Interview 3 & 4 With Dave Bryant and Tom Mills (FIFA Soccer Blog)

Here we go guys, its the interview most of you have been waiting for and its finally here. FIFA Soccer Blog is the no.1 site for all things FIFA Related and has some of the best staff working there you could ask for.

Here goes with the interview.  Dave’s Answers are in Green and Tom’s Answers are in Red

Q. Hey Dave and Tom, For those who don’t know you, could you please give us a brief introduction about yourself and what you do.

I’m a writer for Independent FIFA website www.FIFASoccerBlog.com with my forte being opinion based FIFA articles, FIFA news and being the funny half of the FSB podcast with Tom Mills. The site has been through some big changes in terms of it’s design recently and we’re looking forward to the hopefully the biggest year in FIFASoccerBlog history.

Sure, I started playing FIFA in 96, and haven’t missed a year from then. I still own most of them, there are only one or two gaps, but ebay will help me fill those at some point. I’ve been with FSB since last autumn but been floating around the EA forums for a long while prior to that. Dave and I were at a playtest early last year, we met Adam and Suff, got talking, Dave started doing bits for them in the summer and I came aboard properly shortly after that when the site got redesigned. So far it’s been a pretty good reception I think. The podcasts have gone over pretty well, they’re quite a bit of effort, but far and away my favourite thing to do for FSB, I always enjoy recording them. For now we’re just trying to take a little bit of a breather before FIFA12 news starts flowing in. Not long to go before the chaos begins again.

Q. What did you think of FIFA 11 this year overall

Overall I think FIFA 11 is a good game and it’s certainly one of the best FIFA titles we’ve seen for some time. That’s not to say it doesn’t have problems though and there’s plenty of room for improvement in many areas of the game. Some of the features the team at EAC tried to add/improve with FIFA 11 came off and others didn’t but I’m hoping that we’ll see better consistency from EA this year.

Mixed really. I’m still playing it, that’s probably the best way to look at it. I understand that some people have put it down indefinately. I think I’ve helped to keep it fairly fresh by mixing things up quite a bit, i’m only just starting to get into clubs on FIFA 11 so I’m not at the “bored of it” stage yet. Some of the ideas and new features just feel completely undercooked, replay theatre for example would have been better off being left out until it was fully formed, as it was, they pushed it in this year and pissed people off because it was so poor. I’m sure the other guys who get early views would agree that things like pro passing certainly felt to have more of an impact at earlier stages compared to what made it onto the disk. I think FIFA 11 was a good learning experience for a lot of the FIFA community. Negatives aside, there is still a really good game in there, but you shouldn’t have to work hard to find it.

Q. What would you like to see improved the most

The things that need improving the most for me centre around gameplay and Career Mode. In terms of gameplay I think a new tackling mechanic has to be high on EA’s priority list as auto-tackling and standing tackling especially are so over powered and so easy to perform. You never have to consider timing your tackle or your positioning, you simply mash X and let the AI do the rest. It’s my biggest FIFA 11 hate by a mile. As for Career Mode we simply need to see more content because in FIFA 11 the mode felt extremely light weight to me. Again it had some nice implementations but proper player growth, scouting, training and advanced club management features were a huge miss for me. It was Career Mode’s maiden outing in FIFA 11 which gets it off the hook to a certain extent, this year however there’s nowhere to hide…

I have the most issues with tackling I think.  Zero skill or timing required. I understand the need for accessibilty, but they really need to go back to the drawing board on tackling. It removes the satisfaction of defending when you know that your input was minimal. Strangely I don’t remember it being that bad in previous games

Q. Is there any features you would like to see added in the future

One of the features I loved from FIFA World Cup 2010 was the Online League structure which replaced the standard Skill Point system we’re so used to. Playing for 3 points and promotion/relegation is so much more rewarding than playing for a random number of skill points which mean very little so I’d love EA to improve the Online League Mode from FIFA WC2010 and add it to the next FIFA title.

I think I’d just like to see them finally nail CM. Get the core offline game mode right before trying to add new things, the three year development plan for it doesn’t seem to be on track. There are a lot of passionate CM players out there with A) Some excellent ideas for improvement and B) a great eye for spotting bugs and issues. EA really need to make the most of their input and properly listen to them. I’m also secretly a fan of 5 a side making a comeback but I can think of a few people who will hate me for saying it. They know who they are

Q. Who would you like to see Commentate for FIFA 12 (IF Andy Gray isn’t back)

If Andy Gray doesn’t return for FIFA 12 then I’d like Clive Tyldesley to be given a shot as I think he’s fantastic on the FIFA World Cup and Euro games. As for his partner, I’d have to go for Ray Wilkins and stay on your feet.

We talked about this on a recent podcast. Chris Kamara, 100%. Absolute hero and I think he’d work well. I certainly wouldn’t get tired of listening to him.

Q. Do you play PES? (Pro Evolution Soccer)

I used to play PES an awful lot when I was younger and as well as playing FIFA I also played PES 4, 5 and 6 in the same period. After PES 6 I sort of stopped playing PES and I’m not really sure why? These days I only get time for FIFA as football games do require a big time investment and as I write for FSB I need to know the game inside out for any of my articles to make sense. FIFA is the game I love but I do have a lot of respect for PES and Konami’s vision of how football should be played.

Sadly not, not since PES 6 anyway. More because of time than anything else. I simply couldn’t find the time to play it as well as FIFA and everything else I play and if I was going to play it, I’d want to invest a lot of time to be able to get the best out of it. Maybe in a month or two once i’ve moved house and have a bit more free time.

Q. Finally, Moving over from FIFA, Who do you think is the best player in the world at the moment and why?

Generally speaking people tend to go for Messi or Ronaldo when it comes to the best player in the world and they’d be quite right to do so but I’m a huge fan of Andres Iniesta, who I feel is vastly underrated and deserves to sit alongside Messi and Ronaldo. As a Man Utd fan I also rate Wayne Rooney very highly and I also have a soft spot for Wesley Sneijder too.

It’s got to be Messi really hasn’t it. The guy is just exceptional. I don’t really need words to justify it, he does that himself week in week out. Pure class in every way.

Again, Many Thanks to Dave Bryant and Tom Mills from the FIFA Soccer Blog Team for doing this interview. If you want to ask them a question about FIFA in general add them on twitter. Dave is dave797 and Tom is tem1985