Soccer Gaming Catch-All

So you're proving that you have to go through ridiculous overcomplicated backflips to score a goal in PES? :p

I'm really interested to see how next year turns out though. I really do want to be torn for choice, especially since I am in no way familiar, or pleased with having my trust currently in EA Sports, who have a proven track record of idiocy.

Prederick wrote:

So you're proving that you have to go through ridiculous overcomplicated backflips to score a goal in PES? :p

Quiet! It's awesome, you philistine!

btw: I saw figures for PES/FIFA 09 sales. Guess what? 10 million of sold FIFAs and 8 million of PESes. That's closer than I'd ever thought. PES did good and thanks to it's success KONAMI ended fiscal year on +4%. This means that they certainly won't tolerate any more lost ground and will make strong push to at least level things with FIFA.

Anyone doing the Ultimate Team thing in FIFA? I admit, I am addicted.

Slumberland wrote:

Anyone doing the Ultimate Team thing in FIFA?

Huh, what's that?

Slumberland wrote:

Anyone doing the Ultimate Team thing in FIFA? I admit, I am addicted.

Not really. I'm not a fan of Pokemon, much less paying for the opportunity to play.

Prederick wrote:
Slumberland wrote:

Anyone doing the Ultimate Team thing in FIFA? I admit, I am addicted.

Not really. I'm not a fan of Pokemon, much less paying for the opportunity to play.

Zing!

UCRC, it's a downloadable (and decidedly not-free) mode where you field a team via trading cards of different levels (bronze, silver, and gold players) for on and off-line tourneys and matches, all the while trying to upgrade and maintain your team via card packs and online auctions, using virtual coins that you get by playing games and/or auctioning off your own cards. It's absolutely the kind of thing I never get into, but for some reason I've fallen in love with it, fielding a team of Italians and Malians, along with my own avatar up front... you have one created player "captain" leading the team, to throw in a further dash of customization. I just dig playing tourneys with a team of my own devising.

Slumberland wrote:

...I've fallen in love with it, fielding a team of Italians and Malians, along with my own avatar up front... you have one created player "captain" leading the team, to throw in a further dash of customization. I just dig playing tourneys with a team of my own devising.

See, I'd totally be down with that aspect, at least, a "build your own club" aspect similar to the Manager mode in the game. But I don't want to have to go flipping through pack after pack of trading cards hoping to upgrade my silver Paolo Maldini into a gold one.

What's funny though, is that some of the ideas in Ultimate Team really should make the jump over to Manager mode (on-field chemistry and the like).

Prederick wrote:

See, I'd totally be down with that aspect, at least, a "build your own club" aspect similar to the Manager mode in the game. But I don't want to have to go flipping through pack after pack of trading cards hoping to upgrade my silver Paolo Maldini into a gold one.

What's funny though, is that some of the ideas in Ultimate Team really should make the jump over to Manager mode (on-field chemistry and the like).

Yes, it's tough to build and maintain via the packs, but you can pinpoint your searches through the auctions for both player categories and development cards... and sniping a lot of deals at the last second. That was the only way I could quickly assemble some chemistry-promoting parts around the couple players that I took a shine to.

In any case, I'm not trying to sell anyone on the mode, just was wondering if anyone else was into it.

I'm surprised chemistry doesn't isn't in manager mode as well. That's a mode I generally stay away from, I guess.

Sweet lord, I actually went out and re-bought PES 09, just to see if I was missing something. I stand by my original statements.

Prederick wrote:

You know, I feel horrible saying this, but I do not like PES 09. It feels horrendous. Whereas last year's game felt staid and clunky, this feels insanely chaotic and disjointed.

I really can't believe it, i've tried several games now, and i've won 4-1, won 3-2 (only thanks for a furious comeback), lost 2-1, and never, not once had fun doing it. It's felt like work, every time. AI seems just as dumb as it was the last two years, I mean...

...y'know, the game has been tweaked. It has. And i'm going to give it a few more tries, maybe the hardest difficulty level gives the game the most realistic taste, but right now, after watching Jamie Carragher run past a loose ball rather than clear it, after watching Xavi screw up a perfectly easy through ball by pinging the ball 10 yards behind Leo Messi when anyone with brain could see where the ball should've gone. I've heard "you have to get used to it" at other places, and i'm going to try, but this doesn't feel like getting used to a new way of playing.

I really can't believe I'm saying this, I really, really can't, but I'm with Spunior right now. The only thing PES has on FIFA right now, for my money, is the EDIT mode.

I dunno, maybe I'm not good at the game, maybe I don't know the way to play it anymore. I'd say that's entirely possible. But the game's about as intuitive as String Theory (let me just cut inside my defender here... oh wait, my player just did a totally needless 360 and lost the ball when I don't remember telling him to) and apparently, for all the tweaking, there's no explanation about how it affects the game.

I'll hang out a bit in the training area, see if that makes it better. And I'm not saying FIFA is perfect (the AI has a astonishing ability, once it goes down by two or three goals, to start hoofing 55-yard longballs through the air that just happen to land on their striker's foot), but... it feels like the actual game, and fun. And I say this as someone who never thought EA would ever make a competent soccer game. EA are making Next-Gen games, Konami's making a PS2 game dressed up like a 360 game.

