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Fifa 11 Xbox 360/PS3

WILDSTER180774 said:
It is broke for many. Placebo has a magic copy remember :)

Mine for example plays Arsenal chants at games where Arsenal ain't playing. Had to reset Arsenals chants to default now which is extra annoying for me as I'm a Gooner.

And last night I had my custom audio soundtrack playing over EAs soundtrack, all at the same time.

I'm sure EA said they was working on a fix so that will be good. Such a buggy game. Real shame
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Not a magic copy, I just used my eyes and read that Arsenal's chants don't work right so left them at default...
 
I don't know if it's just Arsenal, though. I played a few random exhibitions, and in a game between two Russian teams I heard Forest chants, and between two Spanish teams at least one Chelsea chant. Sort of breaks the mood...
 
Anybody got a working theory on how player work rates in the formations settings interact with a player's individual work rates?

Does one cancel out the other or are they both still relevant, so for example if I have a guy with a high def/off setting and I change his position to low in custom formations, does that equal a medium? Or if I have a midfielder with a medium setting and I set it to High in formations, does that make him act somewhere in between, i.e. Med-High?

Something I've noticed is that for lesser known players - basically anyone not in a top league - the majority of them seem to have Medium/Medium work rates, no matter their position. Using my current CM with Charleton Athletic as an example, only two players in my starting 11 have a different setting than M/M, one being M/L and the other being L/M. This I would imagine is due to the failure of P+ reaching beyond the top players, no big surprise there.

This could be a huge deal when it comes to player movement. I've seen many people report issues with player movement, especially when not playing with the best teams. Most default formations I've seen so far for the less popular teams have workrates set to default. There could be two major problems then:

1) Teams with formations that have workrates set as default that consist of lesser-known players with Med/Med workrate attributes will behave similar (and unrealistically!), thus contributing to the complaints people have of not enough individuality among teams/unique match experiences;

2) If custom formations do not override or at least influence player workrate attributes, then that really sucks when playing with lesser known players/teams who have Med/Med attributes as we're very limited in trying to adjust how they play.

So it would be great to know how formation workrate arrows influence a player's personal workrate attributes. I won't have the time until later today to check to see if all teams in, say, the lower english leagues all play with formations with default workrates and whether most of those players have Med/Med workrate attributes, but if that turns out to be the case it'll be a major knock against P+ and individuality in general. Then if we can't at least influence work rates through custom formations ourselves, that'd be a major fuck up.

Does this make sense? Am I missing something? Thoughts/answers?
 
I wonder if they haven't made an in-game tweak to fatigue as I just played an online match with Arsenal and after one long run with Walcott, his bar was on red for at LEAST 10 in-game minutes and he never really fully recovered. He was the only player in the red on my team when I finally decided to sub him out.

EDIT: Just ran into a guy who joined my ranked match through the lobby who had AEK Athens listed as the team but the ratings were 88-88-86, and when I chose my team (Arsenal), it said that he was using the Classic XI team, in a Ranked match. Of course I didn't play him, but I just played a guy twice who used Milan and I swear everyone on his squad was fast as lighting and he was ping ponging the shit out of the ball. In the first match I was gettin' at him and nearly scored three times but of course once you're in his penalty box the defenders latch onto you like leeches. Second game started in much the same manner (I had Lyon this time) until the second half when the ping ponging started and the "turn every which way with Pato, and abuse the fake shot" kicked in.

Weirdest thing by far though was that he had almost the same level of those skill points as me but after losing the first match 1-0 to a Ronaldinho header (scored while he was basically standing parallel to the goal line) in the 96' and losing the second to a Pato finesse shot in the 75', even though he had more shots than me, and waaay more tackles, our possession was about even and I somehow lost something like 55 points both times. If you play ranked often, you don't normally gain or lose that many points unless you're playing someone way above or below your level. Yet the level and skill points are in direct relation to one another so I'm not sure what the hell he did to gain sooooo many points on me.

I'm wondering though, if it's possible to glitch the game to play a Ranked match with the Classic team, is it possible to boost up your own team and do the same as well. Milan were impossibly fast.
 
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think i could get much for fifa trading it in? £30/£35?

i'm to fed up with this game and for me, its a big let down due to many flaws(bugs) that aggrovate me with the game ie, game freezes everytime on manager mode so im stuck still at the wigan game, crossing is way to assisted on clubs and idiot football wins games of clubs for you, way overrated pros (pace ftw.)
and please, no one hit me with the f word, i played fifa 09/10 all the time so, don't jump on the bandwagon, just my personal opinion
 
Yeah it's driving me nuts with frustration. I don't normally post on here but I really need some help with this game, I just can't seem to get any fun out of it.

