Firstly, this will be a short post today.
The reason being FIFA 19 has served me up the first ever total fuckery session I’ve ever had on it. You get games that feel biased now and then but this was the worst case of blatant human player crippling and scripting I’ve seen on the game.
It put me in such a foul mood that I only played 3 games, and wasn’t in the frame of mind to continue, I needed a break, and life commitments and lack of play time right now mean this session was always going to be the provider for Thursdays post, I didn’t have anything held back in reserve.
First match in my session was away to Spurs, I absolutely needed to beat them to move back into the top four and close to within 4 points of the top team, and overtake Spurs, it was a title come UCL qualification 6 pointer, I could not lose. I lost 3-1.
In a match that was so blatantly loaded with complete fuckery, every pass I made went astray, I was slower, even my fastest players were outrun by defenders, every shot I had was saved, every shot they had went in, I dominated, they scored 3 ridiculous goals.
Next up was the first leg of the Europa League quarter final, at home to Juventus, the fuckery continued, same thing, dominated, but my players were handicapped, and everything they did come off. I lost 2-0. Juve have 2 away goals, I now need to go to Turin and win 2-0 just to force extra time, it won’t happen.
Below is just one example of the fuckery in full motion.
An absolutely incredulous hoofed cross at a thousand miles an hour into the box, first time knock back, first time volley, my GK jumps out of the way.
My Turn, through on goal, from 6 yards out, Kluivert on his favoured deadly left foot, a smasher, keeper somehow manages to react like some model X-3000 cyborg robot and save it. Rinse and repeat.
I did win my last game of the session, beating Brighton 4-2 away but inlay after going behind twice, I was determined not to lose, but the damage had been done, all but out off the Europa League, and now fighting for 4th place instead of the title.
The one enjoyable moment of the session was my first outside of the box effort in as long as I can remember. Captain Dekouré slotting home
FIFAFX.com 
If that was PES, with 6 matches left and 7 points off the top, you’d still be in the title hunt for sure, but it seems FIFA’s own brand of table scripting is a touch more strict and you might well be out of it.]
Difficult to know how to take those two clips of fuckery. You’re the one wit the controller in your hand know how the water tastes more than anyone looking at it. The Spurs goal looked crazy for sure. I could live with the Kluivert save though.
Ultimately we’re all in the hands of a game designer and the decisions they implement to maintain user interest. If they decide the player should still be in with a chance of league titles even after losing 10 matches, that’s what happens. If they decide the top teams will win based on a pre-match dice roll behind the scenes, ditto. I used to replay matches that felt dodgy just for curiosity’s sake, but I haven’t got time for that now and I just accept it.
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Ng – in isolation that one clip just shows a COM goal and a missed chance for me, it doesn’t convey the levels of fuckery going on as this was just 2 of a number of multiple similar incidents that happened during the game and carried over into the next few games.
Enough to put me in such a bad mood that I stopped playing anyway, the first time that has ever happened on FIFA, used to be a regular session occurrence in PES.
Never, ever replay any matches regardless, golden rule, the only time I’d ever replay a match si if the power went during a match or something.
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That spurs goal looked insane and your players looked they were running through mud. Luckily I haven’t personally seen this kind of crap on fifa, have seen plenty of it on pes though. Disheartening to say the least. Like NG said the Kluivert save was fair enough I would say though. Sure he’s left footed in the game? In real life he is right footed for sure.
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that Kluivert shot seemed to be pretty much at the keeper, who had positioned and spread himself well? Amusingly from a PES perspective I didn’t think there was much unusual about the Juve goal, Paul, as we are so used to the AI pinging balls across the box one touch followed by defenders not marking and chocolate wrists from the keeper! My current bete noire is the ‘backwards 1-2’ where a winger lays the ball backwards and sprints forward while your control switches to a different defender to make sure you can’t track the run, allowing yet another low cross. That and the fact any COM keeper can hoof the ball most of the way down the pitch first time with either foot from any angle to get out of trouble at the back. Of course none of this will be of much consolation to your frustrating session, but I still suspect you have a chance in the second leg against Juve
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I think they’re getting worse at the scripting, not even subtle now, it’s like a major plank in their difficulty level rather than making the game hard through actual play.
I had a look at ‘the journey’ the other night. I don’t really get it, I presume it started last year and involved some bromance fall out. After that is it just bal? The cut scenes are way too long and trying to play as both the team and the player is odd. I give up opportunities for my team to score so my player can have a go. Anyone played?
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#1 – Its the first time in 8 seasons I’ve encountered a session whereby I truly felt that PES style scripting, it was odd.
Kluivert may be right footed, my mistake but a majority of his goals come on his left foot, playing on the left wing, and his weak foot accuracy is very high.
