OS Roundtable: Does FIFA Get Enough Credit?

[RaychelSnr]

Quick! Name the top selling sports video game in the world. If your answer was FIFA Soccer, then you are correct. FIFA 12 has hit store shelves and it is largely receiving pretty positive feedback from consumers and critics alike. But yet, come the end of the year, FIFA will probably not be in the discussion for Sports Game of the Year on most sites -- despite quality which seems to be on par with our genres best.

So the question OS Staffers is: Does FIFA get a fair shake? Do we give the series enough credit or is it unfairly punished for being a game replicating a sport which most in this country couldn't care less about?

Find out their responses after the jump.

Read More - OS Roundtable: Does FIFA Get Enough Credit?

[209vaughn]

FIFA games have been my favorite the past few years. I've also started watching a lot of European and MLS soccer on TV too b/c of it.

Amazing game and sport. The EA Sports Football (american) franchises have not changed at their core. Its the same mechanics, the same AI, the same fundimental on the field action the past 12 years. FIFA franchise has really focused on making on the field controls that are realistic, fun, well balanced, challenging as heck, intelligent and with tight controls.

[Qb]

For me, Kelvin's opinion is the most astute. I see FIFA12 as a large step forward with room to grow, particularly in the kind of nuances that earn series like MLB The Show and NBA 2K such high praise. For instance, The Show simply oozes baseball due in large part to the famous "little things"... FIFA doesn't have that subtle depth or underlying feeling of gravitas.

[nuckles2k2]

I think sometimes FIFA gets too much credit, and not enough constructive criticism other sports titles do. The AI still makes stagnant runs or head scratching runs and doesn't take advantage of all the space and angles given, unless you manually send them on a run. The CPU resorts to the "stop and turn in circles" a little too much when you get close to them, and when they do, it's almost impossible to get the ball off of them (they're either too "skillful" or your pressure doesn't bother them in the slightest and they get off a perfect pass.) And it's infuriating how players refuse to "come to the ball" when a longish type pass is made, they'll stand there and wait for the ball to get to them and let it be intercepted, and when you select the recipient to move forward....you can't, he's literally just gonna wait for the ball come hell or high water.

Plus there's still very little variation in the CPU's attack when you're not playing the big name clubs, but that's another story.

Is it still a good game? Sure. But if Madden had similar problems, ie: players always running similar routes with very little variation and the only remedy is selecting a player during the course of a play and having him adjust his route, opposing players having an extreme amount of success with jukes, spins, and broken tackles, receivers not coming to the ball (happens from time to time on drag routes in both Madden and NCAA, but NCAA had it worst when it first came out), and the opposing team running the same handful of plays (quasi-cheesing) we'd would be, and have been up in arms ready to fight for the game we want. But FIFA has these issues and it's "meh."

Plus the online team play matchmaking options are broken. They removed, and still haven't replaced the option to make your own lobby. You have to search for a game with options that no available OTP lobby has, so it throws you into that lobby...the problem is the way the game finds matches is broken. For the past 3 FIFA's the word "any" as in any control scheme, any amount of mins per half doesn't, or any number of users doesn't mean what the human brain assumes it means...search for a match with any of the available control schemes as the option, search for a match with any of the available "mins per half" options selected, or search for a match where any of the users per half options are selected....no, since FIFA 10 when they changed the search logic, it now means search for any lobby/match where "any" is the selected control scheme, mins per half, etc. And that always defaults the time, and number of users for the OTP matches. And when you're searching for a match that has maybe more mins per half, or few users per team...you'll never find one, but it'll create the lobby for you and throw you into it....the only problem is that no one will ever join that lobby unless you either invite them, or they happen to search for the same exact parameters that you selected. And since most people just leave the "any" in all of the options, you'll never have anyone join that lobby.

I don't know what it is about FIFA, but it doesn't get the same amount of criticism from hardcore soccer fans that other games get, and I'm not talking solely in North America. There are small pockets of communities on the 'net that point out FIFA's issues (without acting childish) and the majority of boards/forums are people praising the game. Where in other sports if there's one issue in say Madden or NBA 2K, you see about 10 threads on multiple sites talking about the one issue, some constructive and some not, but the attention is there.

