Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

[Tovarich]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

For every game that is fixed against you, there seem to be 2-3 that are fixed for me. I get irritated during the game and feel like throwing something. I usually keep an empty soda bottle near me or something so I can chuck it when the occasion calls for it. But once it's over, I'm glad that I had the challenge. Just yesterday, I inexplicably couldn't beat Sunderland even though I outshot them 12-3. They ran right by me every time they had the ball. It was pretty obvious I had no chance of winning. But I'd prefer that happen than what I experienced today where I started a new career as Dagenham & Redbridge and ManU couldn't do anything right in a 2nd round cup match and I won 2-0. Part of that was the awful cpu logic in winner-take-all cup matches where they go super aggressive the instant they get down a goal, but it was before halftime when I realized that I probably couldn't have lost that game if I tried.

[infemous]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

NHL 13 has something similar going on. In the final minute it is almost impossible to stop your opponent from scoring.

As for FIFA. I can not say I have seen this too much. Matter a fact the most disappointing game of the year for me so far was against Man U. I play as Manchester City but Mario was out injured. I ended up beating Man U by 4 goals!!! The largest margin of victory all season. They were horrible.

I still play FIFA 11 but I have a career mode as Hercules in the Spanish League and I beat both Real Madrid (on Legendary) and Barcelona by 3 or 4 goals every time but got destroyed by bottom feeders and have horrendously difficult games vs teams in the bottom half of the league.

This is an old problem and FIFA has had this since 11 I am pretty sure of it.

[burth179]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

Really can't believe that, sorry. There's an issue with the User-CPU gameplay, yes. But with sim engine as well? I highly doubt that.

I've simmed enough games to know the sim engine is somewhat off, and that sometimes it gets a bit ridiculous and it seems a bit "predetermined" as opposed to being a true simulation. I've experimented by re-simming some of those games, and it may take me 6 or 7 times to win a match that a team would normally win 4 or 5 times out of 7 in real life.

Also, certain formations don't play nice when simming (for example the 4-3-3- false 9 I use when I play matches, it seems like it simulates like a 4-3-1-2 where the CF rarely scores, even if he's Messi - which that is exactly who it was. But when I switched to 4-3-3 with Messi as ST he scores buckets of goals when simulating)

And I've noticed when playing matches certain ones are a lot tougher to win, the game decides to give you a tough match for whatever reason. I play on world class (not sure if that matters, it's probably even worse on legendary). I wouldn't say they are "unwinnable", but you get cheap deflection goals go against you and balls bouncing miraculously to the CPU in threatening positions and stuff like that. You will hit the post a few times and the opposing GK will continue to make diving saves on shots that normally are in the back of the net.

Apologists will say "maybe your 12 shots are bad", but it will even happen when the majority of your shots are on target and are well placed where the CPU GK makes ridiculous saves (Ok 1 or 2 is believable, 7 or 8 of them in the same match is absurd)

And I've noticed it go the other way as well, where for some reason the game seems like a breeze and I dominate, my GK makes all the ridiculous saves and what not.

I still love career mode and I love the game, but there is definitely a lot of "funny business" going on sometimes.

[MasterX1918]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

I've been having a really bad problem with this all of the sudden. I'm playing as AS Roma, a 5 star team, and i'm playing a Europa league qualifier game against some team of nobodys from Switzerland, or Poland, or Belgium or something. I can't win this game. It's a must win game to make europa, and I can't win. I've played it about 4 times and I always get the same result: I lose 3-2, or I lose in penalty kicks. I try everything, but it's like the cpu is geared for me to lose this game despite my greatest efforts.

-I get about a dozen great looks, but the other teams GK plays phenomenally and the defenders make miraculous blocks, or my players just make bad shots for no reason (I play on WC with no assists). I've personally played some of my best offense, and it's never enough. I convert maybe 15% of my shots, and they're always good shots that are right in front of the goal with little defending. My players blow 100% of my breakaways, and the only time I score are on freak situations such as rebounds or catching players out of position. I can rarely generate a goal despite my best efforts.

