Game Enjoyment

[gerg1234]

I'm about done....It's so frustrating. My AI defenders do nothing. The opponent gets close to the box and they still give everybody 3-4 feet of space to allow easy crosses for goals.

On the other end of the spectrum I'm creating tons of good chances....but EVERY FLIPPING GOALIE I PLAY AGAINST PLAYS LIKE A 99 OVERALL!!!!!!!

Last game I played I lost 2-0 on pro level. The CPU had 4 shots to my 13! Those were shots on goal! The goalie saved every single one of them. It's not like they were forced shots from distance....I worked for good shots. He's flying around the box like he's Superman.

Then to go back and have the defenders do nothing while they attack my goalie is just frustrating.

And don't get me started on the fouls.

Please give me some sliders....I know I suck at the game...but this is just too frustrating. I really want to enjoy this game.

[Gonira]

Quote: Originally Posted by gerg1234

Please give me some sliders....

here they are, monsieur:

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...er-discussion/

there are sliders for goalkeeper ability. i find them to be superhuman at default values too, so i have them set at 45 for both user and cpu. but be aware if you use assisted shooting this can make it too easy to score.

you can raise user marking slider so your team mark cpu players more tightly. teammate ai will be dumb as hell in contested balls yet anyway, nothing to do about it. and learn to play the tactical defense thing, it is a bit hard at first, but i don't have too much problem with it anymore after i got used to the mechanics.

[Dogslax41]

Heading to best buy now going to pick up this or rage. I am a pes guy normally and like this this year but FIFA was fun while I played the early release. Anyone with both have opinions

[aarontab]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gonira

here they are, monsieur: http://www.operationsports.com/forum...er-discussion/ there are sliders for goalkeeper ability. i find them to be superhuman at default values too, so i have them set at 45 for both user and cpu. but be aware if you use assisted shooting this can make it too easy to score. you can raise user marking slider so your team mark cpu players more tightly. teammate ai will be dumb as hell in contested balls yet anyway, nothing to do about it. and learn to play the tactical defense thing, it is a bit hard at first, but i don't have too much problem with it anymore after i got used to the mechanics.

I use sliders almost identical to yours (thanks by the way, your sliders are fantastic). I tweaked a few things, one of which was the goalkeeper slider. I turned it down to 30, and honestly, i'm still seeing goalkeepers saving 90% of shots. It's better than leaving it at default to be sure, but it's definitely still a problem. The issue is also that when it's set lower like that, the keeper may still make a ton of saves but will sometimes give up an easy goal they otherwise wouldn't have. The slider doesn't influence correctly the frequency of saves, it seems like it only affects a small percentage of shots. I haven't tested it enough to see the degree of the effect, but trust me, it's very difficult to tweak that setting to make it realistic. In 9/10 games i play, the CPU goalkeeper is their man of the match, even with that slider on 30.

[ronaldo9]

There are probably better places for this, and I don't want to risk the wrath of the mods by comparing, but I am enjoying both at the moment. FIFA's controls are so smooth and the game really flows, but I don't get the dynamic gameplay I do with PES. The sliders are really helpful in FIFA - check out the Sliders forum and try some of the ones up, the guys there have done a really good job.

If you're on Xbox like me, I would wait to get PES till the sprinting issue is fixed - your player frequently stops while sprinting (yes, it's true). And when that's fixed, rumored to be in November, the patches will be sorted out to give you a good, full roster.

[seawolves9]

Thought I'd revisit this since when I first posted it, I was fairly frustrated with the game. To help cope with the frustration, I put FIFA in the "doghouse" and let it sit on the shelf a few days. I just started playing again and after only a match, all the eagerness to play the game in disappeared.

After reading some of the responses, I'm glad I'm not the only one who is having issues with enjoying this game.

I know a lot of the slider guys will disagree with me, but I don't think that the sliders, as impactful as they may seem, can save this game from it's short comings.

There is no slider that can eliminate the "psychic perfection" of all the CPU players, no matter what the level. CTT, in my experiences, haven't changed a whole lot, especially from my controlled team's standpoint. I cranked up all my tactics to 99 to see how up-tempo of a game I could create, and to see if I could force the CPU to change it's style up or to force some pressure. Nothing changed. My players would still back up and retreat, creating no pressure. Even with the settings set to 'Double', nothing changed. When I tried to double using the secondary press, all my teammate did was play 3 yards off the man. Not pressuring him.

