FIFA 18 (Console Versions)

Topaz said:
You mean the patch that added the option to delegate contract renewals?
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Oh, this part you will like. And the radar dots are fixed. Good stuff, I like it too.
Gameplay is a bit faster though. Hopefully nothing a few new sliders can't fix, we'll see :)
 
manmachine said:
Oh, this part you will like. And the radar dots are fixed. Good stuff, I like it too.
Gameplay is a bit faster though. Hopefully nothing a few new sliders can't fix, we'll see :)
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Yes, I just finished a stream, here were my thoughts:

Just an update here, as I conclude the stream.

Very odd indeed is that I played a new CM with FC Koln against a high pressuring M'Gladbach. It was very fast, even on the pass speed. This tells me something happened with the game code.

I decided to leave that match, go play a kick-off one of Chelsea v Derby County...and right away, OP set (except for 50 sprint), back to smooth animations and great gameplay.

Fired up a Crystal Palace CM...played home to Huddersfield...great match. Absolutely brilliant match. Lost 2-1 in stoppage time. They threw me off thinking they were going to play for the draw, and got punished.

So overall, the position we're in, in terms of testing, is kind of pointless. We have to wait for console guys to get the update and go from there. So, for now, there will not be an update to the sliders. I think the patch threw me off quite a bit considering that FC Koln CM...but maybe it was just a one-off, who knows.

In terms of the patch itself, the net physics are great, and dare I say it (again) they've increased that ball size
 
In the interests of balance, last night I played four matches and didn't really enjoy any of them. The negatives to this game:

1. Although I can change it if I remember, a lot of my matches are at night and the lighting/colours are terrible. I love how the game looks during the day but at night, it looks PS3-esque.

2. I had one game against Poland and Woj (GK) saved EVERYTHING I sent his way. I mean long range shots, one on ones, crosses - the lot. It felt like it was coded that I wouldn't score. Haven't felt that before. This on Professional too.

3. Maybe it's my copy but the R2 quick sub is broken. Sometimes I can hold R2 even though the prompt on screen hasn't appeared and make a change. Last night, I wasn't getting a prompt and I couldn't use it at all for one entire match. On another, I could call up the mini menu but couldn't scroll through the 3 choices like I've always been able to. This feature is simply broken.

4. The commentary seems worse than Fifa 16. What happened to Tyldesly and Townsend for International matches? If I hear Alan Smith say "he's mis-cued that, mis-cued it badly" one more time I'm turning the sound off!

Maybe it's because I'm feeling under the weather at the moment but these things really bugged me last night and I couldn't enjoy it.
 
Another game in last on night on career mode v Leicester legendary..playing 3 at the back still but van djyk still out..lost 3 -1..my 3 at the back were exposed by vardys pace and the through ball, it was typical Leicester football ..they are at the top of the league on 15 points after 5 games so on fire
 
mfmaxpower said:
Just a couple quick examples of what I'm talking about with the defending (against the CPU at least). These are all on Legendary, default settings.

Example of skill moves freezing/confusing CPU defenders. What in the world is #4 doing?

And again (plus as a bonus, watch how poor an angle the CB takes when he finally steps up and applies pressure; all too easy):

An example of terrible backline play. This is Hummels and Boateng - two elite level defenders. What the hell are they doing? (And did you notice how poorly the first defender reacts to the step-over? He literally slides away from me about 10 feet!)

And it's not just the CPU defenders. This is the very first goal scored against me in FIFA 18. Blind just lifts his leg, allowing the pass and an easy shot. Sometimes if you look closely at FIFA 18, you see things that look as if EA intentionally coded odd defensive mistakes in the game; really weird.

Again, I'm not arguing that these ruin the game but the defensive problems certainly are an issue. Some of these are legacy issues - the backline AI has had issues for years - but defenders freezing after skill moves and Blind lifting his leg over the ball, these are new to FIFA 18.

When you combine these problems with the general lack of aggressiveness/awareness/close marking from teammate AI, and with all the improvements to attacking play, there's good reason why many are complaining about the defense.
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People most concentrate on this kind of videos to make this game better in the future
 
I know people find faults etc, but after a week of playing it honestly seems like maybe the best football game I've ever played (and I've played them all since 1992), and one I've enjoyed the most since PES/WE from maybe 12 years ago.

