There are 3 major things that are notable to me that have been changed (in the gameplay) this year. First is the most talked about; improved goalkeepers. Sure, this is great, it makes it harder to score and in online play makes for lower scoring games. However, offline against the AI it proves to be a nightmare. The opposition goalkeeper will pull off string of spectacular saves and prove unbeatable whereas your own 'man between the sticks' will concede about 2/3 of the shots against him. This, as you can imagine is infuriating. I'm well aware that football games down the years have made difficulties harder by seemingly just make it so that nearly every time the AI has a shot, they score, but never has it been made so hard to score yourself. I often wound up having 3 or 4 times as many shots as the AI opposition would against me in career mode and yet still wind up on the losing side due to this.
Number 2 is the passing. What has happened here? It seems that about 1/4 passes just decide to go wherever the hell they want by their selves. Maybe this is a problem that only I seem to be finding, but it is so annoying. You've built a nice move forward, you're one pass away from playing in the breakaway attacker and oh, it goes to the right back. Or you're bringing it out of defence (not clearing it mind you, you're not Sam Allardyce), you try to play it across to the centre mid in acres, but instead it goes to your centre half, who has an opposition striker standing in front of him and all of a sudden you've given a goal away. This isn't the only problem with the passing though. They've also done what I like to think of as 'the PES trick' where they have simulated more difficulty when you start the new instalment by changing pass powers so now you have to hold the pass button down much longer than you would have in last years to make the same pass. It just seems like they put this in here to make it seem tougher when an experienced FIFA player first launches the new game.
The third however is the worst and the online cardinal sin. Last year they did something amazing and made pace count for less and strength mean so much more. This put an end to the shower of arses who played online and played constant lobbed through-balls to their intentionally chosen fast strikers to run in and score.. You still got the odd few who tried it, but unless you weren't paying attention you could usually deal with it and romp to victory because these players didn't actually know how to play football and thought that was all you did (probably American (or Birmingham City fans...)). This year though it's back. They have reinstated the pace difference and once again you're dealing with having to lose online to inferior players who just hoof balls over the top and run in behind to score while you're trying to build nice team moves. Sure, you can counteract this in online seasons by not being top teams an hence not getting matched against teams full of fast strikers but in ultimate teams online? Forget about it. That's my favourite mode ruined then.
And another thing, The commentary. It's a series of old lines from many FIFA's past (Rio Ferdinand is so quick...?) and talk of the World cup just gone. How old will that be come January? They'll need to use the window to transfer in some new lines. I normally play with the sound on for the first couple of months but after 4 days I already had it on mute listening to music. Plus, as an added bonus there seems to be a lot of issues with the game getting stuck, I've now twice had full time and not be able to do anything and the players just stand there and I've had to forfeit the match to get out of it, where's the patch?
Something positive is needed I suppose. There is still a great depth of game modes (though that has been the case for years now anyway) and the smart online matchmaking with similar team and player levels matched up is far better done than anything you see anywhere else. Also, it's the first game (that I'm aware of) that has had Villa park in it since Actua Soccer 3 (let's play in the snow!). Gameplay wise though, they have blown it for me. Looks like it's back to Pro Evo for me this year. 4/10.
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