Moving to Bigger things!

Hey guys!,

Its been great having this FIFA/PES News site back up and running.. However, I have been offered a place on the NGB (Next-Gen Gaming Blog) Which I found impossible to turn down as it a fantastic opportunity for me.

I do wish to say Thanks for everyone who has visited the Blog and I hope that you will all continue to follow my articles up at NGB. You can go to the site by clicking here – Next-Gen Gaming Blog.

And to those who were waiting for the Exclusive Jon Murphy Q&A….. News on that will come very soon. The best way to get FIFA and PES News? FIFA Soccer Blog and Winning Eleven Blog.

Thanks,

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Big News Regarding The Next Q&A (PES 2012)

Guys, Massive News,

Jon Murphy.. Who is the PES Team Leader.. has agree to do a Q&A Session with me.. This is a massive coup for me personally to get someone so important in the PES World to do a Q&A with me..

Ill be sending him some questions over to him in the next week or so. If you want a Question sent down to Jon Murphy.. please comment below and I will send the best ones down to him.

Many Thanks to Jon for agreeing to do this

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FIFA 12 Twitter Day

Hey guys,

Today, FSB amongst others were playing an early build of FIFA 12. They were tweeting for a few hours about what they thought. Here are all the tweets

First of all new intro to the game. First clip shows select player celebrating and warming up, then shows teams in tunnel. 

Friggen hell, new graphical look is mighty impressive! Day time that is, night time not so much #FIFA12

Emirates Stadium has a lower swinging camera compared to Stamford Bridge, very nice

First OMG moment! Player down injured. Ref stops play AFTER a few seconds. Sub him off. Restart, drop ball, and player kicks back to keeper!

OMG! Seamless throwin’s! No cutscene! ball goes out, you chase it, pick up and throw! Even throw from way behind the line

Dribbling = Win. Very similar to PES in terms of close control. Massive difference from FIFA 11. Impressive animation! Messi = God!

defense system is takin time getting used to. X/A is contain, stops you from tackling. O/B is now the tackle button. not intuitive

Good news for me is that impact engine isn’t as in your face as it could have been. Looks so good, but needs some tweaks

Wow to the shooting! Brand new ball physics guys! Finally…low hard crackers!

Dribbling is so different, and so many context animations too. Love it.

Van Persie new face!

Just seen Walcott pulling up with hamstring injury, when @dave979and @tem1985 were playing!

So played single player. Early build, but nothing great right now. New dribbling means you can evade more, but still samey 

Yeh, day time graphics are special. really impressed with the new filter

Player individuality is improved to an extent, but more in dribbling now. Saying that, just got ripped apart by Terry v AI..

Really unsure about defensive system. Similar to PES 2011, in everything including where it needed improving.

Biggest thing to say is that the game is still FIFA. I mean no revolution. Key awesome improvements in areas, but it’s still FIFA.

player rating screens after the game have real life pictures of players! Nice touch!

My fave player in this build if Nasri. Awesome dribbling skills!

Seeing some ugly moments with impact engine. Like players reacting like a bomb has gone off over little things. Still early though 

Tricks are the same, maybe more powerful as no one can defend proper lol

Had my first game with @Suffwan (won 2-0). Some very noticeable improvements. Menus are lovely and TV style presentation is lovely

Just saw a great example of the impact engine. Walcott pulled up randomly after taking some knocks throughout the game

Passing feels a little lethargic at times, hmm

Happy to say though, a lot less physical…more realistic than FIFA11.

Seamless play is the order of the day, impressed by that

Dribbling is much improved, more precise. Movement feels more natural

Passing is a bit lethargic at times, but you get moments where some passes will wow you

Lofted through balls are a bit powerful at the moment. Majority of the time the striker will win out.

Game time! Playing a “Pre-Alpha” build. Very early!

Haha players now kick the ball back to the opposition after fouls/injuries. Lovely cosmetic touc

Shooting is much heavier now. Which I for one love. Power bar now divided in to four chambers instead of 3

There are problems though, it’s far from “perfect” saving that detail for my full impressions though

Getting to grips with the Tactical Defending takes time. Where and when to use it is the key

Impact Engine is wonderful when it works but there some glaring issues at times. Obviously early but needs a mention

The pacing of the gameplay is better, much more reserved and controlled. Lots of time of the ball in tight areas. #FIFA12 on normal setting

My biggest issue with the AI is the off the ball movement. Can be quite static at times.

the new default camera is brilliant. Much flatter and a little more zoomed in. Gives a TV feel.

My biggest #FIFA12 highlight so far has to be Precision Dribble. Powerful but wonderful at the same time. Has contextual bits too

the match day experience has changed a lot. Menus are very slick and the Pre-match stuff is loads better.

dribbling is a much more powerful tool though seems inconsistent, early build though

CPU still insanely pressurising on Legendary!

Lunch break - #FIFA12 morning assessment – definitely moving in the right direction with new concepts – lots more work to do but good WIP

First thought, Shooting feels WAY better

Loads of stopping to view replays. Mostly for good reasons

Few impact engine problems, especially with off the ball collisions.

Overall, it’s early. Happy with most things, not about others. AI seems less aggressive aside from legendary

Defending much better. AI, momentum/inertia… still really problematic.

In regards to pacey players.. feels similar. Walcott isn’t being caught, nor getting away

It’s.. different but similar. Currently it’s not enough change to satisfy me.