I think it is absolutely brilliant with Matt's sliders, the amount of content is nuts, trying to work out what to play each night be it FUT squad battles or seasons, Career or the Journey etc.

Crucially I feel the gameplay is massively improved. I bought PES 18 at launch and it's a very good game which does some things better than FIFA, and I really enjoyed it, but FIFA has really blown me away, was not expecting to be so impressed. You finally get satisfaction in your goals, and crucially you are getting the "random/unpredictable goals" that was a hallmark of PES over the years.
 
bluewomble88 said:
In the interests of balance, last night I played four matches and didn't really enjoy any of them.
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I decided to play online last night and that totally spoiled the rest of my evening. Hyperbole is annoying but I was genuinely disgusted by it, it was just a button-mashing contest that didn't represent football. I remember that one of the key features of an earlier FIFA (14 maybe?) was that first time passes could no longer be strung together because of an increasing inaccuracy risk. A feature that, now (even when playing the AI), appears to have been deleted entirely.

I feel like the lead producer read "FIFA's flow is broken" in a review somewhere and went "right, I want the game to flow, so let's make passing super, super accurate - that'll fix it".

It's the same ham-fisted approach that said (and I'm paraphrasing but it's a real quote) "if defending was better it'd be boring" and "the AI needs to be more direct" (all the time).

Went back to playing the AI and I have to play on SLOW with 48 acceleration (and yes, I know that'll screw the fatigue, but it's a necessity for me). Without that, it's stupidly fast (even with reduced pass speed for the user and AI). Now I'm reading the next update speeds the game up...

But the games I played, build-up play didn't exist. It was literally all-out-attack from kick-off. Listen; any team (no matter the tactics) where, as an example, a LB has a free player 30 yards in-front of them, with nobody anywhere near the free man, at 0-0 in the first half, is going to pass to that guy 9 times out of 10. You don't have to be playing "possession football" to make that choice, that's just how basic football works. But here they'll attempt a fucking laser pass to either a winger, or a striker. You just wouldn't do that unless you were desperate.

I got really annoyed last night and, with AI pass speed at 38, turned pass error up to 68 for the AI on World Class (which is my favourite level at the minute). It made no difference. @Scorpio, didn't you say pass error made the AI get the pass direction wrong this year (as if they were playing on manual)? Because even whacking it up to 100, that's not what happens. At 100 they start hitting really weird lobs and really buggy stuff happens, but their aim is always super perfect.

@Matt10, aren't you finding that the pass error slider is pretty useless this year? I know that usually a higher pass error means the AI will hit shorter passes to avoid conceding possession, but I'm absolutely not seeing that this year. Semi passing feels great, but then the AI get the ball and start passing it around like it's PES, first-time insta-passing with no error. All I can achieve with that pass error slider is essentially breaking the game without actually introducing any ground pass error...

For me, the game on-the-ball as a user is 50% better than last year, but the AI has gone two steps forward and then two steps back. I went back to my FIFA 17 save last night and seeing the opponent look for gaps in the midfield - as opposed to just urgently, desperately trying to pass to the striker all the time - I was left thinking "why can't this happen any more". I don't get hard-fought 0-0s any more (yes, they happened too often, but at least teams didn't play like they were a goal down in the World Cup final, from kick off).
 
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Audio / Visual / Presentation Changes:
  • The color of the In game radar icons are once again based on the color of a team’s kit.
  • Adding this season’s authentic Bundesliga broadcast package.
  • Addressed multiple minor audio issues.
  • Improvements to the goal net animations.
Really surprised by this. Can't wait for the patch on PS4 and to start with Bor. Mönchengladbach in career mode with the new Bundesliga broadcast package!
 
  • The color of the In game radar icons are once again based on the color of a team’s kit.
This was doing my head in
 
@Chris Davies sell the game mate It shouldn’t be this stressful for you as you’re meant to enjoy it!!
I sold my xb1 version and bought the Switch version. It’s great fun. Try it. It’s like Pes in early days.
 
