So the business end of this ‘new approach’ season is upon us, the UEFA Champions league group stages are finished, the Premier League is heading to.a climax and the domestic cups are entering the final rounds, and we are in With a shout at all four of them, a historic, never been done before quadruple?
NO!
The quadruple dream is over, and here is why:
Ridiculous Fixture congestion, and I know this was fixed a couple of patches ago by EA, but it only applies to newly started CM’s, not much use to someone 11 seasons deep into a career is it.
Look at that, Middlesborough on the Saturday, Southampton 3 days later on Tuesday, 3 more days then Huddersfield, and then the killer, the very next day, Man City in the Carabao League Cup Final. And if that wasn’t bad enough literally 2 days later another UCL match, the first of the knockout stages, and I’ve inadvertently given a spoiler there. Sorry.
We played the league cup final vs Man City with half a first team with less than 40 % stamina, and the rest were youths, we had no chance, by the hour mark every player was dying on his feet, we couldn’t run, tackle or do anything, City scored 3 late goals, like a boxer biding his time and delivering. flurry of punches to his opponent who is on the ropes exhausted,
So on to Champions league action, we had 2 group games left, needing only a win from those 2 to guarantee qualification, 4 points from the 2 would secure top spot.
A decent 1-0 win against Spartak Moscow away, secured qualification, followed up by:
Another 1-0 win against Lyon, to secure top spot in the group and the supposedly easier last 16 KO tie.
Having watched the videos back it does seem apparent but I can’t emphasis enough the quality of the atmosphere in these UCL matches, EA have done a superb job with the license, all the glamour and grits presentation is there but each game has a raw energetic feel to it, totally felt in essence when playing the game, the crowds are louder, it just all feels tense and special.
We stormed the group and setup an ‘easy’ last 16 tie as group winners:
Away to Inter Milan at the San Siro, so much for easier route, it will be a great game though and looking forward to playing at the San Siro under the lights in Europe.
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – if I ever do catch up with FIFA19, it’s good to hear that fixture pileup thing is fixed.
Speaking of which…. the other night I had an itch and downloaded the FIFA19 demo from the store. While playing it, first of all, I realised that I had NEVER played it (and I thought I had). It has that quirk where after each demo match it tells you the ‘Semi Pro AI’ or whatever has been your opponent, and I would have remembered that. So this was my first FIFA19.
First few matches, absolutely great! I used a couple of teams, played as Spurs vs Bayern, then as Bayern vs Man City, and these were amazing matches! Great pace, and how wonderful to feel some different mechanics in a footy game for once. My preferred passing and shooting settings in FIFA have always been Semi Assisted. I didn’t touch the sliders.
This was Tuesday night and it was around 7pm and I had to pause for dinner. I put the console in standby (with the demo loaded and ready, mid-session) and went to eat. Returned a few hours later, and played and… what the hell?! 1000mph. Fast and frantic. I even used the same teams. Is there an in-session variance thing?
I know you’ll say that the final game is better and the sliders change everything and so on, but just wanted to see if that is a ‘thing’ in FIFA19, i.e. a few steady, sedate matches followed by a blur of mash-em-up matches.
I could get FIFA19 for £19 right now with a ShopTo credit…
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NG – Firstly, I doubt the demo is ‘patched’ like the final game is, so the demo you played is a big leap behind where the full game is now after 9 months of updates.
You definitely get in session variance but more so with the way teams play and how results go, just like PES, I have never ever seen a variance in game speed.
FIFA 19 feels much more like an old school PES game as opposed to how you think FIFA has felt in the past, EA went down the sim route and have largely stuck with it, you get that heavy player handling and turning etc, obviously depending on player abilities this varies, but that ‘floaty’ fifa feeling is definitely long gone.
£19 quid is worth a punt in anyone’s book. ALternatively, if you can wait a few weeks, then I should be done with FIFA 19 by the end of June (I am on holiday for 2 weeks mid-end of June) so if i don’t wrap up my Career before the 15th, i will do so when I get back off holidays.
