***Official FIFA 09 Impressions Thread***

[demencia_total]

I just got the game, got my first game underway. Barcelona(me) 2-2 Sevilla. I won on penalties after extra time. I went ahead and got straight into World Class difficulty set a 10 min halves, and I'm liking what I see so far. The only thing I'm non too happy about from my first game is that there still seems to be delays from inputting certain commands and seeing them happen. I broke out from the defenders with Eto'o, and as I was approaching the GK, I tried to fake him and then quickly do a finesse shot, except that the actual fake got delayed by around half a second and so I dribbled too close into him and he easily grabbed the ball from me. It doesn't seem to happen often, but the problem is still there with some animations not branching into others as quick as your button presses.

I'm really liking the pace, it seems that I can play longer halves without expecting a goal fest, and the tactics seem to really make an effect, although it's pretty much up to you how you move the ball. I guess this will take more effect in Be A Pro while controlling one player. I'm also liking the fact that if you make mistakes, the AI really punishes you. I was making too many mistakes with my backline passes during the first halve, and Sevilla was actively trying to pressure me to take advantage. In the second halve, I calmed down a bit and was able to control possession, so they were forced to drop back and defend. Nice touch.

I tried to upload a few clips but apparently the EA site isn't working right now, so no idea. Back to playing for now.

[calcutta]

Quote: Originally Posted by cfdemarco

So if any of you guys could just start a manager mode with City real quick and see what their beginning budget is (in US $) I would really appreciate it!

USD $44 million.

Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool's starting budgets are all greater (Man Utd is $135 million).

Quote: Originally Posted by demencia_total

The only thing I'm non too happy about from my first game is that there still seems to be delays from inputting certain commands and seeing them happen.

I've noticed this too, and like the demo its happening quite a bit, more often on passing rather than shooting. For some of those instances, i think its because i'm holding down RT so the ball is bit far away from my player's foot for the game to register the pass immediately. But on other occasions there is a delay even with the ball at my feet and that delay often results in me losing the ball, either because an opponent makes a challenge and wins the ball before i finally attempt the pass, or in the opposition half, the delay between the button press and the actual pass results in my CF being offside because his CPU marker has a bit more time to push up (the CPU are generally very good at playing the offside trap too btw on Professional).

There is still a severe lack of fouls from my experience (most games on Professional, 8-minute halves, game speed = slow). One game between CPU Fulham and me, Blackburn, under those settings saw 0 fouls! And in the second half i even had Aggression set to 90, so i was auto double teaming the ball carrier and was still not committing fouls. The match before against West Ham also only had one foul, although there were two more fouls that were waved off because the advantage was played.

On that note, most fouls by both teams have occurred in the middle of the park, with few FKs in good direct scoring positions being awarded so far (about 4 or 5 for me, and 2 of those were in the one BAP match). But despite the lacks of fouls, at least the clear fouls are getting called, and are correctly being punished with yellow cards for both CPU and human-controlled teams. I haven't seen a straight red card been awarded yet, but then again none of the fouls i've seen have warranted that, so that is good to see. I've seen a few fouls result from poorly timed standing challenges, but they are much rarer.

[JRod]

Is it too easy to retain possession of the ball?

And does the CPU ever play keep away either in the waning moments of a game, or because that's there style. I'm thinking smaller teams trying to slow down the pace of a game against talented bigger squads like in real CL games.

[demencia_total]

Quote: Originally Posted by JRod

Is it too easy to retain possession of the ball? And does the CPU ever play keep away either in the waning moments of a game, or because that's there style. I'm thinking smaller teams trying to slow down the pace of a game against talented bigger squads like in real CL games.

It depends on the pressure the AI is applying, and also on the passing, dribbling and reaction ratings of your players. You also have to be smart about your passes, because the AI will eat bad passes up and counter attack effectively. To sum it up, it's easier with better clubs, but you still have to be careful, specially near the end of regulation where one of the teams is desperately trying to attack, while the other is trying to keep possession and run out the win.

And that brings me to your second question. The AI actively tries to keep possession and drops back if they are ahead near the end of the game, while you struggle to regain possession of the ball to equalize the score. In my MM with Barca, I have noticed that the smaller clubs tend to rely on hanging back and counter attacking while clubs like Real Madrid will actively attack and try to keep possession. However, you can still try to play possession and keep them away from the ball, but they'll keep putting pressure on, so intelligent passing is a must.

Other notes of things I have noticed:

-Just when I thought the game might be too easy, it has become increasingly hard to score in the last few games. I started the season crushing Numancia 5-1 (which isn't out of the ordinary given their rating), then I beat Real Madrid 3-1, and after I tied with Deportivo 2-2 in a game where I dominated at first, but they came back from behind and scored late. Next, I beat Valdallolid 1-0 in a slow paced game where I tried to keep possession for most of the game, then 1-0 at Recreativo in a similar game, tied with Villareal 1-1 when I came up with a late goal after they scored in the first half, and finally tied again with Atletico Madrid 2-2, where Kun Aguero scored 2 and dominated my back line with his speed, also had to come from behind and score late with Messi. So in summation, it's not easy at all to score, even when you get chances. I'm playing in World Class difficulty and my record is 4-3-0.

