FIFA 09 Demo Available, Impressions Here

[Qb]

It's downloading now and I'm off again today, so I'll being giving it a good go and I'll try to get some impressions up for those stuck at work before playing some NHL 09...

UPDATE: Two quick things, messed around in the arena -- the curl on FKs can be wicked. Also, from the opening kick I went back to my RB, passed to the RM and Ramos was greeted with a crunching tackle right after he passed the ball. Advantage, the pass went into touch, foul called and yellow card given... SIX SECONDS IN!

[asu666]

Wow, I think this is going to be the best year for soccer/football game fans in a long time, maybe ever. that's for the impressions. I can't wait to get home and dl it.

[Qb]

One game, initial impression -- as kgx said, player responsiveness is definitely there. Also, the rails/suction to the ball appears to be minimal if not gone. When the CPU played a through ball from the middle to the left wing, my LB that I switched to was not pulled toward the player or ball. I was able to take the appropriate angle to cut out the play.

I'm seeing much more movement from the AI players (both sides) in the attack. I used Madrid and when I had it out wide with Sneijder, Ruud made a few nice runs towards the box without me sending him. I also sent a guy or two and that seemed to be better & more responsive as well. Only one game, so it bears further investigating.

I saw two fouls and two subsequent yellows from the CPU in the four minutes of play, which is often more than I would see in 20 minutes in 08. Tackles/fouls look cool, but I think we've seen that enough in the videos to expect that...

The CPU defense is doing a great job of playing the passing lanes and even on semi (preferred setting from 08), my passing feels much more like manual. I had several balls that went to my intended target, but were behind him or offline in some way. The AI also was also quick to pressure the man in possession in certain (appropriate I think) situations. Once they did I was in trouble, especially with passes then missing their mark. I'm going to get some more time before I make any evaluation of my teammates defensive play...

I chose the "football games are my passion" option at the beginning so the difficulty was World Class. I think I'll try the next lower choice to see if that gives me Pro, which is what I played on in 08 so I can get a better read on some things.

MORE: Tried Chelsea/Marseille after backing out and selecting the lower option to get Pro difficulty.

*I set Carvalho to man-mark Niang and it was a noticeable change, which is a departure from last year. I never noticed much of a difference when doing this in the past.

*Shots seems much more dangerous and have more of a driven feel to them. Just watching the post match highlights, I'm seeing the nice rising swerve that you see so often in real football. I had a great looking low screamer from Lampard that Mandanda knocked away for a corner.

*The aerial/heading game looks awesome at first blush. Guys go up when you tell them to and will somewhat hover in the air, as opposed to that quick up & down animation from 08. I nearly put one in with Drogba and the way he hit the apex of his jump only to hang there and snap off a good header was sweet & realistic if you ask me. I'm hoping that this is one of those things that's really rating-driven. It seemed like other guys had less hangtime, so I guess that's promising. Can't wait to pick out Adebayor in the box if this plays out as well as I'm hoping...

* The crowd reaction on penalties is awesome. I like that keeper movement is now entirely on the left stick (if it wasn't already?), but I need to work on my timing. I didn't guess right once, but I wonder if I was tipping my hand as I was moving too early...

* The individual player rating system seems to be fixed, as Farfan scored the only goal in my first game and had a 10 rating. Marseille's CM won MOM it in the second match with an 8, despite only having two tackles and a few successful passes (no goals were scored aside from PKs). I know in 08 it was so frustrating that you had to have an incredible individual game to even get to 8. This meant that you had virtually no chance of having anyone even crack the Top 20s for position rankings, let alone make the end of season top XI. Not a huge deal, but cool that it seems to be improved/fixed...

* I love how when you change stuff in the custom team tactics the 2D overlay shows you how your players will react. I'm going to mess with it some now before I play Milan/Toronto to see how a crummy team does up against a top-shelf one (granted I'm not familiar with the game, but hopefully it will at least feel different)...

