, fronted by Brazilian Kaká and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, features more than 500 licensed teams and 15,000 players.

The computer game series has been going since the early 1990s, selling more than 68 million copies worldwide.

Sunday League footballer and FIFA computer game fan Richard Brown, 22, of Cross Street, Lincoln, said supporters enjoyed the whole package, from player likenesses to the kits.

But the Notts County supporter said: "To EA Sports and Notts County's credit, this is the first time in the six or seven years lower league teams have been in FIFA games that they have got the Notts County kit right.

"This was after years of including previous years' kits, prototype kits that never went into production and vague stock kits that were never anything close to the actual game."

Imps fan Seb Thomas, 24, of Lincoln, added: "I'm surprised they got the Lincoln City kit wrong as you expect attention to detail for the price the game is sold at.

"But it's not the end of the world."

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk...s-FIFA-11/article-2793830-detail/article.html
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Isn't it better to do it the other way around? Pro away where the AI teams attack you more and the ref more likely to be biased against you and world class away where the AI teams tend to sit back more and the ref is generally more favourable towards you? :)
 
LTFC said:
World Class offers a hard defensive team to break down but for some reason now I'm conceding a goal from a f***ing cross and header in every single match I play. I just can't control the defender. I press the button to jump for a header when the cross comes in, but the AI seems to make their player just win the header every time.
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Are you using L2/LT to move the player into position ahead of your opponent? Sometimes it's not possible, sometimes your defender's momentum is going the opposite way and the cross swings beyond him (like Manuel da Costa on Saturday in the West Ham v Newcastle game for Carroll's goal), but most often you'll find your defender and the attacker challenging together. You can give yourself a bigger chance of winning the header if you're quick on the L2/LT button (+ left analog stick) to jostle into the advantageous position. I think this is much more important this year than in previous versons, perhaps because the initial advantage tends to lie more with the attacker now (which may or may not be a knock on effect from how aerial passes are really 'sucked' towards their target).

As for all the claims about unfair difficulty settings that several people have speculated about... here's a post by romagnoli from June:

romagnoli said:
winston said:
No. My mentioning of Amateur to Legendary was because, if the game doesn't use stats boosts, what makes a team on Amateur play so much worse than the same team on Legendary?
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The virtual person holding the pad controlling the same team.

This is the point. EA for better or worse opted to represent each difficulty level as a different standard of virtual 'player' holding the other pad.

As I said before, it's this player who gets a reaction/decision boost, not the players on the pitch. Everything the CPU does, you could theoretically do. This is why calling it scripting is wrong, and why calling it a stats boost is technically wrong, and why EA take any talk of the game being scripted as something to ignore when in reality it's often the forum poster using the wrong terminology.
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Personally I don't see examples of alleged attribute boosting, or of refs being biased. I've been playing on Legendary through 09/10/WC/11 and never felt that I've been unfairly treated by the refs in comparison to my CPU opponent. The AI doesn't suddenly decide to be impossible to score against, it can just feel like that when something doesn't fall your way. People (better than me at this game) can play on Legendary and win, it's never literally impossible. I honestly think all of this, including things like 'speed catchup', is perceived rather than actually happening.

Those perceptions may well come about from some elements not being perfectly well balanced, but I think a large chunk of it is also down to gamer paranoia. We don't trust the game because it's controlling itself, our egos make us refuse to believe we can be beaten fairly by a machine, we like things to go our own way when we're playing something for our own entertainment, and as football/sports fans we have an instinctively myopic impartiality towards our own side.

Personally I play on Legendary because I crave the challenge. I play 10 minute matches and I don't need to score/win to enjoy myself... in fact if winning matches starts becoming an expectation then I'll begin to lose interest. Football games, in fact video games in general, are most enjoyable to me when I feel like the odds are stacked against and I have to strategise a way of overcoming it. That's the whole point of games, isn't it?

I re-played the entire Company of Heroes campaign using infantry only. It was fun to find ways of taking on enemy vehicles without vehicles of my own. Unfair, sure! Masochistic at times. But engaging. I find that if the game isn't capable of slapping you down every now and then, I think it just becomes routine. You might as well have a one-button control pad with 'I win' written on it.

If some things are perceived as unfair, like the AI's propensity for the cross-header 'autogoal', well... there's a challenge for you right there. Get better at jostling to win the header. Become more proficient at positioning your fullback to block more crosses at source. Don't let the opponent work the ball wide so easily. Give the ball away less often in the first place :) . Is it fair and well-balanced that their crossing is so accurate so often? Hell no. But how satisfying when you still win the game.

If you find that more frustrating than fun, or have a fundamental disagreement with having to compete on what you consider not to be a level playing field, then that's more than understandable. Stick to the medium difficulties, as is everyone's perogative. But my opinion is that there are some misconceptions and exaggerations that surround the higher difficulty settings, which can become self-perpetuating.
 
Nick Cave said:
I find it the complete opposite?.. The AI hardly ever shoot on Pro?...:CONFUSE:
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Err yes that's the point, on Pro they shoot less, but if you're away from home the AI will be a bit more aggressive. If you're at home and playing on Pro not only will the AI not attack much but they'll also be much easier to score against.
 
