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FIFA 09 Hands On
PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Hands On by Johnny Minkley
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Have you heard the one about the Englishman, the Scotsman and the Jamaican-Canadian? EA's lead FIFA team comprises staff of over 18 nationalities, which, were it a real squad, would no doubt have shifty FIFA president Sepp Blatter railing against the vile destruction of home-grown talent.
The three amigos in question are, respectively, producer Dave Rutter, senior gameplay designer Gary Paterson, and gameplay producer Aaron McHardy. They're currently huddled together in a meeting room at EA Sports HQ in Vancouver, preparing to give us our first taste of this year's kickabout.
With the debut of FIFA 07, they and their team-mates struck upon the best FIFA formula in years. We thought last year's was rather good, scoring it 8/10; and the recent UEFA Euro 2008 was even better, with Kristan insisting it was just "a Russian linesman away from being given 9/10".
We see a hell of a lot of sports game presentations over three days at EA's Season Opener event, and one of the more short-sighted talking-up techniques employed by the teams is to rubbish the previous year's version, then wax lyrical on how life-changingly amazing it is for this time around.
Of course we expect areas of games to improve over time, but this is a nonsense strategy, since the logical extension of this argument is that today's giant leap forward is next year's embarrassed shuffle back.
So when new producer Rutter raves about "250 key improvements" for FIFA 09, scepticism is already off the bench and warming up nicely. Yet in its current successful groove, the team is quickly building a reputation for impressive delivery.
"EA has actually improved on almost every part of it, with game elements and modes that aren't the usual vacuous twaddle slapped on the box to tempt unwary fanboys," added Kristan in his UEFA review, the title that serves as a bridge between FIFAs 08 and 09.
We prefer the one on the left, frankly.
As Rutter has it: "We're at a point now where we've established such good gameplay that all we need to do is polish it as much as possible and it will get better and better. In many respects this year's version is the evolution of that rather than the revolution."
If you can pick out 250 key improvements with the naked eye then, well, you deserve some sort of special prize, but the main areas of 09 earmarked for improvement are: physicality, or the realism with which players physically react to one another; responsiveness, right down to the difference between tackling a player's front foot, or trailing leg; and strategy, namely the facility to create your own.
Let's start with physical play. Size matters, so if a big player clashes with a lesser being they should both react accordingly. And familiarity with the physical aspects of your players should be able to deliver convincing gameplay moments a little more nuanced than the "give it to Ronaldo as he can dribble a bit" school of realism.
We watch an in-game clip of Man Utd midfielder Paul Scholes clashing with Chelsea's swan-diving striker Didier Drogba. Since Drogba is "such a hulk of a beast in the game", he is able to hold off players as you pick out the perfect pass. But the yin to this yang is that the necessarily more sluggish bigger player can in turn be outrun by the nimbler, lighter rival. "You'll feel the difference between Ronaldinho and Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney and John Terry and Drogba."
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FIFA 09 gets new online mode [20]
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UK charts: FIFA 09 still top of the table [7]
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FIFA tops UK Charts at Christmas [17]
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Comments: 1-30 of 30 in total
Poster
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1st - Ha Ha
Here's hoping that this years effort has a bit more weight in the shots...I'm a Pro Evo die hard, but have found myself switching between the two this year. FIFA still isn't quite right...I don't think UEFA Euro 2008 was as good as the demo had us believe (although that may have been because I played the demo on 360, and played the game on PS3), but Pro Evo definately needs work done...the presentation, lack of licenses and terrible online just don't cut it on next gen...playing a good game of football isn't enough anymore. |
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boyakoosha
01/07/08 @ 07:26
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yes but are you going to be able to go on xbox live with 3 other mates and have a normal 2 v 2?? also will there be a "restart match" option for friendly games against your mates rather than having to bloody quit to the lobby? they haven't had this and seems to me one of the most obvious choices.
if they haven't got that in this year then...well..grrrrr. the rage will kick in |
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dougiedonut
01/07/08 @ 07:32
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A refreshing preview of fifa and all it stands for.
ea pull the same old stunts of rubbishing their previous version, and going on about how wonderful this new version will be, until this time next year. 250 improvements?? i bet they couldn't even list them all for us! It's the emperor's new clothes! |
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"You'll feel the difference between Ronaldinho and Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney and John Terry and Drogba."
