Soccer Gaming Catch-All

I think I may give PES a try this year. Either that or just skip this year completely. The number of changes per year are so little now.

I think I'm done with soccer games. I've played ten iterations of FIFA, 8 versions of PES and countless soccer games in other franchises. Thing is: I no longer get better at them, and most games against the CPU tend to end in 1-0 wins or 0-0 draws. Even worse: online games tend to end in a 4-0 defeat or my opponent ragequitting the one time I'm ahead

I only still enjoy playing against friends, but FIFA 13 is just fine for that. Against the CPU or online? Just not fun anymore.

So yeah, I'm out. Burn-out.

I hit that point with most of EA's other offerings already. I tried the FIFA 14 demo, but honestly, it kinda felt like I was playing a game that was 55% Sega Soccer Slam. That game has one pace, and it's "WHY AREN'T YOU GOING FASTER?"

PES isn't MUCH better on that front, mind, but it seems like someone there actually can conceive of the possibility of not always sprinting.

I tried the PES demo. Christ, it was like going back to 2007. I'd rather stand on Lego than play that again.

Any updates on Fifa 14 career modes? Would like to see player manager back.

davet010 wrote:

I'd rather stand on Lego than play that again.

Hah! One of the most painful experiences known to mankind.

I think I'll stick with Football Manager this year. I have Fifa 13 if I really fancy an actual kick about, but like above, it usually ends up as 0-0 or 1-0 vs the AI, and a 4 or 5 - 0 drubbing at the hands of anyone else. Why does 'through-ball' never work for me. I guess it's just where my eye envisages the ball going, and where the game thinks I'm wanting it to go are completely different things.

I just wish EA would release NHL on PC

omnipherous wrote:
davet010 wrote:

I'd rather stand on Lego than play that again.

Hah! One of the most painful experiences known to mankind.

I think I'll stick with Football Manager this year. I have Fifa 13 if I really fancy an actual kick about, but like above, it usually ends up as 0-0 or 1-0 vs the AI, and a 4 or 5 - 0 drubbing at the hands of anyone else. Why does 'through-ball' never work for me. I guess it's just where my eye envisages the ball going, and where the game thinks I'm wanting it to go are completely different things.

I just wish EA would release NHL on PC :-(

Have you tried manual controls for through balls? It gave me something new to master for a couple of months, until I hit my skill ceiling again. The biggest advantage is that you can only blame yourself for bad passing, which is much less frustrating than the AI picking the wrong player. And once in a while you will pull off a magnificent through ball, making you forget all the self-loathing for passing to the corner flag a billion times

I personally set the regular pass to semi-assisted, to avoid major flukes while passing on my own half. Through ball, crossing and shooting are on manual. Manual crossing is really hard though, as you're often sprinting to the right while having to cross up/downwards. Through balls or shots are usually much more in sync with the direction you're running in.

Hmm, I will admit I've not really toyed with the controls other than the default. Maybe I should look into that. Part of my problem playing against friends is that, while Fifa 13 is the first Fifa/PES game I've played since... oh, 2005?, all my friends have played every iteration, for hundreds of hours each. They've learned the additional controls (like heckling when defending, or that one where you hold a certain button and your player follows the attacker but doesn't actually tackle). I'm more used to the simple shoot, pass, tackle, sprint of days gone by.

I also continue to be disappointed by the lack of realism in player transfers, skills and values. Especially in the 'Be a Pro' mode, or whatever it's called. I started as a youngster, got a few games with my chosen club, then was loaned out to a lower league team. Absolutely fine. The next season, back at my base club, I'm suddenly the first name on the team sheet, have awesome game-day expectations of rating of 9, 3 goals or whatever, and the rest of my team spend 80 minutes out of the 90 passing it back and forth in defence. Then there was the issue with being substituted. Why is it if I get sent off, then the rest of the game plays out without me, but if I get substituted, then suddenly I have to control the whole team a la normal mode.