Must say i have really enjoyed the game so far. Started a Bundesliga 3 Career with Wurzburg just for fun and having a blast.

I really hope the Update does not increase the game speed as some have indicated since it was released for PC. It would feel like such a backward step as the pace of games is probably the best of any FIFA i have played (Playing on slow speed too).

As an aside, i thought that Forest Green Rovers players were all having face scans in the game? When i check them they all have default generic faces. This after i have downloaded the latest squad updates too. Seems a little bit strange when there was so much fanfare about it.
 
Forgot to say the preset options when taking corners (crowd keeper etc) simply don't work at all. It's not that they aren't working for me, they simply do nothing.
 
Just played a match on fast, surprised that I didn't feel it was too fast/arcade, overriding feeling was how much more responsive the game felt, think I'll stick with that for now and tweak sliders accordingly, it was the Allstar friendly of The Journey so maybe a league match will not be as enjoyable...
 
Chris Davies said:
@Matt10, aren't you finding that the pass error slider is pretty useless this year? I know that usually a higher pass error means the AI will hit shorter passes to avoid conceding possession, but I'm absolutely not seeing that this year. Semi passing feels great, but then the AI get the ball and start passing it around like it's PES, first-time insta-passing with no error. All I can achieve with that pass error slider is essentially breaking the game without actually introducing any ground pass error...

For me, the game on-the-ball as a user is 50% better than last year, but the AI has gone two steps forward and then two steps back. I went back to my FIFA 17 save last night and seeing the opponent look for gaps in the midfield - as opposed to just urgently, desperately trying to pass to the striker all the time - I was left thinking "why can't this happen any more". I don't get hard-fought 0-0s any more (yes, they happened too often, but at least teams didn't play like they were a goal down in the World Cup final, from kick off).
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The best way to test the effectiveness of the pass error slider is raise it up to 100, try a long ball. In previous versions of FIFA, this would result in a very low pass, even for long balls. I think the CPU is adhering to the value correctly at the 60 pass value we're finding. There is a bit of hesitation in their decision making, and they under-hit passes, or just simply pass to the wrong player. The goal is to make these pass errors look like being out-of-sync more so than just plain old screwing up a pass.

I do see the quick passing at times, most of the time when I'm on the back-foot and not defending well. The CPU does love to pass forward, but what's different this year is they do provide a lot of creativity and variety in their passing - regardless of pass error values. I think the lower pass error values actually have resulted in a more one-dimensional passing (due to trying to maintain a high %).

Passing in general has a lot of variables attached to it though. Marking, Line Settings, Run Frequency, Acceleration, Sprint, First Touch, etc. It's all relative.
 
This is the most I've ever played a FIFA game so far. Some tweaks needed but in general it's very good. I've picked up some bad habits from playing the more acadey PES games over the years though that I have to unlearn to help get the most out of this. It's a much more considered game than the other.
 
Chris Davies said:
Now I'm reading the next update speeds the game up...
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I know I've said this on this forum as well. But it turns out it's not a bad gameplay patch, just buggy in some other way.
The game sometimes enters a super-fast mode. In a way I'm kinda glad it happened to Matt too, because his suggestion about playing a kick off match fixing the game engine, seems to work. Seems like a weird EA bug that I haven't seen before.

This probably explains all the people crying about the patch speeding things up. And well we pc users suffered for a day so you don't have to. Keep this in mind if it happens to you too when consoles are updated. It's a good patch but you never know! :)
 
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Chris Davies said:
@Scorpio, didn't you say pass error made the AI get the pass direction wrong this year (as if they were playing on manual)? Because even whacking it up to 100, that's not what happens. At 100 they start hitting really weird lobs and really buggy stuff happens, but their aim is always super perfect.
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I play on professional difficulty, all manual, with only 1 slider adjustment: cpu pass error set to 70. I've found that lowering the pass speed increases the passing accuracy because the cpu has more time to get to the ball AND the cpu will play better passing football.
That's why I leave the pass speed at default.

I've been thinking that the camera settings also delivers different passing accuracy because intercepting a pass by cutting of passing lanes is different according to the camera angle you use.

