Fifa 11 Xbox 360/PS3

This was my first Fifa in about 8 years since playing PES for so long. My main love in PES was Master League so I was hoping for a similar feel to the Manager mode.

Too many flaws for me to enjoy it though, unfortunately, which is sad as they have a decent foundation. Please feel free to pull these apart as I might be missing certain features or doing something incorrectly as this is my first time playing manager mode:

- No real pattern to how players develop
- Players never being able to be purchased by their advertised price (might be because I had it set to legendary so that might be down to that setting)
- Very dodgy and unrealistic fatigue system i.e. players cannot play 2 games in a week meaning you have to acquire a huge squad which is quite hard if you start off in a lower division (I did with Real Betis)
- No stadium changes or improvements
- Have to manually change night/day weather settings your self before every game
- No sort of scouting system and very tedious searching through the parameters using the pad,
- Some issues with transfer enquiries not going through close to the window
 
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Can't really argue with any of that, the CM is as thin as tissue paper and the game play has some serious issues..

Still putting the hours in though as my mate hates PES, even though I much preferred parts of it...
 
Me and my mate decided to do a little experiment, I'm a 6'4 GK playing as a Striker in Clubs and he's a 5'8 ST playing as a goalkeeper... anyway yeah there's something seriously wrong with this game rofl

We have won 3 games on the trot, I've scored in all three and we won the third on pens (my mate acted like an idiot and they scored) but here's some highlights.

Code: 
http://www.easports.com/media/play/video/72288276

38 Yards, my freekick accuracy is 23. REAL Computer goalkeepers aswell, they never had a human in goal.

Code: 
http://www.easports.com/media/play/video/72291338

^ Double save my mate made as a 5'8 Striker in goal, he made a ton more aswell but that was the best.

Also...

Code: 
http://www.easports.com/media/play/video/72291503

A perfect lob pulled off like it was a world class striker hitting it, but it was a 6'4 goalkeeper.

We're basically unbeatable.

...my main question is, how? We weren't an ANY either, playing with the AI as our team.

Please copy/paste the links, ty!

:CONFUSE:
 
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Me and my friends used to play a game mode in PES 6 we called 'put the smallest player in goal and the GK up front'. Needless to say they were pretty terrible but it caused the upmost hilarity if the player managed to make decent saves or the goalkeeper ever scored (which i'm sure only Ulrich Rame + Nikopolidis ever did). It never exactly translated well to FIFA because players are always decent in goal, i'm looking at you Tosic, and the GK's aren't half bad at scoring either.

Fun times with Babangida in goal at 5"5.
 
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Yeah playing a CB up front in PES pretty much disabled them from being able to run let alone score, but it worked! For a laugh in FIFA10 I tried putting John Terry up front, and he was the best target man in the game. I think he scored over 30 goals in one season.

Seeing as clubs was mentioned above, has anyone noticed how virtually every other player who joins your game thinks it's hilarious to make their player as small as possible and give them white/blue/red hair? It's not very original!
 
LTFC said:
Yeah playing a CB up front in PES pretty much disabled them from being able to run let alone score, but it worked! For a laugh in FIFA10 I tried putting John Terry up front, and he was the best target man in the game. I think he scored over 30 goals in one season.

Seeing as clubs was mentioned above, has anyone noticed how virtually every other player who joins your game thinks it's hilarious to make their player as small as possible and give them white/blue/red hair? It's not very original!
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I made an 11 man goalkeeper side and would honestly beat people in unranked games with it, and I beat my mates countless times... I think my best moment was when Brad Friedel scored a 25 yard peach against my mate who was Barcelona, won 1-0.

FIFA 10 was FUN
 
I remember in Fifa 09 when speed was basically all that mattered. I had to stop my friend putting Evra up top because it was annoying as hell.
 
I only play multiplayer offline with my friends and i think the game in slow/manual is very fun and realistic.Some flaws dont spoil the fun...Roll on fifa12

Me a former die hard PES/WE fan...
 
Honome_WEC said:
one thing is for sure: fifa only bring us irritating moments :P
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Not entirely. FIFA has one asset in particular which I really do love. By this time of year it's entirely ruined by the people that play it, but I still find joy in FIFA's Clubs mode because it offers something that PES simply can't at the moment. When you get a good game on Clubs against good, non-exploitative opposition, Clubs still probably represents the ultimate joy for me.
 
Rodelero said:
Not entirely. FIFA has one asset in particular which I really do love. By this time of year it's entirely ruined by the people that play it, but I still find joy in FIFA's Clubs mode because it offers something that PES simply can't at the moment. When you get a good game on Clubs against good, non-exploitative opposition, Clubs still probably represents the ultimate joy for me.
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They are so rare though, like honestly so rare.

99% of people you play against are 5'3 midgets with blue afros who just run down the wing all day and cross it in or cut it back. Sadly.

Clubs is still the only reason I play FIFA 11.
 
wabak said:
They are so rare though, like honestly so rare.

