FIFA 2004-- Changes Needed

I'm glad someone started this thread. It's never too early. The main points EA needs to address are:

1. GAMEPLAY. Someone at EA needs to get a copy of Winning Eleven FE, and simply make their game as close to that standard as legally possible. Why is that so hard for EA to understand? The gameplay is simply not up to Konami's standard. It would seem that they are ignoring the suggestions of gamers who understand soccer. EA must swallow its pride and admit that their developers are inept.

A. when you're on defense, the CPU rarely allows you to select the player in the best position to make a tackle or select the player in the best position to cut down the angle on a breakaway. That's a cheap way to increase difficulty, and must be changed.

B. The keeper should never leave his line without input from the controller. No more of this "Automatic" stuff.

C. Allow the user to decide how many jukes and cuts the receiver should make on throw-ins. When my player gets the ball, he traps it and juggles it before I can get him to play the ball in a given direction, and usually I get tackled before I can make progress. No more of this.

D. Allow me to make passes into space that are not through balls. I don't know how many times I've made a pass from one of my center mids to a winger with the intent of having him receive it in stride, close to the sideline, only to see the ball move so slowly that the winger has to come into the field to get it.

E. When I press the "make run" button, the player in the best position to execute the play is not always the one who makes the run. That's gotta stop. In real life, a player knows when he needs to run, and does. If he's fatigued, he should run slowly. Sometimes he should be pulled offside- no problem. But the button ought to work. Every time. That's what it's for.

F. This business selecting a defender and having him immediately turn away from the player with the ball (or the ball itself, when you're trying to make an interception) has got to stop. Players should continue their runs in the direction they were going in before you selected them, until you change that direction.

G. When I'm defending near the sideline and I make a tackle, I don't expect my player to kick the ball out for an opposing throw-in every time. Allow me to clear the ball down the field in play.

H. When I've dribbled out of my player's normal position, a teammate will occasionally get in the way of a pass to another teammate because he didn't fill in the space I left behind instead. It doesn't happen very much, but it needs to stop. The concept of total football should be alive and well on a videogame.

I. Allow me to decide how the GK distributes the ball- by kick, throw, or roll.

2. PRESENTATION. I don't have too many problems with EA's presentation- it seems to be all they know about. But I do have a few suggestions:

A. Bring back pan and zoom for Instant Replay. Rather than selecting all these ridiculous preset angles to see the replay, give us Tele cam, Broadcast cam, Ball cam, and a Madden-like cam that will detent on any player in the match, with zoom and pan for all four. And allow users to save the replay to a memory card.

B. Bring back the Creation center. Use World Tour Soccer's kit creation (the only one to allow GK kits to be customized) as the standard, and add the ability to select crests by shape and add text (true-type fonts) so that your created team can have a sponsor for true realism. Add those flags to the home stadium like WTS.

C. Allow users to control the time (day, afternoon, evening) and conditions (use Madden's temperature/fog/precipitation as the standard) of the match. Include a "random" selection to turn off this feature. Use long sleeved jerseys when the selections merit them.

D. Bring back the cut scenes- players applauding as they are subbed after a great performance, trudging off after a poor one, etc. Bring back the RTWC '98 scene of the winning player strutting to the ball for a throw-in or a free kick, while the losing player drags his feet on the way to do the same. Bring back the muttering GK who has seen too mant shots and let too many go past him. Bring back the W/C '98 GK who kicks you as you try to videotape him after a goal (I loved that one!). Bring back the guy telling off the ref as he is sent off. Bring back the celebrations at the end of winning a tournament. They were really nice, and now they've been shortened. If you've seen Blades of Steel for N64, you know how a trophy celebration should go. Replays of previous goals and saves from this and other matches, accompanied by music.

E. Include more CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and CAF national teams. Include Holland, even if they have to be camouflaged. Dump one of the Asian leagues and one of the European leagues, and replace them with MFL and Argentina's league.

F. Allow the user to choose from group league or round robin league play and allow 24 and 32 team custom tournaments. Right now, I think the CPU chooses for you.

G. Include a league of imaginary (no, really imaginary ) players with made up names, so that users can create a team and incorporate it into a league (see 3. Management below) without affecting the quality of the opposition. Give this league attributes similar to the better European leagues, and allow it to be played on its own, just like any other league. Use WTS' Custom league as an example. Some of those players may be developers, I don't know (Andy Abramovici and Jan Tian have put themselves in games).


3. MANAGEMENT.

A. This may sound like sacrilege to some, but I think the World Tour Soccer's management options were the best. I like the idea of being able to put any player on any team I chose. Now here's the qualifier... WTS cloned players. You could copy Ronaldo onto as many teams as you wished. I didn't like that. I think the game should have the option of free transfers, with some sort of on-screen indicator showing the real average attribute value of the starting eleven, so no human opponents are fooled.

I think the option of true management (financial and otherwise) should still exist for the hardcore management type.

B. I don't see any value in having to win tournaments on a given level to unlock players. Once I shell out my money for a CD, I oughta be able to use it -all of it- immediately. Do not follow Konami's example of rewards for wins.

