FIFA 09

Demo is out now for PC / 360 / PS3. Decided to try out the PC version (now with keyboard and mouse controls!) and I think I like it. Pointing to where you want to pass makes a lot of sense (see wii pes 08) and seems to work great, but running around with wasd is a little more difficult to get used to (though I only played a game and a half so far). Will be playing more. May download one of the console versions next to see how they compare.

have played the ps3 demo a bunch of times. my observations:

• this is fucking terrible. yet again.
• the biggest problem is the movement of the players, which is unnatural, clumsy and very axis-bound. turning is sluggish and gives the feel of dragging oil tankers around the pitch.
• passing just seems off somehow. what happened when i went to pass was frequently not quite what i intended.
• the through ball mechanic is terrible.
• tackling is very weird, partly automated. couldn't get the hang of it at all.
• the shooting seemed okay to me.

PES better be really fucking good this year.

yeah I've tried this out too:

• are they playing in molasses? the movement is so syrupy and unresponsive, it's like some N64 level nonsense
• the shooting is definitely the best bit: it feels crunchy and heavy compared to PES' floaty and light
• the animation is as ever impeccable but there was some horrid slowdown during replays
• PES should reintroduce the speed option from PES1 and PES2 on PSX; think SF turbo on the SNES

in fact konami should do one of the following three:

• re-skin PSX PES1
• re-skin PSX PES2
• re-skin PS2 PES4*

played the demo last night, first Fifa I've played in a very long time (maybe 10 years), thought I might have to disinfect the 360, it stank up the place so much, a really really horrible game.

Extremely positive review at jeux video... 18 of 20 pretty much across the board... calling it the new reference of the genre on ps3/360... and really liking the become a pro and 10 v 10 mode (though I still can't see that really working out to good games, unfortunately)
http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0000/00009724-fifa-09-test.htm

the more I read about it, the more I'm impressed

have played a bunch more of the demo now:

- the heading is really good
- it still does feel very syrupy and unresponsive but I think that might be because I'm so used to relying on super-cancel in PES to stop them going on their rails; when I stopped trying to super-cancel I noticed they are less rail-sy
- the passing is much better if you switch it to full manual ie it goes in the direction, at the power, you choose

I'm still not sure

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/fifa-discussion/270383-official-players-guide-fifa09-ea-sports-updated-9-28-56k-warning.html

this game is great btw

it's meaty and physical and deep and FUN!!

I never thought I'd say anything positive abt fifa in my life

roberto said this on the PES thread:

the other big thing i noticed apart from the ball mechanics is the players' legs. your typical football game gives players' legs approximately the same mobility as subbuteo did. but this game has bucked the trend, and their legs work like they are jointed and free moving, and they control the ball realistically. a broad and obvious example i noticed is that skill players would automatically use fancy ball control if i changed direction with them sharply.

I would say this is true of FIFA, not PES. the PES players feel almost like little automatons, the FIFA players like little breathing dudes; the game is really physical and fluid; sure there's that slight FIFA delay on button presses but it's actually there to give you more control not less, and once you've factored it in the football you can play is very graceful

also going from FIFA to PES you notice you have absolutely no control over headers in PES; the animations are also worse I think = which isn't just presentation, it absolutely impacts on gameplay ie if there is an animation in there to stutter and falter vis a vis no animation and the guy just carries on as usual

also FIFA seems to have full analogue control, whereas PES seems to be very axis-y

god, listen to the FIFA fanboy here

: ((((((((((

tho that last point might have something to do with the xbox controller? apparently there releasing a new one in conjunction with PES?? with a reworked dpad

watch and weep

uh...this seems...OK

I mean, I just bought it out of curiousity, y'know, I mean, it's not like-

I like how you have to time your jump for a header or you can end up missing the ball or just glancing it

It's good that when you have a penalty there is a Controversy Interlude, followed by you having to actually choose how the kick is taken, as opposed to PES' thing where a dodgy foul happens and the ball is immediately on the spot, giving you about five seconds to pick a random direction to watch some godawful SNES-standard toepoked penalty go in one of about five directions and either go in or deflect off the keeper at ridiculous speed

Direct free kicks feel a bit floaty and shit, and on the basic control settings I feel like a lot of my Counter-Attacking Football Of The Most Ruthless Kind is hampered by the passes all being little feeble taps, and the receiving player just kind of waiting for them to arrive. Is there anything resembling a super cancel to remedy this and avoid pointlessly chasing down balls that are going out for my goal kick etc?

On shunting the difficulty up on Be a Pro mode I find myself having flashbacks to the harrowing early days of PES5 and feeling like I have about three seconds on the ball to try and remember how to do one of the little tricks to try and actually beat a player

It is a disgrace that there is no training mode, but quite good that the soundtrack has Cut Copy and Gonzalez

are you on 360? play me!! I'm on as cozeny

LT/RT is supercancel so I guess R2/L2

if you use the right stick you can receive passes better btw - just touch gently in the direction you want to move into and the guy will turn gracefully; hit it hard and the guy will kick it in front, useful

yeah, lack of training mode is a bit wack : /

long passes are weird in this game: the only thing I've actually found to be genuinely floaty; they seem to hang in the air for an age

I can't believe this dude picked real madrid after I picked aston villa!!!

