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Most Fun/Dynamic FIFA

sleevel

sleevel

Conference
Joined
6 November 2024
Which version of FIFA has the most fun/dynamic gameplay? I’m not interested in skill moves, just linking together nice passes, gorgeous through balls, screamers from way out and bashing in headers off crosses.

Which version fits this bill the best?
 
It's very subjective as everyone will have their own view.

If you want all that in a game, you'll be looking at one of the older titles.

My go to is FIFA 14. Stick shot speed on 51 and you'll score some absolute screamers. It's tougher on that game to string moves together as the ball is a lot 'looser', I have ball control slider set to 40, but when you do, it is very satisfying.

The others I enjoy are 16 & 20 but the shooting in FIFA 14 keeps me playing it.
 
FIFA 14 seems to be universally adored. I haven’t played it a ton but when I have, it feels very uniform - all players and the ball are moving at a constant speed. I prefer something that’s sometimes slow, sometimes very fast.
 
You maybe better off with FIFA 16.

I've got 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 and they all offer something I like and things I don't like.

I can't play any of the ones after 20 as that's when crossing become non existent and the 1v1 thing kicked in, so half the players on the pitch don't do anything.

20 plays a nice tempo, I was messing about the other day trying out slowing down play, speeding it up etc... You can do that on all the games, often on 14 I'll have the ball with my CB and slow it down to walking pace before beating the press and trying to put together a swift attack.

One thing that 14 does have, which probably contradicts your comment, is fast players beat slow players. I play as Girona at the moment and I have a winger who is quick. I can often pop a ball over the Full-Back and he will rinse them for pace and get it.

Only issue I have with 14 is the sub bug. Sometimes you make them and they don't come on at all. Then I've had it twice when I've subbed a player on and he's running around wearing a bib, while 2 guys are sat on a sub bench in the middle of the pitch 😂😂
 
It’s honestly hard to compare gameplays as I feel like I’m spending most of the time chasing the other team down trying to win the ball back (which I know goes against the more realistic containment defense method but I’m really just trying to evaluate dribbling, passing, movement and shooting).

I’m right there with you on the 1v1 mechanic. I can’t do it. If an opposing player is in the box with a chance to shoot, the second defender must close down.

Also, the AI on these older games is frustratingly good. Supporting defenders will intelligently play a secondary press or clog passing lanes, making my efforts of testing even more difficult.
 
I think FIFA 11 is my “most fun” FIFA, and it’s quite a challenge, as well. You can score some fun goals and with harder levels or gameplay changes, it can be really difficult to get out of your own half sometimes because the CPU can eat you up. My only gripe about is the there are too many “alley-oop” goals where, on both sides of the ball, the forward has incredible hops and heading power — but that may be what you’re looking for.
 
I played some 16 last night, first with Supernova CL.ini in my folder (but I didn’t regenerate) then with the Classic Patch. I played on amateur so I could get a lot of shooting chances (which is similar to legendary on FC25, lololololol) and man I was just ripping manual shots. It felt a little cheap (maybe cuz I was an amateur?) or something about the shot execution wasn’t vibing (even though the result was screamers).

Switched to 14 and first thing I noticed is the “lag” in passing and shooting. I had to shoot a whole second sooner it felt to let the player “wind up” compared to 16. (Admittedly I was messing with mods, or at least trying to - I don’t really understand cl.ini.) Even on amateur I wasn’t able to get many scoring chances, and flubbed a few since it took so long to get the shot off.

From a mods perspective, 14 and 16 seem to be the most supported, so I’m inclined to settle on one of those. I’ve currently got 11 through 18 installed but these mods are rapidly taking up space.
 
Idk when EA added this, but I noticed on FIFA 23 that 2nd man press has a time limit after which the 2nd man just returns back to original location and stops pressing the attacker. This has to be one of the most stupidest edition to the series. I get that player might run out of stamina but just leaving the position and stop pressing the player completely? What the hell is this? Also if you have 2 human players on your team, you can't bring in the 3rd man to press anymore either. Ridiculous.

I have not played 20-21, but I noticed that in 22 and 23 your AI mates does almost noting to cover the spaces. This will eventually turn into rage inducing frustration, whether you play against human or just CPU. Dribbling the player also feels sluggish and skatey.



With these in mind, I think you will be better off playing any FIFA game before 19. If you want a decently balanced game, I'd recommend FIFA 16. Between 16 and 14, I'd personally go for 16 since it was a next gen port. 16's dribbling feels more responsive than 14 but none of them have hyper responsive dribbling.

You can also try FIFA 2010 world cup which has faster paced gameplay but feels good. That by extension makes FIFA 11's pc port almost similar as well. On the other hand, FIFA 11 x360/ps3 port feels more like FIFA 12/13 which are decent games too. If you want a more modern FIFA game with responsive dribbling, you can try FIFA 18- which while not as good as FIFA 16, does not have the rage inducing dumb AI positioning.

If you want a more old school style game, FIFA 07 pc/ps2/og xbox is also another game while primitive by today's standards, was actually quite decent. It was slower paced than previous fifa games. However, if you do want fast paced older fifa games, then fifa 06 is alright as well. That was when fifa was starting to catch up on gameplay.

