FSB Podcast Discussion

[Psok]

Am i the only one who doesn't have a problem with manager mode? I mean everything i hear over the forums and this podcast just doesn't happen to me. I'm in season 2 with manchester city, i agree about the kit thingy but i'm not having any problems with signing or renewing contracts. So far i've signed luis fabiano, david silva,davide santon,gael glichy,riccardo montolivo and marek hamsik. In able to do so i had to sell a few players like robinho and adebayor but still it works fine for me. None have left due to not signing a contract extension so i find it hard to believe the fact that so many people are having these issues. The form thing is not working at all though, goes up and down randomly and the assistent coach is a nono. Great podcast and i agree with a lot of what you said just find it wierd that i'm not having any major problems with MM.

[Ratinho]

It has some problems, but it's such a light year away from last years that i find myself forgetting the small bugs so far. It does need patching though and soonish, as there are 2-3 bugs that will irk me badly within a season or two. The form thing is mental right now, i just try and ignore it or i'll fume. That's the main one for me. Strangely the Ass Man is alright for me in terms of playing fit players and resting others, but he has some wacky ideas about player positions yeah.

Stadium names are saved in the squad files bizarrely Chris, god knows why they've done that and hopefully they won't screw us by simply releasing a squad update to fix custom tactics and ruining the 6 hours (yep, me too) of work. On the bright side, i asked about this on the EA forums and the new community manager replied, tested and confirmed it was in issue within hours. They really have a top notch team now and i fully expect them to sort a lot of the issues and soon.

Long shots are still very much possible. The keepers needed the tweaks they have got, and it's much more enjoyable now there don't seem to be any cheap long range efforts which were easy in the demo. The 1v1 and close range shooting is fantastic now, so much variation and freedom to do anything you want. Neither myself or anyone i've spoke to have had your issue with headers, never happens to me at all. We're rubbish at them but none of this chesting problem.

The AI is improved enormously this year, it's a completely different game to 09 and enormous differences in team qualities on this level (although the tactics issue is a silly problem that must be fixed) as you say. I play on World Class though and find it really competitive on there so maybe that's a you issue Chris, as they certainly don't run into the keeper when through on that level.

It's such a great game and a massive improvement on last year, that i don't really worry about the issues as there's always a mode i can go to that'll instantly make me happy again. 1v1 online with friends for example was a rarity for me last year., but i've already had some great games this year. The ebb and flow of the game is almost spot on, and no game has come close to this level of excitement and enjoyment wince Winning Eleven 6: Final Evolution.

As a side(ish) note, the brattish kids on the EA forums screaming about how rubbish the game is, and how much better 08/09 were and how Marcel should be sacked for getting married at this time of year (yeah, i seriously saw someone post that) are exactly that, brattish kids. For people making these kind of extreme comments, the game will never be right unless it's designed entirely for their needs alone and perfect in every area they want. Therefore, they'll never be happy.

It's a weird sense of entitlement someone as old as myself cannot understand.

[Gari14]

I agree with what Chris said on the podcast about MM on Fifa 10. I get so frustrated playing it as it has far too many bugs for my liking. I thought that the Fifa 09 MM had too many bugs but this just takes the pee!.

All in all, im not enjoying the game as much as i would like to as it feels very 'bland' at times and im hoping that this will change over time but at the moment, im not loving it i must admit

[Nanny]

great work chris, just some quick points:

- im not having any heading issues?

- people on the ea forums say they are signing a lot of players, i havent tried to sign anyone yet so i wouldnt know but a lot of people have signed so the whole MM issue i think may be solved by changing the board difficulty, i feel like maybe on easier setting you can sign players more realistic and maybe this will effect form too?

- ps3 version graphics are worse than xbox and also no instant reply in training mode and no ability for me and a mate at my house on my console to play training mode together.

- and commentary really is worse than last year

- no real chants

lets hope these patches fix all this business

[Makeda]

I have long been an observer of the FSB and WENB forums but sadly I never felt compelled enough to post anything as I didn't have much to add but, the latest podcast my Mr Davies struck a chord with me, and helped highlight again what is wrong with larger videogame journalism sites.