I will add you when I have Gold access and am not crap at the game (I am MichaelAnnoyman)

xp I only ever pick Aston Villa. I hear reports of people leaving the cursor on Bristol City for ages, and then switching to Real Madrid after their opponent has politely picked another low-ranked team

you know, i was going to draw an HILARIOUS correlation between buying the wrong footy game and buying the wrong console, but my heart really isn't in it anymore. i could've worked in a Villa angle for Ferg too. it's a shame really.

http://img.webring.com/r/n/noprejudiceallow/logo

fifa is http://web.archive.org/web/20010603113745/www.mchammer.com/gifs/try2.gif

with the weekly loyalty bonus Randy Lerner pays all season ticket holders, I can easily afford both games on both consoles

which version features the poo po po po po pooo

ugh this game is so rich, deep, full, whatever; really rewarding too

I can't believe this dude picked real madrid after I picked aston villa!!!

lol

Man I can't wait until this comes out in the US. I see czn logged in and playing it and get jealous.

btw I have the demo and really suck so I'll drive your scores up.

awesome!

if enough 360 owners with live memberships buy it, maybe we can set up an online league?

or we could start a club, whatever

god; the 10vs10 matches are v.infuriating when playing with strangers who just run and run and refuse to pass : //////////

that sounds good. I will sort mah Gold access this week

EA really appear to have brought their A-game wrt the online possibilities in this, as long as you have the means to play with people who will pass the ball in co-op games and not just pick Man United every all the time

Q: What’s the future for Online Clubs?

A: We envision a time when you have managers, an economy system where players will be able to move clubs, where playing FIFA becomes an alternate reality to the real world of football. The day will come when there are virtual equivalents of Wayne Rooney or Ronaldinho, from different parts of the world, who are expert FIFA gamers and clubs are clamoring to recruit them to represent their side, just like the real world. Ultimately our ambition is to have the best 11 English FIFA football players at each position playing against the best 11 American, German, or Italian FIFA football players at each position to actually stage a virtual world cup to earn the right to be the world’s best FIFA football team.

ok, FC ILX - world domination or bust!

I fancy myself as a lightweight fannydangle winger, but I deep down I suspect that my principal strength in football games is as a brutal destroy-everything defensive midfielder

I guess they are hoping that people will manage to get well drilled teams together that will easily beat teams consisting of 10 headless chicken basement dwelling fantasists, and that at higher standards the games will actually be well balanced and realistic

i'm looking forward to trolling this thread as it progresses

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1310000/images/_1314742_cov_despair300.jpg

oh no!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1310000/images/_1314742_cov_despair300.jpg

OH NO!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1315000/images/_1319338_merson_goal.gif

Despite that demoralising prospect, I am hoping to score a goal like this on the game soon

these are things to aspire to

lol at eto'o doing the crouch robot (hold LT+click R3)

EA world seems to be down at the moment tho (and I was only playing nottm. forest so I could score and see the celebration!)

This is £25 in Morrison's for the next two weeks, apparently. Think I might pick it up on the way home from work.

only an hour left before I can go home and play this!

goddamn, fuck EA for delaying this in north america

OK; I went ahead and created an ILx league anyway; dunno what the uptake will be but I set the max teams to 20 to allow scope (tho doubt we'll get that many obv)

it's for the 360 vn; it's called ILx Premiership (if you're searching for it) and the password is henfap

should have probably done max 10 teams, play each other twice; not max 20 teams, play each other once

would that be better? I'll try change it, if there's consensus

do we even have any other FIFA 09 360 users?

how abt a ps3 ilx league?

Pretty sure Spiralli will crack soon and buy a 360, and FIFA, and the Aston Villa 2007-8 Season Review DVD

I am 2-0 in online games. In my first one I threw away a 2-0 Villa lead against Barcelona and spent the entirety of extra time besieging their goal, only to finish up 2-2. In penalties, having saved his third and fourth kicks, I needed to score my fourth to win 4-2. I had put my first three penalties in the left hand corner while his goalkeeper remained stationary expecting the customary football video game straight-down-the-middle-nobody-expects-that gambit. On the fourth kick he duly hurled himself to the left while I sent a ludicrous puffball chip straight down the middle of the goal.

BALLS OF STEEL

how are you finding it now, MPx4A?

I haven't been this into a football game since PES4; the online stuff is just so slick and well implemented, and largely lag-free. there have been a few connection problems today, down to lots of people bombing onto the servers since launch I guess

finding it really hard to get fast back-to-front moves going, difficult to go past players too; enjoying it lots mind

my online record isn't as glorious as yours, sadly: W6 L5

I don't know if that only includes ranked; not sure what happens with unranked and league games

I'm W4 L0 for the time being. I've only played ranked so I guess I've been playing beginners so far.
I'm liking this so far, although the new heading system is quite challenging

My online record is now apparently 11-0 despite only having played two games. The ones I had yesterday were easy to set up and really smooth. The guys I played were both pretty bad, so I was getting away with some good fast passing moves. If I play against somebody better at pressuring the man in possession I will probably fall apart, because I'm still not too adept holding the ball up or skinning people.

I don't even know how to play an unranked game

This does actually seem to be a good game though. I'm not sure if getting sick of the slightly over-clinical finishing animations or reaching a point where the AI is too predictable will kill it for me, but when it's so easy to jump in and play some Galactico-obsessed chump online and beat him with a crap penalty it's probably all good

How does the online league work? Do you have to play the whole thing in one go?

Also - how do you play a specific friend as opposed to a faceless "ranked" opponent?

on the league screen it shows you who is in the league and who is online in that league at the moment; you can then challenge anyone who is online at the mo to a league game

it's very convenient

And you play each opponent once? I presume it gets tricky by the end of the "season" when you need just that ONE remaining person to be online...

yeah; well you can set it to play once, three times, whatever

I expect that is tricky; but if there's someone who has signed up but just not played at all, I expect the manager can boot that dude and dissolve the league as it stands

^^the manager can do that btw

Has anybody signed up to it yet? I will later.

I'm on PS3 :-(

i'm on PS3 dude but i would not touch this shitty game with a 10ft pole. trade in for PES when it comes out and we can talk business.

this is the best football game I've ever played

better than sensi

i can't work out if you're trolling me or you're batshit insane but largely functional. either way, i have tremendous respect for your efforts.

nah I'm just trolling you, sorry : P

it is really good tho and I'm enjoying it heaps; no PES4 mind

i figured it was prob a little from column A, little from column B

in the other league I'm playing in (eurogamer) I chose lyon and I've got to say I'm so impressed by their midfield; it's rock solid

kim kallstrom, juninho, toulalan, govou : DDDDD

Haha yeah so far i've done all my online playing with Lyon, allowing me to thrash both Chelsea and Man U. 3-0

what's the Eurogamer league?

