This week, Darren Cross explains why trying to play FIFA 11 like it’s FIFA 10 is not a good idea…
Hi everyone and thanks in advance for taking the time to read this week’s column. I say that because, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have been playing FIFA 11 pretty much constantly since its release on October 1.
Actually I’ve been playing it constantly for a couple of months now, as I’ve been lucky enough to have had a number of versions as the game developed, so it’s great to finally be able to talk in more detail about it and take on my friends, as well as playing plenty of games with the community online.
Playing online has been very interesting over the last few days as, within minutes of a head-to-head match kicking off, it becomes obvious whether or not my opponent has got used to some of the changes from 10 and started to use them to his or her advantage, which brings me on to the theme of this week’s column…
FIFA 11 is not FIFA 10 with added bells and whistles, it’s much more than that, and those players who approach games the same way as they did in FIFA 10 – by attempting unrealistic ping-pong passes, or by constantly pressing opponents for example – are the ones who, in my experience so far, are struggling a bit online.
The reason for that is largely down to FIFA 11’s Personality+ feature. For the benefit of those who weren’t following the build up to the release of 11, Personality+ is basically a giant leap forward in terms of realism. Not only do players look more like the real-life stars they’re based on than ever before – to the point where anyone with decent football knowledge can immediately recognise who they’re controlling just by the way they look and, in some cases, move – but they also perform much more like them in terms of their abilities and attributes.
For example, players lacking in the stamina attribute will really be blowing after 45 minutes or so of pressing the ball, and once that stamina gauge drops down then the player becomes far less effective, just as you would expect him to in the real world. However, this hasn’t stopped many of my online opponents from making their star striker sprint all the way down the wing to track my full-back and right-midfielder. Three or four of those runs later and that striker has lost a big chunk of his stamina and consequently struggles to out pace defenders and get on to through balls that they would otherwise have made. Common sense really, but so many players still insist on sprinting and pressing whenever they’re not in possession.
The same sort of thing is happening with passing. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen someone try to play a first-time 180 degree pass using a player completely unsuited to the task. Or I’ll come up against a player who insists on trying to pass everything first time when that sort of pass just isn’t there. You could sometimes get away with doing these things in FIFA 10, but you can’t in 11 – because you can’t in a real game of football.
What I’m getting at is, with FIFA 11 being the most realistic version of a real game of football we’ve ever seen, the approach to games has to be more realistic too.
I’m not saying for one second that means they can’t be fun – quite the opposite actually. There’s much more skill involved, and so tons more satisfaction, in building an attack with clever movement, accurate passes and well timed-runs, than there is in just pressing the pass button four times in a row. Plus a number of the other new features like Pro Passing, an improved shooting system and much better crossing and heading – which we’ll talk about in more detail soon – often produce spectacular moves and goals when used properly, so there’s more fun than ever to be had once you’ve worked out the best way to use these new features to your advantage.
The best advice I can give on this is really to play as many games as you can while trying to keep in mind what is and isn’t possible in a real game of football, because the chances are that those same things will apply in FIFA 11. If you can master that, you’ll adapt much quicker to 11 and games will be more rewarding and, above all, much more fun.
Thanks for reading and maybe I’ll see you for a game online. My GamerTag is DazCross.
See you next week,
Darren
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