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Abbeyhill – On the replay for that save, it was a top corner effort, smashed, from 8 yards out, no way in hell a real life keeper would have got to that, and it may look inconspicuous and normal on its own but as mentioned, that was one of multiple such passages of play in that match where it was just blatantly obvious that I wasn’t going to win the game.
I guess I was just peeved because FIFA doesn’t usually do that, PES does, and it used to annoy the f&ck out of me in PES, and the fact that I absolutely needed to win that game to stay in the title race, and it chose that game to take fuckery to levels it never has before, really annoyed me.
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Turf – This is the third and final year of the Journey. I played it quite a bit in the first year, less in the second, and not at all this year. I think the best way of viewing is as a freebie experiment. I don’t think it helped EA that for two years the story was building up to you joining Ronaldo at Real, only for him to move to Juve.
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So you don’t get to choose who to transfer to? I assumed it was a choose your own adventure effort?
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No, it’s fairly predetermined. You could choose your favourite club and starting club when you fail your FA trials at the very beginning, but it doesn’t affect the story much.
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Today’s post will be delayed unfortunately as I’m away in Brighton at the Moment. Hopefully post tomorrow morning.
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The game continues to delight and annoy (as does the other game but in different aspects). When it gets going it really gets going, ball truly is free and it let’s you do – in principle – whatever you envision. But then it’s hamstrung by no-fouls (I’ve gotten one or two maybe in about 60 games now) and the weird keep-ball routine the cpu sees as necessary to do at times. Great career mode especially when compared to ML but then the transfer is so dodgy in places. If you have the money then you can buy whomever you want. Of course getting that money is an issue but still, such a good career mode could do with better transfer logic.
Like I said I’m still enjoying it but with both games there’s always something grating in the back of my mind. Just for me personally of course.
Crazy that it’s almost April already and the rumor mill Is set to start for the 2020 footy gaming! Wonder what horse shit they’re going to feed us this time around.
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#1 — seriously 1-2 fouls in 60 matches? I can believe it though as that’s been my experience on FIFA over the past few years. I’m still just about getting 1.5 fouls per match on average over on the other side of the aisle. I sense that they ‘gave’ us fouls in PES2019 to start off with but soon asked themselves why they were bothering to listen to us when their actual customer base — Johnny Onliner — is loudly asking for fewer fouls and more fun fun fun. This unfortunately is how things are for our beloved gaming genre.
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NG yes – I am not exaggerating. One tackle was made in open play and the other was by me drawing it out by using silly tricks and all. Modded pes 19 on pc was giving me a steady 4-6 per game. Fifa 18 was also a bit better in this regard though I feel playstyle has a lot to do with it as well. What I don’t understand is this – for offline we have all these glorious sliders for all kinds of gameplay aspects – why the FUCK can’t we have one for fouls if all it affects is offline anyway?! Maybe even more insulting than not having any sliders at all. Johnny onliner can go and do one indeed.
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#1 – Whilst I totally agree that FIFA is largely devoid of fouls, even less than PES, 1 in 60 matches is truly an awfully low amount.
I would say I realistically get around 10 fouls in 10 matches, some games have 1 or 2, other matches go by with 0 fouls.
But penalties and professional fouls are given, when they occur, they just aren’t in PES.
Due to being away all weekend and having no game time or time to prepare the post, the next post will be up Thursday, as scheduled.
Theres a fair bit to discuss.
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#1 – I suspect that both parties in the footy gaming world believe, correctly, that a fouls-filled single-player game, even achieved through sliders or toggle buttons or whatever, would detain single players for too long and/or put some off the ‘product’ completely, meaning they never get ‘funnelled’ through to the online money-making market. Once again I have to say if I was them and my primary concern was running a profitable business, I would do the same.
Paul – given how our careers have mirrored one another’s at various stages, I wonder which way your ‘fair bit to discuss’ is going. I’m having a very welcome revival of interest and absorption at the moment, not least because I can suddenly score from outside the box again, and I’m really loving how my long-term players look and feel in my team. Maybe there’s longer life in my ML yet. So I’m curious how your CM is going. Don’t spill it here!
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Looking forward to the new post Paul. As for fouls it’s quite weird I know. I remember you getting quite a bit more fouls than myself on fifa days 18 as well. That’s why I included the bit about playstyle as fifa is always a low-foul affair for me, even more so than for others. As it is, it is starting to become a bit of a glaring thing for me now. Even when I have gotten a free kick in shooting range I didn’t know what to do with it and skyed it.
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#1 – FK’s are very difficult in FIFA, yet to score one, of the very few I get on target, they have all been saved via a diving acrobatic GK fingertip round the post.
NG – Good to see your revivial of interest in your ML. be interested to see if the long rangers have suddenly been unlocked again or whether it was a flash in the pan affair.
I wont spill too many details here in the comments, but will just say that I’m one game away from the end of season 8, and it’s been lively! and also that there is a huge prize up for grabs.
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