If only it were like that irl :( xpost

baaderonix, there is a PS3 one and an xbox 360 one go here for details of the ps3 one

http://www.eurogamer.net/forum_threads.php?group_id=1284

aha - maybe I should join this

I think I'm going to buy this. I just like the way it plays more than the other one. It's more arcade-style, and as a dude who doesn't watch a lot of soccer compared to other sports, that appeals to me. Plus, it still feels like a good soccer game.

cool; join the league! : )

frustrating day's league play today; won 1 lost 3 (two of which I was totally out-attacked)

still, I've yet to receive an out and out drubbing so that is something

apparently, altho you have to pay for the live season updates you do get the roster updates for free which is pretty cool

Yesterday I lost my first game, by hammering the A button to skip an irrelevant replay and accidentally tapping the resultant goal kick eight yards out to Cristiano Ronaldo, in stoppage time

It's all been downhill from there

Also missed two absurdly gilt-edged chances in stoppage time of the first two 10 vs 10 games I played, then beat Charlton 6-2 only for Svetoslav Todorov to get man of the match for scoring the two

haha some good games there! think you're def better than me; I could've watched that free kick goal all night

I dunno, fairly evenly matched over the three, but it turns out Hamburg aren't massively fun to play as

That Elano free kick was fucking amazing, how you hit them with that much power? All my attempts in the arena have ridiculous curl but no power.

The botched rainbow flick that hit my guy on the arse was totally by accident btw

haha could you hear me blaring down the microphone? I was f'in and blind'in as is my wont when playing footy games; thought it might've been entertaining booming through your speakers

yeah, to hit free kicks really hard hold LB when pressing the shoot button; you can practice free kicks in the arena by choosing your spot and then hitting any direction on the dpad - tho there's no wall, which is a bit lame

I definitely need to play with two up front, hence my tinkering with fiorentina in the third game; gillardino was a lumbering twit mind

to do those rainbow flicks hold in LT then press <- -> -> -> on the right stick

haha, I didn't realise you had a mic on until you had a goal disallowed or something and started going apeshit. I'd been debating hooking mine up so that everytime I play in a 10 v 10 game I can shout "heyyyyyy batterbatterbatterbatterbatterbatter" all through.

Could do with getting a league or a team going on this, it's a shame to never be sure whether the people you play with will be blithering idiots. There's this one guy who keeps playing as Patrice Evra on 10 vs 10 games and trying to score own goals.

was just on a hat trick in a 10 vs 10 game and chipped the penalty straight at the keeper D:

yeah, I play on the eurogamer club where ppl actually play their positions, pass and are a team; the difference is incredible and it's lots of fun

I'll see if I can invite you to the club; not sure I can, think you need to be a manager; but will try; there's a thread on EG for co-ordinating games; I'll post that up in here too

looooooooool
http://www.eafootballworld.com/en_GB/video/1619091

starting to get the hang of it now but am still awful at scoring; at least I'm creating a lot of chances

playing with two strikers makes such a difference

outplayed some dude earlier; creating chances through the middle, down the wings, mastering the manual through pass into space (how good is that btw?! manual passing is a brilliant feature) but still couldn't score all the way to penalties; thankfully I beat him or I would have been hella unhappy

just beat a dude 2-0 but I think he was smoking a bowl for most of the game (cd hear his bong hits down the mic lol) which is indicative of how bad I am at scoring

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

just threw away a 3-0 lead against some guy who has won 230 of his 255 games

cannot. fkn. believe. it.

so. mad. right. now.

haha

I think fatigue makes a lot of difference in this game past about the hour mark; in one of my earlier games I conceded straight away to this guy playing as Celtic, immediately equalised, spent the rest of the game bombarding his goal without scoring, and then with the score 1-1 ten minutes into extra time, I ended up losing 5-1. I feel like a narc when I make substitutions though

Last game was against this kid with 92 wins out of 129, every single game played as Man Utd, in his previous three games has beaten various top level teams between 3 and 8-0. He scored from kick off, just straight to Ronaldo, nobody got near him, 18 yarder in off the angle. I brace myself for a caning, and then he immediately turns a cross into his own net with Rio. Rest of the game, Agbonlahor casually gets a hat trick and I win 4-1, the kid all constantly cursing and accusing me of cheating in a high-pitched Manc whine, me all doing the "shhhhh" celebration and refusing to skip the post-match shots of mah players gaying up in victory while Carlos and Wayne casually contemplate suicide on the turf

haha - sweet

haha awesome!

I never use the mic when playing vs strangers tho.

I don't know what to press to not hear people mumbling incomprehensibly at me during matches, but after that game I'm not sure I want to

I was discussing with a friend how sweet it would be if you could activate webcams for goal celebrations...

I like to play with the mic so I can say "stop picking man u, you fkwit"

is it hard to connect? Mine is still in the XBOX box in a sellophane wrapper. I might try shouting "hey, batter batter batter batter" at some people tonight.

it just plugs into the bottom of your controller; really simple

Thanks EA, I guess I should have realized that "released in North America October 14" means "available in stores in North America October 15".

Based on my demo play, I am going to have to play a lot before I start playing any random matches.

I am the pits at this game; play me!!!

OK. I'm picking up a copy this evening if I can. Trying to organize a little league here too with some friends. We were going to have it be MLS-only except we'd all want to be the Fire. We're thinking FMF instead now.

u on 360?

yep, sn is fugexlac

think polyphonique and jefflev were going to pick up a copy = 5 in the ilx league, which wd be ok

in line at Game Stop i was the only person out of 5 in the queue buying Dead Space. everyone else was buying FIFA.

WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END?

Keep in mind that I lack basic soccer IQ and will probably make a ton of dumb mistakes.

Will pick this up tonight hopefully, but I'm leaning toward picking up the ps3 version cozwn, mostly due to free online play and a slight controller preference.

