FIFA 18 (Console Versions)

Just saw this on Twitter and I'm genuinely really surprised:

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Daisuk said:
Regarding midfield play, or lack of it. I get that there should be some, obviously, but how realistic do we really want the game to be? To the point where we'd have to play 2 X 45 minutes to score a goal? I realize that might be perfect for some, but for me personally, I wouldn't have time or patience for it. Attack attack attack all the time is of course too much, but I think if you can spread out the regular shot stats from a normal football game, roughly, out over 12-15 minutes in a video game, get realistic looking goals and realistic scorelines, that will contribute to the overall realism aspect, only condensed down to 12-15 minutes. Ok, so we lose a lot of dicking about in midfield, and maybe there needs to be some more of it, but overall, I think it's good that we don't have to play say ten minutes to create a half chance against a team sitting back. That's just my opinion though, obviously. :)
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I get where you're coming from but I would much rather have the CPU tactics vary from team to team and match to match so that some matches are like FIFA18, with relentless attacking and plentiful chances, but other matches are much more turgid, with chances really hard to come by. It is the lack of variety that is the single biggest thing that's putting me off getting this.

And the feedback so far is that League 2 teams play basically the same as EPL teams - that's the killer blow for me. Sounds like Team Styles, as I think most of us expected, is about as real and effective as Custom Tactics. I'm still hoping that people start feeding back that sliders save the day but as someone who prefers playing with lower league teams, I'm not interested in taking on Forest Green Rovers and Crawley and then watch on in bemusement whilst they play like PSG.

I went back to FIFA16 last night to compare, playing with 3 star teams and the CPU was far more varied, made far more mistakes, miscontrolled the ball more, more midfield play, patiently played the ball around the back far more, even passed back to the keeper a few times, there were more scraps in the boxes, more variety of goals...basically more varied and realistic than the FIFA18 demo.

Going back to FIFA18 demo again, it's definitely that bit more refined, polished, slightly better physics, better animations, more smooth, definitely a step forward in some areas of the gameplay, but the CPU play is too perfect (PES style, but without all the CPU backheels) and the whole is things is too fast. I can't believe the final game is actually speeded up from the demo.

I still think EA have a great game engine but are choosing to cater to a particular (albeit huge) audience. I think the game needs sim mode and an arcade mode and with the huge resources and income they have, they're perfectly capable of delivering more, even 2 engines in the one product. They charge a full price £50 every year for what is essentially a tweaked version of last year's game - it's about time they delivered more.
 
guru83 said:
Ea need to stop spending time, money and resources on that Journey crap. Awful mode in my opinion....
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I enjoyed the Journey on FIFA 17 and will enjoy playing the next part of it as soon as soon as some pretty major bugs are fixed, which probably won't be done till the Day 1 patch next week.

Although with moving abroad this season, I might not enjoy as much.. As my favourite part from last year was my loan spell at Newcastle.
 
I had a couple of good games last night, weirdly I thought it was slower than the demo, still plays like the demo though, thoroughly impressed, I am only playing on World Class but not won a game yet with Everton, going to start a career mode tonight an play for four hours.

Having more fun with this game than I did with 17 easily.
 
So many differing opinions which is natural.

Some say it's faster than demo some say it's slower.

Some say it's more difficult than demo, some people are saying career mode is too easy again.

Guess it's a case of trying it myself next week - really don't want to spend 50 quid to find out though, might have to rent it.
 
Hello, is the Seria A calendar in FIFA reflecting the real one? If yes can someone post a screen of the position of the teams in Championship structure (if in FIFA it exist) ? Thanks a lot.
 
Gonna play some more tonight. The only difference for me has been that I was playing the demo on the PS4 and the full game on PC, definitely felt like two different games though.
 
For the net freaks, there needs to be a little more bounce to them in my opinion. They look a little spongy to me and absorb the ball too easily.

As for the game play, same old same old. But, you take from the game what you want to put into it. So my approach will be the same. I will play football the way I feel it should be played rather than exploiting any obvious bugs and loopholes. I will have to manage the limited AI the best I can to get the maximum enjoyment out of it. I have no other choice, PES doesn't offer me the detail I crave from FIFA, and I love football games too much to void my appetite to play them.
 
