Unwinnable Career Mode Fixtures

[Gnemi]

Volumes have been written about the prominence in FIFA 13 of "God Mode" in the 80th minute of close matches. Speaking from experience, I recognize this happening in better than 75% of my matches where I lead by less than 3 goals.

Nonetheless, I've found ways of mitigating this annoying aspect of the game to where it hasn't succeeded in completely ruining this year's offering. It did, however, come close.

I have started this thread because I've noticed a very similar event in my Career Mode. I'm in my 5th season with Cardiff City. They are now a five star world power. My roster is not as deep as Manchester City or Real Madrid, but my starting 11 are very solid. The five star rating flatters me a bit, but I digress. I'm in the middle of a six match streak of 4 wins and 2 draws, taking 14 of 18 points in the process and shooting up to the 3rd place in the table.

Last night, following my recent run of exceptional form, I was at home against QPR. Again, I'm in 3rd place and gunning for a title. QPR is in the drop zone, trying to stay in the EPL.

For giggles, I played this match six times, each with a different lineup, mentality, tactics, and formation.

Nothing mattered.

Simply put: QPR were unbeatable. They made exceptional tackles, sprinted for 90 minutes, and were impossible to break down. The ref was calling phantom fouls against me and on several occasions, I was mugged in QPR's penalty box but nothing came of it. I was even given a straight red in one match for a slightly mistimed tackle.

They couldn't score goals, mind you, but I could not win the match. 1-1 was the best I managed in six attempts. On top of everything else, I was noticing that an inordinate number of random deflections would roll directly to one of their players.

Eventually, I gave up and took the single point, but it bothered me. I get that every team will have a fixture in their schedule where players are outmatched by an inferior opponent, but this didn't feel right. I'm in 3rd place, not 1st. To win the league, I'll have to nearly go undefeated, which is extremely unrealistic. Dropping points happens, but it doesn't seem to happen to my AI rivals. For instance, Manchester United are top of the table. In 13 matches, they have 36 points. That means they've dropped 3 points all season and are on pace to score 108 points this year. WTF.

Has anybody else noticed this sort of phenomenon?

[gerg1234]

Valenciennes;

I've beat them once in all of my time in Ligue 1. Extremely frustrating.

[dubcity]

Oh, I know for a fact that they tinker with team abilities to make matches more competitive. Hell, one year they even listed it at as a feature. Usually you see it in career mode, or other non-exhibition modes. They used to only do it with weaker teams playing at their home venue, but I wouldn't be surprised if that has changed. It's just their way of ensuring a decent amount of upsets. Call it scripting, or whatever, but it's definitely there.

[OpTiOnMaStA]

I've had issues with Norwich City recently in my career mode. I essentially spend most of my time in their third but they find ways to get long lob balls down the field on counterattacks and sneak in some crosses on me leading to goals.

[SpHSpH]

There are the six EPL teams that I have dubbed the "Unbeatables" ...

ManUnited / ManCity
Chelsea / Liverpool
Arsenal / Tottenham

Not surprisingly - they are also the "Sky Six" (or whatever). It seems that, in every variation of FIFA, these teams always "get every call / have all the luck / cheat" ... whatever. Two other teams that are not in the caliber of this group, but still always give me fits are ...

Aston Villa / QPR

"Stupid QPR!" I find myself grumbling twice (or three times ... they dropped me from the FA Cup this year also) a season.

[coach422001]

Does this only happen at certain difficult levels? I'm playing "Pro" and haven't seen Godmode yet. Beat Liverpool with Arsenal and Norwich City with Palace in the Capital One Cup. It is a shame that it is unbeatable; for years I wished sports games would give a losing team the sense of urgency or the winning team a gameplay change to hold the lead. Watching the EPL, in one goal games, you do often see the field tilt to the advantage of the team that is down as the winning side tries to hold the points. Replicating that in the game would be more realistic. However, as mentioned, you may occassionally drop points in such a game (QPR DID beat Chelsea this year!), but it shouldn't happen all the time.

[OpTiOnMaStA]

Unbeatable is probably the wrong word. I just tend to notice in certain games against certain opponents that they get all the breaks and strange things will happen - I miss passes sort of inexplicably and usually they score on a wild play where the CPU puts me way out of position.

Essentially, you just have to be dead nuts on or else you're not going to win. I've won some of these games with late game heroics, too, but it's been rough sledding quite often in them.

It's a little frustrating, though, when you can see it coming from a mile away.

[Nieb498]

It definatly happens. In my BvB career I've ran into a four game in on week stretch, cmon really?, that have seen me take one point, a loss away to Eintracht Frankfurt and a draw home to Schalke, in Bundesliga, barely beat a Bunesliga 2 side fight to stay up in the DFB cup, and a Champions League draw at Signal Iduna to Ajax. Before this run I was sitting second behind Bayern by a point and now am third and five out.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a drop in form occasionally but it gets ridiculos. When your players can't handle even the simplest of passes, every touch they take is a horrid one, and the CPU devolpes the God like ability to tackle it really takes the fun out of playing. It's a real pain when a defender rated in the low 60's plays a perfect tackle on Mario Gotze. Or a perfectly placed pass into the box is surrounded immediately by three defenders who were until that very moment no where near the box. I feel cheated not outplayed.