-Through balls and crosses always fall flat, stray wide/long, or get wrapped up by the keeper.

-Corners and PKs never result in goals. Oh wait, that's right. The referee never gives me those calls. I've had instances where I get demolished with the ball and penalties are called againstme. It's baffling.

-I keep possession about 64-70% of the game. The few times the CPU manages to get the ball (usually because of dirty play or a freak erroneous pass), they go berserk. Their pace and strength go way up, outrunning my fastest players (Lamela) and out-muscling my biggest defenders (De Rossi). They execute about 90% of their shots and my keeper will never make a clutch stop.

-my players suddenly forget how to tackle. It's either my tackles miss completely, or my attempted tackle results in a heinous foul. If I try to tackle in the box 9/10 it will result in a PK.

-If I score a goal, they will find away to score, no matter what. I cannot stop them. The ball will glue to their feet, they will make miracle passes, they score goals from the strangest of angles... it's game over if it's 80+ minutes and I only have a 1 goal advantage. In 3 out of my 5 games they managed to score 2 goals in the last 10 minutes to take the victory. Every single time they at least tied and pushed the game to PKs.

I give up with this, it's insanely aggravating. I've tinkered with formations, tactics, styles of play, sliders, lineups, everything but game difficulty and nothing matters. I've been playing FIFA for about 3 years and i've never seen anything like this.

[Zrightning]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

Really can't believe that, sorry. There's an issue with the User-CPU gameplay, yes. But with sim engine as well? I highly doubt that.

In the worst case this is very possible. Yesterday i had to sim ~ 7 times before i could West bromwich although my team was in form. though i hadn't beat them the 2 times i faced them in competition. i always lost by one goal difference too... until i finally beat them 2-2 and 5-4 in penalties

Thinking back i should've lost the game and done the Npower champ once more since i could really use a better team for the premier league but i really wanted to go up yesterday... Until i saw what management wants, first season in premiere league and it wants me to go to the champions league.

[_ChicoBass]

I've never had an issue with any of this. Played a full season with arsenal and only lost one match. 1-0 vs Stoke City. Do I consider that match unbeatable or fixed? No. I know what happened, the goalkeeper had an outstanding match. He lifted his team up and was rightfully man of the match. He never put his head down. That, my friends, IS FOOTBALL. If anything, it adds realism to the game because yes it does happen. Ever since that, I praise Stoke's goalkeeper during press conferences because he deserves it. I'm not gonna sit here and whine about how I should've won the game but EA is out to get me. I see that match as a deserved win for my opposition. Football my friends, an unpredictable sport. 90 minutes where anything can happen. 6 months later I faced stoke again and I won 2-1 in a highly contested match. Great match that was, and I celebrated it as if I had defeated Chelsea because I really wanted that win. Not for the 3 points, but for my pride

That felt waaaaay better than reloading and resimming until I finally beat them. I would always consider that 3 points I didn't deserve so I never do that. Instead of quitting the game before I lose I go all out attack to win the final minutes. Sometimes it works and sometimes they hit me with a counterattack and I lose even worse. Like I said, THAT IS FOOTBALL. A beautiful sport that I love.

[Zrightning]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

There is definitely a problem with simming, i got qualitative WAY better players than some teams in the premier league (~80+ OVR) and there's teams from the Npower that joined along with me and somehow... i can't win anything and i ended up being fired and oh did i mention i have neymar, a complete forward with ovr 90 at 23, my defence was at least ovr 80, i was in form and lost to teams with lower OVR's and out of form players? that's just so bull****... even though i went even or lost to MAX one goal to the top teams -.-'

I'm going to try a new game this weekend with one of the worst english teams and bring them all the way up. Let's hope this time it will sim better and i don't get ridiculous demands from management to get champions league 5 years after i start in npower 2

realism could really be added there... and the * rating system of the game is just bad, my team wasn't worth 5 starts AT ALL and i got it...

