I have returned from my trip to Manchester HMV where I had the pleasure of testing FIFA 11. Naturally you all know the teams available in the demo build and what to expect. So without further ado, here is my review on this game.
I’m not so huge on the whole presentation thing, but this game does look good. I really did not test this game for the presentation and did not pay much attention to it, this has to be said. I am a gameplay geek. However, the menu’s were great and the teams sure looked better than they did in FIFA 10. I am impressed with the graphics. I didn’t check stats of players’, attributes, what colour X- players’ nose hair is. None of that. I will try to get straight to the point, no fancy words or phrasing.
Does it play good? Yes. Is it better than FIFA 10? Much, much better. Is it better than World Cup 2010? Yeah, I guess it is different to this game in terms of the feel of it. It’s a solid game!
Game Speed: Much slower than the gamescom videos would have us believe. Much closer to FIFA 08. I played the game on a big HD TV and it was responsive and slow, but I hated the PS3 controller. I’m an Xbox man. I then played many games on a smaller TV and the game was sluggish and less responsive. So TV’s will change the way you experience this game for sure. FIFA 10 on my brothers smaller HD TV is much faster than on my downstairs, much larger screen. I don’t know why, there’s a reason I’m sure. But I don’t care.
Assisted controls, do they suck? Yes. They suck. I hate assisted, it’s still for noobs 100%. You can ping pong and getting the power wrong is like the most forgiving FIFA ever! Here... totally mess your pass up and it’ll still be more or less 100% on track.
I tested the game on manual and it is superb. I love manual FIFA 11! It is much better. I fell in love with manual controls during my time with FIFA World Cup 2010 and FIFA 11 on assisted is not going to change my mind. Noobs can stick with their assisted, it really is a letdown for me. I was seriously unimpressed with assisted controls. This has got to be a joke if any serious FIFA fan can come on here after testing this game probably and say ping pong passing is gone. You can easily ping the ball around without having to control the ball, all you do is mash the passing button. The error on the ball using assisted passing is basically a bobble. The ball will bobble a bit but still take a perfect route to the player. Manual my fifa geeks! MANUAL!!! And EA have put in an online manual league for us, so I suggest the ones on here that can play football should learn the manual controls and feel just how great FIFA 11 is... on manual. Assisted controls are far to user friendly and forgiving.
I tested the games CPU legendary AI. Damn this is REAL AI! It is sneaky!! They kept skilling me. At one point Madrid were in my box and I went to slide tackle their forward and the cheeky sod does a fake shot, goes around me and smacks it at my keeper who thankfully saved it. I watched players’ get 360 spun on, step-overed, you name it. The CPU is much, much better. I did however take them to penalties in a 0-0 draw and this is where I noticed a huge bug...
They skied every single penalty on legendary. I didn’t have to make 1 single save. I was starting to feel sorry for it! Seriously, I didn’t have to do a thing in the penalty game. So yes, I beat legendary on penalties. I’m awesome I know.
So there you have it. I’m not as impressed with FIFA 11 as I would have hoped I would be, but this is mainly because of the assisted controls been one big poo. Naturally this is just my opinion and I’m sure the kids who were ping ponging the ball about must think I am insane and that FIFA 11 is great! But that’s why we have semi and manual controls to escape that little bit of soul torture I received from some kid who had no idea what real football looked like. Yes, he beat me... I refuse to play unrealistically to beat a kid. This is why assisted controls are broken.
If you have tested this game on manual and beaten someone using assisted controls, then that guy on assisted didn't exploit the game. End of! Otherwise, you have no chance. If he plays realistically on assisted, you have a chance, if he just wants to win at all costs... hello ping pong.
EA need to tweak the assisted passing, it is a must. Or this game will fail online so bad!
Anabolic.