FIFA 15 News & Discussion Thread

mfmaxpower said:
Watching the Liverpool-Everton match on a second screen while playing a few FIFA 15 matches, and to me the biggest difference is the amount of space dribblers are afforded in FIFA 15. I really don't get why EA don't simply let contain work so that you can get into tackling distance from dribblers, but then make it all about timing the tackle properly. It seems like this would work great, especially since they've almost entirely (thank god) removed auto-tackle from the game.

In a sport in which manipulating space is the name of the game, getting this so wrong in FIFA is a critical flaw.
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The command is there, but yeah it doesn't work very well ( X button on playstation 4 ).
 
romagnoli said:
I really do hate the existence of manual controls because of the way in which they tend to stop a lot of manual players from having intelligent discussion about the topic.

With the option to use manual, semi-assisted or assisted controls, FIFA (and now PES) has divided the community up into people who simply aren't interested in each other's plight, or who think that the answer to fundamental problems with the AI is to change the controls. Guess what? The AI will still suck, and as your thumb gradually becomes more competent at pointing in certain directions, you will find yourself faced with the same problems.

PES 2011 had it right in principle, making everyone play with semi-assisted controls while also giving you the option to hold L2 to play a manual pass. Different control schemes divide the community, lead to pointless squabbles over which control scheme is most 'realistic' (which always gets confused with which is hardest instead), and gives the developers the easy way out of any criticism of the game by saying something offensively dismissive like 'Try manual controls :)'.

It is ENTIRELY possible to design an assisted passing/shooting control scheme which is extremely realistic, requires skill to use effectively to build intelligent moves, and is part of a cerebral yet fun football simulation. In fact I can't imagine how a manual control scheme could ever be more authentic and 'sim' than the most realistic assisted setup humanly possible - and god knows I've spent several years trying to imagine both.

I want there to be a natural difference between basic passers who tend to aim straight for the recipient, and more intelligent tempo-dictating players who aim slightly ahead/to the side of the recipient in order to inform the recipient's next move. I want some players to fail to make certain passes because they haven't yet looked over their shoulder and so don't know where the recipient or the defenders are, rather than just passing in the direction I've moved my thumb. Why should shooting be manual? Why would Falcao aim 10-15 yards wide of the goal? Shouldn't he be aiming for just inside the post, and the context of the position, body posture relative to the ball, pressure, keeper position and composure of the player in the scenario itself inform how accurate the shot is?


I don't particularly mind manual in and of itself. In fact I think it's ideal for Clubs / BAP, where you control one player and your ability with your thumb doesn't transfer across to every player, and everyone on the pitch can therefore play the game with a clearly different level of vision and intelligence. In that context, aiming wide of the goal is MY fault, so manual shooting makes sense. It's not like Career mode, where I should be conveying my intent to the player on the pitch for him to then execute to the best of his abilities. In BAP / Clubs, the player is ME. I already know my intentions, and executing them is my responsibility alone.

What I do mind is that manual still doesn't allow for the level of individuality that you could get from an ideal assisted / semi-assisted setup, but never from the manual game without sacrificing a sense of coherency and consistency (which is essential for learning how to improve your game). But the very notion that assisted could be more realistic than it currently is will never be given the time of day by a lot of people due to a combination of pride, ignorance, stubbornness, and a genuine insistence that the player with the pad should define the exact angle and weight that professional footballers should apply to a pass, even though their ability to correctly measure such passes is what distinguishes them.

Right now I don't think FIFA or PES has very much individuality in the passing game at all, and I have no doubt in my mind that it's because the devs have absolved themselves of all responsibility for dealing with this area of the game, tying inaccuracy to the thumb rather than to the footballer. The public will entertain themselves based on how much of a challenge the game then feels (or how amazing they appear to be at the game if they're using assisted) without noticing the difference between a Ferdinand and Phil Jones, or seeing why Mata is a more technical #10 than Rooney, or why Strootman distributes the ball better than de Jong. And that's what a football game needs in order for me to want to play it all year round.
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What a fantastic post!
 