Marching On Together said:
So my approach will be the same. I will play football the way I feel it should be played rather than exploiting any obvious bugs and loopholes. I will have to manage the limited AI the best I can to get the maximum enjoyment out of it.
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Here's the thing - is it just me, or is the AI in FIFA 17 a lot better? Yeah, they all play a very similar game, but they do in FIFA 18 too.

The difference is, in FIFA 17, teams use the midfield, and in FIFA 18, they don't (and custom tactics don't change anything), so.

For all the improvements when you're on the ball (which I certainly feel), the AI seems like a step backwards to me.
 
bsmaff said:
CPU v CPU game - Stoke v Arsenal for 65 mins - Would of been longer but needed to leave for work and game had not finished.

There looks to be more team individuality as Stoke seemed to play more direct balls to the lone striker.

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That was pretty nice and realistic to watch. Is custom tactics working on the full version?
 
Chris Davies said:
Here's the thing - is it just me, or is the AI in FIFA 17 a lot better? Yeah, they all play a very similar game, but they do in FIFA 18 too.

The difference is, in FIFA 17, teams use the midfield, and in FIFA 18, they don't (and custom tactics don't change anything), so.

For all the improvements when you're on the ball (which I certainly feel), the AI seems like a step backwards to me.
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I have only played the demo and the full game for one game only.

But my initial impression is the game is easier, I won the game against Coventry 2-1, but I felt in absolute complete control and never felt any threat from the CPU.

I am going to try it on Legendary later on, but on previous versions of FIFA I have found that Legendary is actually easier than World Class.
 
bsmaff said:
CPU v CPU game - Stoke v Arsenal
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What difficulty level is this on?

Topaz said:
That was pretty nice and realistic to watch. Is custom tactics working on the full version?
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I'd imagine it's more that "team styles" are doing their thing. Could be wrong, but as I say, in the demo, I definitely see it - but in an overpowered, advanced-instructions-in-PES-style way. Real Madrid refusing to shoot and insisting on passing the ball into the net, for example.

bsmaff said:
I am going to try it on Legendary later on, but on previous versions of FIFA I have found that Legendary is actually easier than World Class.
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I posted up some stats a few pages ago of my match stats on World Class and Legendary - the AI had a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT pass accuracy on World Class, which fell to mid-eighties on Legendary. It's mental.

World Class = super-fast ping-pong football.
Legendary = much less so (and easier as a result).

That's certainly been my experience for a while now too, as you say. Makes no sense (and on the FIFA forums, it's often been asked if EA have "got them the wrong way around").

Difficulty sliders would be nice - especially since, if you start without a profile saved, the game shows you how each difficulty level affects judgement of space and attacking intelligence etc. by a series of bars (which you can't adjust) before you select which one you want to set as the default level.
 
I had two games this morning one World Class and the CPU had passing accuracy at roughly 80% on both occasions (games against Huddersfield and Stoke respectively).

I haven't really seen any laser accuracy from them, or found them overly difficult to defend against (demo was harder).

The only thing I really find difficult at the moment is manual settings. I can barely get the ball out of my own half because of how bad my passing is.
 
bsmaff said:
CPU v CPU game - Stoke v Arsenal for 65 mins - Would of been longer but needed to leave for work and game had not finished.

There looks to be more team individuality as Stoke seemed to play more direct balls to the lone striker.

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Love the mis kick by Lacazzette in that vid at 6.25 (replay).
Looks great.
 
winston said:
I get where you're coming from but I would much rather have the CPU tactics vary from team to team and match to match so that some matches are like FIFA18, with relentless attacking and plentiful chances, but other matches are much more turgid, with chances really hard to come by. It is the lack of variety that is the single biggest thing that's putting me off getting this.

And the feedback so far is that League 2 teams play basically the same as EPL teams - that's the killer blow for me. Sounds like Team Styles, as I think most of us expected, is about as real and effective as Custom Tactics. I'm still hoping that people start feeding back that sliders save the day but as someone who prefers playing with lower league teams, I'm not interested in taking on Forest Green Rovers and Crawley and then watch on in bemusement whilst they play like PSG.

