FIFA 12: EA Details Improved AI, Set Pieces and More

[Steve_OS]

EA Sports is not resting on its laurels, as they prepare for FIFA 12. Check out the planned improvements for the upcoming season.

Quote:

"The producer (David Rutter) told the latest issue of OPM UK that EA has an "enormous shopping list" of improvements it wishes to make in its new game - and specified a few areas that the studio's already working on. "I think we did a great job with the Personality Plus feature [in FIFA 11," he said, "but the the teams [AI] doesn't support that quite as much as it should. "As an example, a team doesn't spot that if Peter Crouch in the area, they can lay a load of high balls onto his head." Rutter also revealed that set pieces are getting a complete overhaul, and that EA isn't happy with interruptive in-game loading screens. "Set-pieces are still a bit lame," he candidly admitted. "I get frustrated by not being able to do quick throw-ins, not being able to quickly select my free-kick takers, on the fly stuff. We're somewhat last-gen in the way the game cuts [before those things]."

Source - FIFA 12: EA details improved AI, set pieces (CVG)

[Gotmadskillzson]

WOW........I wish every sports developer can be as proactive as FIFA development team. Their game don't come out until august and they already letting people know they are getting on things........

I like candid developers......If something in your game is broken or lame, then say it is and say you are going to fix it or over haul it.

[HiTEqMETHOD]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

WOW........I wish every sports developer can be as proactive as FIFA development team. Their game don't come out until august and they already letting people know they are getting on things........ I like candid developers......If something in your game is broken or lame, then say it is and say you are going to fix it or over haul it.

It's a marketing ploy dude. They apparently got you hook, line, and sinker. I used to fall for the same thing so it's nothing against you. Not saying FIFA 11 isn't good, and am very hopeful about FIFA 12 and just how much better it will be but stuff like this doesn't get me any more hyped about the game.

Developers love when their game sells for numerous reasons, one of them being so when development begins on a new game (this is more prevalent with sports game devs) they can feed consumers info about how blatantly unhappy they are with an area of the game that is lacking and how it's unacceptable, lame, etc. that area of the game wasn't better. It's nothing more than a hype tactic, they have meetings about this stuff, what to say, what words or phrases to avoid.

It's a business though so more power to them, just try not to get too excited when stuff like this comes out. They're not being candid to be nice to you, they just want to make the possibility they get your money that much more likely. Plus they're really not being all that candid with you if you think about how much preparation went into these tweets, blogs, etc..

[Krebstar]

It's nice to hear information so early, as it's January and this game won't come out until October.

However, after FIFA 11, I'm definitely not getting any hopes up at all. Will it be fairly solid? I'm sure. However, they need to make serious improvements in terms of AI. The insane tackling needs to be fixed and the aggressive AI defense.

[Matt10]

Let's hope it's just not another year of useless features. Maybe they can actually watch some live matches - notice how the gameplay flow, and pressure system looks nothing like their FIFA game does.

I've never frickin understood video game developers in regards to sports.

You see an example of what you are trying to imitate EVERY SINGLE DAY. How frickin hard is it to just duplicate that?? Seriously?

I can understand the difficulty of Final Fantasy/Oblivion/Black Ops, whatever - people do not see that on TV - we view these sports games on TV every single day. If the goal is to please the public, why not just imitate each game to look how it does on TV - then add the useless features later on.

Maybe David Rutter and company will "get it". It's doubtful already because they are talking about things like set pieces/throw ins, etc - things I could care less about in terms of priority.

Can i seriously have $20m so I can show how to make a sports video game? Seriously....argh.

[Leon]

Tell the fans "We've fixed the defensive AI and their insane pressure system" and I'll give this game a shot.

[ak1knight]

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt10

I can understand the difficulty of Final Fantasy/Oblivion/Black Ops, whatever - people do not see that on TV - we view these sports games on TV every single day. If the goal is to please the public, why not just imitate each game to look how it does on TV - then add the useless features later on.

I think it's the complete opposite. In a game like final fantasy it's easy to get immersed and stay there, because you've never been to the world and any quirks the world may have can be put off as part of the fantasy. In a sports game anything an AI player does wrong is immediately noticed and lowers the level of immersion because we see these things everyday and expect them to work in a certain way.

For another example, take Black Ops. All the AI has to do is stand there and wait until it sees the user, if he/she sees the user they either shoot or move to cover (a decision that can easily be done mathematically). In a game like FIFA or Madden the AI has to be infinitely more complex to achieve the same level of immersion because the computer has to emulate a human brain in order for us to feel like it's the game we see everyday played by real humans.

Another example not related to games would be drawing an apple compared to drawing a spaceship. Drawing a realistic, believable spaceship is relatively easy compared to drawing a realistic, believable apple. Because our mind has a specific vision of an apple any attempt to render it photorealisticly will appear flawed in some way.

[[Icy]]

Umm why instead of working on the game this early they just release a few patches like the rest of EA sports developers do?

This year they just released a single patch that didn't fix anything gameplay related, unlike the Madden/NCAA/MMA/NHL teams did.

Also what about adding sliders (IE pressure, tackling etc) so we can at least try to fix the gameplay if they don't do their job like this year?