[Gmoney2002]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

One game, initial impression -- as kgx said, player responsiveness is definitely there. Also, the rails/suction to the ball appears to be minimal if not gone. When the CPU played a through ball from the middle to the left wing, my LB that I switched to was not pulled toward the player or ball. I was able to take the appropriate angle to cut out the play. I'm seeing much more movement from the AI players (both sides) in the attack. I used Madrid and when I had it out wide with Sneijder, Ruud made a few nice runs towards the box without me sending him. I also sent a guy or two and that seemed to be better & more responsive as well. Only one game, so it bears further investigating. I saw two fouls and two subsequent yellows from the CPU in the four minutes of play, which is often more than I would see in 20 minutes in 08. Tackles/fouls look cool, but I think we've seen that enough in the videos to expect that... The CPU defense is doing a great job of playing the passing lanes and even on semi (preferred setting from 08), my passing feels much more like manual. I had several balls that went to my intended target, but were behind him or offline in some way. The AI also was also quick to pressure the man in possession in certain (appropriate I think) situations. Once they did I was in trouble, especially with passes then missing their mark. I'm going to get some more time before I make any evaluation of my teammates defensive play... I chose the "football games are my passion" option at the beginning so the difficulty was World Class. I think I'll try the next lower choice to see if that gives me Pro, which is what I played on in 08 so I can get a better read on some things.

Great impressions QB. The hightened A.I movement has got me eager to play this. Downloading now....

[welshman11]

thanks for impressions guys - waiting on my new gold card in the mail or for the demo to change over to all accounts...ARGH

[KG]

Nice Q and I hate you btw for being off and getting to play it more.Add to that the fact that I know Blax will be all on it as soon as wakes up. JK

Goalie movement was tied to the Right stick I believe, or maybe the dive was, idk.

I managed to block 2 with Cech, including the game winner against Raul who fell to the ground and covered his face crying like Ronaldo. Cech was pumping his fists and ran out where all my players mobbed him. The cut scene happened so quickly that it looked just like the real thing.

I also played for a sec on the Broadcast view. It's pretty interesting but I'm always so drawn to Tele because you can see so much.

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

I'm going to mess with it some now before I play Milan/Toronto to see how a crummy team does up against a top-shelf one (granted I'm not familiar with the game, but hopefully it will at least feel different)...

Well, it was one demo game on Pro, but it sure seemed like Toronto played worse than Schalke or Marseille. The missed some passes, had some poor first touches and left some gaping holes at the back. One of those gaffes let Pirlo charge through from midfield after I sucked the LCB & LB to me by dropping back a bit with Inzaghi for my first goal. I didn't send him, he went on his own and your teammates calling for the ball into space by pointing is a great addition.

* The curl on set pieces is, as I said, wicked. I was aimed straight up the touchline with Pirlo on an outswinger, only to have the ball curl all the way to the edge of the 18yd box and miss everyone.

* Four minutes of play (duh) and two fouls apiece & three bookings. One was a delayed one after an advantage and the ball later went into touch. I was expecting a sub... sweet!

* I also saw a foul where the CPU was leaning on me before shouldering me off the ball with two defenders. I certainly wasn't expecting that to be called and quite frankly was worried with all the talk of stronger players being able to knock smaller guys around (it was two defenders on Pato). Obviously this isn't conclusive proof of a better foul engine, but it's better than 08 at this point.

*The foul itself brought back memories of WE on the PS2 when you'd jockey/pressure the man with the ball too aggressivley. I've been waiting for this since I moved to the 360 and started playing FIFA again, as you could pretty much harass the ball at will in 08. We'll see how it plays out in the full version...

[Krebstar]

I woke up this morning and knew there was something I was looking forward to. I couldn't think of it, so I just figured it was the presidential forum on CNN tonight, haha.

Now I remember, FIFA demo!

Sadly I'm at class for another five hours, but I'm seriously considering skipping my next one to go download the demo and play.

How long are the halves on the demo?