FIFA 15 News & Discussion Thread

Just played online manual only for the first time. What an awful experience. Game is far too quick on normal.

How can you play online with manual and slow settings?
 
mfmaxpower said:
Regarding playing with lower rated teams online, any recommendations?

And so let me get this straight - if I choose, say, a 3.5 star team, is there still a chance I'll get paired with Real Madrid?
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There should be basically no chance, and you can choose 'restricted' matchmaking too. Afaik, it doesn't work on the basis of star anymore, but the team's overall, but it does seem to be worse at finding close matches than FIFA 14.
 
Well, finally played my first multiplayer online manual match.

A much nicer experience in that it lacked much of what makes playing online at default such a poor experience (though my opponent unfortunately still played pretty cheaply), but good god, it was the ugliest, dullest match of football.

Bayern (me) vs Chelsea and the game played out like a sunday league game. I've never understood people who took it as an assumption that manual is more realistic - this looked nothing like a Bayern/Chelsea match.

I had 70% possession, mainly because my opponent played high pressure and just attempted long balls, but I only created 1 shot, which of course missed by a mile. I lost 1-nil because of a cheap give away at the back.

In the end, it reminds me why I chose to play manual in the first place, because of the more realistic pace and difficulty exploiting the game's weaknesses, but it also reminded me why I'm not the biggest fan of manual anymore.

Plus it took me 5+ minutes to get the first match and I haven't been able to get a second one. Maybe I'll try semi settings?

If anyone wants to play some manual on PS4, or semi, or whatever, my id is mfmaxpower.
 
Had some really good matches tonight in Seasons full manual. Played as a variety of teams including, Milan, Spurs, Malaga and Galatasary! Some really nice bits of play and some scrappy bits too. Hit the woodwork quite a lot tonight, but creating chances so all good. I'm up to Division 8 now. Got a few clips of nice goals and nice play that I'm uploading now and will put in the Videos Thread :)).
 
mfmaxpower said:
Well, finally played my first multiplayer online manual match.

A much nicer experience in that it lacked much of what makes playing online at default such a poor experience (though my opponent unfortunately still played pretty cheaply), but good god, it was the ugliest, dullest match of football.

Bayern (me) vs Chelsea and the game played out like a sunday league game. I've never understood people who took it as an assumption that manual is more realistic - this looked nothing like a Bayern/Chelsea match.

I had 70% possession, mainly because my opponent played high pressure and just attempted long balls, but I only created 1 shot, which of course missed by a mile. I lost 1-nil because of a cheap give away at the back.

In the end, it reminds me why I chose to play manual in the first place, because of the more realistic pace and difficulty exploiting the game's weaknesses, but it also reminded me why I'm not the biggest fan of manual anymore.

Plus it took me 5+ minutes to get the first match and I haven't been able to get a second one. Maybe I'll try semi settings?

If anyone wants to play some manual on PS4, or semi, or whatever, my id is mfmaxpower.
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Nothing wrong with a crap, dull match now and then. Better than the same fast paced pingpong, chipped through ball matches game after game on default settings. I wouldn't say these pinball games look like a Bayern/Chelsea game either. The more you play the better the games will become (IMO) and when you have good manual matches, they trump default settings big time. We are all different and like different things but it's the same thing game after game, year after year on default and I personally do not miss those games one bit.
 
My second manual match: me Aston Villa vs ... Chile. Dude plays Alexis Sanchez up top and spams long balls to him.

I score with Benteke on an ugly tap-in in 80'; he dribbles straight from kick-off with Alexis and scores to equalize.

This game can be so fucking lame. And even manual players can be jack-asses.
 
PU6HY said:
Nothing wrong with a crap, dull match now and then. Better than the same fast paced pingpong, chipped through ball matches game after game on default settings. I wouldn't say these pinball games look like a Bayern/Chelsea game either. The more you play the better the games will become (IMO) and when you have good manual matches, they trump default settings big time. We are all different and like different things but it's the same thing game after game, year after year on default and I personally do not miss those games one bit.
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Totally agree!
 
I tried manual and I felt my hands were stiff after 1 match. I couldnt string a pass together to save my life. The person I played felt bad so he allowed me to tried to pass w/o pressure in the end he beat me comfy 4-0.

much respect to manual setting players :BLEH::APPLAUD:
 
mfmaxpower said:
My second manual match: me Aston Villa vs ... Chile. Dude plays Alexis Sanchez up top and spams long balls to him.

I score with Benteke on an ugly tap-in in 80'; he dribbles straight from kick-off with Alexis and scores to equalize.

This game can be so fucking lame. And even manual players can be jack-asses.
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This is kind of the issue with the matchmaking on team ratings. Chile and Aston Villa aren't that far apart, but one star player, someone like Sanchez or Ibrahimovic, completely imbalances everything.
 
