Gameplay Feedback - Unbelievably bad
I have now spent about 15 hours on the game since Friday and played many offline games in career mode and would like to comment on the gameplay in general, which is just getting more and more annoying.
Where do I start:
FC IQ is a really good thing and you can tell that it has an effect on the behaviour of the pros. But sometimes it just doesn't make any sense. Especially with the attacking centre-backs, even though they are set up and fit, the attacking centre-backs just don't move behind the chains and stay stuck in their positions. That should not be the case. Strangely enough, this problem only occurs with the centre-backs, otherwise the positional changes are fine.
Fast players sometimes look like pinballs, their ball simply can't be controlled and although I sprint normally, the ball is sometimes put forward 5-10 metres. That's just rubbish. Dribbling is therefore hardly possible.
The collision sequences are sometimes adventurous. It seems so incredibly unrealistic that you can't even watch some of it. Funnily enough, the CPU always wins these duels in Legend, regardless of whether the player is 1.70 metres tall and comes up against a 1.95 metre defender. The player runs into you and normally they should fall over or lose the ball, but instead the players are either chained together for up to 4 or 5 seconds or they both fly 5-6 metres.
Your team-mates run around like counterfeit money. There's basically an opponent standing 2 metres right next to you and he moves away from him and lets him shoot freely. Funnily enough, these ‘mistakes’ tend to happen the higher the level of difficulty.
Blatant refereeing errors. I thought I wasn't seeing right. I started a tackle with Ljubicic earlier with the circle button but didn't hit the opponent at all, he was a metre away and suddenly he fell over and the referee whistled a foul and gave me a yellow card. In general, the AI can sometimes play foul and there's no whistle, and bloodstains are only penalised with a yellow card, and vice versa it's immediately red.
Now what upsets me the most. Sorry EA, are you serious? I play in simulation mode but have you really tested it? I haven't noticed how the wind really affects the trajectory of the shot, which is actually a good thing. What really annoys me is the ball behaviour in the rain. It makes absolutely no sense and is totally unpredictable. Some of the players move the ball 10 metres forward when it's raining, what's that all about? Then again, sometimes the ball doesn't roll at all, the next minute a short X pass is almost like a shot in the same place. Completely uncontrollable, it's completely out of balance and needs to be patched because 75% of all games in career mode take place in the rain. You really notice that you can't determine the passes yourself, but if you play the passes with R1 and triangle then the ball behaves normally.
Opponent AI is completely unbalanced. World class is basically far too easy, the opponent doesn't even come towards the goal, but in legend the AI isn't much better when it appears in front of the goal, almost every shot is a hit in the corner, even if the opponent is called Ulm. And how can it be that almost every player on Legend either hits the ball into the corner or against the crossbar at 120 km/h from a free kick? Surely it must be possible to make a reasonable adjustment based on the player taking the shot?
Lifter passes are significantly worse than in the last part, they are much too long and too high on the way and thus fast side changes are not possible and meaningful at all.
Last but not least: Crosses are absolutely useless for the most part. I don't know, dear EA, what you've done with the flanks? I don't know whether it was Fifa 21 or 22, but the crosses were still really great then, and it was possible to get in a half-height cross or even a flat cross with a lot of steam. Now 50% of the crosses are total rubbish because they're more like high passes than crosses. In particular, there is sometimes no power behind them at all, so that the header is sometimes harmless. The headers, on the other hand, are sometimes completely unbalanced from the edge of the penalty area with a very high ball like a torpedo.
Dear EA team, I've been playing the series on the Playstation since 1998 and I'd consider myself a pro, because I sometimes play completely without aids or semis. I think it's good that they're trying to bring in a simulation mode, but the realisation is just plain bad. The gameplay is simply not usable, especially in the rain the game is absolutely unplayable and like a pure game of chance.