Though all the people on here who are going 360 is kind of making me want to go that way instead (plus the league).

So, I'm guessing this is the case, but could I play as, say, Pachuca against someone like the Man U kid described upthread?

I don't even know what pachuca is, but if it is an MLS team, then yeah, you could play as them vs. man utd

yup, the Primera División de México is in the game, so you should be able to play as Pachuca to your heart's content.

come join my one-man ps3 fifa league!

# FIFA 09: SK West99 played as MANCHESTER UTD against DIZNEY UK who played as MILAN and won 4-0
# FIFA 09: SK West99 played as MANCHESTER UTD against MichaelAnnoyman who played as ASTON VILLA and lost 1-4
# FIFA 09: SK West99 played as MANCHESTER UTD against KillBoy23 who played as REAL MADRID and won 5-0
# FIFA 09: SK West99 played as MANCHESTER UTD against dom et elo 59 who played as ARSENAL and won 3-0
# FIFA 09: SK West99 played as MANCHESTER UTD against DOMCT95 who played as CHELSEA and won 8-0
# FIFA 09: SK West99 played as MANCHESTER UTD against LeeeRoyy who played as CHELSEA and won 3-2

ONE OF THESE RESULTS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS

little fucker beat Juventus 12-0 a few games later

The full team games where everyone is yelling all the time are confusing. Also, always getting stuck at center back blows. 1-on-1 is fun, but I still haven't scored a goal yet >:(

pro tip for the BAP 10vs10 (other than don't play them, join a club) when you're picking your position go for right mid - everyone else will race for the strikers so you shd get right mid easy and it's still a very attacking position

other pro tip when playing clubs: if you have about 6 or 7 folk, two should play as 'any' (not 1) because it's a lot easier to defend

baaderonixx, what is your ps3 name / league name?

Yeah, 10 v 10 I always go for right mid, or whichever player takes the penalties if I know off the top of my head - chances are the fullback that's supposed to be marking you is a fucking gung-ho simpleton

I also derive a sense of stern pride when I work myself into a scoring position and then pass it to a striker with an open goal instead of going for robot dance glory

jeff - well i haven't really created a league yet...
ID is: fabfunk

Ferrago - 96%
Console Monster - 94%
TeamXbox - 93%
WonderwallWeb - 93%
Games Master UK - 90%
Official Xbox Magazine UK - 90%
GameSpy - 90%
Gamestyle - 90%
GameCell UK - 90%
Gameplanet - 90%
Thunderbolt - 90%
Maxi Consolas(Portugal) - 90%
VideoGamer - 90%
GameZone - 87%
IGN - 86%
1UP - 85%
Playstation Official Magazine UK - 90%
TotalVideoGames - 90.0%
Play UK - 87%

some helpful hints and tips

http://www.fifasoccerblog.com/2008/10/my-fifa-09-hints-and-tips.html

this is so stupid and they need to patch it asap as well as putting in night games for champions league matches:

Change the weather
If you play Manager Mode, don't settle for playing every game of every season in the sun. From the FIFA 09 main menu screen, select the exhibition match option and select your team as the home team (it doesn't matter who the away team is). On the next screen you should see a picture of the stadium in the middle - select game settings and change the conditions to whatever you want (I recommend overcast, that way it can be dry, it can rain, or it can snow). Then press back repeatedly until you're back on the main menu, and load your Manager Mode game from there.

I'm starting to think that some of my problems in this game are caused by the extent that I've semi-destroyed the buttons my usual controller via mashing the shit out of them playing CoD4.

I suck at this game.

If you guys having trouble are playing against the computer, maybe try turning down the difficulty for a while... score some goals, feel better.

Yeah I dropped it down to Amateur, which was way too easy, and now I'm going to stick at Semi-Pro for awhile. Professional was whipping me.

Yeah, I switched down to semi-pro after a few matches too, but now I've started winning every game (though playing mostly with average teams)... I know I should move back up, but I'm a little afraid to - winning is fun. I'm no expert, but two tips of (maybe obvious?) things that seem to work well for me... on a breakaway, do a skill move (hold left trigger + twist right stick) before you take your shot, timed right, it almost always results in a goal. On defense, abuse the call second defender (circle on ps3 , probably b(?) on 360). I try to let the computer controlled guy jockey for the ball, while I use my guy to shut down his passing lanes.

I'm doing ok at international level : career with as roma and 8 games from the end of the first season i'm 4th behind juventus/fiorentina/milan ac. hopefully I will be 2nd (juventus is a bit too far ahead and I just blew 3 easy games by losing one and drawing the 2 others... it hurt so much when that happened yesterday... but I ended the session by whipping milan so went to bed happy !).
the first part of the season was awful though. I had the hardest time scoring. but then totti woke up and started scoring like hell (14 so far). It might have helped that I bought gomis and bojan during the mid season transfers.
god, this career mode can suck the life out of you...

One of the most frustrating things is how many times I hit the posts on average. like 3 times a game !

I seem to get worse at this game the more I play...

you can manually play the offside trap in this game: wtf + win

definitely the best football game I have ever played, despite its flaws

yeah, it's amazing. and I've not even tried all the various possibilities yet...

you on ps3 or 360 alex?

360.
having tried on ps3 too, it feels like it's even better on 360. but that might be because i'm not used to the ps3 pad. it just feels... less responsive.

cool

there's a 360 ilx league; if you tell us your gamertag I'll invite you

don't think any games have been played yet, but I've played mp4xa and dan m a few times

... in friendlies

this online league thing sis a bit awkward since you basically need to sit around doing nothing while waiting for other people to accept yr invitations to play...

yeah, it's a bit annoying if you get an invite and are already playing a game; if that happens I usu. just shoot them a quick msq to say 5 mins

otherwise, it's not too bad; I dunno how else they cd've implemented it

one thing I would like is the PES system for substitutions in online games: you press start and tht indicates you want to sub and then you don't get to sub until the ball goes out of play

yeah I don't really see any alternative but so far every time I've invited somebody from my league to play, I eventually sat around for 5 minutes before giving up

fifa10vs10 vs PES legends

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=264828

is there any way to up the opacity of the radar? I wish it was just a shade darker

one thing tht is fkn annoying

I beat RUGGEDRAY

I beat X REVOLTA

but because they quit out on the final whistle, it doesn't record the game on my stats

fkers

Manual passing makes it quite a different game. I'm not going to go manual full time but it definitely makes you think a lot faster and you can't really afford to fannydangle around the box as there's no one-button quick pass get out clause.

