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

[DBMcGee3]

Quote: Originally Posted by GlennonTheGr8

This makes me laugh... If you enjoy this game then great but don't try and tell me that this is the only thing EA do well. This isn't even remotely representing footie and it hasn't done since 09. The presentation is top notch, graphically beautiful but when it comes to gameplay, it's just horrible. If you're casuals (I'm guessing a lot of you are) then you're forgiven. It's like, I'm British and first got into madden back in 07 and to me and lots of other Brit kids, madden was absolutely awesome... To guys in the US, it was terrible and has been for the past few years. To us, it didn't matter... Who cared if Mark Sanchez was playing like Peyton Manning, who cared if Shonne Greene was evading like Barry Sanders... The more I fell in love with NFL the more I realised maddens flaws and then appreciated what 2k did with APF and 2k5... I'm guessing that if Americans really get into 'soccer' and understand each players tendencies and how teams actually set up then you'll realise how flawed this game is...

Great post man. As an American, I still enjoy FIFA, but having gotten more familiar with international soccer over the past few years, it's clear that PES is far closer to a sim experience. For me, at the end of the day FIFA just always seems so scripted. Far too easy to score headers, and far too many goals scored in the 45th and 90th minutes. If I had a nickel for every time in FIFA 14 that either myself or my opponent scored a header while being closely guarded, I could pick up this year's game for free. I've seen Messi score headers over guys like Kompany.........c'mon. There's also very little variety in play styles for the various teams, whereas in PES every team and every game feels different, in my opinion.

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by BL8001

Another short video example. This is out near midfield. No real threat, but that doesn't mean you do this. From what I can tell EA has increased the momentum decay length post animation. So an interaction occurs on the pitch, but instead of your player quickly getting himself together and responding to the CPU's move, they just get caught in the momentum drift and flow for almost 2 more seconds. You can see in the vid where the player defending "hitches" where he should then make a counter move to the CPU, but then carries on with the false momentum to give the CPU gobs of space. http://youtu.be/VywqXIanNK0

First video is a great example of a horrible angle taken by the defender, but who was controlling the defender in the second video? It was an aggressive angle for sure, but not entirely incorrect per se (given the scenario). Looks like he overran the man, which is a risk when you take an aggressive angle to make a play on the ball.

[Hutton]

Quote: Originally Posted by BL8001

Another short video example. This is out near midfield. No real threat, but that doesn't mean you do this. From what I can tell EA has increased the momentum decay length post animation. So an interaction occurs on the pitch, but instead of your player quickly getting himself together and responding to the CPU's move, they just get caught in the momentum drift and flow for almost 2 more seconds. You can see in the vid where the player defending "hitches" where he should then make a counter move to the CPU, but then carries on with the false momentum to give the CPU gobs of space. http://youtu.be/VywqXIanNK0

Wow yeah, that defender overruns the ball and appears to be "stuck" in a non-reactive mode for a bit too long.

This is one of the major problems I've been having with defending, the CPU seems to know that if you over pursue by even just a smidgen they will have ample time to either cut the ball back or do that ultra annoying "loop around" move and expose the space available. This happens far to regularly.

I would be totally fine with this if it happened to a notably poor defensive player (i.e. a attacking wide MF like Hazard for example), but I see the exact same behavior with anyone & everyone. The best tackler in the game would fall victim to this at the same rate as a player with 20 marking/tackling. I wish it was more tied to player ratings, that way you might have a reason to sub on a defensive MF to close out a match.

[KG]

Quote: Originally Posted by BL8001

This game is great except for one giant flaw, and I hope it's just because it's a demo. The defending is atrocious. Your defenders over run the ball, constantly take horrific angles, they ole', they ignore the ball, ignore the threat, etc. Defending cannot be like this in the full game. I thought last year was a bit like herding cats but this takes the cake. I learned quickly that RB is nerfed and A contain is weak. If you watch the sport you see that defending isn't about stepping in to a tackle and winning the ball. Defending is about contained retreating and compressing until the other team turns the ball over via an errant pass or an unwise 50/50 pass. It's basically just like the NFL bend don't break, where it's harder to score once you get in the redzone. Imagine in madden if your CB ran out of bounds while covering a route, or just ran the wrong way once the ball was passed towards him. People would be having conniptions. A quick vid of one of the more ridiculous moments. Beyond the "how do you do Sir" defending why exactly does the attacker turn and sprint towards his own goal after the collision deep in the box? The threat is still on and the ball is loose. Best plan isn't to sprint the wrong direction. http://youtu.be/yjD0MYkFu0w

What level was that on? I noticed some atrocious defending/keeping when I first booted the game but then saw it was on Semi-Pro. I agree with your overall impressions regarding defending although I'd like to fool around with the new tactics to see if that helps at all. Every year EA gives us this short demo after touting AI improvements so it's hard to really tell at times because the game is so short. I have seen the time-wasting but also the dreaded "passing-the-ball around the box" syndrome that used to plague some of the older games in this series.

[Entiae]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ermolli

Demo now up for PS4 in the European store store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-gb/search/q=fifa%2015

It is indeed! I've been playing the PC-version on low settings while still not getting a consistently good frame rate (my PC simply isn't powerful enough to run this game properly), but I've still enjoyed it a lot.

I'm downloading the PS4 demo now, and I can't wait to try it!

[kerosene31]

Quote: Originally Posted by BL8001

Another short video example. This is out near midfield. No real threat, but that doesn't mean you do this. From what I can tell EA has increased the momentum decay length post animation. So an interaction occurs on the pitch, but instead of your player quickly getting himself together and responding to the CPU's move, they just get caught in the momentum drift and flow for almost 2 more seconds. You can see in the vid where the player defending "hitches" where he should then make a counter move to the CPU, but then carries on with the false momentum to give the CPU gobs of space. http://youtu.be/VywqXIanNK0

I'm seeing the exact same thing on any difficulty pro or higher. On the default (semi-pro) you can box out the CPU and they'll move the ball backwards. On pro or higher though it seems you get burned whether you are passive or aggressive.

[drunkenferret]

Try playing at higher settings to really get a handle on the AI. Pass error has to be increased to better reflect real world tendencies of teams to throw an errant pass. Marking can also affect this. As I said, the reason why players can't defend worth a hill of beans, aside from player defensive AI is because the CPU never misses a pass. Played ten games and the CPU averaged over 90% passing....find me a real team that does this over ten games.

I won't even try coming up with sliders however until the final version comes out. The last two years it has been drastically different from the demo.

[grizzlies317]

Looks like Glen had some, uh, choice words after Mignolet failed to stop the spot kick.

http://5sgif.me/1xILP5N