Now, the game has just been released and several sites have had review code for quite sometime but yet it has taken until now for someone to actually come out and break the tired of cliche of "its great but not perfect" by actually going into an immense amount of detail highlighting the niggling flaws of the game that do (over an extended period of time) detract from the games immersion and enjoyment levels.
I would like to applaud you for being not only being extremely meticulous in your analysis but also brutally honest about the game and saying what you didn't like about certain aspects of the title and giving EA much food for thought on what they should improve on especially for players like us who will be playing (or in my case.. wanting to <3 you Royal mail!) the game for a very extensive period.

Ultimately, my take on FIFA 10 thus far is a mixed one, while I love the new additions such as 360 dribbling and the skilled dribble which imho take the game far beyond that of 09, the biggest gripe I had with 09 was that after a long play session the game began to feel a little soulless when you were playing against the CPU.
As good as the gameplay was, the lack of constant and more importantly believable change in the big game modes such as Be a Pro and Manager Mode made me truly yearn for the attachment that PES offered me in the ML and to a lesser extent BAL modes. After reading Marcel's scoops on manager mode i was more thrilled about some aspects being fixed but sadly it sounds that until they patch the game up, we will still have to put up with a massive void when it comes to a giving you an enjoyable attachment to your team that master league gives you.
The Virtual pro stuff seems like a step in the right direction and it takes all the aspects i liked about BAP and Pro's BAL modes and fused them all into one highly addictive package, and with online support I think I might have found my FIFA mode that will take the majority of my playtime when I tire of random matches.

But anyways, I'm rambling on and probably boring anyone who read this all so I'll wrap up and say, top class review mate you addressed all my concerns I had about the game and I'll look forward to playing my own copy in a few hours hopefully

[Schumi]

Great review Chris, with some excellent remarks. What ennoys me the most (probably like you, as I am a MM-player) is the time and weather-effects. They are NEVER spot on. Like you said, it would just be better for EA to give players in MM all the setting-options you have when starting up a friendly. I.e. the time, weather conditions and ball.

Something you haven't talked about: a lot of teams don"t have correct players. For example Krancjar is not with Spurs, Vandenborre not with Portsmouth (not even in the game), Dunne, Lukaku, etc.

I am also a bit worried, that if EA come out with a new patch, my adjustments will be lost (stadium-names and player attributes)

Nice job, Chris!

[smalldetailsrule]

can you give me more detail on this tournament thing you do with friends

is it just me starting a tournament on my own and him playing as the AI opponents? and if he knocks me out the game is over?

or do we both pick a team and then for example he picks arsenal, i pick man utd.. in a tournament. the draw come sout:

man utd v bury

arsenal v spurs

when man utd are playing, he plays as bury? when arsenal are playing i play as Spurs? then if i get knocked out, i then try to knock him out?

[thanvar]

Another excellent podcast Chris D. The review is spot-on! I have to mention that it feels great to have you reviewing and commenting on FIFA games because , as strange as it sounds, we are alike on everything! It feels like if I did my review it would be EXACTLY THE SAME as yours, and that is a major relief for me as I know that the EA people will listen to what the problems I am experiencing with this, apart from the bugs, marvelous game! I also renamed all the stadiums before I even played a game, only to realize in vein that after 7 hours of renaming every stadium that the rosters need an update and that the updates change the stadiums names! So now I have 2 squads saves just because of that and because I've entered all international players that don't have a club team in the game to certain clubs so that they'll be available in MM.
Thanks for mentioning all the things that would better the game significantly and let's hope they listen to you!

[Chris Davies]

or do we both pick a team and then for example he picks arsenal, i pick man utd.. in a tournament. the draw come sout:

man utd v bury

arsenal v spurs

when man utd are playing, he plays as bury? when arsenal are playing i play as Spurs? then if i get knocked out, i then try to knock him out?

Yep, that's it. You have to try and get to the final and win while he tries for the same thing, trying to knock eachother out on the way.

Gives you lots of experience with different teams and also means that you get a lot of games you'd never usually play, where e.g. you have to play as a poor team and defend for your lives to try and get a counter-attack goal against a bigger and stronger team.

