Not perfect, but I quite like it...
As someone who has played FIFA/EA Sports FC since the years of 98, I can honestly say I'm quite surprised to see all the negativity/hatred that has come this way for the game given my experience. It's not perfect, but it's a damn lot better than the last 10 years or so.
I play career mode with all semi instructions, Legendary difficulty, 6 minute halves, Simulation mode, Medium wind and weather effects on. On the overcast days (I'll get to that in a bit) I think it's brilliant. There was a post on reddit I saw that got me to amend the AI behaviour from Tactical to Custom and keep everything at 50 and it was a huge move. So if you haven't done that, do it, it pretty much eradicates the 'Bournemouth become Barcelona' stuff you used to get in old career modes. Players just play as their normal selves.
Pro's
- Realistic Gameplay - Simulation Mode has been great for me and is the biggest pro I can imagine. I used the sliders in olds FIFA's but never really found one that worked for me. For some reason this one does. I can play the possession game I love without my team deciding to push me forward and eliminate all space.
- Career Mode Options - THANK. YOU. the options you can now pick before starting a career mode were so needed and just allow for a much better experience. I can remove pre-match training, random board objectives and just do simple "you win you stay" career modes.
- Tactics - I personally like the change from "choose specific instructions" to "choose their role" and all the tactic bits around it. You can really tell the different between someone familiar in the role and someone who isn't, which makes you think more about how your team plays.
- MATCH INTRODUCTIONS ARE BACK - nothing but thank you's for this.
- Commentary teams - may seem small, but just being able to pick 'random' and having either team commentate is nice, it adds variety and therefore realism.
Needs Improving
Menu Lag - Pretty much every menu has menu lag, and this is the only game I've ever experienced it on. The amount of times I've gone to scroll somewhere but it hasn't registered some of the menu movements and picked the wrong option, such a strange issue for a game this big to have.
Rainy Matches - So this is where I elaborate the "Overcast games a great part". I get the idea behind how matches in the rain are, but they completely ruin all immersion. Maybe in the lower leagues it might play like does in the game, but if there is a bit of rain at the Emirates I can assure you the ball does not get held up behind peoples feet/affect it the way it does. Sometimes it sticks, sometimes it glides, you can never really know, and you can try and run forward but eventually your player will slow a bit, get stuck, then kick the ball miles ahead and lose it. It's a shame, because I like the wind stuff etc, but the rain games are so bad I will be turning weather effects off.
Transfer back and forths - I get there should be some debating, but the amount of occasions where I've had the CPU come back with 100,000 more than what I've said I'd pay on 6+ times, then they go "OH YEAH OKAY". It's like you knew you were going to accept you could have done it a bit before.
Wage demands - This one always stumps me. Ironing out a contract with a player and it gets to the wage bit, and they go "okay, so what would you offer". There is absolutely no advise on what to put, no range, nothing. So I'll go with wages I think are good for their ability and they'll just go "NOPE, INSULT" and that's it gotta wait a week to try again. Either have them demand it or give us some advice when putting it.
POV Cameras - Still very strange, still never seen where it was ever requested, which I could turn it off. Nothing ruins a lovely goal more than seeing the attackers POV where they're not even really looking at the shot itself
But yeah overall, I'd say I'm really enjoying playing my matches compared to lots of FIFA's of the last 10 years. Intrigued to see if all the hate is due to online/UT stuff or a general thing