99% of people you play against are 5'3 midgets with blue afros who just run down the wing all day and cross it in or cut it back. Sadly.

Clubs is still the only reason I play FIFA 11.
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Yes, it gets worse and worse as the year goes on unfortunately. There is a few weeks where you see the potential of Clubs and then it's slowly eclipsed by what's wrong. Clubs can be great, but at the moment it's hard to imagine it being any worse.
 
polakis said:
I only play multiplayer offline with my friends and i think the game in slow/manual is very fun and realistic.Some flaws dont spoil the fun...Roll on fifa12

Me a former die hard PES/WE fan...
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So?
There are former die hard FIFA fans that enjoy PES2011....
 
Rodelero said:
Yes, it gets worse and worse as the year goes on unfortunately. There is a few weeks where you see the potential of Clubs and then it's slowly eclipsed by what's wrong. Clubs can be great, but at the moment it's hard to imagine it being any worse.
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Why do you think it's getting worse? Is the gameplay causing people to play in a less realistic way? Or is it the userbase - are more casuals playing Clubs or are fewer hardcore players sticking around due to the bugs and issues? I for one didn't stick around for the last reason - Clubs was broken from an early stage which completely demotivated me, and PES MLO took over.
 
romagnoli said:
Why do you think it's getting worse? Is the gameplay causing people to play in a less realistic way? Or is it the userbase - are more casuals playing Clubs or are fewer hardcore players sticking around due to the bugs and issues? I for one didn't stick around for the last reason - Clubs was broken from an early stage which completely demotivated me, and PES MLO took over.
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Three reasons really - you touch on two. The changing ratio of demographics is a big issue. As time goes on the people who are left playing are those who can tolerate the way the game plays/exploit it and make it worse. It's a vicious circle in that sense.

But possibly the biggest issue is that as time goes on people's VP's overalls tend towards 95. The gameplay just drops off a cliff really - the gap between the VP's/non-VP's becomes so high that the gameplay changes to being a game of VP's sprinting around after eachother. The goalkeepers cannot cope at all with any shot that the VP's make really - any throughball/ball over the top guarantees a one on one - the players are too strong to tackle, and too fast to catch. It's an utter farce, more or less. Clubs is potential buried at the bottom of a rubbish dump.
 
It is getting worse every year, seems like the more stuff EA tack on to the game the more there is to exploit in clubs. It's totally unbalanced. But the very notion of the game mode was never going to work from the beginning. That's just people. They will always find a way to ruin online games. Give people a lobby, then let it be first come first serve for which position you play, then the game seriously expects some kid who wanted to be a striker but ended up being a left back, to keep to his position and play properly? Never going to happen.

As for the single player, I'd left this game for a week or so and I have to say, going back to it, it's just appalling. This year's version must be one of the least fun, singular frustrating games I've ever played. The difficulty of the AI comes down entirely to the body strength of their players. I played one game against a far weaker German second division team, but straight away noticed that their players were insanely strong. Taking a break from the game and playing just one match reinforces for me how much of a total mess EA have made of this. The AI doesn't play in any way realistically, and it forces you to play in an unrealistic manner too.

It was literally 90 minutes of the AI playing like this; sprint, sprint, press press press tackle, fast forward pass, fast forward pass, try to work it into a wide area for a cross or do a through ball on the break as fast a possible, change direction in insane speed with the turn using the outside of the boot to completely change body direction, get tackled, sprint , sprint, start all over, flood my half with groups of two to three players pressing the ball, start all over again. This was a match between a Spanish team and a German team, yet the game played like some kind of violent school football match. It's pathetic.

The AI seriously cannot play any other way than muscle you off the ball, perform impossible tackles from the most bizarre of angles, then try to hit you on the break. Why? Because it can't retain the ball with any sense of intelligence. It needs to get the ball forwards as soon as it can, because that's the only way it can have the space to work it wide for a cross and header, or for a through pass, both of which rely on my defence being stretched on the break.

I have never since buying this game last October seen the AI once score a long range shot, never score any sort of goal apart from two identikit copies. And that is pathetic, and why the game plays like an absolute dog.
 
LTFC said:
It is getting worse every year, seems like the more stuff EA tack on to the game the more there is to exploit in clubs. It's totally unbalanced. But the very notion of the game mode was never going to work from the beginning. That's just people. They will always find a way to ruin online games. Give people a lobby, then let it be first come first serve for which position you play, then the game seriously expects some kid who wanted to be a striker but ended up being a left back, to keep to his position and play properly? Never going to happen.
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There is truth in this. Online is always going to be a difficult thing to get right... However, I don't think it's hopeless, I just think it's hard, and moreover, I think that getting it right is such a massive prize that it's worth going a long way to get it. If the online works well you will have something incredible.

Secondly, the problem you describe there is really just Pro Ranked Matches not Clubs - PRM is a really hopeless case. In that situation you have massive inter-team problems which really are nearly impossible to solve. Clubs on the other hand bypasses the issue of your own team screwing you in the arse.
 