I went back to FIFA16 last night to compare, playing with 3 star teams and the CPU was far more varied, made far more mistakes, miscontrolled the ball more, more midfield play, patiently played the ball around the back far more, even passed back to the keeper a few times, there were more scraps in the boxes, more variety of goals...basically more varied and realistic than the FIFA18 demo.

Going back to FIFA18 demo again, it's definitely that bit more refined, polished, slightly better physics, better animations, more smooth, definitely a step forward in some areas of the gameplay, but the CPU play is too perfect (PES style, but without all the CPU backheels) and the whole is things is too fast. I can't believe the final game is actually speeded up from the demo.

I still think EA have a great game engine but are choosing to cater to a particular (albeit huge) audience. I think the game needs sim mode and an arcade mode and with the huge resources and income they have, they're perfectly capable of delivering more, even 2 engines in the one product. They charge a full price £50 every year for what is essentially a tweaked version of last year's game - it's about time they delivered more.
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Oh, I hear you! :) I've had these types of games in the demo though. Playing against both Juventus and Atletico Madrid on Worldclass, I've had matches where both teams have had like one shot at goal each. Probably because I'm shit at the game still, and generally struggle to create chances on worldclass (playing with semi-assisted passing), but I've had a few of those matches indeed, where there are midfield battles a plenty, and chances are far between.
 
Tried a game on Legendary and it seemed more difficult, the CPU was much better at closing me down and anticipating the passes.

Although I was losing I actually found Legendary to be more fun, due to the computer pressing more and seeming to block passing channels.

I was losing 1-0 at the time before the game decided to crash in the 85th minute.
 
bsmaff said:
Played my first game and still League Two teams play like they are Barcelona, no long or direct balls, constant ground passing.

So team individuality does not seem to exist.

Here is the video - Coventry v Exeter:-

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I suppose it depends what Coventry's default tactics are set to and whether they've had a Team Style assigned to them by EA. If they play the same way no matter what customisations you make to their tactics, then that is a real disappointement (although just the same problem there's been with custom tactics over the past few years - ie. they don't seem to have much effect at all).

Assuming Team Styles is a real thing EA have implemented in the game (I think the jury is still out on that one), then surely(!!) they'd have applied a style to every team and not just given the very elite teams a style. That would leave the hundreds of other teams in the game as essentially generic duplicates of one another....<sarcasm>surely not! </sarcasm> If every team does have a Team Style allocated, then it may be that plenty of lower league teams have been given a passing Team Style and are hopefully just not as good or slick at it as say Arsenal. And other lower league teams would then have been given other styles, such as a more direct style, and we just need to work out which ones they are by observing how they play.

It would be rather annoying if EA don't even let us see what styles have been assigned to teams. It might lead us to believe that Team Styles don't really do much, if anything, assuming they exist at all. Your Stoke v Arsenal video gives some hope of variety, as does Guadalajara in the demo, and Man U, to some extent, too.
 
The Journey is the only mode I could play at the moment. I reached now chapter 3 and that's all we can play in the trial version. Now it's time to go back to the other game modes. Unfortunately it crashes almost every time.
 
winston said:
Assuming Team Styles is a real thing EA have implemented in the game (I think the jury is still out on that one), then surely(!!) they'd have applied a style to every team and not just given the very elite teams a style.
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There are only a limited number of options, and I'm starting to think "team styles" are partial mentality adjustments as opposed to entire-game, entire-pitch tactics. (Like "advanced instructions" in PES.)

For example - I keep mentioning Real Madrid, but... Their passing in the final third, in my demo experience, is just passing the ball around quickly and carefully until they set up an actual tap-in. But over the rest of the pitch I'd say they're the same as any other team.

So lower-league teams... I'd bet they're set to standard custom team tactics - which may no longer work, in order for "team styles" to have a more noticeable effect? In which case, they'll just play "to the difficulty level". So, Legendary = wonder-passing.

