Really can't agree on people's comparisons with FIFA12. For me, someone who's always argued that PES is the more realistic, for once I'm going with game reviews and saying I think that FIFA12 is the most realistic game ever. There, shoot me down!
There are tons of things that need refining like ball control etc, but if you get the sliders right it immediately becomes far more realistic. The games ebb and flow at a realistic pace, the CPU has equal if not more possession of the ball, and there is a limitless variety of goals to score. Conversely, while PES gets certain tecnical aspects right such as ball control (well, in PES2011 anyways), the way the CPU teams set themselves out is utterly unrealistic and shatters any idea of being sim-like. Packing the first third of the field with all eleven men then leaving a massive, gaping gap in the midfield, then spamming through passes and repetitive ways of scoring are abysmal ways of replicating the way football teams play.
Don't get me wrong, I 'get' why people don't like FIFA in terms of ball control and players feeling the same, but sliders really work wonders in this regard. Individuality in my career mode is huge this year. Different players feel very different. But where I never thought FIFA was realistic in the slightest, despite all the niggles here and there, the fact that career mode Premier League matches can overall pan out so realistically is the big difference. In PES2012 an away trip to Man Utd would see them have an 11 man defence and nail you on the counter, just as if you were playing Wolves or Bolton. In FIFA12, away at Man Utd you'll struggle to get the ball, be under pressure, and YOU'LL be the one having to play on the counter, whereas you'll have much more even contests at lesser teams. For the first time, FIFA12 makes the AI more tactically aware at defending and doesn't rely on mass defences or overpowered rugby challenges of the past. Ironically, PES, which never used to rely on such rubbish, won me over from FIFA last year for this very reason, now they've almost stolen EA's old method of defensive pressure whereas EA have advanced their AI/engine beyond needing to go down that route.
Just my two cents on that issue.
I can't agree. I think the sliders are a big afterthought at current and all in all none of them fix the streamlined sense of momentum and inertia, which for me are the two biggest issues with Fifa. Lowering acceleration only gives an attacker on the ball a better advantage anyway because he's in the middle of dribbling, already maxing out his acceleration. A static defender takes even longer to respond. I don't know if you read my post yesterday? about the problems in general with defending too. Rom agreed. I think it's imbalanced enough in favour of the attacker as it is. Adjusting acceleration ruins it completely. The few games that i played out when i lowered the acceleration (in fact it was to your suggested level) just had me and the cpu running past one another to score every time because defenders couldn't react and catch up from static positions.
Lowering speed makes the players run slower but doesn't affect any other aspects of dribbling, i.e how quickly they can push the ball when changing direction when dribbling, how quickly their first control is, how quickly they can turn on the spot with the ball. Lowering speed leaves you with a situation where the game is half fast, half slow, but the wrong way round.
Those two aspects right there make the game twice as fast as it should be. Toning down speed and acceleration doesn't make the game consistently slower as some people have suggested to me in the past. You still receive the ball, control it, turn, turn in another direction, pivot in another far too quickly that it simply defies human capability most of the game. The game is just so fast even on slow and i attribute it mostly to this reasons, and perhaps dribbling is a bit too streamlined, at least concerning how precisely and quickly a player can push the ball in another direction in an instant. People say players in Fifa dribble like Messi does in real life. I personally find that a true analogy.
On the other hand Fifa mirrors the fast paced side of football very well, PES doesn't at all, but it doesn't mirror any of the methodical parts of the game. Football is not played at 100 miles an hour for 90 minutes.
If they could sort out inertia and momentum then i'd probably enjoy it 5 times more because it does have a lot of good other features as you have said. I just don't get how people can play the game and not ask why it feels like the game is being played way too fast, even on slow. It bugs me too much to enjoy it.
That said, you're right when you suggest AI in Fifa has more variety. In PES every team plays in the same style. Oddly they do play differently, better teams are better, but the style is always the same. I think a lot of that is down to the fact that PES feels like 11 individuals on a team whereas Fifa feels like 1 team. I've always thought as a reflection of a team Fifa has been better. It just lacks the feeling of individuals. That in turn isn't such a virtue because when playing with club teams in PES you do get a weird lack of cohesion.
Anyway something i've felt about Fifa and PES for a while. Fifa reflects specific aspects football better when the actual game is being played but on the whole it just feels like something is wrong (i think it's because i take Fifa as a whole rather than a combination of parts making a game). PES doesn't reflect many specific aspects of football very well at all whilst it is played but (minus the scripting) in the end the game some how manages to mirror football well as a whole somehow. If anything i'd say the end justifies the means in PES, it's more evident in local multiplayer or if you can turn scripting off with mods. Maybe that is scripting? Better teams usually win, ergo the end justifying the means, but i don't think they cheat as much as they did before i had modifications. I can't put my finger on it.
