Clubs AI

Clubs mode is no longer what it used to be.

In the past, just two players could defeat a team with 11 real players. But now, if the opposing team has more real players while your team consists of only a few real players and the rest are AI, you won’t have much of a chance to win the match.

This is because AI defense is extremely strong against a small number of real players, in addition to the slow player movement and poor passing in the game overall.

On the other hand, AI defense against a large number of real players can be easily broken with little effort since the AI cannot focus on multiple players at once. The entire opposing team will rush into the penalty area, making scoring chances higher, along with high possession and constant passing between them.

In previous FIFA versions, you could easily play long balls behind defenders or dribble past multiple players. Now, you can’t do that because your player will get exhausted quickly. If you're a skillful player, the game will slow down your movement the moment you perform more than one skill move. Suddenly, you’ll find yourself unable to sprint, and defenders will take the ball from you as if they’re teleporting with an aggressive burst of speed—it’s disgusting.

I spend most of my time playing Clubs mode, and I’ve noticed all these issues. Simply put, the game is unplayable. Even if you try to enjoy it, trust me, you won’t find any fun in playing.

That’s my opinion in short.

This was one of the best most realistic games they had produced where the game was about passing and moving what football is all about. It was difficult to just abuse speed and dribbling because the AI was strong defensively. I don't know what they have done now but it's ruined, there seems to be some strange imbalance where your AI can't defend yet the opposition are excellent - perhaps they have maxed their club level and EA have nerfed the lower AI levels because this feels like being back at 80 AI or worse. 

We aren't kids so we have jobs girlfriends/wives and kids so can't hammer the game to get to top club level - our AI is 84 and a friends club just got 86 and still feels crap. It also means we can't always all get on at the same time meaning more AI players on the pitch. We come on to enjoy what was an excellent game only to feel like we are being cheated and not only that, not playing the game we bought.

It honestly feels like people at EA don't watch football at times. It's a team game and is all about passing and positioning. If it was about speed I'd be world class lol. And while we are on realism, someone needs to look at the skill system because there's very few players in the world that can do this stuff effectively. The current state of the game is FC Arcade when it felt like we had a football SIM on release - if a little buggy.

Calling it an arcade game hits the nail on the head in my opinion! Through ball - pace - shoot - goal on repeat with the AI just letting it happen.

When you’re a team that tries to play “football”, you don’t get any rewards because you’re transitioned on seconds after losing the ball.

Believe me, this is one of the worst versions of the game ever—it has nothing to do with realism.

There’s no variety in playstyles, just ground passes with the "X" button and constant physical battles.

Crossing is bad, headers are bad, through passes are bad, long through balls are bad, bicycle kicks are bad.

Even when you're deep in midfield and your winger is making a run, you try to send a through pass to him, but the ball goes to the striker instead.

It's just a continuous mess, forcing players into random, ground-based, and short-passing gameplay in a frustrating way.

That’s basically what’s happening.

Here, watch these videos and see how bad the game is, especially in Clubs mode.

https://youtu.be/1ZnzJwC1Bk4?si=d6pcjoWpb1H86W5H

https://youtu.be/e89iBrxZCeg?si=FbBc-Av8RqFXD8x0

https://youtu.be/CYaFrbNW8LA?si=EyB8qeT_whUY4mhZ

https://youtu.be/bUvy_ldKCx4?si=xX19Xk25l3bOqpps

https://youtu.be/kA_Me6_gZF4?si=_K6vchgqK7z_Yv16

https://youtu.be/0TreBKGOWJQ?si=xJ_pPyjludUkuaMZ

https://youtu.be/Y-MkDhBKJ7M?si=WBhpViqQsj1NKtq5

https://youtu.be/2Ef3frqCwB8?si=9f2Vw73vPt1s7833

https://youtu.be/G38l8UE-BWA?si=OCe6GJmFzH_48dYR

https://youtu.be/X7RVdRDYNOA?si=qfajPyxRHwt04IBS

https://youtu.be/NrHtquf97b8?si=Mb_AhBDUhm2eLAOn

https://youtu.be/rYpGo2OZX30?si=vU95qDeN9mtzDbGN

https://youtu.be/hYnqO6znWGo?si=APV_fK1ZRTQF5DcQ

We barely play any teams that play a short passing game that you say people are forced into and aren’t physical battles part of football? I get your point with some of the weird animations in your videos.

The through ball would be resolved if the two players didn’t make the same run. No appreciation of space there I’m afraid.

Another point for your previous post, players don’t get exhausted quick. The majority of the 2 man teams we play just sprint up and back for the whole match. It’s just not realistic to sprint those distances.

Agree with the majority of your others points though and the cheating from teams is extremely frustrating.

@ gillyt1000

I genuinely believe a lot is to do with bending over for the pro players and especially before the tournaments. They need to play the game a certain way, which is usually arcade-like adding to the robotic, one dimensional, unrealistic type of gameplay. Their skill can't be doubted but I cringe when I come across videos on YouTube. The speed at which the players do things, from passing without adjusting their body and feet, the biomechanic defying tight dribbling and turning, the skating drags backs, cutbacks, shooting etc. it's so far from realism and close representation of the finer details of how football is played. I take no joy whatsoever in playing this game as every match feels the same and unrealistic.

EA of course need to go where the money is and the pro players and probably a good number of others want arcade football but don't think it's difficult for EA to at least give gameplay to the purists who like to play the game as close to how real FOOTBALL is played by allowing them to roll back to a previous patch where the gameplay was better from a simulation perspective or to have settings in the game to allow this - at least in offline modes.

Not much to ask when they have taken money from people because as it stands it almost feels like they have scammed people by advertising one product and then significantly changing it few months later. Of course some of the broken mechanics are still present.

They don't even respond much here now probably because they're so overwhelmed by the negativity that they feel it's better to say away and ignore the paying customers.