I play on the classic cam (not the default) with height 20 and zoom 0.

Just try it.
 
Just putting it out there that I am struggling like a mofo against the CPU I am playing the exact same way I have for the last 6 years. Semi shoot semi pass everything else manual. F me I can not believe the steep curve of learning EA has put on this game. I absolutely love it no doubt. What were they thinking this is brilliant but f me I am taking some humbling losses.


Things well click and all will be right with the world but for the here and now I ain't got Shiz sussed. I am simply getting my azz kicked and I love it.
 
Chris Davies said:
I feel like the lead producer read "FIFA's flow is broken" in a review somewhere and went "right, I want the game to flow, so let's make passing super, super accurate - that'll fix it".
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It certainly does feel like that. And I agree, I've yet to find a pass error slider that doesn't seem to cause other issues with gameplay. I still think that it's the defensive side of the game that's causing issues - in those moments when you can apply proper pressure to the other team, I like the mistakes and decision making I see. Even on default, I love some of the realistic play I'll see from lower quality teams, or teams that you catch "on a bad day." But for top teams, it's just way too easy to ping the ball around and create a chance off of only a couple passes from the back.

I totally get why people are having tons of fun with this FIFA. I just wish attacking play wasn't quite so perfect and that there was more buildup play involved.
 
I'm sorry if this is offtopic but is there a fifa 18 career mode thread or should I just ask my questions here?
 
Gunslinger said:
I think about this game when I'm not playing it like I used to during the PES 3-6 days.
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Haha, same here, like I'm 13 again (who am I kidding, I was 21 when PES 5 came out, haha). :P it's most excellent.

I'm playing my career mode with QPR. It was going well, we were third or so, not having lost a single game, but getting quite a few draws. Then lose away to Derby despite having dominated them. My players seemed to get a dip in form after this, we still dominated Preston in the next match, but drew 0-0. From there on, another three matches, with gradually poorer performances, sloppy passing, bad finishing - but the nice thing is, it did not feel like scripting. I was just controlling things hurriedly, making bad decisions, players were tired, not in form - together, we got desperate. Lost out to Brighton in a penalty shootout in the league cup, but at least we managed to score a couple of goals for the first time in 4 matches. Won a scrappy 1-0 win at home against Forest or something after this, and form picked up. Won a very hard fought contest away to league leaders Birmingham 2-0, having counter attacked in the 2-0 goal in injury time after having been under siege for some time. It felt soooo good to score that goal.

I was looking forward to getting an upgrade on Sylla/Thomas and Mackie in the transfer window, but we have 3 mill to spend, so not gonna happen! Damn. Freeman and Luongo my best players, just signed them both on 3 year contracts. Sylla is so insanely shite though, despite being 73 overall, have no idea how I should best use him. He can't finish to save his life, moves like a donkey and doesn't really seem to have any strengths!

Some niggles here and there - but overall, so extremely immersed in the game. Haven't been this immersed in a footy game for well over 10 years. :)
 
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Daisuk said:
Some niggles here and there - but overall, so extremely immersed in the game. Haven't been this immersed in a footy game for well over 10 years. :)
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Love it when games are capable of creating their own stories for everyone. The most important thing is that yes, so far it all feels natural, you don't feel cheated, you know you could have prevented most things, if only you kept your cool in front of goal or started a different formation, etc. That's why some passes/shots that shouldn't be possible hurt this game a little.

Hopefully ML can be restored to it's former glory someday as well, because that's why we love to play these modes.
 
Any advice from the pc users to ps4 users ? Update, don't update? I'm reading on operation sports it's been sped up 30% then someone else saying no change
 
Just did an Olimpique Marseille vs Valenciennes in a French Cup.. I lowered a point in acceleration in my slides first, and then CPU ones and it all felt so smooth.. the pace, the animations, the physical duels. I know it mess with stamina, but the flashy change of directions and touches are really screwing the experience and if this helps I think I'll sacrifice it.

I don't know if it's just a case tho, I'm afraid this game is really influenced by situations/day hours/meteo conditions and different stadiums in a way that seems way higher than last years.
 
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