Well you don't have to be a game design genius to know that this was the main difference between the last (at least) two Pro Evo and Fifa Outings: While in Pro Evo (which is rubbish in a lot of its own ways, admittedly) you could get a nice feel for your players and for clashes with their markers, in Fifa, I somehow couldn't. Like, ever. Good to see they finally got the point. After the lacklustre first Pro Evo 09 shots I'm willing to give FiFA another go - if they get the other stuff right. This might be the year in which they "get" Konami. Isn't Joe Booth with the FIFA-Squad anymore? I thought he was quite a nice guy. Seems they brought in a fresh pair of fresh producer legs, might have been a good idea. cheers, Alex |
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QPRHOOPS81
01/07/08 @ 07:51
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"It would be nice if EA could bring this to PC instead of a game based on the FIFA 97 engine. "
Yeah what the hell was that all about. I downloaded the demo of euro 2008 and thought my g card was on the blink. Ive got a new PC and pro looks fantastic but fifa looks like a bad mega drive game. Its crazy and they really need to sort there lives out on that one. Is there any word on if they are going to use the newer engine this year? I cant believe they sell any pc versions at all at the moment. |
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espadachin
01/07/08 @ 08:27
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put in the game face tech (from tiger woods) and ensure that there is online co-op vs the cpu, then its a purchase for me.
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That_Happy_Cat
01/07/08 @ 08:30
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Over the past few years I haven't been able to work out if the Pro Evo team just got lazy or reached the peak of their abilities. I really enjoyed playing Fifa 08 last year and I imagine this years will feel even better.
The only thing that REALLY irritated me about the last two Fifas was that Andy Gray seemed to have been given a different thing to concentrate on in his speech. In 07 it was the shot power... every two minutes he'd be saying about how someone was trying to hit it too hard. In 08 it was the refs playing advantage. EVERY TIME!!! You don't have to say it EVERY TIME!!! It drove me NUTS. Christ! It's as if the devs use Andy Gray to point out some new feature they've added. Fifa 09 "Ooh great tackle... but he took away his trailing leg not his standing leg" Otherwise... top stuff |
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For your questions regarding quick restarts online:
A few weeks back we asked OS Forum members to submit their questions for the FIFA 09 Production team. Below you will find the answers to the first batch of questions from FIFA 09 Line Producer for PS3 and Xbox 360, Dave Rutter. OS: What is being done to make FIFA feel more organic on the pitch? In other words how are you guys trying to make games more random and allow more creativity? It seems like FIFA sometimes falls into the trap of being too much about doing one or two certain tactics to get chances/score goals so that's where the question stems from. Dave Rutter: Funny you should say that…one of the major focuses this year has been precisely that. If you think about how football ‘works’ there’s an ebb and flow. One team has the upper hand, then the other. One team is pushing hard, say for an equalizer in the last few minutes, or defending deep in the last 5 minutes against that team. We’ve consciously acknowledged this in FIFA 09 with our new Custom Team Tactics system. As part of Team Management you’ll be able to edit 11 tactical sliders to change attacking and defending parameters of your team. Think of it as being the first team coach and being able to dictate how your team plays on the pitch. There is roughly 140 attacking and 40 defensive options. One example is to adjust the Defensive Mentality – in a high setting you’ll have nine players pushing into your opposition half trying to cut-out play in much the same way as in the team pushing for a win, desperate to get the ball no matter how vulnerable that leaves you defensively. To counter this, the opposition could play a long, lofted ball over your last man and your striker will probably have 30 yards of space to run into between the last defender and the goalkeeper. The opposite example is low Defensive Mentality. Choose this option means your defensive line is deep leaving very little space for the attacking team to play in your half of the pitch. An attacking team is going to be met with a 10 man defense – so they’re going to need to use