Re: FIFA 21 Trial Available Now on EA Play (EA Access/Origin) - Post Your Impressions
I've played seven matches with 10 minute halves on slow speed. Not a super sample size, but enough that I have impressions.
Good:
- There's a lot more hand-checking and general engagement between players this year.
- On default sliders the AI actually makes bad passes!
- More variety of attacking movement.
- Better overall AI defence. The AI is in particular better at cutting out passes this year.
- The AI seems to value the ball. In seven matches I've had less possession than the AI in all but one match, and in one of them even had less than 40% of the ball, which was unheard of last year. I could boss possession in every match last year win or lose.
-Being able to manually decline advantage is a huge change! No more purposely passing the ball away and hoping the ref is still going to give you the free kick.
- More bad touches than last year on default sliders, but probably still not enough.
- The career mode changes feel like more than just a coat of paint. Playing players in their proper position finally matters, the training mode is pretty decent and not as annoying as I feared, and (at least so far) the manager goals, particularly in the youth development area, seem better and more realistic.
- If you play with handballs turned on, those have definitely been fixed. I've had quite a few called outside of the box, for and against. Inside the box, they seem to be calling it the same way they have been in the Premier League this season, which is to say maybe too much.
Bad:
- EA is still using the youth soccer model for goal kicks where everyone just lines up in formation.
- Some of the player ratings are mindbogglingly bad.
- Too many gaps to be exploited by through balls.
- Shooting accuracy is way, way too high.
In the middle:
- They seem to have changed corner kicks. You can't really drive the ball anymore. Now the meter gives you a smaller variance in loft. Scoring from corners seems easier this year, but hopefully not too much. It's hard to say with my sample size.
Overall I'd say I'm pretty encouraged. Two of the four strong negatives can be fixed with sliders. I'll probably stick to my PES ML until the first community slider set comes out, but I feel like I'll get a lot of enjoyment from both games this year.
I've played seven matches with 10 minute halves on slow speed. Not a super sample size, but enough that I have impressions.
Good:
- There's a lot more hand-checking and general engagement between players this year.
- On default sliders the AI actually makes bad passes!
- More variety of attacking movement.
- Better overall AI defence. The AI is in particular better at cutting out passes this year.
- The AI seems to value the ball. In seven matches I've had less possession than the AI in all but one match, and in one of them even had less than 40% of the ball, which was unheard of last year. I could boss possession in every match last year win or lose.
-Being able to manually decline advantage is a huge change! No more purposely passing the ball away and hoping the ref is still going to give you the free kick.
- More bad touches than last year on default sliders, but probably still not enough.
- The career mode changes feel like more than just a coat of paint. Playing players in their proper position finally matters, the training mode is pretty decent and not as annoying as I feared, and (at least so far) the manager goals, particularly in the youth development area, seem better and more realistic.
- If you play with handballs turned on, those have definitely been fixed. I've had quite a few called outside of the box, for and against. Inside the box, they seem to be calling it the same way they have been in the Premier League this season, which is to say maybe too much.
Bad:
- EA is still using the youth soccer model for goal kicks where everyone just lines up in formation.
- Some of the player ratings are mindbogglingly bad.
- Too many gaps to be exploited by through balls.
- Shooting accuracy is way, way too high.
In the middle:
- They seem to have changed corner kicks. You can't really drive the ball anymore. Now the meter gives you a smaller variance in loft. Scoring from corners seems easier this year, but hopefully not too much. It's hard to say with my sample size.
Overall I'd say I'm pretty encouraged. Two of the four strong negatives can be fixed with sliders. I'll probably stick to my PES ML until the first community slider set comes out, but I feel like I'll get a lot of enjoyment from both games this year.
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