Also, the manual throughball and the manual passing are ever so slightly different. It takes a lot longer charge up time on the manual throughball to get equivalent power on a tapped manual pass.

It's... interesting, and definitely more rewarding and you can play some passing (especially inside defenders) that you're just unable to (due to the passing AI) under auto.

so i've finished my first career season (3rd). can't wait to start the next one !
the free kicks with L1 are great. for the first time since... many years (on PES and FIFA), I can look forward to free kicks with reasonable hope that I will score !
by the way, webinar, my gamertag is alxtc.
i've tried manual passing a little bit but it was way too difficult... may try again when it's too easy at legend level... not anytime soon !

cool, alex, will send you an invite.

this game is beautiful

new favourite is the 2vs2 lobby; there are so many things hidden away in the menus (which are a bit messy and unnavigable at times) that I think I've still to discover lots of what this game has to offer

anyway, yeah the 2vs2 lobby is fun

yeah this game is kind of a menu simulator

Still great though. I scored my first goal against a human opponent as Romania, a nice short pass into the box and a volley blast into the net... lost 3-1 :\

what's the 2vs2 lobby?

there are a no. of online lobbies for setting up unranked matches based on various factors: geography, skill level, game type; to get to these follow these menus:

xbox live -> online game modes -> fifa 09 match creation -> fifa 09 lobbies

the 2vs2 lobby is usually on the third page to the left (press LT three times)

I know yr on PS3 baaderonixx, but don't know the specific menus for tht

I was trying to set up a 2v2 with some friends tonight and kept being kicked just after sending out the invites. WTF EA

I had two really good 10v10 games just on random quick matches last night

Charlton 7-3 Sunderland (scored one with SVETOSLAV TODOROV)
Shrewsbury 4-3 Wolves (Wolves leading all game, Shrewsbury finally nick it in the 92nd minute, scored one with KEVIN MCINTYRE)

Fucking up one of the 3-5 occasions you actually get to touch the ball in one of these games induces a depression equalled only by taking a player out of your fantasy league team and him then scoring a hat trick

i'm tired of kids disconnecting when about to lose a ranked game...

they disconnect when playing unranked too

v.annoying

No-one's ever disconnected on me, but the whingeing Man U kid upthread did pause the game twice in a row in stoppage time to see if I'd go away

Apparently if they disconnect you should wait and not quit out of the menu straight away, check their status on your dashboard and once they register as having logged off or started playing another game you should get given a 3-0 win

if you quit out on the final whistle it doesn't record it, so you don't get the 3-0 win; this is a glitch and srs needs patching

sometimes the EA servers don't pick up games either: like the second game where I beat you the other night, MA :P

I mean, if the little twunts quit out on the final whistle they incur no penalty against their record

It only seems to show one result per person, only one of the three games we played the first time round showed up as well. Also, my stats say I have never had a red card online even though I've had one or two.

Hopefully by the time you have yr XBOX back I will be capable of going round a player without getting the shit kicked out of me

yeah, the stat tracking does seem a little borked

also is the initial online menu for choosing teams as glitchy on 360? Half of the time if not more, the menu freezes and then tells me "this session does not exist anymore"

Was playing a friend last night and I made 3 subs at once heading into extra time tied 0-0 -- evidently this unleashed some bug which caused one of my players to become invisible! I won 2-0.

Also another friend has pics of a bug he found at the Arena screen where Ronaldinho is wearing Barca gear.

Oh yeah, I've heard of that invisible bug! Not seen it myself. Apparently you can still see the shadows?

ref bias
http://www.eafootballworld.com/en_GB/video/1829497

FKs are great in this game
http://www.eafootballworld.com/en_GB/video/1759565

What was weird was I could still see all the players, so the first time he said a dude was invisible, I loled in disbelief.

http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/2082448

http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/2084769

^^ the wildly varying fortunes of the Charlton Athletic team with which mah created BAP player is currently plying his trade

now only £20 on ps3 and 360 at play.com

o_O

question: is it possible to play with an online friend on the same team? I'm talking normal play (not "be a pro")

against the computer? don't think so. against other ppl? yes, but I can't remember how : /

the quick workaround is to do a be a pro game and both play as 'any' obv

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff333/skunkertx/gladje4af0.gif

yeah but I want to avoid the be a pro style of play. It seems weird that it would not be possible to play in collaboration mode online (vs. computer or vs. other online collab teams)

yeah, sorry dude : / my xbox is rrod at the mo so I can't check how to do the 2vs thing...

SICK OF FUCKING WOODWORK

still enjoying tho or has the sheen worn off?

Still loving this! Altho I really do need to sign up for an online league

yup, still mad for it !
the level of details in the gameplay and moves/combinations you can do is just great.
and I've not even explored the online gaming yet...

I had a run recently where I couldn't score but kept hitting the woodwork about four times a match, and lost to Arsenal as a result of the in off the arse keeper kick glitch. It's usually good to have an online game or two if that happens as you tend to get a more open game

This game seems to have less scripts than PES but to compensate by having the goalkeepers be superhumanly good. It gets a bit annoying having a goalkeeper alwaystip point blank piledrivers round the post, and probably encourages excessive use of chips in one on ones

Also bugs me that I can't remember the last time I had a penalty, and that it represents shoving and fouling while jostling for headers really well but never actually gives free kicks for it

Prob need to join a league or a team, but then will probably not have Internet for ages soon anyway

for one on ones with goaly, it really helps to stop mid-run, step sideways and shoot. My problem with keepers is when they have to deal with a long very high ball. They usually have no clue anticipating how the ball is gonna bounce

yeah the finesse shot (RB + shoot) is good when through one-on-one with the keeper too

I have become amazingly good at scoring from corners (and nothing beats scoring from a free kick vs an online opponent)

on live now: free commentary packs in French, Mexican Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Italian, Hungarian and European Portuguese and alternate English commentary (tyldesley and townsend) for 400 points.

that's pretty cool, eh

on the mex one when u score it goes gooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllll

I'm totally going to get the commentary packs. I was bummed that they only had English.