Maybe it's more suited to the Be a Pro style, but NHL 2012 was far superior in that department, despite having some draw backs of it's own.

omnipherous wrote:

Hmm, I will admit I've not really toyed with the controls other than the default. Maybe I should look into that. Part of my problem playing against friends is that, while Fifa 13 is the first Fifa/PES game I've played since... oh, 2005?, all my friends have played every iteration, for hundreds of hours each. They've learned the additional controls (like heckling when defending, or that one where you hold a certain button and your player follows the attacker but doesn't actually tackle). I'm more used to the simple shoot, pass, tackle, sprint of days gone by.

I've played FIFA or PES or both each and every year since 1995, and (maybe because of my old ways) I'm still a simple shoot, pass, tackle, sprint kind of guy. Don't ask me to do one of those fancy dribble moves, I don't even know how to heckle, and almost never use that follow the attacker bullcrap. So don't feel bad, it just means we're getting old

I fully agree with your other critiques. It's disappointing to see how the young Anderlecht talents are severely underestimated until they bench-warm a Premier League club for an extra 10 skill points Apart from a couple of world class players, skill level is 100% determined by the club they're playing for when FIFA is released. And yeah, Be A Pro is fun until the rocket launcher EA points at your willing suspension of disbelief starts firing.

Yeah, in that same season with unrealistic expectations (I was playing as a 19 y/o striker for Celtic), missing almost every single target I was set due to the general uselessness of the rest of the team, suddenly, in Jaunary, AC Milan offered £8m for me. Really? Really? Out of curiosity, I accepted, and then proceeded to start every game for them, continuing to miss my targets. I gave up shortly after that and haven't actually touched it since.

Think I'll just stick with FM.

EDIT: Man, I remember that bug/cheat in Fifa '95 that you could score from kick-off bit hitting pass+shoot at the same time. Worked every time. It meant that you were sure to score at least once, when you kicked off the half, and any time the opposition scored, you could just equalise/regain the lead within seconds. Scotland won the World Cup that year

dejanzie wrote:
omnipherous wrote:

Hmm, I will admit I've not really toyed with the controls other than the default. Maybe I should look into that. Part of my problem playing against friends is that, while Fifa 13 is the first Fifa/PES game I've played since... oh, 2005?, all my friends have played every iteration, for hundreds of hours each. They've learned the additional controls (like heckling when defending, or that one where you hold a certain button and your player follows the attacker but doesn't actually tackle). I'm more used to the simple shoot, pass, tackle, sprint of days gone by.

I've played FIFA or PES or both each and every year since 1995, and (maybe because of my old ways) I'm still a simple shoot, pass, tackle, sprint kind of guy. Don't ask me to do one of those fancy dribble moves, I don't even know how to heckle, and almost never use that follow the attacker bullcrap. So don't feel bad, it just means we're getting old

My brothers from other mothers My computer football skills were learnt on 'Match Day 2' for the Spectrum, and have never progressed much further than that.

I was more of a 'Match of the Day' (also spectrum) kinda guy, guess I've always swayed to the non-playing side of things...

My only frustration with FM right now is that 14 won't be released until December. DECEMBER. Ugh.

omnipherous wrote:

I was more of a 'Match of the Day' (also spectrum) kinda guy, guess I've always swayed to the non-playing side of things...

Hehe, my experience of that started with Football Manager, the game I had to get an expansion to 48k to buy

Ack. December? That's half the season already gone. I guess that means that the first (second?) patch they release can contain the transfer updates after the January window, rather than the third of days gone by.

I think I started on F.A. Cup Football, but then, I already had 128k in my Spectrum+2, I was way ahead!

1986 ?? You Dizzy-come-lately

Actually, I had that too. But much preferred The Double http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infos...

Well, late to the party in 1986 I may have been, but I was 5 years old at the time

Psych wrote:

My only frustration with FM right now is that 14 won't be released until December. DECEMBER. Ugh.

SI announced the release date this morning: October 31.

And if you pre-order to get the beta two weeks early, you could be playing FM14 in one month's time.

B Dog wrote:
Psych wrote:

My only frustration with FM right now is that 14 won't be released until December. DECEMBER. Ugh.