@mfmaxpower How many hours have you played mate? It sounds like you should be on the playtesting feedback team. ;-)

Are the people unhappy about defending changing the sliders at all? I have found that a Line Length of 35 and Man Marking of 75 makes the defense very compact for the AI to get through, and almost every run is tracked by my AI. Man Marking and Line Length at the defaults of 50 I found a defensive shambles. There is just too much space.

But I am not playing on legendary. Perhaps on legendary there are scripts that nerf your defensive AI, simply to provide 'challenge'?

It would not surprise me.

As for defending manually, I find jockeying (LT/L2), in addition with run (RT/R2) for the fast lateral movements. But pushing the left stick towards the ball while jockeying forces the AI into different, less ninja dribble routines. It's a bit like how legacy defending forces the attacking AI into a different mode, and also not unusual to steal the ball this way from an attacker off balance.

I am also loving the local multiplayer on 15. The individuality is amazing, and the collision impact engine is just stellar this year.
 
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broxopios said:
What a fantastic post!
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disagree, without manual and the ability accurately pass into open space you are left with a locked down game with little to no openness. Its also down to preference but manual is a godsend when played against the AI or like minded people.
 
wkhalil said:
Looks like there are more complaining and deep analysis of this game more than enjoying it. For me maybe because I don't play online and I play offline on full manual controls things feel a little different . I am really enjoying this game and I think EA has done a better job this year in terms of visuals and game play.
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yes this , great point..its like some people load it up and say, right lets find things wrong with it
 
hitmanuk said:
yes this , great point..its like some people load it up and say, right lets find things wrong with it
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Actually I load it up desperately trying to enjoy it. I could go on for quite some time about what FIFA does really well. The presentation, the animations, the dribbling, the attacking play...

It's just that for me this year the defensive side of the game - the mechanics but even more the AI -undermines the rest of the game. (And it's kinda hard to get excited for CM when next to nothing has been improved.)

Trust me, I'm trying hard to look beyond the flaws, as I'm a pretty big fan of the franchise, but it's not easy.

hitmanuk said:
disagree, without manual and the ability accurately pass into open space you are left with a locked down game with little to no openness. Its also down to preference but manual is a godsend when played against the AI or like minded people.
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You might be missing the point of his post.
 
Bendit said:
@mfmaxpower How many hours have you played mate? It sounds like you should be on the playtesting feedback team. ;-)

Are the people unhappy about defending changing the sliders at all? I have found that a Line Length of 35 and Man Marking of 75 makes the defense very compact for the AI to get through, and almost every run is tracked by my AI. Man Marking and Line Length at the defaults of 50 I found a defensive shambles. There is just too much space.

But I am not playing on legendary. Perhaps on legendary there are scripts that nerf your defensive AI, simply to provide 'challenge'?

It would not surprise me.

As for defending manually, I find jockeying (LT/L2), in addition with run (RT/R2) for the fast lateral movements. But pushing the left stick towards the ball while jockeying forces the AI into different, less ninja dribble routines. It's a bit like how legacy defending forces the attacking AI into a different mode, and also not unusual to steal the ball this way from an attacker off balance.

I am also loving the local multiplayer on 15. The individuality is amazing, and the collision impact engine is just stellar this year.
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I only talk about the game on default settings. I don't like to mess with sliders too much anymore. For one, it messes you up if you're going to play multiplayer.

More importantly, over the years I've gotten tired of trying to fix the game with sliders, as for when you fix one thing, you almost always create a problem/imbalance elsewhere. I find it creates a vicious cycle for me where I spend too much time trying to tweak and improve the game.

I also like to play the game for a good period of time at default before I start tweaking things. Sometimes what you think needs adjusting is fine once you get used to gameplay.

Besides, the only thing I really want to "fix" is the AI, and there's no sliders for that. Pace, passing accuracy, etc., I'm pretty happy with these things.
 
Doesn't help the defending argument but I just had a terrific 4-3 win over AC Milan in my final pre-season friendly, wasn't helped by a Cheick Tiote straight red card half way through! Scored some lovely goals and a couple of the Milan ones were really well worked also :)
 
Finding it very hard to enjoy the game on world class because the AI seems to attack at every opportunity - even smaller teams against big teams, and it's so hard to stop them getting into the box. Whilst on the other hand, on professional the AI barely attacks at all and it's too easy to steal the ball.