some pretty inspired quick passing and movement to get near goal. Custom Team Tactics completely changes the dynamic of all of the players on the pitch for the team that has the tactic applied. Just like real life it isn’t just about short passing or long passing. The important thing is the support play and how your team operates as a unit to be successful. Hopefully that helps you get the idea. The even more impressive part is our superb global data collection team is seeding the top leagues with accurate tactics to ensure you’ll be able to recognize the dynamic, fast paced counter attacking style of Man Utd. with the pretty passing game of Arsenal. Literally. Oh – and you can edit these yourself, assign them to your own team, or opponents, and even play them online. And using the Quick Tactics section of team management you can assign 4 of these Team Tactics to the D-Pad to trigger manually during the game. FIFA will never be the same again. OS: Will there be more varied ways to attack the pitch? In other words it seems like sometimes FIFA is too much about pinpoint passing all the way down the pitch (until a final cross or lead pass to a striker), whereas in real-life there's a lot more playing balls to spaces on the pitch. Dave Rutter: So it’ll be much more varied. Imagine a team with Long Passing set in custom team tactics. They’re not going to be successful if they’re hoofing the ball up the pitch to tiny Michael Owens. You need a Peter Crouch or somebody like that as a target man in the middle. Not only that, but the personality of the rest of the team needs to be changed entirely to support that style of play. You need your midfielders following through their runs in the middle to support any knock on from your equivalent of Peter Crouch. Conversely you don’t want your players disappearing off on long runs if you’ve got your team playing a short passing game. The sliders don’t just do what they say on the slider. They entirely change the way your team supports, positions and makes runs, how fast and slow they do it, and with how much aggression. We’ve been amazed at how powerful a tool it is. OS: Tell us more about Custom Team Tactics? Dave Rutter: So you can see the depth and breadth of the 11 tactical sliders they’re broken down into 3 buckets below…the 2 extremes of each slider are described. Defensive Tactics: When you don’t have the ball Mentality – Press Entire Pitch v Press own Half Aggression – Close Down & Contain vs. Double Player Press & Slide Tackles. Width – Narrow & Compact vs. Wide & Man Marking Positioning – Covering Line vs. Straight Offside Trap. Attacking Tactics: Build Up Styles – When you have the ball in the first 2 thirds. Passing – Short vs. Long. Speed – Cautious vs. Fast. Positioning – Organised vs. Freeform. Attacking Tactics: Chance Creation – When you have the ball in the attacking 3rd. Passing – Safe vs. Risky. Shooting – Little vs. Lots. Crossing – Little vs. Lots. Positioning – Organised vs. Freeform. OS: Will Be A Pro mode turn into a career or season mode? Dave Rutter: Absolutely – we’re giving you the ability to be able to chose or create a pro player, and play as that player for four seasons. During those four seasons you’ll get to grow your chosen player with experience points gained from completing games and challenges. Your reputation will increase until hopefully you’ll get spotted by your international manager and get called up to play. Once you’re in the international squad your ultimate aim is to become captain and an International Legend. If you get a bit tired of this, though, you’ll be able to play the mode unlocked – taking control of anyone else in the team, or even get a mate to play with or against you. OS: What improvements are being made to Be A Pro mode online? For example can hosts kick a player in Be a Pro games; is there a party system so a group can stick together; is the mode bigger than 5 versus 5? Dave Rutter: Yes, yes and yes. We’ve introduced a heap of changes to the system as requested by fans, and we’re rolling out a massive new online game mode that I can not talk about – yet! OS: Has the Be a Pro camera been improved, especially for corners? Dave Rutter: It has changed in lots of ways. We’ve improved it on corners, and you can also edit the camera distances to you hearts content. We’ve also got a quick zoom out function to let you see the state of play from higher up. We’re also allowing users to play Be A Pro with standard game cameras too. OS: Will there be more tweaking of the ball physics? Dave Rutter: We’ve done quite a bit. We’re really happy with the way the ball zips around realistically – and we all loved the first ball bouncing