[nuckles2k2]

I say all of that because I agree with Kelvin about the state of FIFA, but how does it change? Where's the fans' input and criticism to actually get the game to take the next step? If everything is "OHHH WOW, I LOVE THIS GAME" then we're gonna keep getting the same game and for some inexplicable reason it just seems like the level of substantial quality in FIFA is acceptably sub par.

[misterbroom12]

This question is answered differently based on which crowd you ask. If you ask the general sports gamer who tries playing any and all sports games each year, they will praise it 9 times out of 10 for the improvements each year, especially the improving physics engines with each title. They consistently have the comparison of titles like NCAA, 2K and Madden where preset animations and warping are part of the core gameplay. If they don't understand, or care to understand, the small nuances of off the ball runs, patient build-ups and great team defense and pressure then the largely advertised changes will prove to them to be amazing works in a sports game.

However, if you look at it from the other aspect where you have the hardcore soccer fans playing the game it is a different story. Yes the physics engine is a great touch and the new defending system is a step toward realism but they pale in comparison to the missed points of emphasis if we have to have a team of users here work on custom tactics so that a Manchester United and a Burnley visibly play a different brand of soccer. I could care less about the new injury system and the depth of a great squad if they don't properly assess how to apply fatigue to players (no more than 3 years ago I wouldn't have to play a different starting line up an entire season if I didn't want to.)

So as a whole, FIFA is consistently making strides forward each year but they aren't the leaps and bounds that could be taking place if it weren't for the typical EA mistakes, bugs and glitches that haunt all of their sports titles. For the casual gamer looking to just play FIFA and win online or against their friends the game deserves all of its praise. For those who look for FIFA Manager type depth to their CM as well as noticeable differences based on the gulfs of talent differences from team to team across the world FIFA still has a bit of work to do but are proving that they aspire to get there with the titles they put out each year.

[bconngemini]

Does FIFA Get Enough Credit? If anything it gets more credit than any other sports game by a large margin. Its by far the biggest and most successful sports gaming franchise.

Its the best selling sports game of all time, and the 8th best selling game of any type of all time. As of June, 2011 FIFA 11 has sold over 15 million copies, dwarfing every other sports game. Madden can't come even close. The fastest selling sports game recorded was broken by FIFA 11...and surprise suprise the previous record was FIFA 10.

It's the most played sport game online on the planet, by a large margin with 1.8 billion online sessions for FIFA 12.

It has won 53 major gaming industry awards. It currently holds a rating of 92 on Metacritic. IGN gave it a 9.5, Eurogamer a 9, 1UP gave it a rating of A. FIFA 10 has won not 1, not 2, not 3 but 50 Sports Game of the Year awards.

Despite American objections, soccer is the biggest, most successful and most respected sport on the planet and FIFA is the biggest, highest rated sports game franchise on the planet. Not only that but FIFA is right among the biggest (top 10) games of any type. And it did all this with significant competition from PES (which is in the top 20 selling games of all time). No amount of anti-soccer bias from Americans will change the fact that humanity loves the sport and sport gamers around the world shell more money towards FIFA than any Madden, NBA2K and NHL combined.

[bconngemini]

Correction: 1.8 billion online sessions for FIFA 11. Sorry about that.

[harrisonial2992]

Re: OS Roundtable: Does FIFA Get Enough Credit?

I think FIFA gets a fair enough shake from the crowd that matters, the sports gamer. Its probably fair enough to say that the majority of us here at OS are hardcore sports gamers. And we understand that while FIFA is a fantastic sports game it isn't always a 100% accurate representation of the sport it emulates.

Perhaps FIFA could receive more consideration for a Sports game of the year award than it currently does. But an overall game of the year? I don't believe it's anywhere close to that.

[Profit89]

The premise of the article is that people in America don't care about the sport. I think that's false. I'm American and I don't care for NFL... I think it's boring.

There's a lot more passionate soccer fans in America than most think. It's just that the haters have been the loudest and more vocal... until recently.

The World Cup Final in 2010 outdrew the deciding game of the NBA Finals in viewership, and it was two Euro teams (Netherlands vs. Spain). Imagine if it was the US in the Finals.

[Murkurial]

Kelvin Mak comes closest to getting it right.