US version has French and Spanish already, I think (I know at least the ps3 version has French). You have to drill down quite a ways into the menus to get to it. In the advance settings you have to cycle through the options, through three or four screens till you get to audio, then commentary language or something like that. Took me a while to find it, but it's there. It may be less deep in the menus when you're already playing a game?

Hmm, I guess I'll look around some more.

We are pleased to announce a game update for FIFA 09 on Xbox360 and PS3, hopefully arriving sometime next week. In line with community feedback, we have spent time improving the gameplay experience and addressed the following problems:

- Fixed side-stepping issue on lofted through balls
Fixing the issue where a player sidesteps when trying to control a lofted through ball instead of running straight onto it and controlling it, was a top priority for the EAC development team. We’re happy to say that the team at EAC has been able to fix this problem and it will be included in the game update.

- Improved advantage rule: fixed goals being called back for free kicks
There was a problem in the advantage rule whereby the referee would call back a goal if it was scored when the advantage was being played. Instead the referee would give a FK or a PK to the fouled player. This issue has been resolved in the game update. Goals that are going in when a foul is committed will count when they score.

- Improved number assigning in Manager Mode
When signing a player in Manager Mode the player now makes a more sensible decision, based on this position, on which number he would like, whereas previously he would always take the number 2.

- Allowed up to 8 user-controlled teams in Tournament Mode
After installing the game update it will be possible to play in Tournament Mode with up to 8 user-controlled teams. This gives the option to host bigger events with your friends to compete in offline-tournaments. Have fun!

- Removed ability to bring custom teams into Online ranked matches
Everybody has the option to transfer players in his favorite team and create his own custom dream team. This is an option we want to offer everybody to enjoy the feeling of creating own teams and play matches online or offline. When it comes to ranked competitive online matches we think only real teams should compete against each other to keep everybody’s chances even. So with the update it is no longer possible to enter a ranked match with a custom created team. You will still be able to upload your customized team online as in customized starting line-up with the existing players of that team’s roster

- Fixed Stadium 23.Maj lag issue
We fixed a major frame rate issue in 23.Maj stadium.

- Fixed join issue in Online Team Play Lobbies
A game hang issue occurred during search for available OTP game sections within the lobby rooms has been resolved.

YES wrt "side-steeping issue"!

finally getting round to playing be a pro seasons properly

anyone else played this mode to any extent?

http://ll-680.ea.com/easportsworld/media2/fifa09/6469725/822A0001_1_JPEG_SCREENSHOT_ghR.jpg

my first goal for celtic reserves

how to draw a penalty

yeah, was running Charlton's first team before my XBOX died - it's a lot of fun, as long you get rid of the first person camera so you can see where people you might want to pass to are

It's a shame you can't play in cup competitions like you can in PES, I imagine it'd be a lot more fun if you could stake your claim to a first team spot by scoring in the league cup or something, and there's not much of a sense of career progression when the highest you can aim for is regularly appearing in international friendlies

One of my favourite things about manager mode is just sticking out a Foetus/Duffers XI against Carlisle in the league cup and nicking it on penalties/unexpected wondergol from 17 year old youth prospect/last minute demolition job by hastily deployed star player. Also the accumulated fatigue system seems much more subtle than PES' nonsense of having to rest your goalkeeper every four games

i still can't see the fun in playing th e"be a pro" mode - seems like you spend 80pc of the game moving around aimlessly on the pitch

yeah it's kind of a delayed gratification thing, even though you inevitably tend to demand the ball and run the game slightly more than is realistic

I don't like the way it constantly rates your positional sense to stupidly rigid/impossible standards, but if you just turn it off and play roughly to the demands of yr position you still seem to get good at an acceptable rate

my right foot is a dog

feels a bit disrespectful playing for my country with an untucked shirt

first game for scotland reserves (against holland reserves) was an almost unmitigated disaster, despite scoring a goal I ended up w/6.5 and three fails

also it was snowing at hampden (not seen tht in FIFA yet):
http://i35.tinypic.com/o7ooj9.gif

anyone fancy a game? I'm tired of playing fannies with jacked-up luton teams

that sounds like the greatest thing ever!

lol

I see that esteemed xbl player LUTON TOWN 4EVA has won 91, lost 1

someone teach me how to beat my roommate in this? thx

Aston Villa, Gabby Agbonlahor and sprint button, is a start. Hold the right stick towards goal for your first touch if you're near the last defender

if you want to get moderately technical, Aston Villa, run down the wing with Ashley Young and get good at measuring the distance of crosses so that they land on John Carew's head

(this is all I know)

if you want to get all in depth, this guide is really good: http://www.operationsports.com/forums/ea-sports-fifa-discussion/270383-official-players-guide-fifa09-ea-sports-updated-9-28-56k-warning.html

if you learn to time stepovers and body feints and change direction after, you can go past people and get players booked/sent off

people keep disconnecting on me on this, when I am battering them

they never used to

one of the worst online communities going imo

I just had to quit from the match-up screen 9 times in a row to play someone who wasn't Man United

retiring, fuck this shit

I'll play again sometime if ur down, I am godawful by now tho

ok, would like to see if I can get my finely honed 4-5-1 Villa to the end of a match without someone disconnecting