I'm 15 games into a CM with Man Utd, I've scored less than some teams in the relegation zone and conceded only 5 goals - every single one a header from a deep cross or a corner kick. And yet I'm still top of the table.

Every game plays out the same, I have over 70% of the possession which is absolutely bizarre, and spend the entire game getting muscled off the ball like this crazy assed challenge (don't think the link works in this page, just click the title at the top of the video to go through to my EA page);

Replay 3 | EA SPORTS

and other examples include being swamped by AI pressuring even in my own half like this, where Gerrard, on the halfway line, gets surrounded by 6 players hunting him down, again, on the HALFWAY LINE;

Replay 2 | EA SPORTS

Oh and this link, more than any other, totally sums up my experience with the game so far. 10 AI players packing it's own penalty area (GK included in that), whereas I have just three players in front of the guy with the ball. It's impossible.

Tottenham 0 – 0 Arm. Bielefeld | EA SPORTS

The problems with the AI hunting you down are caused by the AI sitting so deep with so many players. It makes trying to break through them a massive slog.

It's interesting because, when playing the World Cup game, after a long while they brought out a squad update which actually altered the formations of the 'weaker' teams to this awful 5-4-1 formation, and FIFA11 is just like this. They seemed to pack everyone around their own area and an entertaining game suddenly became this 0-0 bore-fest.

I now know for certain that the game's difficulty is mainly caused by this problem (and of course aided by problems other people have said on here) because I just played Chelsea at home in CM (World Class). The game was like all the rest, an absolute nightmare, with Chelsea offering little threat apart from the goal they scored from a corner in the 3rd minute. After that, they packed out the entire of their half with all eleven players and it resulted in players falling over themselves, running into each other, it looked ridiculous.

However, in the second half, I finally managed to score and then also got another quick goal from a corner. At 2-1 down the CPU clearly decided to change it's formation and strategy. Suddenly you could see the AI players more spaced out. The game changed and became a far more enjoyable, end to end game, where dribbling past someone didn't result in a team mate ready to tackle you 2 feet later. They pushed up further as the game went on, and I scored 2 breakaway goals and won 4-1. This also happened in another game, so it's proof to me that once the AI actually spaces itself out more, the game can play like it should.

However, I took some advice on here and slightly altered my formation (4-4-2) by slightly adjusting the Man Utd midfielders' base position, and bringing the two strikers back slightly. I then changed certain players' mentality to 'attacking', and it worked like a dream. I scored several goals with Scholes etc breaking into the box, I did some great attacking moves. Brilliant, problem solved I thought. Nope, after two games of this tactic, it seems to have completely stopped. Why, I have no idea. The midfielders just stay back again, despite having the same custom settings. It's as if the game has decided that the tactic was too flexible and has disabled it or something!

So now, as before, I'm lucky to get 1 supporting midfielder with my two strikers against 9 defenders. And if I break down the wings, half the time I can't get a cross in because there's no-one in the box. Even with all out attack custom settings and mentality set to 'all out attack'.

What does anyone else do, or are people finding the game to be as boring as me? I'm trying to like it, but just like FIFA10 after a week or so it's just becoming a chore to play :(
 
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aitk3n said:
think i could get much for fifa trading it in? £30/£35?

i'm to fed up with this game and for me, its a big let down due to many flaws(bugs) that aggrovate me with the game ie, game freezes everytime on manager mode so im stuck still at the wigan game, crossing is way to assisted on clubs and idiot football wins games of clubs for you, way overrated pros (pace ftw.)
and please, no one hit me with the f word, i played fifa 09/10 all the time so, don't jump on the bandwagon, just my personal opinion
Click to expand...
Ebay?

BTW dream team glitch is back!
http://forum.ea.com/uk/posts/list/23343.page

Was a nightmare in FIFA 09
 
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LTFC said:
Yeah it's driving me nuts with frustration. I don't normally post on here but I really need some help with this game, I just can't seem to get any fun out of it.

I'm 15 games into a CM with Man Utd, I've scored less than some teams in the relegation zone and conceded only 5 goals - every single one a header from a deep cross or a corner kick. And yet I'm still top of the table.

Every game plays out the same, I have over 70% of the possession which is absolutely bizarre, and spend the entire game getting muscled off the ball like this crazy assed challenge (don't think the link works in this page, just click the title at the top of the video to go through to my EA page);
Click to expand...