in-off-the-bar-and-out-again-goal, as well as post-to-post rebounds. You can use spin on the ball really beautifully in free kicks… OS: Tell us how you have improved physical play? Dave Rutter: It’s amazing. Jostles are now free – so you can press a man, pull out of it, drop back into it once you’ve got an extra yard, etc. In FIFA 08 it felt a bit on rails – now it’s totally free. And with the work we’ve done on player attributes you can really feel the difference between players who are strong versus weak, big versus small, and fast versus slow. You need to appreciate the players for what they’re strengths and weaknesses are and play to your advantage… OS: Will there be collisions and or injuries when challenging for headers? Dave Rutter: Yep – they’re magnificent as well. Everything from little imbalance stumbles through to brutal crumpled heaps. OS: How has the game speed changed? Dave Rutter: At the moment we’re sticking with a speed between FIFA 08 and UEFA Euro 2008. We’re tweaking and tuning all the time, and we’re toying with the idea of speed setting in options at the moment. OS: Will there be referees on the pitch? Dave Rutter: Yes – and assistants. OS: Will there be quick restarts? Dave Rutter: We’ve got quick rematch in online if that’s what you mean? OS: Can we add players to the wall and have them charge forward? Dave Rutter: We’ve not added player adding to the wall – but you can jump and rush on command OS: Can we bring up the keeper towards the end of the game on corners? Dave Rutter: If you’ve got the right mentality set (HIGH) in Custom Team Tactics then it’ll happen if appropriate, yes. OS:Has player switching been improved (more accurate and faster)? Dave Rutter: Yes, we have done a lot of work on auto-switching and switching players when you want to choose them. At the moment we believe it is significantly improved over last year and I would also encourage people to go into the game options controller set-up to adjust the switching mechanics to very manual or very automatic. Manual works better for most people in most circumstances so I would suggest giving this a try as well. OS: Is there a way to kick with the outside of a player's foot? Dave Rutter: HAH! Yes – we’ve added Finesse shots which allow for some of the most sublime moments in the game. By holding R1/RB your player will take a moment to place with finesse the shot…We’ve made some beautiful videos of some amazing finishing. OS: Can we use/save edited formations/lineups online? Dave Rutter: Yes, and Custom Team Tactics, too. And your totally customizable controller set up too! You can completely customize your controller, creating your own controller configuration, assigning actions to the buttons exactly how you like them for complete control. This was a huge request from gamers last year. OS: What has been done to address back line/defender A.I.? For example it seems they pinch in too far sometimes which allows for wing play to be overly dominant Dave Rutter: Yep – it was pretty bad. A lot of goals were being scored from crosses. We’ve done a lot of work on that, and also on Goalkeeping AI. You’ll see the goalkeeper make better decisions about positioning, come away from the goal line at the right moments, getting down on shots a lot more intelligently and a lot more authentically. We have also introduced a new system this year which enables the goalkeeper to react to what is occurring on the field in real-time. So if the goalkeeper makes a dive and realizes he’s not going to save the ball he can half change his mind to try to get an arm or a leg out to try to at least deflect the ball to make the save. OS: Does the CPU make more errant passes? Dave Rutter: Sometimes Check back here often and I’ll answer more of the questions that have been posted in recent weeks. |
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@espadachin
Glad to see I'm not the only one that wants online co-op vs the CPU. Why the hell they don't include this is beyond me - it makes so much sense. Wishlist: - Ability for 2-4 players to play on the same team against the CPU over cups, friendlies and seasons. (Drop-in/drop-out would work) - Online co-op Be A Pro mode. Euro 2008's excellent Captain your Country mode was great in co-op, but why not over Live? EG - where do we send our begging emails to get this included? Can you get these questions answered? |
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AaronTurner
01/07/08 @ 08:39
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Can't wait. If UEFA 2008 is anything to go by this will be top. I'd be happy with UEFA 2008's gameplay and all club stats to be honest, I really hope they don't change things too much.
