The page won’t be updated anymore, sorry!
I’m afraid that I have to close this page, or I won’t update it anymore. This is because of much working and little time to update the page. Here some links that may work to get the latest info about fifa:
http://www.fifasoccerblog.com/
http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/fifa-09-next-gen/
http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/fifa-09-current-gen/
http://www.fifa4fans.de/index_e.php
Some other EA Sports Games:
Thanks for your attention, and for visiting my page. Bye!
Uefa Euro 2008 Squads Roster update
I have got some comments on when the roster update is available.
This update was available for a long time ago, in early june. But it’s just for the Xbox 360 and PS3! So if you have Xbox 360 or PS3, go to download squads option in the game.
Fifa 09 interview by Sportsgamer
FIFA Soccer 09 Interview: David Rutter, Producer, PS3 & Xbox 360
SportsGamer had a chance to catch up with FIFA 09 producer David Rutter. He shed some light on the new FIFA title. For a more in-depth preview, check out the “First Look” from Gamespot. You can find Shanker’s preview here.
General:
1. In FIFA 08, it seemed that too many gamers relied on fouling their opponent as legitimate strategy. The problem was too often bad challenges went unpunished, or potentially only a yellow card. For instance, when one player is on an attack, opponents would often slide tackle players away from the ball to take passing options away. In a real game, this would be an immediate red card. However, in FIFA 08 the referee would call for advantage and let the play continue. However, there really wasn’t an advantage because attackers are losing supporting players. How has the foul system been changed since FIFA 08?
Rutter: The team realized there was an issue with this online so there are three things we have done. First, we have introduced a new match-making system meaning that if you spot players who are doing this habitually you will be able to flag them so you will know you will not want to play against them again. Other people will be able to look at this feedback to decide if they want to play them. The second part is that the team has actively looked at this referees and the discipline system in the game and we have revamped it. We think gamers will be very pleased with this now. And third, we have really been working on player attributes and the physical side of the game. So you will see when tackles go in they are far more realistic. Not all tackles result in the player falling over as before, now, rather than the player going down if the challenge simply clips the player’s non-standing leg, they will be able to skip out of it and continue running. As a result, we have made it more difficult to bring players down 100% of the time when tackled. Those dastardly gamers who exploited the system before may be in for a shock when either their player is sent off or their willfully underhand tactics only result in leaving a player to run-in on goal. The new animations make these new variations on the gameplay look and feel exceptional.
2. FIFA 08 had an option to purchase alternate uniforms with experience points. Will there be any more jerseys this year? Throwback uniforms perhaps? Mix and match socks, shorts, and shirts?
Rutter: We have got some exciting developments coming your way in terms of downloadable content that we will be able to talk about very soon so I suggest checking back with me in a month.
3. FIFA 08 For the past few years, practice mode has consisted of Ronaldinho attacking the keeper in a one-on-one situation. Are there going to be any more practice options this year? Possibly practicing free kicks with a wall in place?
Rutter: There are a number of options available inside the practice arena. Firstly, for inexperienced gamers we will provide hints and tips in the form of overlays to show how to do different moves. You are also able to practice free kicks, and penalties. If you are outside the area and running at the goalie, press down on the D-pad and you will go to a free kick mode where you are standing. Press down on D-pad while inside the area and you will be able to practice the free kick.
4. FIFA 08 saw a huge improvement in goalkeeper play from FIFA 07. However, keepers still acted lost in too many situations, most notably defending the near post. In other situations the keepers seemed superhuman. How has the goalkeeper AI been improved to be more realistic? Can gamers click on goalkeepers this year?
Rutter: We have done a massive amount of work this year to try to humanize the goalkeeper. Rather than it being inhumanly stupid and inhumanly brilliant we have injected a great deal of realistic human behaviour into the system. You’ll see the goalkeeper make better decisions about positioning, come away from the goal line at the right moments, getting down on shots a lot more intelligently and a lot more authentically. We have also introduced a new system this year which enables the goalkeeper to react to what is occurring on the field in real-time. So if the goalkeeper makes a dive and realizes he’s not going to save the ball he can half change his mind to try to get an arm or a leg out to try to at least deflect the ball to make the save. Unfortunately you will not be able to play as the goalkeeper for FIFA 09.