Join the club. The answer - if there is an answer - is to play extremely patient football, however that in itself maybe the greatest challenge with this game. It's like going against the grain, or fighting against the current... the game seems to want you to play fast paced, pushing you to rush forward, play in a frantic manner, when in fact the opposite is what leads to success. Ironically the CPU seems to be programmed to play fast paced when it has the ball too! That's probably why it's so easy to consistently end matches with 65+ possession and dominate the run of play - the game's AI can't even overcome the game's imbalances!

Don't really know if there is an answer to be honest but those who seem to be enjoying the game the most say you gotta play patient buildup and pull defenders out of position. But don't worry - you're not alone. Either the game is out of whack and unbalanced in key areas, or there's a shitload of us who simply now suck balls at FIFA. I'd like to think it's the former because I'm doing all I can to play patient buildup etc but CPU defenses in this game will chew you up and spit you out quicker than you can even say "patient."
 
Hate to admit it but I'm bored too of fifa11. Only several games into CM and I've just turned it off. Now that I've seen all the nice new animations it's very clear that the game is too similar to fifa10. And I'm regretting trading in the World Cup game tbh as I think it played a better game of football. Fifa11 is unbalanced. I've had to drop to professional as I can't score on world class but I'm dominating games far too easy. It's become a game of just trying to break thru the AIs defence. Online is still exploited beyond belief and playing football does not get rewarded. If it wasn't for Clubs I think i would trade in and try with PES. So many ppl are now playing it on my friends list compared to FIFA .
 
nerf said:
And the right thumbstick to knock the ball on? Here's a quick attacker with the ball out-running an average speed defender on Legendary. Notice that they step over the halfway line at the exact same time, and that the defender even has the 'inside line'.

YouTube - FIFA11 - Attackers are not slow
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Not many people notice this but if you lay off on the sprint button when doing knocks ons; your player will still run for the ball at a pace faster than your usual jog, without any stamina depletion that comes with a full-on sprint.

Also, I'm not sure if it's just me or is the first-touch/knock-on actually analog sensitive? There've been plenty of situations where if felt as though a slight nudge on the stick was all it took to push the ball off without it going too far ahead...especially useful when you've just turned past a close defender. Case in point: look at how I managed to get Lloyd Sam to knock the ball slightly forward after performing an abrupt stop&go, wrongfooting the defender on his left, leaving the other in the dust. That's two defenders I've managed to outmaneuver using simple modifier controls, which, in the past couple FIFA games, doesn't add anything to the dribbling system because the ball control there is too loose. It's a much tighter game now, thanks in part too to the added ability of retaining the ball with a skilled dribbler even when you're shoved from one side (see the same video, in the very first second where Sam is pushed from the left). You really have to approach this year's game with a slightly different mindset when it comes to dribbling; pays off to know when you can outrun someone or when exactly to perform stop&go, ball shielding, pace control, lateral dribbling, knock ons,etc.
 
mfmaxpower said:
Too many teams to name. Though I've had one CM with Lincoln City in the fourth English division; Borrussia Dortmund in another; and currently Charlton Athletic in another. I've played with dozens of different teams in friendlies. I agree, Arsenal is one of the easiest teams to play with.

If I don't play manual passing then of course my problems lessen and I'll be fine on legendary, but if I play WC on manual ground passes, most of my results are 0-0 or 0-1. Like I said elsewhere my passing stats are solid and I always dominate possession (come to think of it I'm not sure the CPU has ever had the majority of possession against me). I've gotten better recently but still, once I get to the final third my play breaks down. It'd be one thing if I was simply missing shots and not taking my opportunities, but I'm not creating near enough opportunities.

It's frustrating because IRL, more times than not, when a team dominates the run of play you'd expect them to dominate the scoreline as well. It'd be like what if Barca could never score. (I'm not saying I'm all that, but you get the picture.)
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I bet Andy Gray is always saying - "many people think possession influences the outcome of matches but actually it's the taking of chances!" :LOL:

I've ordered a Happauge HD PVR today so should be able to upload some manual wc games on youtube soon. Fingers crossed it should be here for the weekend. I'll have to show you how it's done power! :TU:

In all honesty I played 3 games last night and drew 0-0 twice (how I don't know, missed sitters, hit the underside of the bar etc..) and beat Chelsea 1-0 (should've lost). Prior to this I had won 5 or 6 in a row.

Totally agree with Adelante's comments. Sums my thoughts up about dribbling perfectly.
 
