FIFA 11

As the game gets another year older, how is it maturing? Not too well..



FIFA has reached the difficult adolescent years. Since the vastly underrated World Cup game was brought out in May, I have been extremely excited by this years FIFA offering. The gameplay in WC was superb, graphics, as per usual fantastic, and a pretty seamless game.

After a fair few days spent attempting to immerse myself in FIFA 11 however, I am unbelievably disappointed. The game is nowhere near seemingly finished. Even a true FIFA purist/fanboy, must acknowledge the cheek of EA to put out this game, especially promoting it with promises of improvements from FIFA 10, which, in my opinion was the best club football game released in a long, long time. The hard truth though, is that this game is a drastic step back.

It almost feels like it is not actually you playing the game, the reaction speed and response time of the players is often comparable to a dead slug, and even worse online. Players often disappear, and will sometimes reselect who you are controlling for no real reason.

The career mode is a welcome highlight – no longer stuck in a 4 year cycle, there is more depth to the mode now, with more choice over your playing, or now managerial life. The Virtual Pro mode, as many will discover is extremely addictive, but the fact that gameplay is so slow, means it can be incredibly frustrating. Starting off at Bradford, my first season was a mixture of lows and other lows. Its hard to level up your pro, when you cannot pass (although that's just the game in general, not just my player), cannot shoot, and seem to care about the game as much as Tevez cares who he plays for.
The other main edition is the ability to play as the goalkeeper. Some will turn this into an art form, but I got bored extremely quickly with waiting endlessly to do something.

I always harp on about realism in games – and in effect, I am sure this game is extremely realistic to real life top flight football, but the fact that passing is so frustratingly inconsistent is a painful reminded that FIFA, and all computer games are supposed to be fun and enjoyable. Is this game? In the most, not at the minute. Is it too realistic?

Player growth in career mode makes career mode unplayable for me. Its random, and despite getting emails that your players are improving, they dont. I've been on the forums and EA have listed it as one of the things they are fixing for the next patch. Apparently if you play the career mode till players are like 25+ the growth speeds up... But what of younger players until then? You can play 2 or 3 seasons without them improving at all. Who wants to do that? And how does that make sense anyway? - Ekeke, www.redcafe.net

As for online, I can only really speculate how good it is/will be. Out of my 12 attempted online ranked games, I have managed to complete 2 of them (other friends have a lower %), and I am 0/9 on completion of the Pro Clubs online version. Its appalling. As mentioned earlier, the lag makes the game unplayable too, sometimes a full 4 seconds after pressing a direction, will your player make that move. Its just not good enough for a game which so many look forward to.



To be honest, I could continue to look at the bugs, glitches and canyons of faults with the game – but I fully expect EA to provide us with multiple patches to fix these at some point or another.

Maybe we have just been spoilt with FIFA's last few years releases. Few would argue that FIFA is sitting on top of the football sim pile over the last few years, but with Pro becoming a little more well respected this year, next years releases will be extremely interesting. I also fully expect to get a torrent of abuse about this review - but as always, it is my personal opinion. I do not enjoy this game the the minute, and cannot see it being worth the RRP of £44.99. Nowhere near.

Get working on your patches EA, then bring us something memorable next year please.

Rating – 4/10
Fair Price - £14.99

(Rating and Price will change, dependant on patches)

PES vs Fifa & Something Terrible Has Happened..

On saturday afternoon, when playing football (and performing an amazing save), something awful happened.. this..

Its not a magic picture, but just incase.. that massive lump below my thumb isnt supposed to be there..

I tore muscle tissue in my hand, meaning that movement of my thumb is very limited, and will be for a week or so. Anyone who cant see where im going here?

It has become very painful and near on impossible for me to play any computer games.
But anyway, I've decided to review this years/seasons two main football games. These 2 are of course Fifa 08 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. To ensure a fair contest, i'm doing both on the same console, the PS3. I'll start off by saying that since I have prefered PES since Pro Evo 4, I have been heavily swayed by the smoother gameplay, and not been bothered by the unlisenced names. But every year it seems like PES has slowed down, the play more bitty, whilst Fifa has slowly improved, the passes even occasionally going where you press them to. But anyway..

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 v Fifa 08

First off, Pro Evo 2008. The case looks as good as ever, the disk and opening sequence build the exitement, and then the gameplay.. Well.. never have I regretted spending £40 so fast. The frame rate it awful, the longest passage of smooth play is a few seconds and then it stops to work out why it was working. Die hard Pro Evo fans will tell you 'turn off some features, it runs fine!'. These few features to my experimentation are no commentary, no SFX, no BGM, no stadium effects.. o and actually installing the game on your hard drive.. And guess what? There is still a noticable delay. Also, to anyone who hasnt noticed, you can score pretty much every single time by cutting in on the edge of the box and letting the ball hit their toblerone handed keeper and pop out to you forwards.. realistic eh? So.. is the gameplay still worth this effort? In short, no. Although most will still try to argue that despite these set backs, Pro Evo is still the best game. It is obvious these have never given Fifa 08 a chance.

Straight off, Fifa 08 is the most enjoyable football game i have played since Pro Evo 4, and before that Sensible Soccer (by the way, download that now from Xbox live if you can) on the megadrive. The graphics are superb, no skipping and the loading times are non existent, well there are some - but you can actually play in the loading arena while you wait. The better commentary is more varied, and without Mark Lawrenson! BGM soundtrack is awesome and as for the previously less superior gameplay? Its actually just as good, if not better (no lag too). The ability to score screamers is actually there, but there is no sure fire way to score. This game is so enjoyable, and finally Fifa has actually shown itself as a world class football game in gameplay as well as graphics. And it has a lifespan. EA are looking into patches for the game which will update team rosters after the next few transfer windows.

Long story short?

Pro Evolution 2008 4 - 9 Fifa 08

New Game Scores, 1 word sum up and buy or not to buy..

Pro Evolution 2008 - 4/10 - samey - get fifa instead.

Fifa 08- 9/10 - suprising - definite buy, even if you have no friends and will only be playing the single player version

Mario, Sonic, Mario, Knuckles

More Super Mario Galaxy today, and again, more Mario & Sonic Olympics. The Olympics really is a great group game, taught 2 new people to play today, in the space of about 5 minutes. The Wrists are still caining but with all great games, you play on regardless. The PS3 has really taken a back seat at the minute, Fifa 08 hasnt been touched in days!

Super Mario Galaxy... really though.. what a game. Im on 43 stars now, and im happy to replay all levels to find hidden stars. Every level is well thought out, and fun to play. Today i had to save luigi, and i continue on the trail of princess peach. Its getting hard to distinguish between the games though now, i keep trying to get mario to throw a javelin, or long jump over gaps.

Also my brain grade has risen on Big Brain Academy, im now a B. Not bad for a student with enough time to write a blog about computer games. Big Brain Academy is a fun game, as well as multiplayer benifits. The only thing is that the single player is slightly limited. The want to go back and play the same exercises again and again is doubtful. But now, a copy can be found for £15 it is a great budget game

New Game Scores, 1 word sum up and buy or not to buy..

Big Brain Academy (Wii) - 7/10 - expanding - for £15 its a good deal - buy