I’ll do a full write up tonight/tomorrow. There are big positives, but too many negatives

Thanks to Adam,Tom,Dave,Lee,SweetPatch,Xaor and Asim for providing the tweets

Enjoy guys

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FIFA 12… First Impressions

Good morning guys, i have not posted in a while as ive been busy.. However this is a post worth posting so im hoping you enjoy reading this.

FIFA 12 – First Impressions

Morning guys, A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a private webcast with a few other community members (Tom, Dave and Adam from FSB amongst others) to view some upcoming features that FIFA 12 would have. Going into the podcast I will admit I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. David Rutter had previously stated FIFA 12 would be a revolution but even hearing that still made me not quite sure what we was going to get.

Would FIFA 12 be the Revolution Mr Rutter said or it would be FIFA 11.5….. Read on!

Going into the podcast we were met with Aaron McHardy and Santiago  Jaramillo. They spent about an hour and half showing us things about FIFA 12. I sat back and then enjoyed what they had to say about FIFA 12. Here is a breakdown of what they featured mainly in the webcast

Tactical Defending

First and foremost, Holding down the X/A button will now not work, as the defensive part of the game has now been changed drastically. Pressing  the X/A button will now result in containing the defender but not fully committing yourself. You then have to commit yourself at the right time to make sure you get the tackle timed right. Timing the tackle wrong will mean that the attacker can just go past the defender with much ease. This is due to the Precision Dribbling which I will explain later. Tactical defending reminds me very much of the defensive system in PES 2011 and I am optimistic that this defensive system will make the game a lot better. From a personal point of view, playing FIFA 11 and watching a player hold X all the time and take the ball off me with ease is very frustrating. Hearing this has been fixed/replaced with a better defensive system has made me very happy. However, I say very happy but with a hint of cautiousness due to the fact that I’ve not had the chance to try this out for myself yet. By containing your attacker, you can adjust the distance of which you are from the defender  by using the Left Stick.

Precision Dribbling

This for me, was the most impressive feature that we we were shown. Dribbling has gone through a massive overhaul and now players such as Messi and Ronaldo will now to be found very very dangerous. Having sprint and jog in FIFA 11, we were then introduced to a new speed which was slower than jog. This was called Close control. This can make players take closer smaller touches with the ball which will result in players getting beat by the player taking close touches and then bursting past them with pace. Also, players can also dribble while shielding. In previous FIFA games, the player stood while shielding and was not able to move. This has now been changed in FIFA 12. This gives even more options. One video we were shown was 2 players mistiming a tackle and Theo Walcott being able to go in between them with ease. I for one am very exciting at the battles i will be expecting defending against a good dribbler and dribbling past a good defender.

Pro Player Intelligence

One thing that should make the FIFA community very happy…. The AI has been given massive leaps in performance which should result in some very challenging AI. One of the situations we were shown was the team having an understanding of their star players. This built on the (Successful?) Personality Plus. Teams will now play to their strengths and we were shown examples of this. One example was that Tottenham kept crossing in the ball because Peter Crouch was in the area. This was very good to see because it now seems that Bigger/Taller players will now have a distinct advantage in the game. However, most of us asked the question will they be too good? but we were assured that there will be a good balance between attacking and defending. Another example was that David Villa was in the box. The winger went to cross the ball but then seemed to realise that Villa was in the box so seemed to hesitate and pass back to someone in midfield. Another part of Pro player intelligence was Vision. This means the vision in which players have which will result in their ability to pick a pass out from long range or see a player doing a darting run. Players like Cesc Fabregas will have a high vision in which they will see most of the pitch and have the ability to see a player making a run. Players in leagues such as league 1 will not have such a high vision which will result in only being able to see players in front of them or just beyond that.  Also, facing a team that has messi etc (Manchester City next year?) will result on them trying to find messi every time so that he can try and take your team on with precision dribbling.

Impact System

The impact/collision system that we saw was very very impressive to say the least. Players can now collide with each other at many different angles. This can result in Real Time Injuries. An example of this can be if a player collides with another. The player getting tackled could then result in landing badly on his right knee. The player will then be seen to hold his right knee and start hobbling. The player could then get injured if used too much or just pull up when trying to run which would then result in an injury. This would seem to suggest a very good move for Career Mode. It seems overall that animations are no longer linked together in the sense that the result is always predetermined. The video that we saw would suggest the possibilities are endless and also Injury Prone players will result in getting injured very frequently.

Overall, from a personal point of view I am very excited on the possibilities of FIFA 12. I use the word Possibilities because:

1. I have not played the game

2. We have not saw everything that is in the game yet.

Cheers guys,

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Other websites to view for great content about FIFA 12 are FIFA Soccer Blog and Sweetpatch

PES 2012: First Information!

Jon Murphy who is a member of the PES Team, Tweeted the following

To follow Jon, Click Here

Get your surname into FIFA 12

Simon Humber has nicely offered people to get their surname into FIFA 12. Not all can be guaranteed to get in though, but its worth putting your name in there just in case.

To put a request of your name to be in FIFA 12.. Click here

FIFA 12 commentator confirmed

Yup. Clive tydsley has been confirmed for FIFA 12

Great news tbh.

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2nd FIFA 12 Screenshot..

Thanks to FIFA Soccer Blog for posting this one out..

Hot off the press! FIFA 12 Screenshot

Here we go guys… The first ever FIFA 12 Screenshot.. Will be posting my thoughts later on .. Enjoy it

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