I never said I won't disconnect

dlc out soon

ok - I have a probably stupid question. From one day to the next, the luminosity and contrast of the game got all screwed up (ie. oversaturated). I didn't change a thing and there doesn't seem to be a luminosity setting (there's a chart to help you adjust but AFAIK you need to tune it on your TV). I only have this probleme with this game. Anyone has a clue what it could be?

i played kicks online and played in defence and really loved the whole controlling-one-dude aspect, but kicks online sucks. what can i play on pc instead to get this, even 5-a-side?

played this for the first time tonight, struggled to get into it but eventually came to love it. Created some frighteningly superb action in the box.

so i decided to emulate tonights game, me being manu. and scored 6 goals in the first half!

fuck you, spiralli!
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh123/hshadow49/E203.jpg

oh, i'll wait until that comes out then

(my fifa09 was borrowed)

ouch! if respected academic journal edge magazine says it's so, then it is surely so. i feel so foolish! i hearby recant my previous position on this thoroughly entertaining game. i am sure that their opinion was in no way based on sucking ea's cock for a fifa 10 exclusive, nor the need to make their fifa 10 exclusive seem like something anyone should give a shit about. which i now do, obviously. edge magazine!

"There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?"

"Yes."

And he did see them, for a fleeting instant, before the scenery of his mind changed. He saw five fingers, and there was no deformity. Then everything was normal again, and the old fear, the hatred, and the bewilderment came crowding back again. But there had been a moment - he did not know how long, thirty seconds, perhaps - of luminous certainty, when each new suggestion of O'Brien's had filled up a patch of emptiness and become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been three as easily as five, if that were what was needed. It had faded but before O'Brien had dropped his hand; but though he could not recapture it, he could remember it, as one remembers a vivid experience at some period of one's life when one was in effect a different person.

made you look

a fiendishly subtle ruse

Practice mode for FIFA 10 and some other changes / additions talked about here...
http://www.eafootballworld.com/en_GB/news/FIFA_10_Blog_David_Rutter_1

seems interesting

i'm stuck in PS2 land :(

fifa 10 has custom set pieces; tht seems a nice touch

anyone planning on picking it up? might play a bit of fifa09 again soon

yeah i've gone back to it. Quite amazing how much the online competition has improved. I used to think of myself as pretty good but nowadays i'm getting my ass sserved most of the time.

think the 360 dribbling will make the biggest difference; they're also talking about working on the authenticity of manager mode so you're not there with a load of dumb transfers and scouting German midfielders called Arsenio McCaffrey and Brazilians called Peter Fribrock (only one of those was made up)

I put Man City's new squad together last night and had a crushingly boring goalless draw with Chelsea

lol

I haven't seriously played a football game since ISS64 (although I dabbled with Pro Evo 4 too). The more I read about Fifa 10 though, the more I'm tempted to give it a go.

join the cult!

Online play lately (on PS3) seems slightly easier to me if anything, although I'm really not that good. It has also started cutting off all the time when it never used to and takes an age to find a game sometimes.

The last two games I played my opponent quit when I scored after 2 minutes, which is really irritating because it doesn't even count as a win, especially after waiting a long time to get started.

yeah this really sucks - most opponents seem to disconnect if you get a 2 goal lead with less than 15m to play.

there are player matches, you just have to navigate the ridiculously convoluted menu system to get them

I have had a guy inexplicably disconnect on me in one of those at 0-0 though

srsly if pes implemented 360 direction control it'd be so much better than fifa it's unreal; I appreciate this would require a complete overhaul of the animation engine and tht konami (unlike ea) don't have the money to finance a separate team to go away and build an engine from the beginning but maybe they could not release a pes one year and take two years to totally rebuild from the bottom up, keep the control as tight and introduce 360 dribbling and next-gen animation and it'd be amazing again

the current pes games are still good but the 8way directions are jarring and the animation is still pretty ps2 but the controls and feel are so much better than fifa, which is always how it's been

been taking lyon through the manager mode; benzema, govou and juninho are beasts

goal 1
goal 2
goal 3

:D

http://beta.easports.com/media/play/video/6097627

this is the most sarcastic goal I have ever scored

http://beta.easports.com/media/play/video/3481767

check out this little shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9FYC9cSg4Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFIPmpy0k7U

http://fifasoccerblog.com/blog/fsb-exclusive-manager-mode-qa-with-marcel-kuhn/

They appear to be working ridiculously hard on FIFA 10. I like how honest they are that a lot of aspects of FIFA 09 are massively annoying.

yup sounds good. I think silly little things like actual weather and day and night are going to make such a big change to the way MM feels so everything else is just bonus

pfft if that guy was doing that stuff with Yeovil I'd be impressed, you pick Man U every game and you only have to hold a few buttons down for all that fancy shit to come out

if he played me I'd have six across the back, kick him off the pitch and do him on a set piece

huht

agreed it's easier with Man U or Barca yet I have no idea how he does all these tricks (and I have played this game A LOT) ! it always seems so difficult to do anything but run and pass (although I do succeed in doing some little tricks but always the same and not in the same league as these things).

Yeah, I dunno how you get every touch to come out as a flick or a backheel

Insisting on backheeling everything in just makes him look like some obsessive child, really

That and the the six minute long jumpcut-wracked video of him playing FIFA

eheh, yeah; clearly, he's 12 or something !
I've played against one (well, I suppose it was a kid) online once. and he kept doing all these little tricks. of course he played with Man U...
but beside the silliness of it, he has an amazing control of the ball. I wish I knew how to do a tenth of this !

not related at all (except that he's the - very badly drawn - head of the game), the latest game ronaldinho played and apparently he still has some skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b-rNe49yqg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sofoot.com%2Fronaldinho-est-vivant-115215-news.html&feature=player_embedded

damn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b-rNe49yqg

in every video montage of ronaldinho ever: him beating folks w.lots of fannydangle then overhitting a pass or falling over

nahhhh he's looking sharp this pre-season; lost some weight

anyone fancy a game? I'm tired of playing fannies with jacked-up luton teams

― czn (cozwn), Thursday, November 27, 2008 12:28 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

is this, like, a thing with this game?