The main part of the game I want to play has to be the one EA seem to be totally incapable of making work. Great.

Pity - because the club I'm in have had some really, really great games playing really, really great football but it's so hard to actually get a game anymore. Absolutely pathetic two weeks into the release.
 
mfmaxpower said:
Join the club. The answer - if there is an answer - is to play extremely patient football, however that in itself maybe the greatest challenge with this game. It's like going against the grain, or fighting against the current... the game seems to want you to play fast paced, pushing you to rush forward, play in a frantic manner, when in fact the opposite is what leads to success. Ironically the CPU seems to be programmed to play fast paced when it has the ball too! That's probably why it's so easy to consistently end matches with 65+ possession and dominate the run of play - the game's AI can't even overcome the game's imbalances!

Don't really know if there is an answer to be honest but those who seem to be enjoying the game the most say you gotta play patient buildup and pull defenders out of position. But don't worry - you're not alone. Either the game is out of whack and unbalanced in key areas, or there's a shitload of us who simply now suck balls at FIFA. I'd like to think it's the former because I'm doing all I can to play patient buildup etc but CPU defenses in this game will chew you up and spit you out quicker than you can even say "patient."
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The problem is, I’ve tried like you said, keeping the ball, going back to defenders, through midfield, but my team mates still never make runs beyond a certain point. If I instruct them myself, they just run in a direct straight line which is not where I can often play the ball anyways. But for me, keeping the ball just doesn’t pull the CPU out of position like it should. The AI is so deep and in such great numbers, in packs of 3-6 players, who never venture out of position.

It’s so bizarre because, like I said, after changing my base positions, bringing slightly forward my two CM’s and pulling back my two strikers, and altering the CM’s mentality from auto to high attack, they seemed to gel a lot more and weren’t so isolated by the AI’s tactic of using their entire team in defence. I scored a few goals where my midfielders broke free into the box, beyond my strikers, and scored. It was great fun and really realistic. Other times, I had so many players piling forward when I kept possession, that I could play some great moves – one twos, dinking the ball over defender’s heads, it was great. Suddenly, the game seems to have stopped the tactic from working. No-one makes any runs and just stand static again, all with the same custom tactic. I just don’t get it.

And also, again, the AI in two matches actually swapped to an attacking tactic/formation (Chelsea and Spurs) and I had great fun. It just goes to show how much the 10 man defence issue is sucking the joy from this game.

When the AI went attacking, you could actually see the AI players on the radar were now spaced out – their defenders were deeper, midfielders more stretched out, strikers up against my defenders, the CPU was trying to attack to get back into the game. Both teams counter attacked until their stamina ran out, it was great. I had far more room for attacks, the lack of packed defence meant I actually had support for my strikers, but also the AI put me under proper pressure too.

However, for those two games, I’ve played 13 other CM matches that were an endless cycle of me losing the ball, winning it back, getting swamped, winning it back, occasionally scoring (almost exclusively with Rooney as he’s the only player who’d get into an advanced position), occasionally conceding a headed goal from a cross/corner, and no team mates ever getting into the box. But they mostly consist of being rugby tackled and swamped off the ball. These matches make me want to switch the game off.

I really think the game’s problems lie in the deep 10 man defence, caused by the AI’s default attack/defence levels. The potentially good thing is that it’s something that has changed for me mid-match, so EA can clearly tweak this with relative ease.

Like I said in my last post, it really reminds me of the World Cup game, which played great until they altered the squad formations and mentality for a lot of teams within a squad update. Suddenly I was playing against packed 10 man defences, mostly resulting in 0-0, or 1-0 wins or losses that suddenly were a chore to play. I had to delete the squad update and the game was fine again. No more 10 man defences. I genuinely think the last update for FIFA WC 2010 has been employed in FIFA11 because it’s an eerily similar experience.

On a more positive note, one thing I have noticed is that you seem to get more time on the ball if you dribble by barely moving the left stick so that you almost walk with the ball. The AI, to me anyways, clearly seems to speed up from a jog towards you into a full on sprint if it reads that you’re pushing the stick hard in any one direction. I tested it out, and on several occasions I saw a defender jogging towards me until I pushed hard on the left stick, then he broke out into a sprint. It doesn’t give you massive space, but enough to get a pass in.