 

Two words: FREE KICKS. They were manageable in WC2002 but there's no way to make one matter from outside the shooting range. Well, I've written more than two so I suppose I should go on to my other grievances. Could the level shown on the team selection screen actually reflect the level of the team (Brazilian League)? The Dutch league needs to be in there in full. I agree completely on the keeper coming off the line as that has killed many a close game for me. I could use a transfer system that's a little more realistic, but I can live with the current one. The one button passing (x on PS2) could use a power level. My absolute least favorite part of 2003 is the way tackles occur. If you are on a break with other players your teammates will turn away as soon as possession is lost, even if they have a good shot at it. Also, after the most simple tackles your player stumbles around for a few moments before becoming useful again. Perhaps they should just watch a few soccer games?

 

Headers suck. You should be able to do them even if an opponent isn't contesting for it.

Find a better aiming system. It can be very hard to find the upper 90, but finding the lower 90 is nearly impossible. Low, line drives should be possible without having to do it with a through ball button, which screw up half the time!

Allow people to create their own formations.

Allow people to save goals. I've scored some beauties but I can never see them again.

Don't rate the U.S. like crap! We're a top 10 team, we made it to the quarterfinals, and yet teams we beat in the same Cup are rated nearly twice as good as us!

Don't give players bad fitness ratings just because their team isn't as good as Brazil. One can barely even use the U.S. because 60 minutes in your guys are just setting around panting for breath.

Add in some actual rewards for winning cups and titles. Come on, stadiums? Bring back the classic teams! England 1950, Brazil 1970, All Time Greats, modern All Stars, every team who has ever won a cup!

Stop making the Cpu take PKs straight down the center. God that's annoying. And let people shoot high or low on PKs, instead of just left, right, and center.

I'm sure there's more, but they must have done something right because I'm about to go start a new CL season.

 

-drop some of the leagues/teams from the rest of the world section. whats the point of even having a K-league when none of the teams are above one bar? why are there isreali teams? norway? etc...

replace those leagues/teams with argentina, mexico, for chrissake's an irish or russian league wouldnt hurt either. maybe even english D1.

- artificial intelligence. anyone who's read the FIFA03 thread knows my feelings about the current.....

-more of everything. teams, players, STADIUMS, chants, cups, EVERYTHING. PS2 games are on dvds, come on i know you can fit more than that on there.

-better/more realistic ratings for teams.

i would even put up with a later release date to get this stuf...

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. I hate having to unlock shit. Granted, FIFA 2003 only has two hidden stadiums, and thankfully no hidden teams or players, but it didn't used to have anything hidden. A bad trend, as far as I'm concerned.

 

All the gameplay problems have already been addressed and need to be fixed.
Also all it would take is a quick look at Champ Man to get at least some of the player ratings right. Outside of their top 18 teams or whatever the ratings suck.

 

Guys, they can't put everything we want into the game otherwise we'll have no reason to buy next year's version of FIFA. Every year they will take something we liked away and include it in the following year so they got us buying 2 games instead of 1.

 

i dunno about u but i think the free kicks in 2003 are alot more meaningful then previous versions. I know if i get fouled on a run to the box, i can bend the ball around the wall and past the keepers fingertips. I also like the fact that the defenders will foul. i have some other ideas that i will list later.

 

Fifa 98 had hidden teams with Bobby Moore, Pele, Maradona, etc. Lots of teams, too.

Am I the only one who LIKES the idea of hidden teams? Getting a secret reward for winning something was icing on the cake and made it that much funner. It also adds replay value being able to put a team with Pele, Garrincha, Cruyff, and Maradona into today's EPL and play a season.

 

ok, here are my plans for FIFA 2004.

Since World Cup qualifying is happening that year, why not have a season where you have to qualify for the cup. I also like the idea of picking your own players for the national team. Another nice feature (which would go along with a creation center alot like the FIFA 2003 PC version has) is to have a created player able to be called up. If he scores alot in the league, he gets a call up. Now if he goes to a crap league and scores mediocre, but enough to be the top 5 or so, he doesnt. The leagues should have ratings. Instead of playing as a team, you play as the player. If you trade yourself to another team, you play for that team. If you get called up, you play for the national team. In scoring, FIFA should include more stats. Assists, goalkeeper stats and other such stats should be kept. Like the NHL season, the stats should affect the players attributes after the season. I mean if you score 10 goals with a player with 59, he should go up to 63 or something like that.

Bring back training mode. EA finally found a free kick system that works. I sometime find myself dribbling around the top of the box just to get fouled so i can take a free kick and practice it.

Fix the ball control. I like how you can do stuff with the ball like juke and jive, but make it more creative.

Make FIFA an online game. Im sure there are tons of people who want to show off their skill in this game. Online tournments, leagues, and cups can be held.

EA is not that far off from makin the perfect soccer game. The gameplay is realistic. For the person who said that they hate it when the ball gets away and it doesnt go where you want to, play the game more. This game isnt suppose to be easy. You want an easy game, play the early versions. All the controls are great now, just need minor tweaking.