-There are some problems with certain animations, where you totally miss the ball even when you clearly shouldn't, or when the player misses the ball entirely when attempting a simple unpressured pass.

-The AI loses track of the ball in some long pass situations. It is quite obvious and annoying.

-It's still impossible to switch defenders in certain situations where it's clearly the best option to do so. I've been playing with player switching one click away from Manual, so I'm going to try full Manual and see if that helps. But even if it helps, it's still annoying as hell because the AI controlled player that's clearly closer to the ball doesn't make a play for it.

-Even with these glitches, this is the most realistic football game I have played ever, including PES of last gen, all the FIFA games, and any other games I may have played along the way. It's just too bad that these annoyances and glitches weren't fixed, and given the track record that EA has with patching their sports games, I wouldn't brace myself for them to be fixed in an update. Hope they prove me wrong. But still, I am enjoying myself inmensely, and it's quite a challenge, even when playing with a big club.

[therizing02]

Thanks for the impressions guys. A couple questions:

Are you noticing any differences in the shooting mechanic and accuracy of shots from the demo?

Are you seeing a realistic number of fouls per game?

Have you had/seen any straight red cards?

How do the stadiums look for night games? Are they still a little too dark in the corners of the pitch?

Have you played in inclimate weather yet? How does it look?

Is the shooting mechanic for free kicks better than the demo with the crazy spin on the ball?

Thanks fellas. Enjoy the game! We're all jealous

[demencia_total]

therizing, the shooting is different. I still can't get used to it on Semi, and I played like that in the demo. I've missed a lot of shots that could have gone in or at least challenged, which actually isn't a bad thing since a lot of good shots are missed in real life I put it back on assisted because I wanted to see the difference, but the power adjusting is different and takes getting used to in shots and crosses. The through passes power seems to have been tweaked since the demo though, so that's good.

There aren't a realistic number of fouls, but I've been in games where there are quite a few. It sometimes depends on how you play, but it also has to do with what is considered a foul. The problem is that certain situations where you bump or get bumped and could be construed as a foul are never called, but blatant foul situations are always called now.

I haven't seen any straight red cards, but I don't really play that aggressively. I did see them on the demo though, have to keep playing or try it intentionally and see what happens. The whole system could be improved though, but I guess the average player doesn't want to see a stoppage of play every minute considering how most people don't play more than 20 min games, so who knows if they'll ever make it realistically.

Haven't really noticed the stadiums at night time, will keep a lookout.

Haven't played in other conditions yet.

The spin to me seems fine. I haven't seen any insane spinning yet, but it could be there. I don't really see the problem with the spin though, as great FK takers can put all kinds of spin on the ball at will, but that doesn't mean that the ball is going in. I haven't had many close free kick situations in the game yet, but the ones I tried there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Could be me though.

[calcutta]

Quote: Originally Posted by therizing02

Have you played in inclimate weather yet? How does it look?

I've only played one game in rainy weather, and i could only tell it was raining during a cutscene...i use Tele cam during gameplay and couldn't see the rain from so far out at all. Does rain have an effect on the ball? Only a very subtle one, the ball does seem to be get caught up in the rain a little bit (ie: a lob ball sent up field that lands in space may occassionally stop a bit earlier than in sunny conditions) but nothing like say the Switzerland/Turkey game at Euro 08. I don't think we'll see those types of condition in this game.

Also you can't actually select rainy weather in Kick Off mode. The available "conditions" are Dusk, Day, Dawn, Night and Overcast and only some are available depending on which stadium you choose. I just used whatever default settings were set for this particular game between two A-League clubs and had my first rainy day game.

I haven't played a game in rain in any other mode yet. I've only played about 3 games in each other main mode though (MM, Tournament and BAP Seasons). Hopefully each of those modes do incorporate weather at random...

Quote: Originally Posted by therizing02

Is the shooting mechanic for free kicks better than the demo with the crazy spin on the ball?

Its like the demo, from my experience with Ronnie in the arena. As P2K mentioned in the demo thread, if you hold the left stick at 9 o'clock or 3 o'clock (for a right footer and lefty respectively) you get the unrealistic maximum amount of curve, but at 11 and 2 o'clock, its much more realistic. You even get a slight amount natural curve if you don't hold any direction while shooting.

But with lower level players, holding the left stick at 9 and 3 you will get you realistic curve, because their curve and FK ratings are less than someone like Ronnie. I'm still used to holding right at 3 when taking FKs in my BAP Seasons mode, and i can't get nearly the amount of curve as someone like Ronnie (i'm using left footer Nicky Carle, forgot his curve rating but his default FK rating is 65 which i've since increased to about 75).

I don't think i've conceded a FK in a scoring position surprisingly (i'm alot less slide tackle happy now that they award yellows for any mistimed ones) so i can't comment on CPU FKs and the amount of curve and accuracy they are capable of getting...in FIFA 08 and earlier almost all CPU direct FKs resulted in a shot on target (even if they had the crappiest ratings) so i'm eager to see if its the same story in 09.

[teambayern]

Thanks for all these impressions!

Two Questions:

1) Do keepers make ghost saves like in the demo (on replays, its clear the keepers hand didn't actually get near the ball and wouldn't have made the save)?

2) Does the CPU attack pose a real scoring threat?