KABOOM!
(Okay, so I typed this up last week as a start and meant to go back and look over it, but I'm sick as a dog and can't be bothered right now, so here's what I got. Also, remember this is coming from someone primarily concerned with offline FIFA, CM in particular, and who plays with full manual controls.)
FIFA 12 should have three themes: 1) Put the beauty back into the game; 2) Improve the AI; and 3) Sliders - provide options for as many aspects of the game as possible, from gameplay to CM options.
FIFA: The Beautiful Game or the Brutal Game?
Though it can provide the visual impression of ultra-realism, FIFA’s current emphasis on physicality and interaction between players has gone too far, leading to the widespread complaints of FIFA 11 more resembling rugby at times than football. While the physical interaction appears realistic on an individual instance basis, as a whole the game over-emphasizes and rewards the physical side of the game at the expense of the skilled side of the sport. My opinion is not that there isn't beauty to be found in FIFA 11, because there surely is and it can be truly awesome, but that the skilled and technical side of the sport has become overshadowed by the physical side.
* Defending: it’s evolved to become far, far, far too easy and simple. In fact it’s practically automated and the tackle and teammate pressure buttons are now unnecessary for effective defending. In addition to overly successful tackling animations, player movement when not dribbling is unrealistic and allows for a defender to miss a tackle and recover almost instantaneously. A proper inertia, momentum, foot-planting system/mechanics would go along way toward helping.
Not only is this a problem for having a correct balance between offensive and defensive difficulties, but the ease of tackling in FIFA 11 means the game has a greater focus on turnovers through tackling than is realistic - in real life matches, a far greater ratio of turnovers occur from misplaced passes, interceptions, missed shots/crosses, etc. FIFA 11 however has an issue with Ping Pong Tackling(!), with a series of successful tackles going back in forth, back in forth, all too often.
Defending in FIFA has become so simple and automated, and thus overpowered, that I now try to refrain from using either the tackle buttons or the teammate press unless absolutely necessary! Doing so has a hugely beneficial impact on my matches, not only in the extra challenge posed (which isn’t much because of how efficient the auto tackling is) but also it leads to a more realistic ebb and flow, with games being less a “tackle-fest.”
One negative drawback from only relying on the jockey and sprint buttons for defending, however, is that jockeying in FIFA 11 is unrealistic in its lateral movements - especially when combined with the analog sprint, players are now able to “slide” from side to side, almost “swooping” in on their targets for a tackle. The movement better resembles how a defender moves in basketball, not in football. Not only is this movement unrealistic but it allows for defenders to move in on dribblers at a speed that should be too high for a player to make a tackle without fouling. The jockey system is great in theory but far too overpowered in the game.
* Dribbling mechanics: a big improvement over previous FIFA’s, especially with the addition of analog sprint, but it’s still not at the level it needs to be, especially when compared with the effectiveness of tackling and the defensive side of the game. Dribbling should not be the disadvantage that it is in FIFA 11 - ask any fullback and he’ll tell you that there’s nothing worse than a quick and agile dribbler coming straight at you, which is why in real life, unlike in FIFA, you see defenders backing off from dribblers, only sticking a foot in much less actually charging in for a tackle at the most opportune moments. In real life it is the defender that is at the disadvantage in a one-on-one situation but this is the complete opposite in FIFA!
In truth, the dribbling mechanics in FIFA 11 may be fine and all that’s needed correcting is the defensive side of the game (which includes unrealistic movement and response times), however a few suggestions:
1) more dribbling animations - defenders have an arsenal of auto tackling animations, so give dribblers auto animations to compensate, i.e. have dribbler automatically shield the ball or better hold off defenders;
2) improve shielding - it’s better but neither nimble or strong enough for tight situations or the bigger defenders;
3) skill moves - many of them are next to pointless, at least when playing against CPU defenders; make them better and easier to do; have failure/success more to do with attributes and situation than my ability to twist the sticks around perfectly;
4) increase player speed - the difference between min and max is too small, which not only makes analog sprint less effective than it could be but it devalues quick and agile players; I’m not asking for a return to the sprint fest of 09 but right now the balance isn’t right.
* Passing speed: as a manual player passing speed is far too slow for ground passes, providing a huge advantage to defenders who a) have more time to close me down before I can properly weight a strong pass and/or b) have more time to adjust and close down the recipient of my pass. Also, soft manual lob through balls are too difficult to hit - understand this may be an exploit in h2h non-manual matches, but for manual players it's too difficult to make a "soft" lob pass in tight situations, i.e. in the final third. (Also as a manual player, the through ball and regular ground pass should be less similar than they are now - one should be for short and one should be for long.)
* Shooting speed: also seems too low, especially when not playing with top players. Playing with lower league teams it can feel as if playing with a bunch of 13 year olds. Also, the RB shot (precision shot?) needs a little more oomph - at the moment it can seem like a floaty lob pass or something.
* Scoring in general: playing both PES 2011 and FIFA 11 yesterday I was amazed at how even though FIFA feels like it has a much higher degree of freedom to it, the variety of goals I scored in PES is like nothing I’ve seen in a FIFA game. I’ve seen many complaints about this and don’t know how to explain it considering the possibilities in FIFA do seem infinite, but it still feels like their are few specific ways to score in FIFA, certain angles a keeper can be beat, and every other type of attack has limited effectiveness. Too many of my goals feel the same in FIFA, and there’s not enough of that “wow” factor.
* Chesting: I’m sick of seeing my huge target man chest the ball only for the defender to waltz around him, stroll away with the ball and initiate a counter-attack, all before my target man has finished his chesting animation. That might be an exaggerated description but the problem is real - chesting animations take too long, while players more often than not fail to properly protect the ball like they would in real life.