All of the above is conjecture, and pointless, I know, but... Aren't we all. :BORED:
 
winston said:
I get where you're coming from but I would much rather have the CPU tactics vary from team to team and match to match so that some matches are like FIFA18, with relentless attacking and plentiful chances, but other matches are much more turgid, with chances really hard to come by. It is the lack of variety that is the single biggest thing that's putting me off getting this.
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This. And the irony for me is that the general assumption seems to be that these games emphasize end to end attack over messy midfield battles because it's more fun but I've always enjoyed those tough, stuck-in matches where each team is struggling to create a chance the most. I did have a couple of those in the demo but they were the exemption.
 
I think until you do a career its hard to judge if its too easy as exhib. games are always toned down.

Ill give Everton a bash in career tonight accompanied with cheap beer and a swear jar
 
mfmaxpower said:
the irony for me is that the general assumption seems to be that these games emphasize end to end attack over messy midfield battles because it's more fun
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Unfortunately for us, that assumption is being made by the developers.

This is the lead gameplay producer of FIFA 18, talking about FIFA 18...

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Here he is talking about FIFA 17, and the future...

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So, in a nutshell...

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Chris Davies said:
What difficulty level is this on?


I'd imagine it's more that "team styles" are doing their thing. Could be wrong, but as I say, in the demo, I definitely see it - but in an overpowered, advanced-instructions-in-PES-style way. Real Madrid refusing to shoot and insisting on passing the ball into the net, for example.


I posted up some stats a few pages ago of my match stats on World Class and Legendary - the AI had a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT pass accuracy on World Class, which fell to mid-eighties on Legendary. It's mental.

World Class = super-fast ping-pong football.
Legendary = much less so (and easier as a result).

That's certainly been my experience for a while now too, as you say. Makes no sense (and on the FIFA forums, it's often been asked if EA have "got them the wrong way around").

Difficulty sliders would be nice - especially since, if you start without a profile saved, the game shows you how each difficulty level affects judgement of space and attacking intelligence etc. by a series of bars (which you can't adjust) before you select which one you want to set as the default level.
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Chris, I know you're a huge fan and not trolling, but you keep pointing out extreme examples and making them sound as if they represent the full experience, which is just erroneous and really doesn't help.

Posting one game that ended with a 100 percent passing stat for the CPU (from a 4 minute half demo) - yeah, that in an ideal world would never happen but it's not indicative of most matches. Not to mention the fact that those passing stats can be heavily influenced by how well you play defense, so it can be quite individual (I didn't come across anything higher than 95% in the demo, for example).

You mention Real Madrid only wanting to shoot tap ins. I mean, c'mon. Yes the AI has a problem where it often will not be aggressive enough in the final third, but this is a legacy issue that has been going on for ages and from my own experience with the demo, I see Real Madrid being a little too tiki taka at times but it was rare. That happens but I've seen nothing to indicate that what you describe is a major issue. Shoot, last match I played against Real Madrid and both Ronaldo and Kroos scored long shots against me; hardly pussyfooting around for tap ins.

And then you say that in FIFA 17 teams use the midfield and in 18 they don't. Again, a blanket statement that is an exaggeration and ultimately erroneous. I'll be the first to criticize this game for being too end to end and lacking enough buildup play, but to say the CPU doesn't use the midfield, again, I'm sorry but that's just exaggerating the flaw.

I've gone back to the demo to play quite a bit to observe just this and yes, again, there isn't enough buildup play but this isn't the older versions of FIFA where the AI would just hoof balls forward most of the time. Midfielders are absolutely used... the problem is, IMO, the lack of aggression by defenders means that CPU midfielders are given too much time on the ball so true midfield battles that make it difficult to pass the ball up the pitch aren't happening enough. It's clear that EA have chosen with this year's version to make it even more attack dominant, at the expense of things like slower buildup, but again, it's nonetheless an exaggeration to suggest their isn't any midfield play at all.

I get that you're frustrated. So am I. Especially after hearing all the negatives coming out about the Early Access version. But pointing out examples of flaws and making it seem like they are representative of the entire experience is neither accurate nor constructive.

These threads can turn into a heaping pile of exaggerated negativity. You're better than adding to that.
 
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