Mate of mine at EA just contacted me to ask for help in compiling a list of incorrect kits in Fifa11? So far I noticed Leicester has no sponsor, has anyone noticed any others with no sponsor (excluding gambling/alcohol that aren't allowed on certain versions)? Or other kits that have the wrong colours or are just plain wrong in other ways?
 
Lokeren away kit is a plain kit with no sponsors and if that's not enough it's red and black in the game, while it's yellow and black in real life. Outrageous really, seeing as in 10 every belgium club had the correct away kit with sponsors.
 
Placebo said:
Mate of mine at EA just contacted me to ask for help in compiling a list of incorrect kits in Fifa11? So far I noticed Leicester has no sponsor, has anyone noticed any others with no sponsor (excluding gambling/alcohol that aren't allowed on certain versions)? Or other kits that have the wrong colours or are just plain wrong in other ways?
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Probably posted already but the names and numbers on the Everton away kit (phink shirt) are white in game, but should be very dark blue almost black.

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xc/10...1856FC2F08E7C362C796CE378FA314A7F34877042488F
 
nerf said:
Are you using L2/LT to move the player into position ahead of your opponent? Sometimes it's not possible, sometimes your defender's momentum is going the opposite way and the cross swings beyond him (like Manuel da Costa on Saturday in the West Ham v Newcastle game for Carroll's goal), but most often you'll find your defender and the attacker challenging together. You can give yourself a bigger chance of winning the header if you're quick on the L2/LT button (+ left analog stick) to jostle into the advantageous position. I think this is much more important this year than in previous versons, perhaps because the initial advantage tends to lie more with the attacker now (which may or may not be a knock on effect from how aerial passes are really 'sucked' towards their target).

As for all the claims about unfair difficulty settings that several people have speculated about... here's a post by romagnoli from June:


Personally I don't see examples of alleged attribute boosting, or of refs being biased. I've been playing on Legendary through 09/10/WC/11 and never felt that I've been unfairly treated by the refs in comparison to my CPU opponent. The AI doesn't suddenly decide to be impossible to score against, it can just feel like that when something doesn't fall your way. People (better than me at this game) can play on Legendary and win, it's never literally impossible. I honestly think all of this, including things like 'speed catchup', is perceived rather than actually happening.

Those perceptions may well come about from some elements not being perfectly well balanced, but I think a large chunk of it is also down to gamer paranoia. We don't trust the game because it's controlling itself, our egos make us refuse to believe we can be beaten fairly by a machine, we like things to go our own way when we're playing something for our own entertainment, and as football/sports fans we have an instinctively myopic impartiality towards our own side.

Personally I play on Legendary because I crave the challenge. I play 10 minute matches and I don't need to score/win to enjoy myself... in fact if winning matches starts becoming an expectation then I'll begin to lose interest. Football games, in fact video games in general, are most enjoyable to me when I feel like the odds are stacked against and I have to strategise a way of overcoming it. That's the whole point of games, isn't it?

I re-played the entire Company of Heroes campaign using infantry only. It was fun to find ways of taking on enemy vehicles without vehicles of my own. Unfair, sure! Masochistic at times. But engaging. I find that if the game isn't capable of slapping you down every now and then, I think it just becomes routine. You might as well have a one-button control pad with 'I win' written on it.

If some things are perceived as unfair, like the AI's propensity for the cross-header 'autogoal', well... there's a challenge for you right there. Get better at jostling to win the header. Become more proficient at positioning your fullback to block more crosses at source. Don't let the opponent work the ball wide so easily. Give the ball away less often in the first place :) . Is it fair and well-balanced that their crossing is so accurate so often? Hell no. But how satisfying when you still win the game.

If you find that more frustrating than fun, or have a fundamental disagreement with having to compete on what you consider not to be a level playing field, then that's more than understandable. Stick to the medium difficulties, as is everyone's perogative. But my opinion is that there are some misconceptions and exaggerations that surround the higher difficulty settings, which can become self-perpetuating.
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I have to (respectfully) disagree. Not about defending headers - I agree with nerf, it's all about using LT or preventing the cross to begin with. I do think the CPU might be a little too successful scoring from headers, though maybe this is exaggerated by the CPU not being nearly as proficient scoring from non-header means, but I haven't struggled to defend headers to the point it seems unfair. Giving up a header can feel like a cheap goal for the CPU, considering how they can so often seem to come against the run of play, but like nerf says there are specific strategies you can use to help cut them down, most importantly is using the jostle trigger because it only takes a slight knock on the CPU player to frequently put his aim off. I've never done this myself but maybe if you find the CPU sending in too many quality crosses, maybe adjust your defensive width to be wider? Not sure if that might help but worth a shot.

