FIFA 09 Impressions

[RobVarak]

Played 4 games so far. Won 2 games with LFC over Everton, drew 1-1 as the Fire vs. San Jose and drew 1-1 as the US v. Korea.

Almost all of my early imperssions are favorable. The only negative that I've seen so far is some quirky GK play where I couldn't get my keeper to come off his line to grab easy balls in the box.

That said, I don't know if this will finally be the FIFA to get offline right by having significant discrepancies in the quality of the teams you play. Too early to say.

On to the good stuff:

- The passing is divine. You can weight balls so perfectly and play into space much better than you could.

- The long ball is back and reminds me a great deal of the old WE's. Whereas in the last few EA games speed players were less useful because it was hard to play the ball long and have them burn, that is very do-able in this game. The US game was a dream with Beasley burning up the touchline. The CPU will absolutely shred you with angled long passes as well.

- I played a ton of crosses into the box and have not yet seen one player chest the ball.

- Game speed is fine. It feels different than the demo, but that may just be a function of being able to settle into a game without the time limit.

- The physical play is spot-on. The demo seemed far less forgiving of physical play than this does, and it's about perfect. You'll get booked for a bad tackle, but not every hard challenge is a booking.

- It's great to be able to shield the ball a la EURO 2008. Poor players can't do this as effectively as some, but it can definitely be done.

Those are my initial impressions anyway.

Edit: Forgot one negative point. The dead ball service is wacky. The curve you can put on the ball seems very unnatural, with severe late curve more reminiscent of a baseball pitch than a free kick. Even poor set piece takers look like Morten Gamst Pedersen on steroids.

[macsomjrr]

The floatiness (word?) of the ball in the air is a bit too much for me at this point. Probably after a couple weeks I won't even notice it but it does seem like the ball will sail a bit after even the weakest of shots on the goal. I've only played a couple online matches (one BAP, one regular) and the lag was similar to FIFA 08 whereby you have to time passes much earlier than in the offline games, same with special moves and shots.

I like that the game feels different because it shows that they're intent on improving the game and not just sitting back and expecting us all to buy it anyway (which we would) but its going to take some getting used to.

[macsomjrr]

...as an aside I'm surprised to see more people playing Saints Row 2 than FIFA 09 on my friend's list:)

[10spro]

Have to agree on the passing in this game. As already improved in Euro 08, the passing game is much more refined. It's how short or long you press the A button which determines which player receives the ball and not just on its direction. One of my gripes with last year's game was the through ball, which is much improved this year. Like what I see so far.

[JRod]

Games feels very good.

Too forest and Man u and felt a difference. It's far too early to say if team styles are in there.

Rob is right about GK play. It happened in the demo as well. It's not as well done as WE/PES.

Game feels light years better than Euro and FIFA 08.

[wco81]

So are the 10 vs. 10 games workable?

In NHL, when you get 5 vs. 5 or up to 6 a side, game seems to disconnect more often.

[JackB1]

Played 4 games so far. Won 2 games with LFC over Everton, drew 1-1 as the Fire vs. San Jose and drew 1-1 as the US v. Korea.

Almost all of my early imperssions are favorable. The only negative that I've seen so far is some quirky GK play where I couldn't get my keeper to come off his line to grab easy balls in the box.

How would you compare it to the PES09 demo?

[Naples39]

Sounds like FIFA has really come along. This could be the year it overtakes PES, but I'm not ready to say it yet.

2 remaining questions for me though that might keep PES as my 1p game of choice;

-Off the ball movement. PES 08 DESTROYED FIFA 08 in this respect. Made PES far more fun to play offline than 08 in my opinion.

-True variety in player ability. While I think people overrate PES' ability to get teams playing like their real life counterparts, PES nails the ability to reproduce the stylistic play of individual players. Indeed, the whole fun of playing master league in PES is not that acquiring new players makes you better at playing the same strategy, but it allows you to play entirely new strategies with more talented players (ie you simply couldn't play midfield possession with shitty players). If players play the same, but just run faster and shoot harder as you get bigger stars, building a team up just won't be very fun for me.

I'd love to hear some thoughts of those who have FIFA on these issues.

[RobVarak]

Played 4 games so far. Won 2 games with LFC over Everton, drew 1-1 as the Fire vs. San Jose and drew 1-1 as the US v. Korea.

Almost all of my early imperssions are favorable. The only negative that I've seen so far is some quirky GK play where I couldn't get my keeper to come off his line to grab easy balls in the box.

How would you compare it to the PES09 demo?

Can't compare. I've sworn off Konami soccer because I love OTP and playing online. I know Zeppo and many others have played both and I'm sure you'll get some comparisons soon.

wco,

We had the same sorts of issues that we have in NHL with a few drops and a few chat issues, but overall I'd say it worked pretty well.

[fanatic]

Naples:

I think the off-the-ball movement in Fifa 09 is pretty good actually. Guys seem to be making runs when I want them to and the ability to put just the right weight on your passes even makes it that much sweeter.

I've never played a fifa game for extended periods before, so I'm in total reprogramming mode right now. I'm so used to ultra quick and sensitive controls - but I'm liking the very calm and calculated approach that fifa takes at the moment. Not feeling like the CPU is swarming you at every moment at every place on the pitch really allows an extra dimension of gameplay in my opinion.

[RobVarak]

Naples,

The movment off the ball is much improved. I particularly liked how forwards bend their runs to avoid going offside, something our OTP forwards should emulate

I'm not going to draw conclusions yet on the varied skill levels of individual players, but early returns are good. Playing as the Fire there was an acre of difference between controlling Blanco or McBride as opposed to the rank-and-file. Blanco was tenacious on the ball, and shielded signficantly better than the other midfielders.