Also, playing defense is the sh*ttest I've ever seen in a soccer game. Ever. Absolutely the worst. I'm not even going to argue this, it's just laughably sh*t.

Meanwhile, in happier news, Frank set me up with a French lower-league team where, thus far this season, the defenders have averaged four mistakes a game. And we just got outshot 22-4. And our big summer signing broke his toe during a FRIENDLY and is out for another 6-8 weeks.

Prederick wrote:

Also, playing defense is the sh*ttest I've ever seen in a soccer game. Ever. Absolutely the worst. I'm not even going to argue this, it's just laughably sh*t.

Heretic!

Pred, I'm curious, have you been playing over twenty hours of FM in one sitting or just left it on and forgot about it?

UCRC wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Also, playing defense is the sh*ttest I've ever seen in a soccer game. Ever. Absolutely the worst. I'm not even going to argue this, it's just laughably sh*t.

Heretic!

Pred, I'm curious, have you been playing over twenty hours of FM in one sitting or just left it on and forgot about it?

Left it on and fell asleep. I'm not nearly THAT much of an addict.

Hmm, might be time to start a new FM at Newcastle and see if I can at least equal the mighty Shearer

davet010 wrote:

Hmm, might be time to start a new FM at Newcastle and see if I can at least equal the mighty Shearer :)

Funny, I thought about starting with WBA and trying to prevent them from getting relegated. But for now I'm coaching nearly bankrupt mediocre Utrecht in Eredivisie in my journeyman career.

I ordered Fifa 09 DS just now, I'll post impressions as soon as I get it :p

Just rewind it to the last 20 seconds.

Now that, THAT my friends, is pulling defeat from the jaws of victory.

Meanwhile, Frankie Lampard seals a goodbye FA Cup for Guus Hiddink. May the utterly ridiculous transfer rumor season begin in earnest now.

Help! I'm starting to get hype-struck again!

Just when I thought I was out
, ...

If I wanted to be a real whore about details, i'd note that in the end there it's Fernando Torres making the tackle, which has been a problem with PES for years (Oh look, their striker has chased my striker all the way to their corner flag!), but I know that's just PR stuff.

Call me when the gameplay videos come out though.

To be fair, I'm not hyped about a game too much. I'm just happy it will be there next year because I'll play it anyway

News from FIFA 2010 camp: 360 dribbling. Faster passing (FINALLY). Same graphics engine. Small tweaks.
If they can deliver on dribbling/passing/engine tweaks front, I might finally have a good time. Otherwise it's still broken for me.

They're saying 70/30 tweaks/new features, which by god is how sports games should always go.

PESFan does interesting comparison of PES2009 and PES2010 graphics. Two small pics that captured my interest:

IMAGE(http://editor.pesfan.com/livkit.jpg)
IMAGE(http://editor.pesfan.com/xavi_position.jpg)

All this talk of graphics and no talk of gameplay reminds me of someone....
IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/EA_Sports.svg)
:p

IMAGE(http://uk.games.konami-europe.com/media/uk/000150009.jpg)
IMAGE(http://uk.games.konami-europe.com/media/uk/000150011.jpg)
I want that job!

Prederick wrote:

All this talk of graphics and no talk of gameplay reminds me of someone....
IMAGE(http://www.oishiicreative.com/images/work_easmedallion_02.jpg)
:p

Sorry your image link didn't work for me, but I thought what you were saying was spot on.

I'm a relatively new FIFA '09 player and was wondering if you guys know of any good websites that have detailed info on controls, tricks, moves, etc. I can hold my own on the easiest dificulty but my lack of knowledge beyond the basics is holding me back.

Do any Goodjers actively play online? Leagues?

It looks like the official EA FIFA site has a pretty robust set of PDFs. Not sure why this never came up in my previous dozen Google searches.

93_confirmed wrote:

I'm a relatively new FIFA '09 player and was wondering if you guys know of any good websites that have detailed info on controls, tricks, moves, etc. I can hold my own on the easiest dificulty but my lack of knowledge beyond the basics is holding me back.

This YouTube Channel has a bunch of great videos explaining the tricks and a bit on free kicks (although not as much as i'd like, but then again, EA could've done a lot more to make them make more sense).

93_confirmed wrote:

Do any Goodjers actively play online? Leagues?

I'll occasionally do one of the Interactive Season games (Highlight: Winning 3-1 with Fulham over Liverpool). I gave up on Be A Pro because it always seemed like my team was made up of colossal idiots. If you're ever up for a game though, drop me a line on XBL.

Thanks for the link Pred. My copy is coming from Gamefly this week and I'll definitely hit you with an invite.

On a slightly different note, does anyone have a good site for World Cup Qualifier Highlights? It's so frustrating that out of 900+ DirectTV channels, I don't have one channel dedicated to soccer and ESPN generally doesn't give much soccer love nowadays.

It's pretty much Fox Soccer Channel here, and pickings can be slim there, unless you have Satellite. I'd mention Setanta, but they're on the verge of going bust.