Need a middle ground between difficulties. What is everyone else playing on setting wise?
 
Ok the mystery of the Lacina Traore,……… He is definitely in the data base however I still cannot play with him in regular kick off mode. I am in the third year of my ML/CM with Fulham and we are in the Premier League. Lacina Traore is listed with Everton like he should be and once I get the funds hopefully he will be available to buy. When I leave my CM/ML and go back to kick-off/exhibition mode he is still nowhere to be seen. ALL Available updates have been applied.

If that aint some PES shizz I do not know what else is. Fifa has turned into PES who would have thought.
The player IS IN the DATABASE he just cannot be seen where he should be!!!!!!LOL
Great Game hope everyone is enjoying the fact that us football fans have two really decent titles to play this year.



Without a shadow of a doubt the game has some niggling little bugs but nothing so far that distracts from the TOTAL overall experience, Because the game is that good.


Also NO TRAINING MODE sucks big ole Donkey Balls. This is Next Gen EA grow up and put on your big boy pants. And its not like they could not have put it in. Let me shut-up and go and enjoy my game before I put my skirt on and get my purse out and really start complaining.
 
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Those casual games of Ricochet in front of the goals drive me crazy... Second game in Online Seasons (full manual): Managed to get an easy 2-0 lead, when suddenly my AI-players stopped pressuring the enemy which led to him getting way to much space. That feeling didn't change after the 2-1 and then he scored the aforementioned Ricochet-goal. Too bad I didn't capture this one via Fraps... I think my keeper dived into the ball, slung it against one of my players and from there it bounced into the goal.
2-3 was a weird penalty-decision which I truly didn't understand and yet still haven't got my head around. Game ended 3-4 and I have yet failed to pick up the controller for Online Seasons again.

If I could at least blame myself for the loss, but losing because of weird physics etc. is just on a whole new level of stupid.
 
Shearer_God said:
Finding it very hard to enjoy the game on world class because the AI seems to attack at every opportunity - even smaller teams against big teams, and it's so hard to stop them getting into the box. Whilst on the other hand, on professional the AI barely attacks at all and it's too easy to steal the ball.

Need a middle ground between difficulties. What is everyone else playing on setting wise?
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Professional, perfect challenge for me this year, thus far. Last year I enjoyed World Class so I don't know what that means...
 
Legendary is definitely playable than last year. It is highly advised to use sliders this year, gentleman. Don't go through the pains of the default, overly attacking, gameplay - because this game is absolutely stunning in graphics, and the gameplay is there as well with the right slider adjustments.
 
Spent more time today playing online FIFA than I've played in the last five years, and gotta say, had a pretty good time. Online seems better balanced than single player this year, mainly because human opponents actually try to defend (though the experience of defending still sucks balls).

But this is what I've realized: if the match is decided by goals created by more than three passes, I win nine times out of ten; if more goals are scored as a result of three or fewer passes, then my win percentage drops drastically.

I think it was Xaor/Rodelero at FUThead who said sometime not long ago that the problem with online FIFA is that it doesn't properly reward skill and this still holds. It's just so easy to create chances in this game, and it seems like the vast majority of people do this: win ball, long pass to striker, sprint to goal.

When you get a couple people interested in not exploiting the game, you can get some brilliant matches. I moved up a couple division pretty easily, 'cause most played like tools and didn't know what the hell they were doing, rushing into tackles and spamming long passes, but hopefully the matches get better in the higher divisions rather than get more exploitative?
 
mfmaxpower said:
I only talk about the game on default settings. I don't like to mess with sliders too much anymore. For one, it messes you up if you're going to play multiplayer.
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I understand it can be a slow and frustrating case of trial and error with sliders, but if you aren't prepared to tinker yourself, I am not sure one can complain too much about the state of the AI defence. By design the game is made to appeal to the largest market of casual players, presumably those who want quick counter-attacks and lots of chances - just as you said. At default settings, that is what it does.
 
