Does anyone actually play FIFA anymore?

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

(CP) - Hockey may be king in Canada but a made-in-Canada soccer video game will take centre stage again this year as gamers from around the globe compete in the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2005.

Fittingly a Brazilian won the inaugural tournament last year, emerging as the best of the best at the FIFA soccer game made by Electronic Arts in Vancouver.

This year's tournament will be bigger than ever, since Xbox Live users can now take part. The competition kicks off next month with regional tournaments in London, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Sydney, Germany and Paris.

In other countries, there will be local qualifying competitions that will send winners to the eight regional tournaments. Plus two finalists will emerge from the Xbox Live component of the event.

Ten finalists will fight it out for the title of FIFA Interactive World Player 2005, as played on the Xbox, and be recognized at the FIFA World Player Gala in Zurich on Dec. 19.

Playing the French national team, Brazil's Thiago Carrico de Azevedo defeated American Matija Biljeskovic's AC Milan 2-1 in the inaugural final, a battle of 21-year-old gamers.

Starcraft: Brood war 34% (8905)
Counter-Strike: Source 19% (4947)
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne 18% (4732)
Halo 2 9% (2450)
FIFA Soccer 2005 8% (2097)
Need for Speed: Underground2 6% (1612)
War hammer 40k: Dawn of War 5% (1269)
Dead or Alive Ulitmate 2% (567)

And looking at that list, even though Starcraft is a classic even by my picky estimation, I would have to say that your Mariah Carey comparison is fairly accurate, even though I don't know anything about soccer games. I just wanted to point out that for whatever reason the World Cyber Games always has a pretty huge FIFA World Cup tournament going on.

Winning Eleven is a much more detailed and accomplished game, but FIFA is pretty enjoyable in an arcade sort of way. I played FIFA 2003 with some friends, and we had a multiplayer system set up, so we played matches of 4 on 4. That was pretty awesome.

There seems to be more offsides and my defense has gotten better now that I can hit "x" and have a teammate help me pressure the ball.

I only got in three matches but it seems to flow nicely, a better pace than last years version.

???

So did anyone get the EURO version?

Didn't seem worth it as you can't play the qualifiers and about half the teams have players with made-up names. I might pick it up if it drops in price.

there's a DLC add-on for FIFA 12. I think this is the first time they've done this?

FIFA 13 around the corner - seems no one here cares anymore

I care! Look forward to playing the demo.

FIFA 12 was surprisingly quite good as a commuter time-killer on iOS, so yeah, looking forward to FIFA 13.

i heard that this is might be a great place to have this discussion:
OMNIBOOT: all new all embracing compendium thread for soccer, soccerball, and association football related videogames excluding management sims
hell, i'm going to head over there myself right now

hey, total fucking idiot question here. i'm playing fifa 12. my first fifa game since...i don't know, the mid-90s.

how do you AIM THE BALL WHEN YOU SHOOT?

just real general aiming. every single shot seems to fly 100 feet into the air, which is especially frustrating when you're wide open and in overtime. i understand that the longer you hold the shoot button, the more powerful (and erratic) the shot becomes. so i'm just barely tapping the shoot button. and even then, over and over, the ball flies way up in the air. i've tried to look for help online but the game+the internet seems to assume that the player knows how to do basic things with FIFA at this point so it's not much help/

i'm talking total idiot of the western hemisphere level advice here. is the aim of the shot determined while i'm tapping or holding the shoot button? if i want to aim low to the ground, do i hold down with the left analog stick? if i want to aim to the right of the goal, do i hold right? is there a "don't shoot the ball 100-feet in the air" button?

is holding the left trigger while shooting something i should always be doing? seems to keep the shots below 10 feet in the air, at least

I'm not an expert and each year's game changes it around a little... I don't think you can aim high or low - I think that is pretty much determined by how long you hold the shoot button. And generally, you don't want to hold the shoot button very long (or the ball will go flying) - usually I pretty much just tap it, unless I'm trying a crazy shot from long distance.

You do aim towards the goal with the left stick, just kind of pointing in the direction you would like the ball to go. What I mean is, you can sort of aim left or right, but not up or down so much, or at least that's how it seems to me.

Here's a video that shows some of the different shot types, from finesse to lobs - there are probably better videos out there, but this is the first one that came up for me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O11jLpeQyw

Also, I think there's a practice mode in 12, right? Go there and just practice and experiment with the different kinds of shots for a while until it starts to make more sense. It's easier than creating chances in game...

Also, who you're controlling will have an effect - a good striker with good stats will shoot much better than a poor striker or defender, etc. Also, generally, you shouldn't be sprinting when you shoot.

thanks JCL! i just put it on practice mode (5 attackers vs 2 defenders) and that's helping out a lot.

Just a suggestion before someone who actually knows what they're talking about gets here, but is there not a training mode in fifa? I usually play PES, and the training mode for shooting might give you better instructions. In PES there is also usually free training - basically you play on the training ground without any opposition - which would give you a chance to try a million shots so you can work out the controls.

xp JCL sounds like he knows what he's talking about

Xps I played fifa pretty obsessively with my ex roommates the last couple years and I will say, I really never was able to to find the sweet spot while shooting on goal in fifa 12, despite playing it nearly daily for months. 10 yes, 13 definitely yes. In 12 the button is moronically sensitive. 13 is dramatically better imo, I found 12 beyond frustrating.

The thing jcl says about not sprinting when you shoot is otm. Not sprinting in general helps most control problems you might encounter if you tend to hold the button down.

I didn't buy either PES or FIFA this year. I feel for you Z S - the controls do take a while to get used to. Honestly, I feel like these games have become so complicated to control, a lot of the fun has vanished. The constant tweaking from year to year usually just makes it more complicated too (and for every fix, something else seems broken).

I really wish one company would focus on making a really full featured, smooth soccer game, with great graphics, but more basic controls - like in the middle ground between FIFA and SWOS(?). Something you could pick up and play and it just made sense. Possibly, it's a game that really needs a touch screen to play best? Though all the current touch versions that I've played so far have been pretty shitty, with poorly implemented ideas. I'm curious about what they can do with the WiiU versions.

Probably the best controlling modern game was the play control versions of PES that came out for Wii. Too bad it was only on Wii (shit graphics) and holding the Wiimote / nunchuck combo never felt too good. Shooting, for example, was great, because you could aim exactly where you wanted to put the ball and it would go there. Of course, being able to control players off the ball was where the real magic could be found. But it was also a complicated control scheme and hard to learn...

yeah...i'm picking this up a little bit, but it's still pretty complicated. i kind of assumed that there would be an easy mode i could switch to simplify the controls, but it doesn't seem like there is. thanks for your help, though!

Finally got into this. Friend was selling his PS4 in order to buy a PS5 so I snapped it up. FIFA 21 has really helped me get through lockdown, mainly through taking my mind off other stuff. I was not a complete newbie having played games on friends' consoles, but yes, the multitude of buttons took some getting used to! But I'm getting there, especially better control of the keeper.

One thing though - I'm unconvinced the training games really help develop in-game play. The one thing I am still terrible at is tackling, simply coz in a match situation I can never get near enough to the opposing players to do it.