But I have to disagree with nerf when it comes to the AI difficulty. First of all, when a complaint is widespread their is a pretty good chance something is off rather than it being simply an issue of paranoia or incorrect perceptions. That's not a hardfast rule but in business you're taught that perceptions can be more important than reality. So maybe there isn't a problem with the difficulty levels and the CPU's play but the fact that so many experienced FIFA players have made this such a major point indicates an issue does exist.

More importantly, however, is I think you've missed the essence of the complaint, which is not so much how "unfair" it may seem to be on Legendary but rather how unbalanced the AI difficulty is between offense and defense. Most complaints seem to indicate that people are perfectly content with the CPU's defensive difficulty level on Pro but find the CPU's attacking AI to be poor, unsophisticated, and relatively simple even on Legendary. I don't think anyone wants a difficulty level in which the outcome is all but guaranteed - what's the point in playing then? - but it's the massive discrepancies in level of challenge between offense and defense that people seem to be taking issue with.

When it comes to "attribute boosting" specifically, while Rom seems to always know what he's talking about I can't say his (or EA's) explanation makes sense considering some of the things I've seen with my own two eyes. The two main complaints I can think of that I can't otherwise explain are 1) seeing CPU defenders, particularly CBs, close gaps and catch up to my players quicker than should be possible; and 2) I'm seeing shoulder shoves and physical tackles being exaggerated and overly successful at higher difficulty settings, like seeing one of my players go flying through the air impossibly far. Often with no foul called.

Still, I don't think stat boosting is the biggest culprit and I'll go along with the Rom's description of how EA programs the difficult levels, but that only makes me think that this year EA have poorly - and I mean POORLY - programmed the "virtual person" we're playing against. For example, I don't recall ever seeing the CPU have so many shots go out for throw-ins! I'm talking about a player being inside my penalty box, shooting, and it goes out for a throw-in!! And that's if the CPU bothers to take a shot at all - I've lost count of the amount of times the CPU ignores a quality shooting opportunity. Or, like LTFC said, how frequently does the CPU pass backwards when in the attacking third, or show a general interest in ball possession, or how many times have you seen the CPU use the shield technique that is so important for us to use?

Then on the other end of spectrum you have what so many people have mentioned are the super human-like reflexes and response times of defenders. Some of this is the fault of not properly implementing momentum in the game, and I have a replay clip from a game I played a couple days ago that shows a perfect example of this, where I wrong-footed a defender but the defender was able to recover inhumanly fast and poke the ball away. Overall the "virtual person" we play against is generally awesome on defense - and near-perfect in goal! - while close to being inept on offense.

I couldn't care less what difficulty level I play on, all I'm interested in is having a challenge on both sides of the ball, and having matches be generally representative of realistic match stats, outcomes, etc., so for example, if I'm winning the game of possession and dominating the run of play in the vast majority of matches, I'd like to see the outcomes somewhat reflect that. If the CPU is averaging less than 4 shots a game against me, I expect the CPU to win and draw less than what it's currently averaging against me.

I agree there are things we can do to help the game and improve our chances against the CPU (and improve the CPU's play through CTs), but IMO this year's "virtual person" we play against is extremely poor in attacking play, really, really good at defense, and massively unbalanced between the two no matter the difficulty setting.


LTFC said:
Does anyone play the game on Pro with semi or manual controls? Does it 'feel' better than the higher difficulties? I want more of a challenge but the tackling dynamics of the AI, the biased ref (on Legendary he got in the way of my passes FIVE times in one game, each time the ball bouncing straight to the AI!), and the unfair physical advantage the game offers itself against you.
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Personally I think the game "feels" much better on Pro but I can't stand how poor the attacking AI is - on Pro I don't always win but I NEVER lose.

I play all manual controls and I prefer the challenge at WC/Legendary, frustrations and all, than the poor and boring AI on Pro difficulty. IMO the AI on Legendary, with a little CT tweaks, provides a great challenge with its attacking play, however if I'm playing with less than a 4 star team I never seem to score goals on Legendary.

Right now the best setting for me, again with all manual controls, is WC difficulty, preferably with some CT tweaks to make the CPU shoot more often and have a slower buildup, while also trying to not use the tackle and teammate press buttons except in situations of dire need, i.e. basically never. Personally this is working best for me at the moment.

If we only had separate difficulty settings for attack and defense. I suppose sliders really are the answer. For some problems at least.
 
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Placebo said:
Mate of mine at EA just contacted me to ask for help in compiling a list of incorrect kits in Fifa11? So far I noticed Leicester has no sponsor, has anyone noticed any others with no sponsor (excluding gambling/alcohol that aren't allowed on certain versions)? Or other kits that have the wrong colours or are just plain wrong in other ways?
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boro don't have any sponsors, but is this because they don't have a firm sponsor for the season? they seem to be doing a month by month sponsor contract.
 
Latest from EA

UPDATE Oct 25
- Getting closer to the point where we can submit the patch to our first party partners;
- We will communicate on content and release date shortly - first we need to make sure Microsoft and Sony are happy with what's in the patch;
- Of note, I am looking at the leaderboards and, well, some of the top ranked players should expect something to happen to their accounts ASAP... something not nice at all.
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