(i am from there. and my brother actually still supports them, i think, which takes some doing, these days.)

jacked-up no mark teams is def. a thing since the fannies discovered the ranked match transfer glitch

every team has ronaldo, benzema, terry, lampard etc now : /

xpost

well, I haven't followed him closely but his latest season seemed pretty awful. even by his actual low standard.
I can't really understand how someone can go so fast from being the greatest player alive to... that. I mean, you can gain weight and all but the touch of the ball, the skills can't disappear overnight (unless you're severely injured or something, which is not the case here).

anyway, I'll be glad to play the new fifa (or back to pes if they improve A LOT) since 09 is a bit too easy now. I could try to master the tricks and all to keep me busy in the meantime !

I think they patched the jacked-up-Luton glitch, although in that one situation I think it should've been allowed to continue.

That skills video does definitely make me want to spend a bit of time properly learning the tricks, I just use the odd stepover or stud roll out on the wings generally, although I did skin some kid's goalkeeper on the edge of the area when I beat him 8-0.

yeah, same here.
I'm annoyed that, although I win, I always play the same way. I need to add some diversity and creativity to the mix !

I only play unranked now and in tht mode there're still a lot of jacked-up lutons out there :((((((((((

tht kid is 16 btw and yeah I agree: congratulations u scored a goal w/man u ws my response

pretty psyched for 10 now, shd still have some features to announced

I hope they fix the godawful menus

i am actually considering getting fifa 10 instead of the new PES. and i haven't played a fifa since the first ISS came out on psx.
it just seems to me that the fifa crew are maybe trying harder these days, having acknowledged being the "underdog".

I've said this many times before on various threads but I was a hardcore pes fan on PS2. since I got a 360 and checked both pes and fifa's nextgen games, I went for fifa and I've never been tempted to go back. I don't understand how pes has screwed up so hard. if they improve fifa 10 as much as they've improved fifa 9 compared to fifa 08, I can't see how pes could beat them...

That dude's 6-minute long "I am great" video; as others have said, it's just not that impressive as Man Utd. I appreciate some of the goals are against Chelsea and such, but the simple fact is that if you're Newcastle and do a 30yarder with Gutierrez from mid rather than Ronaldo you'll be lucky to only give away a goal kick rather than a throw in. Likewise, try doing some fancy shit on the ball with Bassong and watch the ball roll away from his feet halfway through a spin. /end bitter NUFC fan rant

When you look at the PES 2010 information, it just sounds like more of the same: "Improved graphics", "Improved AI", etc, which is the same intangible crap claimed every year. I've been all about PES since the first PES (never had the ISS, but played them on the N64), but it's become stale like Fifa did for a long time. Now it looks like Fifa are making with the important changes, and after playing some Fifa 2009 (my flatmate rented it for a bit) last week, I think I'll be hitting Fifa 10 when it's out unless I hear something really amazing about PES to change my mind.

yeah, there's a part of me that wishes PES would make an amazing game this year since I had such great times with their previous gen games. but I highly doubt it...
fifa seems to have a great advantage on almost every level now.

is fifa 10 gonna have more 10v10 stuff? That's what would make me get it, for sure.

yup, also 5v5

5v5 is gonna be awesome!

so I've started practicing some tricks. I must say it brings some new excitement to the games when you're not just trying to win but to win with style !

finally got that diving header achievement

nice, congratulations !

I hope they at least let u save replays locally in '10

haha

I still don't have the diving header one. My players always seem to casually stand still and glance headers in and it looks shit.

Play me at FIFA soon ay

is that blanco?
http://i31.tinypic.com/nqxpvd.jpg

sacha kljestan in case u wr wondering

tht is the us cover

guy on right is eric balfour?

btw
http://i27.tinypic.com/23jrc09.jpg

Haha sonderangerbot OTM

my own eduardo moment

My main complaint with the game is that sometimes it seems like the players take to long to react, especially when you pass towards a guy you don't have control of - it seems like it takes a second or two for the game to give you control of the intended receiver & he just stands rooted in place waiting for the ball instead of moving towards it, giving the defender too much opportunity to cut off the pass.

I have an answer to tht which I was thinking about earlier but I am drunk right now!!!!

hence my replies to other threads

ah

I feel like the game should know, "oh he just hit X which passes automatically to his nearest teamamte, so now either we should give the player instant control of the receiver or at least make that guy run towards the ball instead of stopping to stand still and wait for the ball to reach his feet." Is there a button you can press to get earlier control of that guy maybe?

hm... assuming you've already selected the receiver with the LB you can move him subtly on the spot with the LT, this is useful when taking balls in the air because you can get into a better position without moving too far out of the way or you can gain 'full' control by using the 'super-cancel' which is LT/RT iirc. players tend to run along pre-defined lines or stand in a computer defined spot to recive passes, with 'super-cancel' you can essentially delete this track and gain complete control of the player

LT+RT, I think

fifa 09 totally stole it's entire control scheme from PES, from the super-cancel concept to the way you fake shots etc

Thanks, I was hoping there was something I was doing wrong. Despite liking the game, I play it so infrequently that I have to relearn the controls every time I put it in the machine. Yesterday I actually had to get out the instruction manual after earning a penalty kick to see how to take it. Anyhow, even if there is a cancel move to gain quicker control of your intended receiver, I still think it could just be better integrated into the natural flow of the game

FIFA 10 is supposed to be quite a step forward in terms of the urgency and alertness players show when receiving a ball, which will hopefully make it a bit easier to ping the ball around with good teams.

really getting into manager mode. took lyon to league and cup glory then took a move to liverpool. arbeloa and xabi alonso really pissing me off w/their inability to complete short passes so offloaded them for michel bastos and capdevilla . mcgeady hasn't really adapted to premiership football either. unrealistic

probly see if I can scout liam miller to complete the set of under-achieving celtic youth

aston villa top of the league by 9 points loooooool

torres!!