[lil_raze]

Great Podcast Chris, I haven't actually got the game yet due to lack of funds till I get paid, I traded in Fifa 09, PEs 2008 and a few others to get some credit at Blockbusters at Saturday and I was going to just add the rest on to get Fifa 10 but something just stopped me from buying it. Maybe it's after reading a lot of reviews (mainly good) and more importantly respected people's opinions on the game. And so far the one thing that keeps coming out which I can fully understand from playing Fifa 09 is the emotion and feeling of the game. As much as I enjoyed playing Fifa 09 (online especially when you can find decent opponents) the offline mode just didn't really grab me. Master League has always been huge for me and you really feel like that is your team, I just never got that feeling personally in MM on FIfa 09. And from the sounds of things that hasn't changed too much, especially if lots of teams strategies are the same.

I don't know what it is about Fifa, they have made huge strides forward and now have a solid playable game with lots of features and animations, but the magic just doesn't seem to be there, something with the fundamental gameplay doesn't engross me. Whether it's the lacking player individuality or variation in team styles. I'm not even sure what it is but I just don't get that feeling from the game. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's been there on Next-gen Pes either. I dunno maybe i'm asking for too much from next-gen, I'm going to see what PES2010 has to offer before I decide on my yearly football purchase I think.

[Viniero09]

Nice PC chris... I'll take ur word that future patches will make the game even better... but wouldnt changing the way nthe AI act required a lot of programing which wouldn't be possible to achieve in a patch and i really hope that u can still score long rangers more frequently that 09... Its what added another dimension to playing the game, in 09 it was futile to even try but in the 10 demo i scored some crackers with iniesta and xavi..

[Gari14]

Ive decided to start playing the game on fully manual like i did for some of my time playing Fifa 09 and it makes matches offline, so much more fun in my opinion. More than likely going to stick with full manual now rather than having the settings as semi.

Of course its harder to score because you have to aim in the exact spot where you want the ball to end up but its not impossible to score, far from it. You just need a bit of practise with it and the more times you play this way, the better you will get at it. Really enjoying it on fully manual at the moment, superb

[nani17]

Brilliant podcast mate i must say. I agree with must of the things you said as for manual I'm not good of a player yet to set it to manual but looking to drop to semi then to manual in the near future

[WILDSTER180774]

Nice podcast Chris. Pretty much share you conclusions on the game. Im not sure whats going on with me at present regarding fifa10. All week ive been like a little kid on christmas eve and when i finally got time to have a good session i really enjoyed it. But day 2 i found myself getting a little, cant believe im about to say this, bored with it. Now ive only played 1 player matches Vs the cpu but very quickly ive lost that excitement. Now compare this to when Fifa09 was released last year i couldnt wait to get time on the ps3 and pretty much hammered it for weeks. Now of course im not saying its a worse game than 09 because that would be really stupid as its by far the best footie game i have ever played. But there is something that i cant quite put my finger on that is stopping me have that, just one more game, feeling. Last night for example i had the tv to myself, day off work today so a right good time to have a long session but instead i watched MOTD2 and went to bed. And today ive not touched it either. Mayve i need to get a few mates round and stop playing the AI because i do find it very frustrating at times and not too much of an improvement over 09 in my opinion. Almost always score from crosses, too much cheating on the harder difficulties and wont shoot on the easier ones. Teams like Man Utd and Chelsea easier to beat than Hull etc. The way that the AI decides they cant be tackled no matter what. When 09 came out with these faults it wasnt to bad but playing a second year with the same faults is very poor. It has improved in general from 09 but not enough in my opinion.
As for the gameface feature, i think its superb but i did lose a hell of a lot of detail in my gameface. It took several attempts to even download it. I kept getting a message saying that it did not exist but im guessing this was down to the bad servers. And yes i have been given Asian eyes too. Whats that all about. But overall im happy with how my pro looks in game. And i have enjoyed trying to grow his attributes and already he has improved a lot. And im never gonna use the stat boost as im really against that and wished they never included it.
Manager Mode ive not even touched it as of yet as all the negativity i have already read just puts me off. I know this is a 3 year project but really some of bugs that have been reported are a disgrace. The weather being mostly rainy in England and at night is really a joke. They know how important the weather is to us all in this mode and how much in 09 it was broken and yet they release it like this. I will definately wait for a patch before touching this mode. And i feel sorry for you guys that have edited all the stadia because you will almost certainly lose it. That will be the EA way.
Now my biggest complaint is the fact that they have ruined the shooting with the patch. Yes the finesse shots were broken and it was a tad too easy to score from range but all they have done is make the keepers super human 09 style. I have not scored one long range shot now whereas in the demo i scored a few beaut's. I think it needs re patching in my opinion.. These are mainly negativespoints and i want to state that i really do love this game. The subtile improvements they have made all adds upto a wonderful smooth footie game. The ball physics are immense. I love the commentary. The new crowd is a big improvement. Itts a very very very good game. Its just that EA always seem to take 3 steps forward and then 2 steps back. So many bugs every year. It all leads me to think that they really should think about letting us ordinary folk from respected site, like FSB to give it a good bashing before release. If this was a school report my final comment would be,
Mr Rutter has shown real improvement over the last 12 months and is performing well. I have every confidence in his abilitys and feel that if he carries on in the same manner he will do very well. But at times takes his eye off the ball. Good work but could do better.
Oh and i nearly forgot.....the kits are really terrible. Worse than last year. And still Arsenal have the wrong case lettering on their backs. Whoever is in charge of that side of development needs a kick up the arse.

