Last night I set up a CM with my beloved and was overwhelmed by a sense of familiarity. It's maybe, partly, my fault. I am pretty rigid in my approach to CMs and MLs. But I feel as if I could've configured the menus it with my eyes closed.
Straight out of the box settings, World Class. I don't have the attention span to comb through all the toggles and sliders up front, and that's before my aforementioned complex which makes it difficult to tinker with any freedom and abandon.
Took a deep breath and entered a Zen-like state of calm.
"Play the game it is, not the one you want it to be."
"Play the game it is, not the one you want it to be."
"Play the game it is, not the one you want it to be."
And it wasn't impossible to derive pleasure. There were some ridiculous moments (Figure 1) and some lovely moments (Figure 2).
It's not just the way I set up my CMs and MLs, my play style is pretty perfunctory too, and my FIFA system of yore (counter attacking 4-2-3-1; SBs, SMs, AM, ST with any amount of pace) was almost disappointingly effective. I was carving up teams with the standard one-two and chipped through balls.
At this point I realise I'll be lucky if anyone is still reading so let's cut to the interesting, visual bit:
Figure 1:
How can this still be happening in football games in 2021?
Figure 2 (Please ignore the Doric patois with my fellow cityman Mr Rae):
When it clicks, it can still be very rewarding. Sure I could pick apart how their LB switches off, but Scottish Premiership defenders do that.
In summary, I think it's a step in the right direction but not good enough to justify any time to tweak. And certainly not good enough to buy. I could play it for the year if all other football games were taken away. I could also never play it again. No doubt everything I do like will be patched out by November.
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Reassured by the backing my tweet is getting:
Obviously
@Matt10 and TTB got a good reaction with their responses but they're big dogs in the community, not a little no mark like moi.
Typical; you spend all this time making and sharing Master League content, old magazine clippings, quizzes. Turns out all you need do to pique Twitter's interest is bash FIFA. 😄 If no-one had engaged with my Simpsons reference yesterday I would've had to consider my position (thanks
@Chris Davies).
