FIFA 15 Demo Available Now on Xbox One, 360, PC, PS3, PS4

[ncaafootball14markus]

I can't take this krap anymore!!! For the next several hours, I am officially a PS4 owner "residing in Europe". Finna' create that fake account bruh.

[Turbojugend]

Quote: Originally Posted by ncaafootball14markus

Finna' create that fake account bruh.

Och, d'yer wanna make summit ye gadge?

[Ermolli]

I've played like almost ten games, half against my brother and the other half against the CPU so here are my thoughts so far:

Overall I like the graphics but I don't think it's close to NBA 2K14 which imo are the standard in sports gaming (until 2K15 comes out). The stadiums, atmosphere and ball are fantastic; faces are well scanned but I feel they like detail (by this I mean the textures) giving them a plastic look which sometimes lighting make them look worse; I don't like the body models, basically they are all the same and players look like they're rugbiers with their huge shoulders and upper body; boots and ball look nice; kits are ok but when it stretches logos, numbers and names stretch which is awful and irrealistic which it's a issue they've had since I remember.

The audio is great as always, the crowd is breathtaking and totally immersive, commentary is good as always although it can improve, can't remember if by playing against Barcelona or Napoli their fans screamed gol like they do instead of how English do which ruins the immersion to me.

Presentation is phenomenal, an improvement from their previous next-gen game which was already a step up from previous iterations; the EPL package is really well done and the generic one is also good, the new camera cuts during game breaks like goals or fouls are a nice touch; celebrations are too fake like they've been for some time which ruins the feel of the game, during a goal somehow the user celebration was cut and showed a normal one with a TV cut which makes me wonder why can't they go more often to those.

Gameplay is ... I don't know, having mixed feelings with it.
On one hand dribbling is tighter; player momentum is better than before; I appreciate the inclusions of set pieces during corners, the ability to choose who to pass the ball to and the team options in management and approach during games.

Having that said, there are still issues that have been bothering me for years and still are there and new ones with this game.
CPU defense is terrible and frustrating as last year or even more than before, defenders seem to avoid attackers, sidebacks stay in their position even if there's an opponent close to them going to the box leaving his completely alone to score, midfielders don't cover passing lanes and are too wide in the field leaving the center for the rivals to go through there without much opposition, centerbacks leave their mark too often and don't cover the goal as much as I'd like leaving the keeper as the only one available to avoid a goal.
About goalkeepers, they are so much worse than before, they're close to (or even) PES keepers bad. They take bad angles, don't cover the first post, deflect shots backwards into goals, clear the ball with their feet or head giving it to the other team even when they're in their area not even close to going outside of it, in a few games of the demo they've made more silly mistakes than an entire year of me playing FIFA 14.
Even though I've seen a slight increase in fouls they're still too few, I've been foul repeatedly with sliding tackles, standing tackles and obvious pushes and they weren't called; besides several fouls from behind which should've been red were yellow.
Also CPU teams seem to never miss a pass even when they're heavily marked, well contained or going against momentum; it's annoying and not realistic. Besides (something that I've felt with every FIFA I remember) every team plays the same (or very very very similar to each other), one would've thought that with so many team management options and so many editors to the game's database this would be a thing of the past but no, still the same.

Summing up it isn't as big improvement as I wished or thought but it's better as a whole, gameplay is very slightly better than FIFA 14 next-gen but it has the same problems that made me rage so many times; having that said I'll play FIFA 15 retail because my brother was going to buy it anyways and I hope there will be great sliders to find the game more enjoyable.

[grushcow]

I don't get everyone being up in arms about FIFA not being "representative of true soccer". It's never really been a sim game, it's more a combination of arcade and realism, which what I think I like about the game even though I usually want the most truly realistic experience. PES looks great for the realism fans (pending file sharing being in next gen), but I don't see at what point FIFA has lead anyone to believe that the game's a true sim.

Personally I've loved the demo so far, made tons of fixes to what made this game so frustrating. Far greater variation in scoring which really held the game back in the past, the ball physics are great and allow for realistic deflections unlike in past games. The tighter dribbling allows for more variation too and not just the general identical challenge it felt like always happen in FIFA 14. Players feel like they're the appropriate weight, you have to take into account momentum and acceleration now and it plays a much bigger role. Can actually deke around goalies and most importantly the stupid chip lob isn't how every breakaway happens, from my experience it's actually pretty unhelpful except in rarer instances, the way it should be. If PES has share files I'll have a tough decision, but FIFA has done a lot of good with this game and it's going to have a lot of re-playability.

[RandyBass]

Quote: Originally Posted by sars973

Downloaded and played 4 games with my fake UK Account. When I got my PS4 recently and played NBA 2k14 for the first time, I was blown away. Now that I have played this, I don't think blown away even begins to cover it! There are still some issues with the physics/player interactions and defense AI, but overall this is perhaps the best sports game created so far. The level of detail is amazing; it's almost scary how real some players look. CAN'T WAIT til the 23rd!!

So there are shills for demos now... Hmm.

[mac_rmm]

Just gone done playing about five games of PS3 demo. I was Barcelona playing on World Class against Boca Juniors. Impressions...

- Boy, Boca Juniors have some talented players. Their defenders are among the best tacklers I have ever seen. It seems like they just know where the ball is at all times and can magically get it off the offense when they want to.

- Boca also has some very talented dribblers. Up and down their lineup, I saw players stopping on a dime, turning with the ball around my defender, and then continuing toward the goal. Amazing piece of skill.

- Barcelona was unimpressive. Messi was small, really wasn't much faster than the Boca players if at all, and had the ball stolen many times right before he tried to get a shot off. His close control of the ball leaves a lot to be desired.

- Neymar just isn't very talented. No pace compared to the Boca RB, who caught up to him with ease several times when Neymar actually got past him. Very poor close control as well - had ball taken away from him virtually anytime a defender came within a yard of him.

- The Barcelona defenders stayed with the Boca attackers at times, but they also were dribble around at many times with ease. When trying to track and contain the Boca players, the Barcelona players stayed off a good distance, probably due to fear of getting embarassed by the dribbling of the Boca players.

- I played five games and scored zero goals with Barcelona. Boca scored about 10, including 3 when down to 10 men.

- Xavi and Iniesta are highly overrated passers in real-life as they passed several times away from the obvious wide open player to a player that was behind them or covered well. They also passed several times to a Boca player with no Barcelona player around them.

- I never realized how good Boca was in real life. I don't much about them but I am going to do some research as they look like sure Champions League contenders if they can ever qualify. Barcelona on the other hand looks like potential relegation fodder.

[kashik]

It's nice reading the impressions about the demo... but as we all know, you don't really discover all the flaws until after the first or second season in. If some people are already reporting similar flaws as were in Fifa 14, I'll be pretty choked. You would hope that the ones that are easy to see/experience are the ones that are addressed first. Realism in a sports game is hard to get, but little flaws that have been around for years deserve all the criticism they get. If all EA has done is slap another coat of paint on it, then I'll be waiting for the PES demo to make my decision this year.

[ncaafootball14markus]

Quote: Originally Posted by Turbojugend

Och, d'yer wanna make summit ye gadge?

LOL wha?!? I'm not understanding what you're asking me bruh...