Edited to say: just had a quick blast of PES4 on the Xbox and it puts Fifa in the shade. Although Fifa isn't a bad game, it pales by comparison.
Just spent 20 minutes or so playing Fifa 2005 on the Xbox before it was snatched away from me Sad
Over-riding impression is that the actual gameplay has improved a lot over 2004. The graphics are a bit sharper, but they've finally fixed so many of the niggling problems that have plagued the series for a long time. Its a difficult thing to write about this, as on the short play, I'm only scratching the surface and much of the improvement was just in the "feel" on the pitch, nothing specific.
The over-riding feeling is that they've loosened up the engine and instead of everything being so clear-cut, its far more realistic. The weighting of passes is much more effective and now your pass can be short, mis-timed, off target etc whereas before the feeling I had was that it would either reach your man or be intercepted. Its almost like they've gone from a binary 1 or 0 for passes, tackling, shots etc and opened up a whole range from 1 to 10 of actions and reactions to what's going on.
Tackling is handled much better. I thought it was getting there with 2004, but it still felt much too predicatable. Now its easier to beat men without having to resort to holding down the sprint button. You can use the movement of your player more to wrong-foot your opponent. Again, like the 1 to 10 example, EA seem to have given you more control than before and the game plays much more realistically.
Its hard to describe these things. For the first few minutes I thought nothing had changed, but its when you start stringing some passes together, trying to play the ball into space and use the through-pass which was pretty useless in 2004, everything just seems to click. The sense of scale on the pitch also seems better although maybe that's just because I haven't played 2004 in a while. Moves like the step-over are much more naturally implemented, so again, beating players and going past them is far more realistic. You seem to get a wee bit more time on the ball as a result.
The first touch thing that I'd read about, I only really saw on a couple of occasions. They've improved the usual first touch where you can use the thumbstick to decide on direction of your man before the ball gets to you. But there was a nice example of the new system where I played the ball to a teammate who had his back to an oppo defender. I flicked the thumbstick towards goal and my player moved towards the ball, drawing the defender in, but when it came to him he just flicked it round the defender before spinning him and heading off towards goal.
Controlling your players runs is still crap. It just doesn't work and I don't know why they've persevered with it, because even on the semi-pro level, the AI has improved noticeably. At long long last in a Fifa game, your team mates seem to be making some intelligent decisions. Automatically making over-lapping runs; not just passing the ball and then going to sleep; intelligent use of space.
So it encouraging first impressions on the pitch. The career mode has been beefed up again, with you earning points you can distribute to different coaches - stiking, defending, goalkeeping, midfield, fitness, scouting etc etc. You pick your started club from zones. So the first zone is the English and Scottish leagues. You pick your lower status club, are given a target and off you go. I've not had a chance to see just how well implemented this is and if you get offered jobs at other clubs if you're doing well.
I might get another go of the game tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. Which surprised me as 2004 never really got a look-in once I got PES on the PC with a PS2 controller. Its taken a long time for Fifa to get to this point where it actually feels like you have the freedom of the pitch to do what you want to do and not what the computer thinks you want to do, but now its here, I want to have another game of Fifa. Which is surely a good sign.
Edited to say: heading is much much better. More precise and again, the weighting is more realistic according to the situation you're heading in. And there were always certain passes in Fifa you didn't try because you soon learnt they just wouldn't work. Usually through balls or short passes when defenders were around. They almost always intercepted the ball but this isn't always the case now.
Just spent 20 minutes or so playing Fifa 2005 on the Xbox before it was snatched away from me Sad
Over-riding impression is that the actual gameplay has improved a lot over 2004. The graphics are a bit sharper, but they've finally fixed so many of the niggling problems that have plagued the series for a long time. Its a difficult thing to write about this, as on the short play, I'm only scratching the surface and much of the improvement was just in the "feel" on the pitch, nothing specific.
The over-riding feeling is that they've loosened up the engine and instead of everything being so clear-cut, its far more realistic. The weighting of passes is much more effective and now your pass can be short, mis-timed, off target etc whereas before the feeling I had was that it would either reach your man or be intercepted. Its almost like they've gone from a binary 1 or 0 for passes, tackling, shots etc and opened up a whole range from 1 to 10 of actions and reactions to what's going on.
Tackling is handled much better. I thought it was getting there with 2004, but it still felt much too predicatable. Now its easier to beat men without having to resort to holding down the sprint button. You can use the movement of your player more to wrong-foot your opponent. Again, like the 1 to 10 example, EA seem to have given you more control than before and the game plays much more realistically.
Its hard to describe these things. For the first few minutes I thought nothing had changed, but its when you start stringing some passes together, trying to play the ball into space and use the through-pass which was pretty useless in 2004, everything just seems to click. The sense of scale on the pitch also seems better although maybe that's just because I haven't played 2004 in a while. Moves like the step-over are much more naturally implemented, so again, beating players and going past them is far more realistic. You seem to get a wee bit more time on the ball as a result.
The first touch thing that I'd read about, I only really saw on a couple of occasions. They've improved the usual first touch where you can use the thumbstick to decide on direction of your man before the ball gets to you. But there was a nice example of the new system where I played the ball to a teammate who had his back to an oppo defender. I flicked the thumbstick towards goal and my player moved towards the ball, drawing the defender in, but when it came to him he just flicked it round the defender before spinning him and heading off towards goal.
Controlling your players runs is still crap. It just doesn't work and I don't know why they've persevered with it, because even on the semi-pro level, the AI has improved noticeably. At long long last in a Fifa game, your team mates seem to be making some intelligent decisions. Automatically making over-lapping runs; not just passing the ball and then going to sleep; intelligent use of space.
So it encouraging first impressions on the pitch. The career mode has been beefed up again, with you earning points you can distribute to different coaches - stiking, defending, goalkeeping, midfield, fitness, scouting etc etc. You pick your started club from zones. So the first zone is the English and Scottish leagues. You pick your lower status club, are given a target and off you go. I've not had a chance to see just how well implemented this is and if you get offered jobs at other clubs if you're doing well.
I might get another go of the game tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. Which surprised me as 2004 never really got a look-in once I got PES on the PC with a PS2 controller. Its taken a long time for Fifa to get to this point where it actually feels like you have the freedom of the pitch to do what you want to do and not what the computer thinks you want to do, but now its here, I want to have another game of Fifa. Which is surely a good sign.
Edited to say: heading is much much better. More precise and again, the weighting is more realistic according to the situation you're heading in. And there were always certain passes in Fifa you didn't try because you soon learnt they just wouldn't work. Usually through balls or short passes when defenders were around. They almost always intercepted the ball but this isn't always the case now.
Comment