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AaronTurner
01/07/08 @ 08:43
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Also, hopefully the computer will foul and get some cards in this version!
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QPRHOOPS81
01/07/08 @ 08:48
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>Is there any word on if they are going to use the newer engine this year? I cant believe they sell any pc versions at all at the moment.
The PC version will be "almost" identical to graphics of the next gen versions, with current gen gameplay/feature set. That doesn't sound good to me at all. My PC is alot more powerful than a ps3/360 so i dont want a gimped version. Looks like no choice but pro again this year. Rubbish |
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Vertical Stand
01/07/08 @ 10:40
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Fifa 08 had a be a player mode, I didn't know that - hey thats just like Namco's Libero Grande from way back when...
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The tactics sliders sound like Football Manager (2008) but better. Who would've thought it?
- I'm not a fussy man. One of things I've always wanted is the referee and assistants on the pitch and the manager/technical area/sub bench also modeled and just on the side of the pitch. Doubt they'll add the technical area though :( |
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There's a lot of stuff in FIFA that they herald as new and that PES has had for years with the L2 button for in game tactics like counter attacks, opp side attacks, offside traps, pressing etc.'s or custom formations and editing positions. You can actaully move attacking and defensive mentalities up and down during a game in PES already.
The whole physcial nature and ball physics have been in PES since it was redesigned from renderware in PES 3. Tackling your traling leg, players stumbling on for advantage etc. and bouncing off each other when colliding has already been in PES. Even referees and linesmen, the advantage rule etc. have all been in PES before. Even the finesse shots mentioned in the above interview, PES introduced these with the R2 controlled shots. The double tap tap and triple tap crosses are from PES. Fifa basically looked at PES 5 (the best and most realistic version) and remade it, with a few bells and whistles and tweaks from pes 6. Which is fine by me actually as PES has gone down the arcade route. Hopefully the new PES goes back to PES 5 instead of becoming another run-dribble-shoot game. And if FIFA continues to improve, both games could be must buys.
Edited 7 times,
most recently on 01/07/08 @ 13:06
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Here's mirrors of a wmv version of the new Fifa09 vid from Svenskafans, ingame footage is sadly from Euro but comments by the producer are interesting.
http://rapidshare.de/files/39881302/FIFA... http://www.filefactory.com/file/61e432/n... http://www.shareonall.com/FIFA09_Svenska... http://momupload.com/files/100197/FIFA09... http://vip-file.com/download/40925498297... |
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You guys need to see the game in motion...check out Youtubes video
http://www.fifasoccerblog.com/&fmt=18 oh and check out other websites: http://www.eurogamer.net http://www.gamespot.com and interviews with the producer: http://www.sportsgamer.com/content/1642/... very exciting stuff... the eurogamer team only saw an old build without the new trap and goalkeeper ai systems..that video shows all!! and check out the forum for some amazing screenshots..these are old! http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/fifa-... |
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He must work for EA because he likes Fifa? What utter garbage, like a lot of people he probably likes Fifa because somewhere around PES4 Konami decided they would make cunts of everyone who ever supported them by buying PES/WE and figured we were all so stupid we would buy each new version no matter how little was improved from previous versions. EA for all their flaws at least went back to the drawing board with the next gen versions and built a new engine from the ground up and have steadily improved from fifa07 - UCL - Fifa08 - Euro and hopefully that progress will continue with Fifa09, all the while PES fans have old men on benches and new animal heads to excite them into spending their £40........
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Super cancel works fine for me, I use "new alternative" with the 360 so super cancel is LB+RT, thing is you have to decide quickly you need to do super cancel before your player is too close to the ball else most times you can't cancel out of moving towards it. Scored a great goal in Fifa08 where I played a through ball to an offside forward, realised right away he was offside so super cancelled him away from the ball, another player ran onto the ball from an onside position, was clean through and slipped it under the keeper :)
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