So these are my recommendations in order. If you just wanna try a single game, then 16 will be my recommended game.
 
The most balanced and resembling a real football match in my opinion is FIFA 16. It also has a huge database of graphic and gameplay-changing mods. True, the ball spin could be better and there are not many goals scored from headers. But it still gives a lot of fun. However, if you want more spectacular gameplay, FIFA 19 should work very well. Very nice graphics, very nice animations, the game is more goal-to-goal and you can score more headers and amazing goals.
 
For me, the best football it's a women's gameplay of FIFA 18 in the pre-update version of the game. I'm playing this without updates version of FIFA 18 almost every day. The women's contain very fun gameplay. This game is the best video game ever for me (I've been playing various games since 2000). FIFA 19 is in second place. Another 2th variant is FIFA18 with title update 2, but with deleted "patch" folder and replacing original files initfs_Win32 and "layout" in "data" folder on files taked from "patch" folder of title update 3 version of the game (this works with non-licence game). Sometimes I play FIFA 21, and also for the women's national teams only, but it's no good as 18 and 19.
 
oldbox said:
For me, the best football it's a women's gameplay of FIFA 18 in the pre-update version of the game. I'm playing this without updates version of FIFA 18 almost every day. The women's contain very fun gameplay. This game is the best video game ever for me (I've been playing various games since 2000). FIFA 19 is in second place. Another 2th variant is FIFA18 with title update 2, but with deleted "patch" folder and replacing original files initfs_Win32 and "layout" in "data" folder on files taked from "patch" folder of title update 3 version of the game (this works with non-licence game). Sometimes I play FIFA 21, and also for the women's national teams only, but it's no good as 18 and 19.
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the reason why you liked women's gameplay more is heights of players. you can reduce all player's height like -15cm with using excel table.

i always reduce player heights in every fifa games. sometimes i increase radius size of ball. for example my fc25 looks like that:
1748730596422.png
 
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EauRouge said:
the reason why you liked women's gameplay more is heights of players. you can reduce all player's height like -15cm with using excel table.

i always reduce player heights in every fifa games. sometimes i increase radius size of ball. for example my fc25 looks like that:
View attachment 356683
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I tried editing skills of players and height & weights, and I don't seeing good results. Better animation (more smoothness), unpredictability of the game (you can loose or win), various funny moments with womens - it's like another game in FIFA 18. In FIFA 16, 17, 18 the female gameplay looks different from the male gameplay. In FIFA 19, 21, 22, 23, 25 they are very similar. I don't tried FIFA 20 and 24, but I think it's similar. In my opinion, the man's gameplay is better in FIFA 16 and 17 with best AI. Maybe it's just my impressions and emotions, comparable to the first impressions of Winning Eleven 9. WE9 really had the magic of gameplay. Even the name of this game sounds occult. I played FIFA 18 women's teams for the first time only in 2021, since then I compare all football games only with the women's gameplay of pre-update version of FIFA 18. It's has best balance of arcade and realism without hard scripting and bad moments.
 
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I got very good memories about "Fifa World Cup 2010", which seemed to got a pretty different approach than the others Fifa gameplay (not especially more arcade through).
The ambiance was so great.
Those extra version where often pretty different than a classic Fifa post 07, but all in and off the pitch was so ambiancy and enthusiastic.... Now i want to replay it.

Otherwhise, my favourite is still the 14, and especially the PS4 version, smoother. I don't hate Fifa 16 but to me it was still too easy to dribble pass, scores where too high.... Well on my side. In terms of feeling i got really hard with the overall feeling Ignite engine provide. On the 14 it was just superficial so okay. But physics and animations seemed to be already out of breath after only 3 years, a bit like PES 2013 and his PS2.5 engine.

Still i don't hate at all those great games, but i got hard to replay it. I retried the 14 and the 16 on a big Fifa retro session and to me there wasn't even match between the two.
That's why i make the analogy between PES 13 and Fifa 16 : The gameplay feels to coincide better with the physics, all natural nothing overdo or added over the engine appart if you know what i mean but that's my point of view.
 
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I’ve always been a console player and only recently got into PC when I bought a Steam Deck which I’ve now replaced with a Legion Go, so still console like.

I’ve played FC 25 on both PC and PS4 and they are vastly different. PS4 is a solid game and I don’t know what this thing is on PC - I’ve tried all the mods and nothing about it feels right. I don’t know if it’s the Denuvo code scrambling or what but it’s very different.

My goal is to find the best console like handheld experience on my Legion Go. PS2 and PS3 emulation or PC, FIFA or PES. I have no allegiance.

FIFA has the reputation for being an arcade game and a goalfest but ironically, the older PES titles like Winning Eleven 7 are some of the most arcade like I’ve played.
 
sleevel said:
I’ve played FC 25 on both PC and PS4 and they are vastly different. PS4 is a solid game and I don’t know what this thing is on PC - I’ve tried all the mods and nothing about it feels right. I don’t know if it’s the Denuvo code scrambling or what but it’s very different.
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These are two different games. The PC version is the next gen version while the PS4 version is the old gen version.
 
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