5. In FIFA 08, often times when trying to click on a field player, response time seemed a bit slow. Then other times, after clicking on a player, it didn’t always feel like the user had total control. What has been done to allow for gamers to feel more in control of the players in FIFA 09?
Rutter: As part of the 250 key improvements we have made to the core gameplay this year we have done a lot of work on auto-switching and switching players when you want to choose them. At the moment we believe it is significantly more improved over last year and I would also encourage people to go into the game options controller set-up to adjust the switching mechanics to very manual or very automatic. Manual works better for most people in most circumstances so I would suggest giving this a try as well.
Custom Team Tactics:
1. This is the part of FIFA 09 that sounds the most exciting. Can you tell us a little bit more about what type of in-game strategies we can use? Will this involve creating new formations, creating different types of player movement?
Rutter: As part of your Team Management you’ll be able to edit 11 tactical sliders to change attacking and defending parameters of your team. This is a new feature this year we are calling Custom Team Tactics. Think of it as being the first team coach and being able to dictate how your team plays on the pitch. There is roughly 140 attacking and 40 defensive options. One example is to adjust the Defensive Mentality – in a high setting you’ll have nine players pushing into your opposition half trying to cut-out play in much the same way as in the team pushing for a win, desperate to get the ball no matter how vulnerable that leaves you defensively. To counter this, the opposition could play a long, lofted ball over your last man and your striker will probably have 30 yards of space to run into between the last defender and the goalkeeper. The opposite example is low Defensive Mentality. Choose this option means your defensive line is deep leaving very little space for the attacking team to play in your half of the pitch. An attacking team is going to be met with a 10 man defense – so they’re going to need to use some pretty inspired quick passing and movement to get near goal.
Custom Team Tactics completely changes the dynamic of all of the players on the pitch for the team that has the tactic applied. Just like real life it isn’t just about short passing or long passing. The important thing is the support play and how your team operates as a unit to be successful.
2. Will the offsides trap again be on the d-pad, as in FIFA 08, or will it be back on the trigger / bumper as it was in FIFA 07?
Rutter: We are pleased to announce you can completely customize your controller however you want. If you want those mappings, then the controller mapping set-up will enable you to do it. Essentially you create your own controller configuration, assigning actions to the buttons exactly how you like them for complete control. You can save these and even take it online which was a major request from gamers last year.
Online Play:
1. Often times, I can’t connect to an opponent when trying to play online. Overall, I would guess that I can only connect to others about 60% of the time. Has anything been done to help gamers connect around the world?
Rutter: We have done a lot of work on our match-making technology to make sure to put you in contact with other gamers we think are appropriate based on their connection and location plus what is available in FIFA 09 as part of a new player hub system. We are always trying to create a better online experience and you should see an improved success rate this year
2. In terms of in-game options to quit playing – there seemed to be several quirky things about FIFA 08. First, gamers could quit in the first 15 minutes, regardless of the score, and not receive a loss. So some people would simply quit the game if they conceded a goal early. Has this been corrected? In addition, has any sort of ‘Concede Game’ option been implemented? When I’m getting pounded by 3 or 4 goals in the 2nd half, I simply don’t want to finish the game, but also don’t want my DNF% to skyrocket.
Rutter: We don’t want to penalize people who have legitimately lost there connection to the server or have a poor internet connection. However, we are tracking statistics on players who are not finishing their games and should you want to make sure you are playing someone with a sufficiently high DNF % you can now select that and review their history as part of the match-making service we are providing for FIFA 09.
3. There has been much talk about this year’s pre-set strategies implemented in FIFA. Can these be used online? Does this mean created formations can be used online?
Rutter: Custom Team Tactics can be used online. You can assign up to 4 Custom Team tactics to your D-pad or your thumb pad if you want to re-map them as part of your controller configuration option. You will be able to use these online and you will be able to exchange these Custom Team Tactics online with other people via the EA Locker. You will also be able to use created formations online as well.
4. In regard to the various rooms when playing FIFA 08 online (my level, advanced), it seemed as though there weren’t enough variety in the types of rooms. For instance, the advanced room was for gamers with level 20+, but for the first couple months that the game was out, no one was ranked highly enough to enter the room. In addition, the individual level rooms typically only had a couple people with the exact level of the other gamer. Has EA added more rooms, such as a room for Level 1-5, then a room for Level 6-10, etc?
