The Official Xbox 360 Thread

[General Mannerheim]

i liked it when every free kick was a goal, and when you could make your keeper score, or when you could crank all your players abilitys up to 99%... and when you could deliberately nice person an opponent! that was fun, realistic is boring.

[hisroyalgingerness]

I remember one version in the 90s you could dive on it. No coincidence I feel that Dennis Bergkamp was on the front

[Choppers]

How come you can't talk about it, just in case you think it's shit?

Usually if you get advance viewing or playtesting, you have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement...

I can talk a little bit about it, but not full disclosure yeah.

Under embargo for a few days still.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Dead Island is shit.

ASDA to sell FIFA for £25 at midnight tomorrow.

[Prufrock]

Seems daft on a school night.......

[Lofthouse Lower]

Depends on how much you want to purchase it.

Went down a couple of years ago at midnight for a launch and I bet there were 300 people queueing at 11pm......

[Prufrock]

*pssssst. Was a joke about FIFA being for kids*

[Lofthouse Lower]

I presume they sent their older, Pro Evo playing brothers to pick up a copy under sufference

[Prufrock]

[Lofthouse Lower]

Review

played this last week. If FIFA 11 was a 7/10, then FIFA 12 is a 7/10.


It's a crying shame that the games media will play the game for a bit, ignore all the problems so they are onside with the publisher, and pretend the game is the most realistic football sim ever. Things like the defender stretching a leg out to intercept the ball have been there since FIFA 10 at least. It's not even a new animation - it's been there for coming up to 3 years, if not more!

Superficially, the game is very realistic. But when you actually look at what is happening, at how the game plays out, at what works and what doesnt, at what you have to think about as a player? It's still a long, long way behind PES.

The good thing is that the dribbling is pretty cool when you beat a man. The game does a great job of making agile dribblers like Man Utd's Nasri feel dangerous. Combined with those moments where the impact engine is behaving properly, it looks absolutely fantastic.

The problem is that, combined with the lack of weight to the game (players skating on the pitch, players dribbling with superhuman agility and not having to plant a foot to transfer their weight), the AI reacts instantly to your movement, which means that unless the CPU defender is in the middle of a tackling animation or you use a trick to open up a scripted window of stupidity in the defender's behaviour, it is impossible to use a quick touch to one side to open up the angle for a pass. EA have talked about 'push and pull' where people tug or shove or tussle to try and win the physical battle, but there isn't any push and pull resulting from your manipulation of the ball.

Look at the movement of the containing player here to get an idea of the reaction times that the CPU and NPCs tend to have, and compare that to what you'd expect in real life.
FIFA 12 Leaked Webcast - Contain demo

PES by contrast makes momentum an essential part of the gameplay, although it hasn't yet managed to combine it with an organic and intuitive sense of control:
PES 2012 Video Announcement - Gameplay Only

In real world examples, look at the very first highlight here:
Rooney vs Schalke

The CPU extends this instant reaction time to dribbling. It is insanely good at dribbling through your defence because it reacts to your attempts to tackle it infinitely quicker than you can react to its movement, in the way that it is bloody hard to catch a fly in your hand. After 6 hours or so it was becoming clear that it was something you could only become better at up to a point. So the removal of pressuring is very much in favour of the CPU, not the human. This may work out better online, but nothing else in the game has been changed outside of the big three EA are pushing, so don't expect online to suddenly reward the football-minded!

This instant reaction is hard enough to deal with, but the thing is that (a) the game doesn't really deal with the idea of a weaker foot, and (b) the touches you take when dribbling are all independent from each other. A player who is off balance from taking a touch one way can still take a touch against that imbalance as easily as if standing still. So you can't really shepherd a player wide or force them onto their weaker foot, which in real life and in PES does a certain amount of the hard work for the defender. Against the CPU it's an absolute nightmare, whether on Legendary or Professional - it's something that desperately needs addressing.

Another major gripe that was particularly true of FIFA 11 but has always been there to some extent: non-controlled players (the 20 NPCs when you're controlling one player and a mate/the CPU 'user' is controlling another) cancel each other out by making poor runs/picking up runs instantly rather than being caught flat-footed. So you don't get players making runs that pull the defence apart (except when a defender runs about 15 yards behind the offside line, which STILL happens after 3 years!!), and you don't get someone running from deep who manages to burst through a flat offside line.


Player personality is still negligible; pro passing error is still just represented as slower passes, not directionally inaccurate ones (facepalm); player technique is still absurdly good, bringing impossibly difficult balls out of the sky with immaculate, Bergkamp-esque control; assisted controls are still very uninvolving, manual controls are still untouched...

Basically, the game is much the same as FIFA 11, with some nice cosmetic touches and some new features which are miles away from being balanced. The three big things EA have looked to add this year stick out like a very sore thumb at the moment simply because they've been bolted on to the game. Again, too much effort spent on the tech, and not its application.

[Prufrock]

Nasri of Man Utd?

[Lofthouse Lower]

Pro = innovators.

Ace new features

It's worth it though, since it will provide 3DTV support and a new feature to the series called 'myPES'.

The latter is a social networking suite which will arrive in beta form and allow players to share results and other data on Facebook

[keveh]

I'm a huge CoD fan, but I've just been looking over all of the Battlefield 3 images and videos and it looks amazing.

It's released on the day I get paid so I'm pretty sure I'm going to be buying it!

Choppers, are you allowed to talk about that yet?

[Choppers]

BF3? Yeah, looks amazing...but only played the multiplayer so far. It's in open beta now if you fancied trying it!

MW3 is great too. Spec Ops is awesome!

Enjoying PES, no question. PS3 version is the way to go imho.

[BWFC_Insane]

BF3? Yeah, looks amazing...but only played the multiplayer so far. It's in open beta now if you fancied trying it!

MW3 is great too. Spec Ops is awesome!

Enjoying PES, no question. PS3 version is the way to go imho.

What is the advantage of the PS3 version out of interest?

[Prufrock]

Freeinternetswoooo.

[officer_dibble]

I remember one version in the 90s you could dive on it. No coincidence I feel that Dennis Bergkamp was on the front

double tap.r1!
havent played a footie game for years, must get an x box thingy at some point!

[Choppers]

BF3? Yeah, looks amazing...but only played the multiplayer so far. It's in open beta now if you fancied trying it!

MW3 is great too. Spec Ops is awesome!

Enjoying PES, no question. PS3 version is the way to go imho.

What is the advantage of the PS3 version out of interest?

Until the embargo is up, I don't feel comfortable saying...

I will say that PES just feels right on a PS3 pad.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Been playing FIFA for a while - can't believe they released it with such a major bug (goalkeeper trick). Pretty shocking QA.

[BWFC_Insane]

Been playing FIFA for a while - can't believe they released it with such a major bug (goalkeeper trick). Pretty shocking QA.

What is the bug?