So legendary or world class/professional? every team plays like barca on every difficulty level? i get sick when im with City and Hull passing around like gods and i cant even make a tackle for 20 minutes, no long shots, no long balls(maybe after the 90th minute)
 
I think manual settings can introduce a more realistic, considered game of football, but it's not always the case. I've seen a few videos of fully manual games where it's forward, forward, forward and 1-2s at every chance. Harder to do than when you're on assisted but doesn't mean because you're playing manual that you're necessarily playing football like football. Some people do play a more realistic type of football - it's down to the person's ideology, not their button configuration.
 
mfmaxpower said:
I love how often the response is that the problem is with me - the settings I use, the teams I choose, etc.

Seriously though, I actually play with a pretty wide variety of teams, and the game does play better with lesser quality teams but that's a pretty shitty solution.
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Not according to that picture though :P

Real football has a large disparity in quality as well though. Real Madrid and Bayern putting 6 or 7 goals in every other week hardly sounds like a tightly fought contest to me.

I agree that the lower ranked teams can give better games and probably because there are less avenues to exploit and usually your opponent is signalling their intent to play football and not glitch their way to a quick win.
 
Semi assisted is the way to go. Very little floundering on the short passes that any pro can make but more control over the longer passes. Similar case with shooting. Best of both worlds.
 
With lower ranked teams around League 1 quality, I've had really good games even on default (assisted) settings. You can't just shoot from anywhere inside 25 yards and get an instant goal, the through balls are less accurate and incisive and the forwards generally aren't unstoppable dribblers which gives it a better balance with defending.

Played some great manual games as well, using and playing against a variety of teams.
 
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Here's my 1st 5 games on PS4 manual seasons. I'm really surprised that most if not all of those players struggled with defending. Also the annoying dribble after kickoff(I stopped it all the time). I kept laughing at those guys trying the same thing (pass it to the fastest player and keep running from midline then cut inside) but that also I managed to stop it.Two of those 5 played like real football. I looked into their results, their results weren't that great.One of them lost 6-0.
As you can see they didn't manage to score more than one goal. Only one of them was from a play, the other one was from corner. Anyway it felt good to play against human players as a change from CPU.
I mainly concentrate on defending first then see what I can go from there.
 
I dont have a problem with people playing whatever controls they want, but manual vs assisted is pretty hard so I just dont do it.

Having to think about the power and direction on your pass as well as the time and space you need to power up a pass does slow the game down I think when playing manual vs manual.

You still get the odd person on manual seasons that tries to exploit the game as much as possible which seems strange but its far from the norm.

The hardest thing I find with manual is playing for our Manual Clubs team on PS4 where 99% of the teams are obviously fully assisted. Fatigue seems to play a part this year where we can weather the storm in the first half then get more time to play our slower game when they are knackered :) If I get time I will post a great comeback from 2-1 down where we ran out 4-2 winners, something never possible for us on previous Fifa's.

Feel free to add me on PSN for any manual online friendlies.
 
I've had some great games both with assisted and manual settings online. It really has so much more to do with who you're playing than the settings themselves. That said, most assisted settings games are shit.

And either I've regressed or the people are that much better at playing exploitative tactics the higher you go in seasons, cause for the life of me I can't deal with high pressure or lofted through balls at the moment. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but folks are getting so many easy one-on-ones with my keeper against me it's very frustrating.

I feel like I'm having to work my ass off for my goals while my opponents are creating shit out of nothing. Going online with FiFA for the first time this year has been an extremely mixed experience. People say they hate how the CPU AI cheats but I'll take the CPU on Legendary compared to some of the folks online anyday. Funny thing is,I keep going back for more, convincing myself that I can do better, that proper football can win out... only to get beat by the typical Ronaldo/Bale sprint around defense combo.

I'm going to try to play more manual. The problem is, I'm in division 5 and the guys playing manual in this division are way too good for me. Played against one person yesterday and he played me off the park, though I'll admit it was better than the worst assisted match and you've gotta give props to someone who's great with manual. I need to find a way to reset to division 10!

Also, unfortunately getting a manual game isn't always possible and the wait times can suck. I was able to get three matches yesterday but once again I had to give up. I also tried to find a semi-assisted match with no luck.

Are there manual players in FUT? Might it be easier to get a manual game in FUT?
 
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mfmaxpower said:
I've had some great games both with assisted and manual settings online. It really has so much more to do with who you're playing than the settings themselves. That said, most assisted settings games are shit.

And either I've regressed or the people are that much better at playing exploitative tactics the higher you go in seasons, cause for the life of me I can't deal with high pressure or lofted through balls at the moment. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but folks are getting so many easy one-on-ones with my keeper against me it's very frustrating.

I feel like I'm having to work my ass off for my goals while my opponents are creating shit out of nothing. Going online with FiFA for the first time this year has been an extremely mixed experience. People say they hate how the CPU AI cheats but I'll take the CPU on Legendary compared to some of the folks online anyday. Funny thing is,I keep going back for more, convincing myself that I can do better, that proper football can win out... only to get beat by the typical Ronaldo/Bale sprint around defense combo.

I'm going to try to play more manual. The problem is, I'm in division 5 and the guys playing manual in this division are way too good for me. Played against one person yesterday and he played me off the park, though I'll admit it was better than the worst assisted match and you've gotta give props to someone who's great with manual. I need to find a way to reset to division 10!