Still, I need to get in more games before I'm prepared to say that it's definitively better.

[Naples39]

Eh, I'll just get the game.

I just get afraid that the gameplay becomes station-to-station too much. I want to see the teams move dynamically, with off-the-ball runs and other teammates filling the in the space they leave behind. It's soccer, not baseball after all.

[RobVarak]

Eh, I'll just get the game.

I just get afraid that the gameplay becomes station-to-station too much. I want to see the teams move dynamically, with off-the-ball runs and other teammates filling the in the space they leave behind. It's soccer, not baseball after all.

The game flows much better than ever before, Naples. The CPU will play long balls that have me scratching my head only to see some speedy winger run under it from someplace that I never expected. It's fun!

[Zeppo]

I have to say, after a few OTP games last night, that FIFA is massively improved in nearly every way. I'm not talking about AI at all, but just the mechanics of gameplay.

Finally in a FIFA game, you can make your decision of what to do with the ball at the last instant and this makes a massive difference especially with the ball in the air. Physical interactions between players are much more dynamic and interesting, and have a real effect on who wins the ball, unlike past versions where it felt very scripted as to who would get control when two players were chasing down a ball. The arial game is incredibly improved; in fact it's hard to imagine it could be more improved in one year, because it is so amazingly different than before. The new cojtrollable through balls will take a while to get the hang of, but it will be much better in the end. Through balls are already much, much more intuitive and reasonable, and so adding in user input as to weight should open up a lot of opportunities to make some killer balls. The little things like the ref on the field, and the immediate celebrations that aren't cut scenes, these things add a lot to the feel of the game. It's really hard for me to understand how so may little improvements have been made and how much the overall game is improved because of them.

I will say the two areas that are glaring because they have not been addressed are the goalie ai and the lack of reaction players make when they get smacked full force in the face with a powerfully struck ball from three feet away. They should at least stagger or something, but instead they keep on truckin like they're made of stone.

I'm sure there will be more annoyances to be discovered, and I'm not entirely sure the steam-roller tactic has been neutered, but overall this game seems to be a million light years further along than last year's version and oh yeah, OTP seems to be fine with at least 16 or so, although we did have that one game where all but three of us got kicked randomly.

[forensicd]

Red cards for anys blow.

[macsomjrr]

Passing in general is much improved. It seems like they have added much more variability and randomness to passing and shooting which requires a bit more finesse and concentration when moving the ball around. Playing with some of the less endowed teams (2-3 star) results in a lot more missed passes which I really like because its just more realistic. How many times during a real game do you see a crappy pass into an area with no player? Pretty often even at the highest level so its nice to see it reflected in FIFA 09 this year.

I had an absolutely jaw dropping beauty of a goal last night against a random. I had my striker positioned against near post and he received the ball from the wing, stopped it with his foot, rolled it neatly behind him as the goalie came up from behind and did a sweet looking backwards knock into the goal. I was hoping they'd let you save online replays (i.e. goals) after the game so I could upload it but alas this isn't NHL09. Anyway, it was one of those OMG! moments.

[Zeppo]

Red cards for anys blow.

Yeah that one is a real head scratcher of a change, especially because reds are no longer only given for last-man fouls. Maybe we get lucky and there's a fix in the works? I doubt it.

[RobVarak]

Red cards for anys blow.

Yeah that one is a real head scratcher of a change, especially because reds are no longer only given for last-man fouls. Maybe we get lucky and there's a fix in the works? I doubt it.

You people just need to stop being so rash. Commit to disciplined positional play and you won't have anything to worry about.

PS I'm keeping my PSP handy just in case of the very, very small eventuality that I should ever be dismissed. LOL

[Rodster]

Two very cool things i've seen already in just one match. The first was one of my guys went down which I was unaware with an injury on the field and play was not stopped he was still down grabbing his ankle. He didn't even bother to field the ball when I kicked it in his direction.

The other one was I hit a semi weak shot at goal which beat the goalie over the top but the CPU AI had one of it's backs run towards the net and he kicked it out before it crossed the line.

The speed feels great, I like the AI, so far so good.

[FifaInspected]

I am liking it so far as well. That being said, I can't seem to figure out how to change the camera height. The option is grayed out. any thoughts?

[fanatic]

I am liking it so far as well. That being said, I can't seem to figure out how to change the camera height. The option is grayed out. any thoughts?

Change the camera setting to "custom" from "default". Took me a bit too!

[Rodster]

Also substitutions have been fixed. I've seen the CPU sub out players very early in the second half because they were down one goal.

[JRod]

I posted this at OS...

Okay here's the only thing I don't like about the game and the new tactics scheme.


The team tactics of bad teams and minnows are not like UEFA Euro. If you played against the Faroe Islands they would put 11 men behind the ball. They didn't have a long ball strategy and they didn't try to keep possession but they did try put every one back.

If you play as Man U against a half star Ireland squad they do not make the same effort.

Tactics should be broken into who the CPU is playing. Keep the default tactics for squads of like quality but have tactics for home away games, and against minnows and huge clubs.

What happens is some squads have the wrong tactic for some games. A team in the 2nd english divison with an attacking mindset will leave too many gaps if it plays a stronger team in an FA cup match.

There does seem to be some home away advantage/disadvantage.

[pk500]

Any impressions of PC version?

Thanks,
PK

[Rodster]

Any impressions of PC version?

Thanks,
PK

It's better PK but not as good as the console versions. It runs like crap on my gaming rig. I love the new hi-res interface and soundtrack but the game is not the same as the console. I deleted it after playing FIFA 09 on the 360.

I just got PES 2009 so i'll give that a go this weekend.