To make things worse, even with the 2 guys surrounding the dribbler, he's still able to execute crisp passes, no matter his ratings to teammates who have amazing ball control, regardless of level.

I've messed with sliders and tactics to enjoy this game. I'd like to thank Peigone for recommending fixing the player ratings globally, as I know that would fix some of the issues with gameplay. But I just don't have the time to do things like that. Props to anyone who does. I remember Tomba doing global edits of NBA Live '10 to slow the game down.

I don't know. I know programming is a long and laborious job. It can be really frustrating at times. And I know the developers of any game puts some serious time and commitment into their games. I give all the credit to these guys.

I've come to the conclusion however, that these sport simulating video games aren't being developed to truly represent their real world counterpart. They're being made with the mindset of how they can make these games most appealing to the casual fan or gamer. How can we make this game a fun experience for the person who likes to pick up the controller and play a few games with some friends or full that itch to play what they see on TV; to connect to their sport. There's nothing wrong with this, as it generates massive amounts of cash for the gaming companies, but it afflicts the ones who are looking to truly immerse themselves in the game: the hardcore crowd. The one's who want the finest details and will nitpick a game to death if it doesn't get it right. That's us.

After coming to this realization, I answered my original proposition: how to enjoy this game?

I have to play it like it was intended. As a video game and not as a game. With all the intricacies of the sport itself. It's something I have come to accept now and am having a better time playing this game, along with its other video game sporting compadres.

I hope this thread was, and is, helpful to those looking for ideas on how to enjoy this game. I've found my solution. Here's to hoping you find yours!

[peigone]

seawolves, you brought up some great points. All of EA's games tend to be overpowered in the offensive department (in FIFA 12, psychic CPU dribblers and super-deadly shooting), and poorly programmed in the defensive end, both for User and CPU. The trick is to find easy, quick solutions to try and bring the gameplay back into some kind of realistic balance. Finding quick fixes is more possible this year than ever before with the sliders.

But some hard-coded nonsense just can't be fixed. For example, I got sick of watching the CPU hit corner after corner onto the waiting heads of its strikers. So I loaded up my 1-rated roster (every player on both teams with all ratings set to 1) to see if I could find some edit fixes. No dice. Even on Amateur difficulty, the CPU would nail every corner perfectly. This is completely different than PES where a 1-rated CPU team won't ever come close to scoring on headers from corners.

Knowing then how the game is programmed at it's core, you're correct that the key to enjoying FIFA is accepting the game is designed as a fun, video-game representation of the sport. However, the sliders again do give us the opportunity to at least try and offset the hardcoded nonsense, and to tweak the gameplay so that it at least starts to play like real football, in some areas at least.

Without editing player ratings (which I realize most people have no time for), the following IMO is the quickest and easiest way to bring some balance and realism back into the gameplay:

- Play on Legendary difficulty. That's where you'll see the best defensive play taking place. There will also be more fouls. (All of EA's games play this way).

- The six most important slider edits which IMO pretty much save FIFA 12:

Lower CPU Sprint Speed and Acceleration to around 45.
Raise CPU Pass Error and Shot Error to around 80.
Raise CPU Man Marking to at least 90.
Raise User Run Frequency to at least 90.
(All depending on User ability of course)

Those six sliders tweaks are about all that's needed to bring the gameplay back into a reasonable and realistic balance. They don't fix the psychic CPU dribblers, nor do they fix the CPU formation and tactics AI. But some stuff is hardcoded and can't be fixed as I said.

Finally, CPU formation editing goes a long way towards creating realistic gameplay as well. It's really the key (apart from editing ratings) to get the teams to play differently. Although it seems like major work, it's pretty easy to create a number of "CPU tactic templates" which can then quickly be assigned to the various teams. Creating those templates is the time-consuming part. But once they're created, it only takes a few seconds per team to assign them. Apart from that, the slider tweaks above do work wonders and I would suggest you give that a try at least.

[Gonira]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dogslax41

Heading to best buy now going to pick up this or rage. I am a pes guy normally and like this this year but FIFA was fun while I played the early release. Anyone with both have opinions

the two games never were so closely matched as they are this year. the feel is completely different between them, but both are fantastic games and you have to test them to choose which one you prefer.

i'd have to write an arcticle here if i had to compare the two. there's too much important things. test them, you'll be in good shape with any, they're the best football games ever released.