SI announced the release date this morning: October 31.

And if you pre-order to get the beta two weeks early, you could be playing FM14 in one month's time.

You've made my day! I went onto the steam page after the transfer window closed and they had estimated December. Very happy to hear that is off.

*Waits patiently for Greenmangaming preorder discount*.

I think I ended up getting 2013 for £22 from there. isthereanydeal.com took great delight in telling me that I could preorder the game for £16 at the brazilian site nuuvem.com.br (which I have ordered from before). Sadly, and unusually, the game is 'not available in your region'. Sad times, thought I was onto a bargain. Don't suppose there are any Brazilian Goodjers?

I am liking the sound of it being linked to the Steam Workshop, so it'll make getting skins, data updates etc easier to find and install.

davet010 wrote:

I am liking the sound of it being linked to the Steam Workshop, so it'll make getting skins, data updates etc easier to find and install.

Agreed. I've been moving facepacks, logos and kits from version to version for some time now. Including updates, etc. A bit of hassle, especially since most of them are downloadable only through spamtastic download sites.

Having all of the graphics mods, as well as custom databases and the like, available via Steam Workshop will be great.

There really is nothing worse than those generated faces. I'd rather they just didn't try. That said, I gave up on anything graphical some time ago, I tend not to even look at the badges/faces/etc anymore.

However, my lower league antics may lead me to try some of the extremely low-level league set ups that ususally appear.

I remember a management sim called On the Ball back in the mid 90's. It had random events, one of which was having the manager become a player manager with woeful stats.

Since I play LLM exclusively I'd love to see an option to be a crappy player manager in an FM game.

Prozac wrote:

I remember a management sim called On the Ball back in the mid 90's. It had random events, one of which was having the manager become a player manager with woeful stats.

Since I play LLM exclusively I'd love to see an option to be a crappy player manager in an FM game.

Oh, I think I remember that - it had an almost comic-strip graphic style and was the translation of a German game if I remember correctly. I believe that the FIFA Manager games were actually built upon that one.

dejanzie wrote:

And yeah, Be A Pro is fun until the rocket launcher EA points at your willing suspension of disbelief starts firing.

EA upgraded recently.

IMAGE(http://www.army-technology.com/contractor_images/l-3_nav_sat/1_MLRS_M270.jpg)

For me, the AI has always been a big sticking point. In every FIFA game (PES as well), the tactical AI was cookie-cutter. I could be Chelsea, and Manchester United and Woking Town would play me essentially the same way. I've never seen the AI stick ten men behind the ball, hope to grind out a draw and try to get a lucky goal on a set-piece.

I'd just like games to admit that you don't have to do 4 dragbacks, 3 marseille roulettes, 2 Rabonas and a scorpion kick to score. I mean, I know it's a matter of keeping the game balanced, but for god's sake, here's Neymar's "golazo" from the match against Portugal:

The man runs pretty much in a line, dribbling at speed. Not a rainbow flick to be seen. I can't imagine anything CLOSE to that happening in FIFA. Not against the AI, at least.

Seems like the beta pre-release for Football Manager 2014 is imminent. I pre-ordered from Green Man Gaming and they just sent out beta codes. SI has said that they won't announce the beta's availability until an hour before it's released, but given that tomorrow would be exactly two weeks before release, I think we could see it at any time.

2 weeks seems to ring a bell with what they did last time...

I think I've managed to convince myself to not go for that, desptie GMG doing it's best to get a pre-order out of me with a recent 30% off code...

I thoroughly have my claws in something else right now, so I think I will wait... perhaps even until fm2015 (I always say that, and rarely manage to hold out..). I still haven't done half of the things I hoped to achieve in FM13, so maybe I'm just not needing a newer version yet. or Perhaps the 'Every Second Year' approach is the best way to deal with yearly-release cycles of sports games..

Beta is available through Steam now for those who pre-ordered. Say goodbye to my free time.

I have downloaded the beta, and don't work again for a couple days.

I am also regretting that I made plans for tonight and Saturday...