Rutter: I will be able to talk more in depth about our online features and new capabilities in the coming months after we make some additional feature announcements this month and at the Leipzig Games Festival in Germany in August. What I can say right now is that the new EA matching –making hub will create a significantly improved experience when looking for other gamers to play online and this, combined with what we will be revealing in the coming months, should create a much improved online experience.
5. Online Leagues were added last year, which was great. However, it would be amazing to get 8-16 guys together to battle it out in a mini-tournament. Have Quick Tournaments been added to FIFA 09?
Rutter: Well, we’re still working on the game so stay tuned. We’ll be discussing online features in-depth later in the year.
6. When playing online in FIFA 08, a user wasn’t able to see who the opponent is manually controlling. This can seriously change a user’s strategy, and when playing offline against an opponent a user can always see who’s being controlled. Has the user cursor been added to online play?
Rutter: Yes, we have addressed exactly what you have described.
Rutter: Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your questions. I have dozens of additional questions that have been submitted by your readers and I will try to answer these as quickly as possible. So please check back for my answers.
Fifa 09 preview from Eurogamer
Have you heard the one about the Englishman, the Scotsman and the Jamaican-Canadian? EA’s lead FIFA team comprises staff of over 18 nationalities, which, were it a real squad, would no doubt have shifty FIFA president Sepp Blatter railing against the vile destruction of home-grown talent.
The three amigos in question are, respectively, producer Dave Rutter, senior gameplay designer Gary Paterson, and gameplay producer Aaron McHardy. They’re currently huddled together in a meeting room at EA Sports HQ in Vancouver, preparing to give us our first taste of this year’s kickabout.
With the debut of FIFA 07, they and their team-mates struck upon the best FIFA formula in years. We thought last year’s was rather good, scoring it 8/10; and the recent UEFA Euro 2008 was even better, with Kristan insisting it was just “a Russian linesman away from being given 9/10”.
We see a hell of a lot of sports game presentations over three days at EA’s Season Opener event, and one of the more short-sighted talking-up techniques employed by the teams is to rubbish the previous year’s version, then wax lyrical on how life-changingly amazing it is for this time around.
Of course we expect areas of games to improve over time, but this is a nonsense strategy, since the logical extension of this argument is that today’s giant leap forward is next year’s embarrassed shuffle back.
So when new producer Rutter raves about “250 key improvements” for FIFA 09, scepticism is already off the bench and warming up nicely. Yet in its current successful groove, the team is quickly building a reputation for impressive delivery.
“EA has actually improved on almost every part of it, with game elements and modes that aren’t the usual vacuous twaddle slapped on the box to tempt unwary fanboys,” added Kristan in his UEFA review, the title that serves as a bridge between FIFAs 08 and 09.
We prefer the one on the left, frankly.
As Rutter has it: “We’re at a point now where we’ve established such good gameplay that all we need to do is polish it as much as possible and it will get better and better. In many respects this year’s version is the evolution of that rather than the revolution.”
If you can pick out 250 key improvements with the naked eye then, well, you deserve some sort of special prize, but the main areas of 09 earmarked for improvement are: physicality, or the realism with which players physically react to one another; responsiveness, right down to the difference between tackling a player’s front foot, or trailing leg; and strategy, namely the facility to create your own.
Let’s start with physical play. Size matters, so if a big player clashes with a lesser being they should both react accordingly. And familiarity with the physical aspects of your players should be able to deliver convincing gameplay moments a little more nuanced than the “give it to Ronaldo as he can dribble a bit” school of realism.
We watch an in-game clip of Man Utd midfielder Paul Scholes clashing with Chelsea’s swan-diving striker Didier Drogba. Since Drogba is “such a hulk of a beast in the game”, he is able to hold off players as you pick out the perfect pass. But the yin to this yang is that the necessarily more sluggish bigger player can in turn be outrun by the nimbler, lighter rival. “You’ll feel the difference between Ronaldinho and Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney and John Terry and Drogba.”
In 09 players also have an awareness of the direction of an incoming tackle. Rather than a uniform reaction wherever a lunge comes in from, the positioning of each leg now counts. As you’d expect in the real thing, a player is more likely to keep going if he’s tackled on his non-standing leg. And this, in theory at least, should allow for more dramatic implementation of the ‘play on’ rule for last ditch challenges.
