The more I play this game online the more it reminds me about why I stopped playing Fifa in the first place. Even against friends on slow/semi-assisted the game is so fast, as i've said before, but a number of other factors are becoming clearer. I simply cannot play this game trying to play it like an actual football match.
- For one the game still spits in the face of an attempt to play it conservatively. Speed is key. Tackling is often so precise that there's no point in trying to sit back and mark a player. You can so easily run into an opponent, take the ball and keep it at your feet with ease (and break). You never have to fear going in for a tackle and missing the ball. Players often manage to tackle from completely unrealistic (body) positions so long as they're near enough to the ball.
- The easiest way to attack is still counter-attacking and whilst that may not be surprising what is difficult to accept is harder it is in comparison with attacking through sustained pressure. Such an attack usually ends with the player being cramped and the ease of tackling coming into fruition. You rob, or get robbed, and then break ad nauseum. Yes I see me doing the same thing to other players too. There's no way to comfortably get the ball and play the ball in the midfield looking to build your attack on sustained-pressure.
- When I played the demo I honestly thought that the game had struck a good balance between attack and defence so that neither had a greater advantage than the other. Right now it seems the game is back to its old attack advantage ways. I think it's due to the fact I, and my friend, hadn't learned how to attack when we first played one another. Games were less goal-fests and more realistic scorelines like 2-0 and 1-1. Right now, after 12 hours of play, we're finding games ending in overly high scores everytime. Whilst they're always close affairs, 3-2, 4-3, 2-2 etc, it strikes me as odd that neither of us are able to defend well enough for the entire match. I try to stay defensive and it adds more pressure and the inevitable basic FIFA goal (which would would be a fantastic goal in real life) takes place. Either that or one of us is counter-attacked. It's funny that I find tackling to be so easy and unrealistic but games still end up in high scores. I think that says a lot about how easy it must be to attack.
- I find the effects of semi are negligible. It feels more like assisted than ever.
The game is great offline but that's probably because the CPU actually try to play real football, which in turn allows you the player to play the game like a football game. I feel that the CPU acts in a way to punish ferocious game-play Human players aren't punished at all for playing this game in an arcade ping-pong like manner by the inherent elements of the game - at this point we've exhausted the idea of this being a broken record claim and i think it's more apt to question whether time is just looping. I can't pretend my friend isn't what people would describe a typical Fifa player. It certainly doesn't help the experience but it does suggest, how again, the game doesn't punish such style of play. On the contrary, playing that way is actually more productive. I couldn't imagine playing assisted v strangers and having a good time really with the exception of manual (which I have no experience with). Playing online and playing offline is a completely different experience.
My two cents.
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