But CM is strange, the games feel like they’re getting harder and less fun to play the further into the season I get. I just played Liverpool at home in the snow, and it was possibly the most boring game of videogame football I’d ever played. 99.9% of the match took place at a high pace despite me constantly trying to slow it down, and both teams ‘buching’ like kids in a school playground in the midfield. Again, countless players just kept running into each other! When I first fired up the game over a week ago it felt slower, fresh, and very different. Somehow, now, it’s feeling more and more like FIFA10, and faster too. Maybe I’m just imagining that.

And yeah I do agree that the AI tries to force you to pass quickly, and often you have to just to avoid the onrushing defenders. It’s as if you build attacks sometimes out of panic passes just to avoid being walloped off the ball. The WC game seemed to have it’s own sense of YOU creating the play, dictating the pace, whereas the FIFA10 and 11, since they brought in the jostling system, goes the other way. It’s a struggle and a chore to break through such discriminating physical AI. The jostling for me, since FIFA10, has really ruined a lot of what made this game so fun.

Oh and one other slight moan that’s ruining CM at the moment – the refs. It mostly feels like the AI can smash it’s way through me (see the Lampard vid in my previous post!) with no action taken, whereas I’m constantly being pulled up for any kind of bodily contact whatsoever. It’s so weighted in the CPU’s favour on later difficulties, it’s another way of the AI simulating difficulty.
 
Rodelero said:
The main part of the game I want to play has to be the one EA seem to be totally incapable of making work. Great.

Pity - because the club I'm in have had some really, really great games playing really, really great football but it's so hard to actually get a game anymore. Absolutely pathetic two weeks into the release.
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It really is inexcusable. I've logged in about 300 games under my club (Indian Rojak United) in FIFA10, but now I can barely bring myself to play a single game with my fellow mates, what with all the stupid problems plaguing this mode...worst of them being those annoying freezes after each match! hargh
 
adelante said:
Also, I'm not sure if it's just me or is the first-touch/knock-on actually analog sensitive? There've been plenty of situations where if felt as though a slight nudge on the stick was all it took to push the ball off without it going too far ahead...especially useful when you've just turned past a close defender. Case in point: look at how I managed to get Lloyd Sam to knock the ball slightly forward after performing an abrupt stop&go, wrongfooting the defender on his left, leaving the other in the dust.
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Glad I wasn't the only one :D. I had the same suspicion, temporarily, then looked at it again and came to the conclusion that the heaviness of the knock-on is actually speed related. Faster you're moving, further the touch. That's why your stop&go was followed by a softer touch, because you'd scrubbed off your speed. Nice goal!

The right-thumbstick is a weapon this year, when timed correctly. It feels like it is more necessary than in previous games if you want to be able to dribble beyond players at speed, and I like that.

adelante said:
It's a much tighter game now, thanks in part too to the added ability of retaining the ball with a skilled dribbler even when you're shoved from one side (see the same video, in the very first second where Sam is pushed from the left). You really have to approach this year's game with a slightly different mindset when it comes to dribbling; pays off to know when you can outrun someone or when exactly to perform stop&go, ball shielding, pace control, lateral dribbling, knock ons,etc.
Click to expand...
I agree. 'Tactical dribbling' is important, paying attention to keeping your body between the ball and the defender, using LT more than RT, and using it to buy time and space while your teammates make themselves available.
 
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Robbery said:
I'm going to play a little bit with my team custom tactics. I have some experience from last years version so it is not a new thing for me.

But it won't change the main problem i have with this game. I don't think it is questionable that, playing against the CPU, the CPU defending is way to strong / brilliant / superior. I think it is acceptable playing against very good world class teams but it is not acceptable playing against low division teams.

And it won't change the way the AI is playing football against me. Always running in one direction (ahead of course), the almost perfect passing, the poor shooting attempts from outside the box (i know you can change it a little bit by custom tactics but i don't think it works out well and i can only do it for a limited amount of teams.).

Maybe i will get a little bit more fun out of it. But EA need to work on this hard. I don't see it getting better over the last 3 years.
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Excellent post. I have the exact same problem. Only i play at professional level and find it too hard at the moment, while at semi prof i win all games 4-0. Too bad really as i like the game
 
Well, all that about dribling has an impact on the game, I won't deny that, because I use it constantly. The thing is, it doesn't change the game much. When you're against the CPU in the final third, all the "rules" tend to disappear and the CPU can barge and shove the ball at ease, even without any positional advantage. And when you play a human that simply pressures like hell, it's annoyingly useless most of the time in the final third again. The logic behind defensive packing is flawed and it's done voluntarily, as a ptch to hide other flaws of the game. That is poor.