Also, unfortunately getting a manual game isn't always possible and the wait times can suck. I was able to get three matches yesterday but once again I had to give up. I also tried to find a semi-assisted match with no luck.

Are there manual players in FUT? Might it be easier to get a manual game in FUT?
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You know the different exploits you have been succumbing to i.e. the Ronaldo sprint, long ball, and other ones you have mentioned...Are you not able to use the exploits yourself to win the games or do you choose not to play like that?

I remember back in pro 6 when the exploit was to run down wing, pass cut back, score..rinse..repeat....and when I mentioned how it pissed me off to my mates, they just said, why don't you do that?

I know I know it goes against good foundation of a football game but when you're in a competition, winning is also important :).

The last few fifa games have had the worst exploit due to customise formation, however I cannot find that option on the PC version...maybe a good thing because last few games I was winning games with 1 in midfield, and 4 upfront....every time defenders got the ball, you would have 2 strikers and 1 winger always staying up...counter attack galore....it was ugly but extremely effective.

Is there a way to customise formation on this?
 
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So here's the first week my playing a full premiership, in highlights.
YouTube - Barclays Premiership - Week 1 Highlights - Fifa 15

I know we have a video thread but that's kinda more for 'look at this goal' and this is more a diary of sorts.

I'm enjoying this a lot more than I expected. And by that I mean I'm loving it. I thought it would be interesting to play the fixtures along side the real league each week, something I've wanted to see in FIFA ever since they started the weekly stat updates based on form.
One thing I really miss out on in career mode is what's happening with other teams. The game only bothers to tell me when someone is hurt or sold. There's very little about form, chemistry, players unhappy at being subbed off or not starting or bookings/suspensions. When I come round to play Chelsea I'm often surprised at them suddenly having tevez up front as the game doesn't make a song and dance about it. Or how they're not using hazard and it's only after the game I find out he's injured. But if planned my team assuming he was in.
(I know the info is there but it's often hidden away and the newspaper bits are so dull and recycled that I've just become numb to them)

Anyway, here I'm finding that I know more about what's going on. Whose on fire, who is having a poor spell, injuries, suspensions etc. it means every game I play has a story.

Loving this game.
 
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DanielWins said:
You know the different exploits you have been succumbing to i.e. the Ronaldo sprint, long ball, and other ones you have mentioned...Are you not able to use the exploits yourself to win the games or do you choose not to play like that?
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Part of it is that I'm not willing/interested in playing a certain way, but part of it too is that I'm not good enough or experienced enough in certain areas.

On one hand, I will never dribble straight from kickoff to attempt to exploit the poor positioning and AI. Passing the ball backward is so ingrained as a habit that doing otherwise never even crosses my mind, and I have zero intention of doing otherwise.

Likewise with spamming long shots to exploit the poor keeper positioning, or doing a quick 1-2 at kickoff and sending a 40-yard lofted through ball for a striker to volley on goal. I have zero interest playing with Real Madrid just so I can sprint down the sidelines with Ronaldo or Bale every chance I get, even if that might be the best strategy for wins online.

On the other hand, playing online is a new experience for me, as I've never played more than a handful of online games of FIFA prior to this year. Seriously, I think I've played less than half a dozen since switching from PES in 07/08.

So in those years, I've learned to play against the AI, and in doing so I'm ill-prepared in some ways to transitioning to online play. One prime example that gets me into trouble all the time is that it's traditionally been extremely easy to build from the back against the CPU and dominate possession with a short to mid passing game.

As a result I've struggled at times using a more direct approach. This means that not only do I get caught out building from the back, but I'm also inexperienced playing long balls from the back, which is a popular tactic online considering the space afforded forwards, especially in quick transition situations, and the ease of taking on defenders.

So some of my frustrations are the growing pains of learning to play online - the CPU AI is not especially intelligent and doesn't exploit the game's weaknesses, and present a rather different type of challenge and even game of football.

Regardless, I take little satisfaction from the goals scored that I know come as a result of the game's flaws, even if it results in a win, so playing in such a fashion will never interest me.That online play provides positive reinforcement for skills that are so often not associated with realistic football is the reason I've always avoided online play in the past. And if the single player experience weren't so poor this year, I'm sure I probably wouldn't have ventured online to begin with, though I've (mostly) enjoyed the online manual matches I've had, when I've been able to get a match.

TL;DR: On one hand the purist in me doesn't want to play that way; on the other hand, I just need to get good.
 
I really dislike the new highlights system. Nobody's interested in slow-mo shirt-tugging, referee reactions or your instagram filters, EA.
 
This is my experience of FIFA 15, if anyone's interested.

From the best goal I've scored in twenty years of football gaming (that I can't enjoy thanks to the shoddy goalkeepers), to the AI "foibles" I can't overlook.

My particular favourite is the dance-off at the end. This version was supposed to be all about atmosphere and authenticity after all...

YouTube - FIFA 15 Glen Johnson rocket

YouTube - FIFA 15 goalkeeping epic fail

YouTube - FIFA 15 "Legendary" difficulty defending fail

YouTube - FIFA 15 triplets disco
 
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