FIFA 09 Demo Available, Impressions Here

[Bamtino]

Just got around to trying out the demo...

The graphics are the best i have ever seen in a soccer game...I also love the atmosphere and that little mini game with Ronaldinho...I was playing on PS3 and the framerate is rock solid which is a plus for me...The controls are a little clunky for my tastes but after you get used to it its no big deal...I like the flow of the game, it feels like a soccer sim...The ref gives out plenty of cards on bad sliding tackles but outside of that foul calls aren't too frequent...Passing is also fluent and the goalies are challenging...

That said the gameplay in this demo overall felt pretty sloppy...Ball control and dribbling seems to be way too loose and i was getting a little delay when passing...Also why does the AI play so loose? My guys NEVER intercept a pass and are constantly just letting the opposition blow right passed them...I haven't played FIFA since the SNES days so i could be doing something wrong...Either way I hope there is a slider so we can adjust the AI's aggressiveness...

Overall i was impressed but not as much as i thought i would be...Hopefully the official release is more polished...

[Krebstar]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bamtino

Just got around to trying out the demo... The graphics are the best i have ever seen in a soccer game...I also love the atmosphere and that little mini game with Ronaldinho...I was playing on PS3 and the framerate is rock solid which is a plus for me...The controls are a little clunky for my tastes but after you get used to it its no big deal...I like the flow of the game, it feels like a soccer sim...The ref gives out plenty of cards on bad sliding tackles but outside of that foul calls aren't too frequent...Passing is also fluent and the goalies are challenging... That said the gameplay in this demo overall felt pretty sloppy...Ball control and dribbling seems to be way too loose and i was getting a little delay when passing...Also why does the AI play so loose? My guys NEVER intercept a pass and are constantly just letting the opposition blow right passed them...I haven't played FIFA since the SNES days so i could be doing something wrong...Either way I hope there is a slider so we can adjust the AI's aggressiveness... Overall i was impressed but not as much as i thought i would be...Hopefully the official release is more polished...

Some of the sloppiness you speak of, if it's what I think you're referring to, is a good thing. Gone are the days of a ball sticking to players feet, and the days are here when it resembles real life even more.

[demencia_total]

Quote: Originally Posted by zekey55

Unfortunately, it doesnt feel like setting the game speed to slow made any difference whatsoever....hopefully this will fixed in the final version.

There is a difference, but it's very subtle. I kept switching back and forth a few times from medium to low speed, and I kept noticing that the speed in which my players move did change a tad. I specially noticed when controlling a slow but strong guy like Drogba, he felt a lot heavier in the the slow setting, which isn't a bad thing. Haven't given fast a try, but I think there is a difference, albeit, a very small one.

[demencia_total]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheUglyOrgan

Some of the sloppiness you speak of, if it's what I think you're referring to, is a good thing. Gone are the days of a ball sticking to players feet, and the days are here when it resembles real life even more.

Indeed, this is a good thing. During my first games in the demo I felt like I couldn't handle my player as well as I did in 08 and PES, but once you get the handle of how it responds from player to player, it is incredibly crisp and dribbling feels more natural and magnetic. Sometimes there is a slight delay from when you press the pass or shoot button, but it seems to be in cases where you are dribbling fast in a direction and the ball is ahead of your player's reach for a split second. Once your player is within reasonable reach of the ball, they pass and shoot as they should, so it doesn't seem to be the nightmare of unresponsiveness that plagued 08.

Before I forget, I want to add that I'm happy that it seems like the midfield FINALLY has opened up. I would say that at the very least half of my attacks come from the middle. The AI closes the wings pretty well now, so when I try and take an angle and run past them, they close down and tackle the ball away or foul, which is encouraging. It seems that no longer I can just take a speedy player and run past everyone in the wings and then cross to the middle without a challenge from the defence. To me, this was one of the major gripes I had about FIFA and PES 08, because basically you could just take any player with speed and create havoc on the wings because the defenders would just bunch up in the middle and refuse to close down wide in time. Even when you were shifting defenders, they would always sag to the middle if you switched to another defender for a second.

The spacing seems to be a lot better, and the players trying to actively take open spaces while the defense tries to keep you honest is very encouraging for me. This will be my first day one FIFA purchase ever, and I can honestly say that I'm not missing PES one bit. Unless PES makes a HUGE jump this year, I don't think I'll be changing back for the foreseeable future.

[Spanky]

My one-month free gold trial membership expired literally hours before this demo was released. I simply created another profile/gamertag with a different e-mail address and signed up for a silver account. It gave me another one-month free gold membership. Now I don't have to wait a few more days before they release this demo to silver account holders. It's downloading now. Man, I love sticking it to EA.

[Bahnzo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Spanky

Man, I love sticking it to EA.

And you are doing that how? It's XBL that controls the gold/silver and you only get 3 accounts per xbox that get a month free of Live.

[calcutta]

Overall, i'm really loving the demo in the same way as most people have described too (more difficult manual passing, improved aerial play, fouls getting called and actually attracting cards) and even other things like players calling for the ball or appealling for offside as well as the addition of the ref (and the ball can't even hit him!) and his assistants.

My main gripe is in regards to passing, and is something we've seen in past FIFA's. Here's a diagram



For some reason, despite the fact i was clearly passing to Blue player #2 in the first image, the player cursor auto-switched to player #3 instead, and #2 was then CPU-controlled, and he ran away from the ball! By the time i had manually swtich to my intended receiver #2, the opposition player had pretty much retrieved the loose ball.

My player switching slider is set to one click from the right BTW, so surely that is part of the problem. I prefer this setting because when its totally off, winning aerial balls becomes an issue because i have to manually switch to the player first, and that delay can often mean losing out on a contested header due to a lack of position. The issue pictured hasn't happened that much in my 6 or so games, but it can be a big issue depending on where it occurs on the field (in this case it was just inside my own half), as its unnecessarily giving up possession when the pass isn't that difficult to begin with. The other thing is that my pass settings are both on Manual, but considering the ball landed almost exactly where the intended receiver was at the time, i don't think that should be a problem...or if it is, then thats an issue that needs to be sorted before release.

[Vince]

Delayed Bookings!!!!!!

It's so easy to pull off moves with great players. Last year it was useless doing the trick moves because you couldn't get out of the animations.

I simply cannot wait for this game to come out. I'm anticipating it more than I did NHL.