Add to this that defenders can stop running to turn automatically accelerated without any of their feet even touching the pitch in the process, so they can catch you, and things like that... It totally destroys the illusion of playing football, because no matter the team you're facing, they all do the same all the time. Flat experience.

Yes, I can make space with the right stick, but that doesn't make it a better footballing experience, at the end you'll end up playing against people who simply packs defenders and knocks on the ball. If there was some stats implied in "running with the ball", that may make some logic. But all the players can seamlessly run with the same accuracy of knock-on.
As long as it's much better to have Sissoko in the midfield instead of Xavi, the game will be a turd. And you know, Sissoko (or any other strnog midfielder) will tackle to death, be stronger than Xavi and can do the same passes anyway and running knocking-on the ball as well.

Finally, when the cpu teams "open up" then you can see the game that is sleeping beneath this nonsense. And it's a rather fun game, not much better than Fifa10, not more realistic, but fun at least, mainly because finishing is great in the game and shooting is awesome (the only improvement in the game in my oppinion).
 
Guys, I've posted a call to arms in the Gameplay Suggestions thread. The game has been out for a bit now and most of us have identified what is right/wrong or what will improve or get worse with more playing time. I'm going to be passing this stuff onto EA by this time next fortnight so please do post any suggestions/considered feedback on gameplay in there. Don't mind if you repost things from here, as long as it's pretty self contained and gets the point across as well as you would want it to. No EA abuse please, it will just get you ignored and might stop EA from reading further posts.

Cheers all


https://evo-web.co.uk/threads/54775/page-8
 
Lots of people have been complaining about the level of defensive pressure. I can't comment on how this impacts human v human play, but vs the cpu I have not found it all that bad. Challenging, yes, and I'm not about to pretend that it is perfectly balanced or anything like that, but mostly I wanted to post something on the importance of your first-touch.

I'll also point out that I got my ass handed to me in my last Career Mode, so I'm in no way pretending to be amazing at this.

Now that the game is tighter, particularly in areas close to the CPU's goal, the first-touch becomes crucial in order to work the ball in congested areas (and therefore often crucial for creating chances).

Remember there are three different types of first-touch. The more obvious ones are using just the analog thumbsticks. Use the right to knock the ball out of your feet in a direction (can be handy when used at the correct time but requires a bit of space), or simply tilt the left thumbstick in the direction you want your player to 'carry' his first-touch. Obviously it's very important to recognise the closest defender, anticipate who else might be about to close you down, and direct your touch away from them.

Finally, there's the LT/L2 first-touch. So useful, more than ever. Holding LT with a direction makes your player trap the ball in that direction, rather than turn to move (left stick on its own). This brings the ball instantly under tighter control, in the same way like the LT dribble does compared to normal un-modified dribble, and you're instantly able to shield the ball against the incoming pressure (if you performed it in the appropriate direction away from that pressure).

Example 1: Albrighton's trap/turn.
YouTube - FIFA11 - Ireland Miss.flv

ireland1.jpg

Carew RT-shields the ball from Kolarov. Note that City have quite high aggression (65 default) and so two midfielders are drawn towards the ball. In the background, Ireland's high attacking work-rate has seen him make an early forward run from his CM position, getting beyond his striker.

ireland2.jpg

Carew lays the ball off to Albrighton, but Johnson and Yaya Toure are in close proximity and closing him down. Any static touch or forward touch here and Albrighton will be dispossessed easily by his heavier opponents. Instead, I hold LT and turn in the opposite direction....

ireland3.jpg

...so Albrighton traps the ball dead and turns his back, denying the possibility of a quick tackle. If I'd used the left stick alone without LT, he would have turned on the move and probably been swamped by his opponents' greater forward momentum.

Playing to Mancini's high aggression, the left back Kolarov then makes a mistake: he follows the pass. Carew is already on his bike (not a one-two) and moves into the space behind.

ireland4.jpg

On an un-related note, I wanted to point out the shape of City's midfield here. You would never get midfield shape like that in previous FIFAs, they've improved that this year.

ireland5c.jpg

After that, it's a case of shifting the City centre-back out of position with an exchange of passes, and Ireland nearly scores against his old team. D'oh!