[i]Phil Varckette said: I think it gets an unfairshake. The game itself is a blast to play, soccer fan or not. I am the furthest thing from a soccer fan, yet I really enjoyed the demo. In fact, I made it a priority to go out and rent it first thing this morning. It made me want to delve deeper into the world of soccer. I admittedly don't know a lot about the sport, the teams or the players...I didn't think I would ever like a soccer game, or soccer, but when a videogame can actually influence you to like a sport. Someone is doing something right.[/b]

That's it in a nutshell, and it's the reason why FIFA gets too much credit. Too much leeway. What is it about soccer that you're not a fan of? And how much of it do you see in FIFA the game? It might explain why those who don't enjoy the real sport, love the game so much.

Frankly, FIFA gets too much credit and too many people looking almost exclusively at the back of the box features like David Rutter's "Trinity of Gameplay Features" rhetoric that really, if you've played the game extensively since launch, don't do much of anything to improve the game.

Seriously, can some of these roundtable writers tell me how often they use precision dribbling (the, stand in one place and turn around in slow motion feature)? Or if they've noticed how players slide around the pitch like they're on an ice rink when their using tactical defending, somehow mirroring the attacking player's every move even if it's Mertesacker v Messi (Mertesacker's ankles should explode on Messi's first move). Or how about the "Impact Engine," which seems to just be a few more flipping, falling, and tackling animations that often results in very comical and glitchy happenings throughout the game.

The first of those three isn't gamebreaking as I simply don't use it. But what it means is that the developers spent time on this more than they spent time on teammate AI (never make clever runs), defensive AI (always back off of your opponent, allowing them to receive a pass in acres of space), foot planting (engine issue surely, but they DID attempt to shoehorn "Impact Engine" into the game). The last two have already resulted in more than a few Benny Hill-esque issues that directly resulted in me getting scored on.

FIFA's got the money to buy the licenses, polish the UI, hire the commentators, and get Hope Solo and Steve Nash to play each other in commercials, but where it matters most, replicating the way the sport often plays out in real life (ya know, something that NBA 2K strives to do every year), PES at least feels like a real game of soccer. Problem is, the way the sport plays out in real life is, to most people, BORING. Nobody would buy FIFA if it were striving to be as much a sim of its respective sport, as NBA 2K is, but here we are on a gaming site where the Madden and 2K threads are filled with (legitimate) gripe threads about where those two games fail to replicate the sport.

Not with FIFA though.

And every mainstream outlet that I read is over the moon about the game. It wins tons of awards (somehow) at every gaming convention. It gets more than enough credit. The real question is, will they stop catering to the casual fan and attempt to do what 2K sports want to do with their games and become a game that's as close to a simulation of the sport as it can? Or will they continue to print money by making sure that the guy who doesn't like soccer at all, somehow finds tons to like about the game, only to be disappointed when they turn on the television to see a 0-0 draw between QPR and Newcastle and wonder why it looks nothing like FIFA (though he'll probably change the channel within the first 15 minutes).

[Soho]

well don't really care about what critics say :P
I got the game and i love it ..thats all what matters

[khaliib]

Depends on what you were brought up on.

Growing up in STL, we played tackle football in the streets, court-ball on vacant lots and shot ball on street parking signs.

The closest thing I got to soccer was kick-ball in grade school.

Although soccer may be big in every other country outside of the US, it's simply not the sport of choice that inner city/suburb kids grow up playing.

It simply will not replace the big 3 here in the US.
Not going to happen no matter what the game look/play like.

It is at least brought up as an comparison against the big 3 sports here in the US, so that is giving it credit.

The other fact is that it is an EA Sports game.

They are first judged on their Football Games as sole developers and due to what's been released thus far and those gamer's unhappiness, their other sports titles automatically falls under gamer's perception of the developer due to that happiness with the US biggest sport.

Also, college sports is a billion dollar business.
The drivers of sports in college are Football then Basketball.

So thousands of college video game players usually are driven towards these two sports, especially during the sports seasons, so to try and release soccer in the midst of these sports is difficult.

[Petey B]

I concur with Bo.

[airjoca]

I'm European, I live and breath football (soccer) since my childhood.

I also love the NBA, and have no interest in baseball, so I can only compare FIFA to 2K.

FIFA is a very complete game feature wise, but its simulation of the sport itself pales in comparision with NBA 2K.

EA are making good strides, but they still haven't commited to turn FIFA into a true SIM game, like 2K is trying with their NBA title.

So sports game of the year for me will be NBA 2K12 by a good margin.