What the hell is going on with the team sheets online? It seems to take your formation, and your starting lineup... but it seems to default the substitutes, instructions, but not tactics?! God I hope this is fixed soon.

Bendit said:
I understand it can be a slow and frustrating case of trial and error with sliders, but if you aren't prepared to tinker yourself, I am not sure one can complain too much about the state of the AI defence. By design the game is made to appeal to the largest market of casual players, presumably those who want quick counter-attacks and lots of chances - just as you said. At default settings, that is what it does.
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Are you serious? The majority of modes in the game can be played on nothing other than default sliders. The default settings are OBVIOUSLY what people should base their feedback on.

mfmaxpower said:
I think it was Xaor/Rodelero at FUThead who said sometime not long ago that the problem with online FIFA is that it doesn't properly reward skill and this still holds. It's just so easy to create chances in this game, and it seems like the vast majority of people do this: win ball, long pass to striker, sprint to goal.
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It's certainly something I say, though I think a lot of people say it :P

One of the most aggravating issues with this game right now is the ease of going from defence to attack. You often see in real life that teams struggle with a disconnect between their lines - sometimes the defence is struggling to find the midfield and sometimes the midfield is struggling to find the attack. That doesn't seem to really be a concept in this game. I'd love to play a possession game of football, but if I push forward the tendency is that my entire team does, and the remainder don't really mark the attackers.

Once I lose possession, it's always a single, perfectly accurate pass or clearance directly to the striker, often blind. It's almost impossible to challenge for that ball, and players don't really seem to want to try and cut off the passing options either.

When long passes are played (not so much over the top, but towards a target man), the person defending is often screwed over by their defenders not challenging for the ball. They won't necessarily get it but they should certainly get close so that the man can't easily turn. Unfortunately, the game doesn't do this automatically, won't lock your player into the path of the ball, and hence you're left to do it manually. That's fine, except for one major problem: you're not on the screen.

When you get a couple people interested in not exploiting the game, you can get some brilliant matches. I moved up a couple division pretty easily, 'cause most played like tools and didn't know what the hell they were doing, rushing into tackles and spamming long passes, but hopefully the matches get better in the higher divisions rather than get more exploitative?
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I think you can kind of guess the answer to that. People get better at exploiting faster than they get better at playing football, going off previous years.

I'm playing someone right now who at half time had 33% passing accuracy, yet is still pretty threatening. He gets the ball, hammers it up to his three, totally unmarked attackers, and then tries a long ball. Every time. If I make one mistake when defending these long passes, he will have a golden opportunity to score. This would be reasonable if I was playing ultra-offensive or all out attack, but I'm not. I'm playing a 4-2-3-1, on default mentality.

It is horribly sad to say, but 6-0-4 or 7-0-3 is the optimal way to play this game.
 
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Yes, let's absolve the companies from producing a proper football game and blame the consumers if we don't feel like fixing the game with sliders, despite the fact that sliders can't actually fix the problems we're talking about. Seriously, is that what we've come to?
 
Ipswich69 said:
Professional, perfect challenge for me this year, thus far. Last year I enjoyed World Class so I don't know what that means...
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what i did is adjust the sliders on pro mode to make it more of a challenge without stepping up to WC..try knocking your Accel and Sprint -1 to the AI and reducing the AI shot error to around 30
 
Dalbs79 if anyone wants to add me on PS4, I'm terrible on the game but I try and play football. First Fifa I've really played since '11. Really enjoying it apart from the defending and tactical aspect, it's so close to been great yet it can still frustrate me so much.
 
As for many others this game for me is outstanding at everything other than what happens on the pitch.

I am really not happy with the fact that the standard reply to the glaring AI problems is 'just alter the sliders'.

The thing is that the game should be playable before applying sliders. The defending against the AI seems to have been artificially weakened. When I increased the player marking - slider to '60' games on WC-difficulty became a joke. I played United and another team and both of them had zero shots - at all! All because defending was finally the way it should be and my players actually understood that the player on the ball is an opponent that they should oppose and not just let walk by.