Example 2: Strikers protecting the ball.
YouTube - FIFA11 Young Saved.flv

young1l.jpg

Again, just wanted to point out Newcastle's two banks of four. The LM has dropped deeper in order to fulfill his responsibility of getting goal-side of Albrighton, who has just received a crossfield pass.

young2.jpg

Newcastle's RCM (substitute Tiote) has a backwards defensive arrow in their default formation, so he starts to drop into the space between the lines. RM Gosling tucks infield to get goal-side of the abandoned Delph. Tiote's naturally high defensive work-rate means he breaks into a run...

young3.jpg

...and so arrives on Carew as the ball does. Again, any static touch or forward touch means he loses the ball.

young4.jpg

Down-left on the thumbstick takes Carew smoothly out of the space that Tiote belatedly barrels into. A bit of delicate LT-dribble then protects the ball from Campbell and Coloccini (as, perhaps, does Newcastle's 45 Aggression being lower than City's).

young5i.jpg

The pass goes a little behind Agbonlahor, but an LT+down first-touch enables him to trap the ball and get his body between it and the fullback in order to facilitate a lay-off for the incoming Ashley Young, who was left all alone after Gosling had tucked infield. Again, it's a shame I can't finish!

(Btw I like how, at the end of the video, the fullback appeals for a goal-kick as if to claim Kuszczak hadn't tipped the ball over. EDIT: Or maybe offside? Anyway, it's cool :D )

Anyway... I just wanted to try and share one reason why I'm quite enjoying the challenge of trying to prize open these tighter CPU defences (even if my success so far is limited, but I'll get there!). Defensive AI was such a horror show in FIFA10/WC, that this to me is an improvement in many respects, even if the balance is not perfect and I do understand the points made about aggression/physicality/stamina.
 
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Top post nerf, very insightful! I badly want to like this game with all the licenses, leagues and great online but I'm just not enjoying it most of the time (I occassionaly get an enjoyable game though, even against the AI). I tried editing Custom Tactics to fix aggression and pressure issues but it just results in me ending up with 65% possession and it makes the AI even more pathetic than they are otherwise. I'll give FIFA another go with this in mind, and perhaps I should try the no-pressure rule I read about earlier in this thread.
 
Excellent job Nerf, that's pretty much the stuff I'm seeing and enjoying in my CM on a regular basis, you can do some very nice, simple movements using the analogue stick with and without LT, I've scored a fair few nice goals where I dribble through a small gap between defenders to slide the ball past a stranded keeper, nothing overly fancy just nice simple "proper" goals :)
 
mfmaxpower said:
Anybody got a working theory on how player work rates in the formations settings interact with a player's individual work rates?

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Well if no one else will I guess it's up to me to reply to myself then! I'm starting a new CM on the 360 with MSV Duisburg in Bundesliga 2 and thought I'd check out the competition. Turns out it is very rare to find a team that has a player in its starting 11 that doesn't have personal attribute workrates set at Medium/Medium. In fact, a quick glance will tell you that most teams are all yellow arrows for both defensive and offensive workrates at every position. (You can check this quickly by going to edit squads -> team management -> formations. You can tell that these workrate arrows represent the player attributes because all formation workrates are set to default, at least all that I've found.)

After checking the Bundesliga 2 teams I checked the Bundesliga. Again, 95% of the arrows are yellow. I checked a couple teams in La Liga, again the vast majority are yellow. Barcelona, big surprise, is more mixed. Athletic Madrid on the other hand hardly any, and I think they were all yellow but can't remember for sure.

So out of curiosity I took a peek at some EPL teams, and guess what? Yep, all of the teams I looked at had far - FAR - more mixed workrate ratings than was the average in other leagues. Compare Everton or Aston Villa to Athletic Madrid and it's like night and day.

Well I guess this only reinforces the argument that EA pay too much attention to the English teams at the expense of other leagues/players, so it's really not a big surprise in the end. Nonetheless this is disappointing when we think about P+ and individuality in FIFA. And we're not talking custom animations here or even ratings on a scale of 100 but settings of Low/Med/High (database editors: were these not included?).

This could be important for three reasons:

1) We don't know for sure (at least I don't so if you do, please share) how changing workrates in custom formations influences a player's individual workrate attributes, i.e. does Low + High = Med?, Med + High = Med-High; Low + Low = Very low(!); Medium + Medium = Very medium(!);

2) Relating to the first, we don't know how important individual workrates are, since we don't know if they can be overridden by custom formations. For example, Dani Alves is set to low defense and high attacking. Would he be a better/more effective/more valuable player if his defense setting was Med? In other worse, if I'm looking for a player in the transfer market, is a CAM with a High offensive workrate more valuable than one with a Medium offensive workrate;

3) FIFA 11 allows us to edit player attributes except for... workrate settings! Awesome!