Once that’s done I’d be happy to send you my copy, as I wont have any more need for it before FIFA 20 hits.
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I always felt that there was a session variance when it came to the speed of the games, more so with the later patches. £19 is more than worth it. However, we know what is likely to happen after a long spell on PES this year.
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I am also considering having a re-visit to FIFA 15. The reason being is that game had plenty of fouls and was way ahead of its time in the way the CPU responded to match situations. I remember once being in contention for the play-offs and came up against a side near the foot of the table at home. The score was 1-1 in injury time and the AI adopted the ‘Park the Bus’ mentality and held up the ball in the corners. A draw away would have been a good result for them. I remember being impressed.
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I’ve honestly never seen variances in game speed darryl, tempo yes, games do get faster depending on the situation and context of the match and who the opponents are, as in real life, ebbs and flows, but have never seen one game be a constant 1000mph, and the next 20mph.
3rd July – EA Access comes to PS4, £3.99 p/m for a decent back catalogue of EA games, including all the old FIFA’s.
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Paul – thanks for that. The little one has an XBox one so it already has the EA access available. May do that.
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Paul – should be great going up against juve. Curious to see how far you’ll get and how you find the difficulty going forward into the knockout phase.
As for me my FIFA 19 adventure is over. Got knocked out by United in the semi finals. They couldn’t touch me in regular play but from the first 15 minutes in the first let I know it was going to be penalties and nothing else. I was outshooting then roughly 15 to 3 but then again that has been the case in all games this season.
I hit the post, keepers were supercharged, inexplicable fumbles…we all know the deal. In that sense FIFA is just as bad as PES although it hides the fuckery better as there are more outcomes possible in normal play.
Still, I almost won…almost. I am quite shit at penalties in FIFA ,didn’t even know how to dive with the gk after 3 attempts.
Anyway it was a good run! Solid effort by ea this year. And they’ve done quite a lot more with the cl license,the atmosphere is top notch.
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#1 – Good effort indeed and EA have set a solid foundation this year with both games crossing over each other in the direction they are heading. What have you got planned next?
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Darryl – i agree and I hope ea crosses over completely gameplay wise to the pes-side of things. By that I mean the general feel of handling the ball,the weight etcetera.
For now I’ve planned a little reading – Fire and Blood to keep my interest in all things Westeros going. Dark Souls 3 is getting some attention now that I’m no longer stuck on a very annoying boss. Nearing the end with that … Was excited about a couple of new (pc) gameplay patches for pes some time again so I think I’ll dive back into that sooner or later. Got some unfinished business there…
But I’m taking my time with that. No sense in rushing things what with good weather and longer days coming and all that.
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Penalties are a weirds thing in FIFA< seems if you pre-aim, the COM GK will save them 90% of the time, I've recently won a penalty kick shootout, scoring 3 of the 5 by powering up, then aiming dead straight down the middle and as the player takes his run up, at the last minute, changing aim direction to whichever corner, seems to yield more success.
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The Champions League presentation is amazing and the atmosphere they’ve created is the new gold standard. I’m looking forward to seeing how England goes for you, I always struggle to get into international management in either ML or CM but the way you’re doing it should keep it interesting.
I finally won the league, fairly easily in the end but it was a relief to have finally win a trophy after playing for 10/11 seasons. The Champions League was lost in the final for the 2nd year running, this time easily beaten by Leverkusen 4-1. I thought I’d play on for a bit but can’t face another season at the moment so may call it quits. I’ve had a cracking time on both PES and FIFA this year but FIFA just shades it.
Your blog has seen Fleetwood and Swindon as Premier League champions, I imagine that’s a first for the internet.
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Congrats Cook – Great achievement.
Add Forest to that list of unlikely Premier League winners here on the blog.
I too will be seeing out this season and the World Cup with England and then calling it a day on footy games for the summer, will look forward to playing a few other games before the new season hits.
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