[UK0wnag3]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

I've never had an issue with any of this. Played a full season with arsenal and only lost one match. 1-0 vs Stoke City. Do I consider that match unbeatable or fixed? No. I know what happened, the goalkeeper had an outstanding match. He lifted his team up and was rightfully man of the match. He never put his head down. That, my friends, IS FOOTBALL. If anything, it adds realism to the game because yes it does happen. Ever since that, I praise Stoke's goalkeeper during press conferences because he deserves it. I'm not gonna sit here and whine about how I should've won the game but EA is out to get me. I see that match as a deserved win for my opposition. Football my friends, an unpredictable sport. 90 minutes where anything can happen. 6 months later I faced stoke again and I won 2-1 in a highly contested match. Great match that was, and I celebrated it as if I had defeated Chelsea because I really wanted that win. Not for the 3 points, but for my pride

That felt waaaaay better than reloading and resimming until I finally beat them. I would always consider that 3 points I didn't deserve so I never do that. Instead of quitting the game before I lose I go all out attack to win the final minutes. Sometimes it works and sometimes they hit me with a counterattack and I lose even worse. Like I said, THAT IS FOOTBALL. A beautiful sport that I love.

If it only happened once a season it wouldn't be such an issue. If you're only losing one match a season then I'd guess you play on a lower difficulty. Nothing wrong with that, but not necessarily a comparable situation as this sort of thing doesn't seem to happen on lower difficulties.

In these games, it isn't football.

[Yeats]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

In the worst case this is very possible.

I'm not doubting really, just shocked the cheat engine nonsense is programmed into the game to that extent. That's unheard of I'd say. People complain that it makes no sense for game devs to program their gameplay in such a way that the CPU would be near-unbeatable for some games and matches. And even though I understand and even agree with that, I've always seen it as their way of creating a challange for the gamer. But fixing the sim engine to cheat as well makes absolutely no sense because there's no challenge there, so that argument doesn't fly. It's just tacky game programming and even sadistically twisted if you really think about it.

[Zrightning]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

I'm not doubting really, just shocked the cheat engine nonsense is programmed into the game to that extent. That's unheard of I'd say. People complain that it makes no sense for game devs to program their gameplay in such a way that the CPU would be near-unbeatable for some games and matches. And even though I understand and even agree with that, I've always seen it as their way of creating a challange for the gamer. But fixing the sim engine to cheat as well makes absolutely no sense because there's no challenge there, so that argument doesn't fly. It's just tacky game programming and even sadistically twisted if you really think about it.

i understand why they're doing it, so you don't cheat with the sim to win matches... but really my team of 80 average loses ALL the time in the premier league i just don't get it! :|

[Yeats]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

i understand why they're doing it, so you don't cheat with the sim to win matches.

Okay. But do you really think it's EA's business whether I decide to cheat in my career by choosing to sim games? I mean, what's next? Forcing us to play career mode without the ability to edit rosters and player ratings beforehand? Oh wait... Doesn't Madden already have that?

[Gnemi]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

Early Season FAILS

I've observed a trend in my career wherein early in the season, my team really struggles to find form and the number of these "Unwinnable" fixtures tends to drag out for several matches in a row.

In my 7th season, having just won the league for the 2nd time (I've also won the league cup twice and been crowned Champions of Europe once), I just cannot seem to spank inferior opponents and the big clubs - Arsenal, ManU/C, Spurs - are simply incredible. I had a match against Arsenal where I had to stop and pause the game at one point because my eyes literally couldn't catch up to the incredible pace and movement and precision of Arsenal. They were like $%#@ing banshees on the pitch, stringing together improbable - nay, impossible - runs down the middle of the pitch involving all of their midfield + fullbacks. It was remarkable because it looked nothing like football. It looked like an experiment involving performance-enhancing drugs. All of my highly rated speedsters were being mobbed by two or three Arse every time they touched the football.

Anyway, I hate it. It actually starts to ruin the game for me. Some of the EA brand of scripting and "drama engine" coding I'm okay with, but they simply take it too far. It's one thing to make the opposition play really well, but when they also make my team play terribly, it's no longer even slightly enjoyable.