That's what I thought too. Clubs isn't afflicted with a race for positions unless you're at a club of eejits.

As for getting people to play in different positions, it isnt easy, but it is entirely doable. At the moment though the game just isn't equipped to do so. The only way a player is made to feel important is if they score, or do something flash. Without team talks to tell you what your role is (and without the facility for the 'manager' to setup tactics that shape these instructions), without crowd applause for good challenges, without the intricacy and space to enjoy midfield interplay, and without defensive/midfield gameplay that is evenly balanced, controllable and satisfying, the feeling will always be that unless you are bombing forward at full speed you aren't really achieving anything.
 
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I can't stand the points system they use for online pro club mode. They give you more points for a win if you have over 5 players. I presume this is to encourage playing with more players but I have only ever come across a club with 8 player and we decided not to play them because it would just be mayhem.

We beat a team that had 900 points 6-0 and got 7 points. Then we beat a team that had 200 points and got 10 with a 3-1 scoreline with the exact number of players. Both times one of our players got man of the match.

There should be points for massive comebacks, beating players with 2 or more players than you. There should be more reward for winning in different ways I think.

The cup mode seems really pointless to me as well. A good idea to include it but theres really no incentive to play that mode after you've won the cup a few times. May be after winning 10 cups, that would enable you to unlock a mode that lets you re-name and give some personality to the AI that you don't control. Something like being able to change their boots, height, weight and may be a couple of stats (nothing game breaking though that makes things over the top). Might be a bit gimmicky but something else to aim for. The only incentive to keep playing that mode is to keep upgrading your stadium. Need something else on top of that to keep things interesting.

Oh and I don't think you should be allowed to see the player ratings of the teams you are facing in the club screen. Too many people see peoples' ratings and decide to leave. Also remove that awful average player rating stat which doesn't even make sense!
 
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Punzz said:
The cup mode seems really pointless to me as well. A good idea to include it but theres really no incentive to play that mode after you've won the cup a few times. May be after winning 10 cups, that would enable you to unlock a mode that lets you re-name and give some personality to the AI that you don't control. Something like being able to change their boots, height, weight and may be a couple of stats (nothing game breaking though that makes things over the top). Might be a bit gimmicky but something else to aim for. The only incentive to keep playing that mode is to keep upgrading your stadium. Need something else on top of that to keep things interesting.
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My current club w/ my mates currently has 29 cups won, and honestly the only reason we still play cups is b/c when it ends in a draw we have the chance of penalties... which adds something different I guess.
 
wabak said:
My current club w/ my mates currently has 29 cups won, and honestly the only reason we still play cups is b/c when it ends in a draw we have the chance of penalties... which adds something different I guess.
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Ye we've won a similar total now too now but within those games we've only had about 3 penalty shoot outs. Very fun though if it does get to that stage
 
I did it for my 1st CM in 11 (pre-patch), and tested it quite a lot before starting it up. However with a total lack of football intelligence from the AI it was pretty pointless. Even placing the settings at extremes didn't do much for the actual football being served up.

For some reason they have just removed any resemblance of possesion football (which was still somewhat present in 10) and made it a counterattack-fest. AI KickOff is one of the biggest most obvious examples of how shitty they have made the AI. Every-bloody-time they just run at goal straight from kickoff!
 
TikTikTikTikTik said:
I did it for my 1st CM in 11 (pre-patch), and tested it quite a lot before starting it up. However with a total lack of football intelligence from the AI it was pretty pointless. Even placing the settings at extremes didn't do much for the actual football being served up.

For some reason they have just removed any resemblance of possesion football (which was still somewhat present in 10) and made it a counterattack-fest. AI KickOff is one of the biggest most obvious examples of how shitty they have made the AI. Every-bloody-time they just run at goal straight from kickoff!
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Great point. Really makes you question those responsible for programming the AI. And you're right: FIFA 11 really does seem to be programmed to be a counterattack-fest. You can surely play a slower style, successfully even, but the gameplay engine - and the CPU opponent - are not designed to promote or properly reward such strategies.

You have to wonder whether that's intentional or simply lazy programming; i.e. does EA wish for the game to be characterized as a fast-paced adrenaline-rush, or has EA simply not invested enough into the AI to provide a deeper and more authentic experience?
 
The issue I have is that it is seemingly regressing.

A while ago I gave 08 and 09 a go, and both games when the AI had possesion you had to be patient and wait to win the ball back. The AI played some possesion football, and depending on how good they were it would determine how easily you could win the ball back.

They seem to have turned it off, or unrealistically manipulated the general AI playing style that has negated the effect of custom tactics and even any resemblence of intelligence relating to in-game situations. The kick-off being an obvious example.

They seem to have adjusted the AI into a bunch of headless chickens that do nothing but run towards you're goal as fast as possible and only adjust their "play" based on user imput. It would be an interesting (read: depressing) experiment to "anti-defend". Meaning when the AI has possesion, actually make your players move out of the way and give them a free run. I wonder if they would actually pass the ball to their teammates or just run in a straight line towards your goal...
 
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