Re: FIFA 14 - Game related talk only!
What's the AI like this year? Any sign of player or team individuality?
I'm tempted.
Well, due to some good cd key deals out there I decided to get Fifa, not particularly concerned about buyers regret or anything until PES starts to get a few of the bigger mods out
Honestly despite what others have said, the AI players still seem to fall into generic 'roles'. To an extent you can differentiate more strong powerful runners versus more skill based but thats the extent of it honestly... the concept of 'playmaker' is not seen at all in any of the games I've played. I am not sure if this is purely a case at the higher difficulties - I put about 20 games (10 min halves) at Legendary before I moved down to World Class. Teams still tend to play very similar to each other.
At higher difficulties without slider edits, teams have incredible pass success rates, (I'm talking about teams like Tottenham and Everton and Liverpool) pulling of high 88-92% pass success. This is of course corrected by sliders - but this is just fixing the symptoms rather than the cause (not enough adventurous passes, not enough separation between teams tactics wise). This is linked to the above - you can't see players and teams like how Riquelme and Pirlo were recreated in PES, in FIFA. I've tried playing against all the teams with the 'big name' passers but you barely see the effects of them at all.
I guess my biggest issue with the game is that it just doesn't seem to flow particularly well. Its a pussy comment to make because usually I hate all the subjective tripe that goes around in PES vs FIFA debates but thats really one of the criticisms I have. I don't really understand the approach the AI are taking to the game. They just seem to continuously pass the ball around... with no real spearhead of attack I guess is the best way to put it.
In terms of other areas:
Commentary is getting pretty darn good, but still can barely hold a candle to the commentary and presentation of games like nba 2k (all of the 2k games have been incredible presentation-wise for the last 10 years really). I play full 48 min games in nba 2k13 and rarely get the reiterative nature of the commentary of FIFA 14 that I see in 20 min matches. Partially of course FIFA is on a much broader scale than the NBA 2k series - but to me its still SO far away.
I still have some issues with animations, when running alongside the ball players still twist their head at an awkward angle that just makes me laugh everytime I see it. Still occasionally see a bit of clipping from collisions buts its been a huge improvement over the tripe in the past.
Long balls - is it just me, or do lobbed passes just run forever. They dont slow down at all. Feels like there is no weight to them or its a bloody ice rink on the pitch at times.
Shooting feels great, very satisfying. Maybe the thomp sound is a bit unrealistic but I love it.
AI issues relating to the game artificially lowering your teammates have already been elaborated on enough I think. Pretty frustrating, because when you play against the same team their players are fantastic but teammate AI can be so horribly dull.
Overall - its been a pretty darn good experience. Graphics are starting to age, especially as I feel it actually looks WORSE on PC compared to some of the earlier FIFA titles. Still see the SAME graphical glitches occurring such as shirts clipping through shorts when sliding that haven't been corrected.
The game feels like what fifa 13 should have been. Makes me angry I ever purchased fifa 13, man what a load of tripe.
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. I mean the way the build up is, etc...