Improving the AI
Defensive AI is a challenge on nearly any difficulty level, however the CPU offensive AI is poor also on any setting. These can be helped through adjusting Custom Tactics and other means (like not using the tackle or teammate press buttons) but I’ve yet to find an ideal solution. In the end, the game is hugely imbalanced between offensive and defensive play - playing against a CPU opponent is relatively simple and boring when defending, while trying to break down a CPU defense can feel more frustrating and tedious than challenging and fun.
* CPU defense: inhuman-like reflexes and response times - some of this is down to not properly have momentum and inertia, giving a player without the ball the ability to move, accelerate, adjust directions, and recover unrealistically. This impacts the CPU’s ability to intercept passes, recover from being “wrong-footed”, etc. The CPU virtual player appears to make decisions with super human speed (like that of a computer!), which obviously feels like an unfair advantage to play against. Also, the high pressure and aggression tactics are unrealistically efficient. Goalkeepers this year appear to make too high a percentage of fantastic saves.
*CPU offense: what’s to say, simply terrible. First, the CPU exhibits no desire to retain possession in most cases, typically only seeking the forward pass or move, which frequently leads to an easy stop. The vast majority of my games end with me having 60+ percent possession, easy. While human-controlled dribblers have enough trouble with the overpowered defensive side of the game, the CPU rarely avoids a mash of tackle button even with 10-yards of space and time to evade.
Most important of all, I have rarely if ever lost to the CPU feeling I was defeated, as in I’ve never felt broken-down by the CPU. Typically CPU goals occur as a result of its high-pressure tactics and rarely will I see a goal that comes from the CPU regaining possession in its own half. In addition, the CPU is terrible at taking shots, both in its willingness to do so and its accuracy. I have seen the CPU take shots from inside my penalty box only for it to result in a throw-in - that should rarely, if ever happen, and I play on Legendary or WC difficulty. Also, I like that the CPU is more willing to do skill moves now but too frequently the AI will attempt a spin move instead of just shooting when it’s within 5 yards of goal.
I have had some success at getting the CPU to play better through tweaks to Custom Tactics, however this success only underscores the AI weaknesses. My best results have come when slowing down build-up play so it’s max is in the 50s; next I lower passing so it’s in the mid to low range. For chance creation I put passing in the mid to high levels, crossing I haven’t touched really, and most importantly of all, I’ve pumped shooting to 75+. On the defensive side of the tactics I’ve moved both pressure and aggression down into the 20s-30s range, although I might have made aggression to low as the CPU seems okay with me dribbling all the way to their penalty box (like the PES sideline glitch!).
By adjusting tactics this way I’ve had my most enjoyable FIFA experiences against the CPU, with one very big caveat: it only works for me on Legendary difficulty. On anything less than Legendary I still see poor offensive play by the CPU, but on Legendary I’ve actually witnessed - the only time I’ve witnessed this in FIFA 11 - intelligent offensive passing moves and combos, and I’ve seen some impressive goals that were not the result of a single player besting one of my defenders but a “team-effort” goal! How many times can you say you’ve seen a “team-effort” goal in FIFA? Like I said though, dropping down to WC difficulty I haven’t been impressed with the offensive AI.
The problem with playing on Legendary, however, is that while pressure is much better and I enjoy the midfield game more, defenders on Legendary become unrealistic in their reaction times and ability to stop my attacks in the final third. In addition, at Legendary all of the sudden the CPU wins far more of the 50-50 battles, knocking aside my players as if they were flies at times, and task of scoring becomes just that - a task, a chore, more tedious and frustrating than challenging and fun. Again, this goes back to the fundamental imbalance between the offensive and defensive side of the game this year.
Sliders
* Defensive/offensive difficulty settings
* Basically, more options are better than less. If you can think of one, put it in the game.
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I ran out of time so just a couple other random notes:
* Individuality: not enough, esp. at lower teams
* Response times: not good enough on offense; too good on defense?
* First touch: A controversial topic. I believe FIFA has improved in this area and I regularly witness poor first touches playing in my lower league CMs. For me the problem is three fold: 1) Although it occurs less than previous years, a perfect magnetic-like first touch still does occur at times, sometimes occuring in situations that are laughable, and at times when a less than perfect control likely would have meant a possession change; 2) at the other end of the spectrum, the poorest first touches aren’t poor enough, allowing for some players, like defenders, to control a ball better than they should be able to, leading to situations in which a defender does not do a one-time clearance when he should; and 3) there is not enough variety between the two extremes.
* Freedom of movement should not mean freedom to defy physics! 360 degree movement has been a major revolution for football and sports games, however they also have brought with it a level of unrealism that must be eliminated now. A major gripe with the community is “skating” - players sliding along the pitch as if on ice skates. Sadly, imo this appears worse in FIFA 11 than previously. There are some instances where a collision occurs and the “losing” player will be knocked away, but rather tumbling to the ground remains on his feet, sliding across the pitch.
The next most important issue regarding movement must be inertia and footplanting, or the lack thereof to a realistic enough degree. Addressing these issues will naturaly lessen the look and feel of 360 degree movement somewhat, but as it is now players can move and change directions that not only is unrealistic but hurts the game overall, one by having the effect of speeding-up gameplay, and the other by allowing defenders to react with superhuman reflexes.
One reason defenders in real life tend to back off dribblers and seek to contain first and foremost is because it can be too costly a mistake to be wrong-footed by a dribbler. In FIFA, however, the near opposite is true, defenders are not penalized enough for aggressive play because they can recover quickly. FIFA has a very good jockey system in place (although it needs to be toned down!), make defenders use it! By adding a greater emphasis on a player’s movement ability, FIFA can also improve the level of individuality in the game.