Oh and also, the Emirates pitch still looks like Hackney Marshes. Maybe the next time they hold an event there they should look out the bloody window and look at the turf. Shocking is an under statement.

[Gari14]

Oh and also, the Emirates pitch still looks like Hackney Marshes. Maybe the next time they hold an event there they should look out the bloody window and look at the turf. Shocking is an under statement.

Yeah im not happy about this myself. The pitch looks shocking. Its like playing on a League 2 pitch

[WILDSTER180774]

EA need to realise that, yes, the gameplay is the most important aspect of any footie game, but also small details like accurate kits, pitches and faces are very important also. Chris used the word 'immersion' and he is spot on. Tim must be gutted that Charlton dont even have a sponsor this year.

[Gari14]

EA need to realise that, yes, the gameplay is the most important aspect of any footie game, but also small details like accurate kits, pitches and faces are very important also. Chris used the word 'immersion' and he is spot on. Tim must be gutted that Charlton dont even have a sponsor this year.

I agree totally. Yes the graphical parts are small compared to say the gameplay being improved but its still importand to get that as close to real life as possible. For example, EA has all the licenses but they do not take full advantage of them as the kits are truely shocking for a next gen title and what Konami have done with their licenses are 100 times better. The graphical side of Fifa needs a big, big overhaul for Fifa 11.

[TheBroad]

EA has all the licenses but they do not take full advantage of them as the kits are truely shocking for a next gen title and what Konami have done with their licenses are 100 times better.

Me & Dave Spoke About This In Our Podcast,
Having The Licenses & Getting Kits Wrong....It Is Inexcusable To Be Honest...

But Yeh, Chris Great PC & A Good Insight Into FIFA 10 [Which I Have Yet Purchased]

[England]

EA has all the licenses but they do not take full advantage of them as the kits are truely shocking for a next gen title and what Konami have done with their licenses are 100 times better.

Me & Dave Spoke About This In Our Podcast,
Having The Licenses & Getting Kits Wrong....It Is Inexcusable To Be Honest...

But Yeh, Chris Great PC & A Good Insight Into FIFA 10 [Which I Have Yet Purchased]

Absolutely agree.

Great podcast Chris.

[Gari14]

This might sound a bit too extreme but come to think of it, EA in some ways dont deserve to have the licenses as the way they treat them is damn right shocking in all honesty. They pay all that money for the licenses and from what we have seen so far, they dont give two hoots about how they reproduce them for the consumers to see. It seems like its a 'buy it, dont worry about how it looks' thing to EA. Thats my personal opinion.