Of course, this same match I'm describing was also filled with several shots off the woodwork by my strikers. Sitter after sitter, 3 yards from goal, failing to hit anything but row Z, etc.

[_ChicoBass]

If it only happened once a season it wouldn't be such an issue. If you're only losing one match a season then I'd guess you play on a lower difficulty. Nothing wrong with that, but not necessarily a comparable situation as this sort of thing doesn't seem to happen on lower difficulties.

In these games, it isn't football.

Yes I do play on a lower difficulty. Most people here play legendary, I play world class. I only lost 1 match, but got a good amount of ties that were all supposed to be defeats but I was able to come back last minute. But either way, if you're playing on legendary, how realistic do you expect the game to be? It's like playing an RPG game on very hard. It's obviously gonna be brutal I mean the name says it: LEGENDary. Of course the game is gonna be out to make your life a living hell. I wouldn't complain about it either because that's what I expect when i play tournaments on legendary. I know that it's gonna be a headache to win

[Mr. Face]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

I had one of those games today. I manage Arsenal and play on World Class. I was 2nd in the table behind Chelsea about eight games into the season. My next match? Chelsea.

It starts off fast with a newly acquired Robinho scoring a belter in the 5th minute. One minute later Chelsea scores a ridiculous header because apparently Mertesacker isn't tall and can't win 50/50 headers against guys like half his size.

Well it stays 1-1 until about the 35th when Walcott comes through on a breakaway chance and a beautifully curved shot around the goalkeep and into the upper 90 on the left. Three minutes later...header...goal...Szczęsny let it through his hands and in.

60th minute. At this point I've subbed Robinho out and put Rosický in as well as putting another recent acquisition Germán Denis in for Podolski. I score a sweaty goal on a pass from Rosicky to Denis to make the score 3-2. Any guesses what happens next? If you guessed "Chelsea scores on another header immediately following Arsenal's goal" you win! They equalized on another ridiculous header that should have been won by Arsenal's players had the CPU not forced my defenders completely and inexplicably out of position.

I got lucky in the 90th minute with another beauty of a shot from Walcott to win it but I was still a bit unhappy with this game. It seemed like no matter what I did it was inevitable that Chelsea would equalize off of a ridiculous chance. I had 15 shots in the game. 13 on goal. Chelsea had 4 shots in the game. All on goal. 3 of them went in.

[Gnemi]

Re: Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

This phenomenon deserves an acronym at this point.

UCMF - Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

I experienced the mother lode of UCMF last night. I'm in the 3rd year of my Career Mode with Nottingham Forest. In my first year, I missed the playoff by 2 points and finished 7th in the nPower Champ. In year two, I won the whole shebang and worked the transfers feverishly to put together a middling enough squad to secure my place in the top flight. Between these transfers and a couple 17 year-old gems I developed in the Academy, I am feeling pretty good about the upcoming season, enough that the CPU projected that I'd finish 15th.

Well, now I'm nervous. My first contest, away @ the Emirates, was a brutal and humbling affair. It was also, as it happens, an embarrassingly Unwinnable UCMF. I paused the game at one point and just laughed through the tears. Any time one of my players possessed the ball, regardless of the personnel involved, they would be instantly hounded and crowded by a minimum of three Arsenal players. The pressure was 110% intensity for the entire 90 minutes. If there is a stamina feature in this game, it was toggled to the Off position. The Arse played as though they had hired Lance Armstrong as a consultant over the summer.

I lost the game...5-0 and it was actually worse than the scoreline suggests. If not for a few miraculous saves by my young keeper, it would have been 8-0. The so-called "God Mode" that occurs in ordinary matches in the 80th minute? The entire match felt like that.

To add insult to injury, my striker was injured in the first 30 minutes and will be sidelined for two months. To add insult to insult, he was injured while away from the ball in what looked like a case of a player tripping over his own laces.

FML.

If I get fired this season, I will look only to the EA devs as to how the ball got rolling...