curdstar
Premier League
- 19 September 2006
- PES4 Partick Thistle
I really appreciate that post - thanks so much. I haven't wanted to give up the save, because it's rare that I'm so invested in FIFA.
Perhaps the defenders I've brought in just aren't good enough (they were all free transfers, but are twice as good as the previous defenders who - at best - had 60s for everything a defender needs).
Can I ask how you approach a tackle? Because:
- If I hold X (pressure), I hit an invisible wall around the opponent.
- If I press O (stab-tackle), I just start busting moves...
- If I hold L2 (jockey), either I just slip either side of the opponent, or I'm too slow to catch him.
- If I hold L2+R2 (running jockey), I still slip either side of him and no tackle appears to happen.
I also noticed the other day - first time I've ever seen it - that the "jockey" button also results in a tackle, according to the controls list in the pause menu (plus the "jump up after tackle" button):
So I'm a bit lost...
This why I think FIFA lacks realism: layers upon layers of commands and prompts for very simple, incredibly natural and instinctive actions, if we are comparing it to playing the sport.
I can never really articulate it in words properly, but when I play football I don't find myself having to think through my actions and motions: it is just me and who I am and what I am capable of. The better I got at playing the sport, the more instinctive things became, and I simply don't think layers and layers of button combinations replicates (more approximates) how a human approaches body movement, control, and execution. I'll only make a comparison to PES here in order to try illustrate why I think the developers of that game "get it" in certain regards.
Take "no touch" dribbling and feinting as an example. In FIFA there is a bespoke button for it; in PES 2018 it is mapped into players basic movement with the left stick. The approach in PES is far more relatable to doing such in real life in that you don't "think out", "engage" or require huge effort to simply shift your body to feint/adjust on the move effectively. In FIFA it is an instruction, a command, a thing that requires a very deliberate switch of input. That isn't how an average player, even at Sunday League level, would go about doing something as simple as that, and it really is an incredibly simple and incredibly frequent thing in the sport. Why? Because it is instinctive in literally everyone who plays football. Everyone. Even that massive over-weight centre-back you'll see playing a Sunday morning elevens match does it. Yes, some players are far better at others in doing it in tighter, more restrictive situations; some are definitely quicker and more creative with it than others, but absolutely everyone who plays the sport, no matter the level, does it as much as they do pass the ball. It is an entirely human thing to do, thus it being on another button, it being a "command" or "skill" to learn and memorise, runs completely counter to real life, because it is something every single person who has played the sport does, and with ridiculous frequency. It isn't something that requires learning, but it is something that one can learn to use more cleverly, more quickly, more creatively.
This is perhaps why the players in PES look more alive, more aware when in control, because these natural little feints, adjustments and movements are mapped in a far more believable way. Every user is doing it just like we all do in real life, regardless of "skill" as the execution isn't a skill, but how to do it well, effectively, with greater finesse and composure is.
The more buttons, the more you try to map actions via combinations of buttons, the less relatable the players are to humans; the closer they get to feeling like you are controlling a mechanical entity, not an organic one.
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