How is this hilarious? Isn't is just sad?
Oh believe me I find that totally absurd (or hilariously
sad, if you will). The attacker followed me all the way to my goal line until he ran out of stamina, at which point I saw him just jockeying nearby probably covering my passing angles or some shit as he slowly recovered lol. The game has got plenty of other things down right so I guess I'm not one to become frustrated over something stupid like this. It certainly doesn't imply that I don't care either but I had long accepted the fact that
simulating realistic team dynamics will never be the focus for EA in this generation of FIFA, or at least it hasn't been so far. Unlike Konami, whom we all know have been paying more attention to the tactical depth of football, it was pretty clear from the series' revamp that EA decided to invest heavily on giving us more control over how individual players move on the pitch. Heck, we've gone through having (in order of implementation):
footplanting, momentum, IK
user controlled tricks/skills
jostling, increased responsiveness
360 degree dribbling
360 degree jostling, different personalities/styles without resorting to locomotion
...not to mention the tons of new animations added into the mix. They're all the result of EA's obsession with the biomechanics of soccer and providing the same physical freedom in their games. But I don't think the core engine is flexible enough (at least given the power of current-gen consoles) to combine 4 years' worth of animation additions together seamlessly.For eg. footplanting feels like it doesn't exist now (when it actually does despite so many people saying otherwise) because it's diminished by the fact that your player keeps transitioning into different animations that required of it at a fast rate.
Bottomline is:
Konami's focus is on how each team flows, whereas EA prefers to expand on the movement flexibility of each individual player, with each developer is making compromises in aspects they're not focusing on. In a perfect world, we'd have a developer investing research and development into both areas but alas...So if you're looking to get a more tactical game, go get PES. If you're willing to learn the nuances in dribble control without even resorting to skills, then FIFA has a lot to offer. Whether or not you're able to apply those dribbling techniques depends largely on the playstyle of your opponent (be it cpu or human) and unfortunately for FIFA, those opportunities don't come often.
As far as FIFA gameplay improvements are concerned, i feel like we've come this far into the console generation for there to be diminishing returns,
especially considering the game's 4 year-old foundations. And resources are finite; as you add in new features that require those extra cpu cycles, you only have
that much left to squeeze out of all six threads in the 360's cpu (and lest we forget, the game's running at 60fps..how many 360/PS3 titles can even achieve this at 1280x720???). It'll be interesting to know how much room they have left to program in a smarter more tactical AI to command team dynamics on the fly. Short of revamping the engine again that is, which would then require tons more manpower on EA's part...oh hey maybe they're on to that already seeing as how some people are questioning the efforts of a huge developer like EA Vancouver!