This kind of made me think that the crappy defensive AI and controls are also to cover up the crappy AI. Essentially the AI only works because of their 90% passing accuracy and weakened defending on the player's side.
So I have gone back to crappy defending with an altered pass error - slider to make it more challenging but it isn't really fun to defend like that. I was also thinking about going legendary with an adjusted marking - slider but then I would always fail horribly in online matches against both strangers and friends as my sliders will lead to me being used to an entirely different game. This is a pretty big problem IMO. If you go online you're pretty much screwed when you used to a different game style. This is essentially a problem from the games general 'settings' being shoddy.

I don't even want to get started on what this defending has done to online matches. I think I have yet to see a player with a passing completion above 70%. The obvious imbalance between attack and defense generally leads to goal festivals and some incredibly random goals
 
I'm seeing a lot of similar looking goals from shit goalkeeping!!

Its either a near post goal because of the shit angles they run out at or a soft parry back into the goalmouth for a tap in or a ricochet fest that ends up at the attackers feet.

I'm using the default camera at 0 and 20 and think it shows all i need to see (runners/defender placement) and looks great because you can see all the nice little touches, tackles, techniques and skills :)
 
I've just figured out how to be nice and fluid when attacking players!!

Its a simple tap of the run button :LOL:

I'm ghosting past players now :)

and does anybody use the low fired long pass with LB? looks and works great .
 
A bit nitpicking but are the keepers always in a ready-stance? Even when the ball's in possession? Haven't seen them calm.
 
Rodelero said:
It's certainly something I say, though I think a lot of people say it :P

One of the most aggravating issues with this game right now is the ease of going from defence to attack. You often see in real life that teams struggle with a disconnect between their lines - sometimes the defence is struggling to find the midfield and sometimes the midfield is struggling to find the attack. That doesn't seem to really be a concept in this game. I'd love to play a possession game of football, but if I push forward the tendency is that my entire team does, and the remainder don't really mark the attackers.

Once I lose possession, it's always a single, perfectly accurate pass or clearance directly to the striker, often blind. It's almost impossible to challenge for that ball, and players don't really seem to want to try and cut off the passing options either.

When long passes are played (not so much over the top, but towards a target man), the person defending is often screwed over by their defenders not challenging for the ball. They won't necessarily get it but they should certainly get close so that the man can't easily turn. Unfortunately, the game doesn't do this automatically, won't lock your player into the path of the ball, and hence you're left to do it manually. That's fine, except for one major problem: you're not on the screen.
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Yes, this is EXACTLY my experience. Like I said previously, it's shocking the amount of chances created by three or fewer passes. Clearances/passes up to forwards are far too accurate, the forwards are given far too much space, and then defending one-on-one is a nightmare.

It's action packed, it's challenging, it's pretty to look at, it can be fun, but it's in no way indicative of the way football is really played.

I gave up yesterday when I conceded a hatrick to Llorente who three times was able to receive a long pass and sprint for a one-on-one chance. I guess you could say I need to get better at defending against the sprint, though I'm not really sure how you can with the current defensive mechanics and the improved dribbling this year, but regardless it's not very fun to play against.

People complain about the redundancy of playing against the AI but the AI in attack plays with more variety than this, and at least it doesn't try to exploit the game's weaknesses. Just too bad that in single player the defensive AI puts up such a pathetic defense this year.
 
So imagine if you can.

World class against the mighty Germans

Sergio has the ball in his own 6 yard box and decides to make a run for it.

He quickly outpaces Muller leaving the German for dead.

He then wrong foots Khedira who still slides as he goes by but he can only get a touch onto the ball but Sergio recovers and continues his marauding run to the halfway line

He then finds a gap between Boateng and Hummels and bursts through with only Neuer ahead of him (yes on the halfway line and the entire German defence is beaten)

He strides to the German number 1 who must be contemplating how he is going to stop the Argentine. But he needn't worry because as he gets inside the box Hummels managed to catch up only to do a last ditch sliding tackle to stifle the attack albeit with a penalty and a early shower as reward.

So you thinking it's Sergio Aguero right?

No, It's Sergio Romero... Argentinas keeper :LOL:

This game offline and me are done.
 
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