I love how i can score with other players besides my two forwards. My outside mids, center mid, defensive mid, and right outside back all had goals in my last season. The gameplay has really evolved from the "pass it to the outside mid, run down the line, cross it in, double tap the shoot button, score on a bike kick". I can't even get a cross off now because the defense is so tight. There arent many things wrong with 2003, just things missing. If they can add those in, they'll be all set.

 

I was talking about the kicks from farther out, where all you can do is shift your player around the ball and decide the "type" or kick you'll make.

 

i know what you meant but i find it ridiculous if you can score from 40+yards out. Even if you did get a shot, the keeper will save it and you wasted a chance.

 

Personally my biggest gripe with 2003, was that the heading system was completely ruined. Whereas before you could press lob for a lobing header, pass for a short header to the feet of a teamate, or shoot for a clearing or scoring header, now you can only madly tap on the through ball button and hope that your command gets through. I hope they fix this for 2004.

 

I forgot about this one. And, even more importantly, bring back the IGM. Having to pause the game to change formations and/or strategy is the hallmark of an inferior product. IIRC, FIFA used IGM for formations and strategy while WTS used it just for strategy. The two should be combined.

Agreed 100%. If a game's gonna be released after a World Cup, the results of that Cup should carry more weight than they do in non-W/C year games. I've said it before- there should be a team attribute that deals specifically with a team's ability to win. The fact that Spain, for all its talent, has accomplished so little when it matters ought to count against them, and any 2003 release ought to give the USA more credit for the discipline and toughness required to reach the quarterfinals. IMO, the USA was an uncalled handball away from a date with Brasil in the finals (they'd have beaten Korea), and anything can happen on the given day. Lord, how much crow would the Eurosnobs have had to eat?

Absolutely. There's no reason to have any meaningful variation in the fitness levels of these teams, unless a given team is significantly older than the average.

 

Yet another perceptive post from Auriaprotto!

 

maybe, you can have ages or something, and the older people will be more injury prone or something like that.

 

All I've noticed is that EA's logo, if it's in the game it's in the game, is a flat out lie.

I quit playing Madden because the laundry list is so freakin' long. I love realism, and if EA sports can't provide it, WHO THE HELL IS?!?!

I don't own 2003, but is it still too offensive? If I were to play a 90 minute game and play like real soccer (instead of passing back and forth to my defenders) is the final 17-12?!?

I don't own it, so somebody's gonna post me to shut my mouth, but if it doesn't have relegation/promotion, a free transfer system and possibly a season that is the domestic league/tournaments rolled into one, it's not exactly "in the game".

The only series they've gotten dead-on is NBA Live, except they still don't foul enough. But that's a-whole-nother thread/website.

With the Madden series and what I've been reading here, I really, seriously wonder if they pay any attention to the sports in real life.

 

2003 is nothing - and I mean absolutely nothing - like the previous Fifa's. I consider myself a bad ass at this game but sometimes the computer will actually manage to shut me out. The most I've ever won a game was 11 - 0 on World Class and that was very flukish. The second most was 8 - 0. Most games are 3 - 1 or 1 - 0. This is with 6 minute halves. You can't expect them to design a game around playing 45 minute halves - nobody does that.

Give the game a try. It's still a lot of fun to play and I bought it the week it came out. The league aspect is lacking, but so what? The gameplay is a lot of fun. You have to actually make great plays to score, and playing a possession game is actually rewarded in this game.

 

If they are going to give you an option to play 45 minute halves, it should matter. A player who wants to play that long is obviously a little more gung-ho than the rest.

I play 20 minute halves, there is no way I can commit a straight hour-and-a-half to a game when I've a kid to watch as well, but 20 seems to do it.

If the league's are lacking, that's what needs to be fixed, so.......

And they really should put in long sleeves for colder games, but per player. A South American player is obviously going to put them on before an English player. It would just add the realism, since most of the season is played in the cold anyway, and I doubt it would take that much space.

 

God yes. PS2 has amazing potential when it comes to online gaming and, so far, it seems largely underused. As far as I'm concerned, all sports games should be online by 2004. My friend plays NCAA basketball online and he was telling me how he gets all the stats and such updated every week by going online. Besides, I need something to do during the MLS off-season.

 

Oh yeah, furthermore...

Who decided Brazillian clubs teams are gawd-awful? I can't even play my beloved SPFC. Kaka is dragging his ass up and down the pitch by th 20th minute. Not cool or accurate. Same complaints with Damarcus Beasley and a host of others. Some sort of editing feature could help here...

 

i second that. I went out to find a Brazilian Right Mid and all of them were crappy, at least crappier then the one i had at the time. I had to go to Sporting Lisbon to sign one. It seems in FIFA 2004 that you have two kinds of Brazilians, the really good ones, and the sucky ones.

 

-drop the norweigan league, and bolster up brazil's and add agrentina's league


God yes! it took me about a month to create argentinas league in FIFA 2002.