Does anyone know who to contact or what the best way is to contact someone at EA who can give a specific answer as to how formation workrate settings and individual player workrate attributes interact? (We should really get on them to update player workrate attributes for a future squad file since we can't do it ourselves.)

Maybe this isn't a big deal in the scheme of things but as someone who primarily plays CM, and likes to start with lower league teams, this may be a factor contributing to how individuality and P+ doesn't seem nearly as evident as it can be playing with (and against) the top teams. If anyone disagrees or has input or their own opinions, I'd like to hear them.

(And speaking of not enough attention given to lesser known players, I'm very disappointed to see a certain player at Duisburg not having his name announced by the commentary. His last name? Kunt.)

nerf said:
Lots of people have been complaining about the level of defensive pressure. I can't comment on how this impacts human v human play, but vs the cpu I have not found it all that bad. Challenging, yes, and I'm not about to pretend that it is perfectly balanced or anything like that, but mostly I wanted to post something on the importance of your first-touch.
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Those are all great examples and I don't think anyone here hasn't been able to pull off similar type moves, but I too could post an awesome video of a goal or skill move but it doesn't mean the game consistently rewards a certain style of play or strategy. If you post one video of holding off a CB by effectively using the shield button, and I post two videos showing my ST getting raped by a CB while trying to shield, where does that leave us?

I'm not disagreeing with you - what you've shown is exactly what is needed to break down defenses in FIFA 11 - however I find actually pulling off plays like those you've shown to be more difficult than they might should be. It seems like for every instance of successfully shielding the ball from a CB there's another ten instances where the defender somehow reached around and took the ball cleanly, almost by magic. It seems like for every instance of great give and go play on the wing, 10 other instances fail because the defense is never wrong-footed by a pass and can easily intercept my pass that, as Tik has mentioned, moves so much slower than player movement speeds.

Also, I find the game much more balanced playing in the top leagues than in the lower leagues. I like playing with Villa as well and do pretty well with them. Maybe it's P+, I don't know, but when I play with lesser teams, like with Charlton Athletic in one of my CMs, it feels like the offensive abilities of my players have been downgraded far more the defensive abilities. The result: 95% 0-0, 0-1 matches. Maybe that's how npower league 1 games are IRL, I don't watch too many of those, but it sure isn't a lot of fun. I feel inclined to lower the difficulty setting a notch when I play in these lower league games, but then CPU offensive AI becomes even less challenging than before. Maybe the answer is in the passing settings for me, and maybe I ought to try playing with semi passing and pass assistance ON when I play my lower league CMs.
 
mfmaxpower said:
3) FIFA 11 allows us to edit player attributes except for... workrate settings! Awesome!
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This is because the edit player menu appears to be entirely based off the Virtual Pro, in which there's no such thing as work-rate. Same goes for the messed-up Position options, which means if I change Fabian Delph's shirt to untucked, he suddenly becomes a CAM and no longer a CM. It's lazy garbage. Traits are also missing.

mfmaxpower said:
Those are all great examples and I don't think anyone here hasn't been able to pull off similar type moves, but I too could post an awesome video of a goal or skill move but it doesn't mean the game consistently rewards a certain style of play or strategy. If you post one video of holding off a CB by effectively using the shield button, and I post two videos showing my ST getting raped by a CB while trying to shield, where does that leave us?
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With two more videos than we started with, backing up the claims of magic tackling.

Why should the game "consistently reward a certain style of play or strategy"? Football is nothing if not unpredictable. Sometimes defenders do muscle a forward off the ball.

Not that it is my intention to suggest that all is hunky-dorey in the world of AI reactions/phsyics/etc. I was merely highlighting some of the techniques and combinations I like to try to use vs the cpu. I enjoy the part of this game that involves manipulating the ball.

mfmaxpower said:
Also, I find the game much more balanced playing in the top leagues than in the lower leagues. I like playing with Villa as well and do pretty well with them. Maybe it's P+, I don't know, but when I play with lesser teams, like with Charlton Athletic in one of my CMs, it feels like the offensive abilities of my players have been downgraded far more the defensive abilities. The result: 95% 0-0, 0-1 matches.
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It is true that P+ extends only to such disappointingly shallow depths. The feature is already a little bit weak without needing to be further hamstrung by the absence of supporting data. I don't know whether that lies with the devs or the data reviewers, but EA should have made certain that they got the data they needed. It's most uninspiring to look at a Ligue 2 side and find that not a single player in the entire squad has a Trait or Speciality, or that they mostly have the same work-rate, or that they're all about the same speed, with about the same shot power, with about the same tactical awareness, etc.
 
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