The same principle applies to responsiveness. EA shows us a series of side-by-side comparisons of FIFA 08 and its sequel. One looks at dribbling in slow-motion – in 08 the player is “skipping through his animations to allows him to turn”, causing him to take more touches than necessary before dispatching a pass.
In 09, the dribbling is “faster and more responsive” as the player “manoeuvres their body to get to the ball quickly as a real footballer would”. First-time actions, such as the sliding pass, are also new to the mix.
As is always the case with major sports simulations, such details usually sound great on paper and can often look great in a demo situation; but proving any palpable improvement to the game is a much more onerous proposition.
Picking up the pad for a quick game (a Man Utd vs. Chelsea grudge match is the only tie available), it looks and feels remarkably FIFA-ish, of course. But the more intensely physical nature of the game is one of the changes that is most obviously apparent – and watching your player, arms up and frantically jostling for possession while sprinting down the wing becomes a mini-drama in itself.
Beyond that, and with a very short playing time, it’s tough to discern any other significant changes at this stage. And several of the promised improvements, including a new trapping system, improved goalkeeper intelligence and retuned ball physics, have not yet been implemented in the build EA is showing off.
Nevertheless, the personalisation of the most notable players also has a more straightforward aesthetic benefit: Ronaldo’s pre-free kick stance has been replicated; meanwhile, the game’s updated ball physics leads Rutter to garble excitedly that Scholes’ stunning 25-yard drive against Barcelona in the Champions League, with its wicked, unstoppable curve, is now possible in the game.
One of FIFA 08’s greatest additions was Be A Pro mode – which let you assume the role of a single player on the team, with the camera fixed to his position. Many, including us, welcomed the excitingly fresh perspective, but bemoaned the limits of its implementation. As it turns out, we were lucky to get it at all.
Did you know that Villa have given their sponsorship deal to a local charity next year? Barcelona of the Midlands.
“We have stuff that the team do that never actually figures in that year’s title,” reveals Rutter. “That could have been Be A Pro last year. We might have been at the point where we said, this is a great thing, but we should expand it out. It was felt to be so strong and the feedback so good, we couldn’t sit on it – it had to go in.”
With an extra year’s fiddling, Be A Pro is back with bells on, offering the richer, career-orientated experience fans have been clamouring for. You can choose either an existing player or create your own and embark on a four-season career during which your goal is to emerge as an international legend. “It’s being able to expand that really innovative way of playing football out into something a lot more meaningful for people,” says Rutter.
But for the true football anorak, the most exciting new feature for this season is customisable tactics. Rutter isn’t mucking about: “Customisable tactics, in my opinion, will really revolutionise the way people play football games.” We knew that whole “just evolution” line wouldn’t last.
He continues: “You’re going to be able to dynamically change the way your team plays football at a very low level to allow the drama of real sport to unfold before your eyes. If you want a way of playing that involved [People’s Hero] Peter Crouch, you can have that; if you want a way of playing that involves Tevez, you can have that. You can change them during a match, you can put them online and use them with friends.”
It all stems from the essential truth that “everyone who loves football has had an argument about who’s best”. And, of course, everyone always thinks they know best. So this is your chance to prove it. “If you think Man Utd plays one way, you can create a Man Utd that plays that way,” says Rutter.
It works as follows: there are 11 tactical sliders in the game, which simulate the way your team currently plays, how they should play, or a fantasy way of playing (although we fear even the mighty Cell processor would implode if pushed to make Chelsea’s graceless brats play with humility).
Up to four of these settings can then be assigned to the d-pad or stick, depending on which you’re using to play with. To demonstrate, we’re shown an example of what’s possible by adjusting just a single slider, the one for defensive mentality, at its maximum and minimum settings.
In example one it’s Man Utd vs Liverpool using a high defensive mentality. United are completely overrun and struggling to get the ball out of their own half. But the flipside is that with so many Liverpool players committed forward, they’re left vulnerable at the back. Lo and behold, Giggs releases Rooney with a sublime ball over the top giving jug-ears 30 yards of space to run into.
On a low defensive mentality setting, Liverpool are now pushed right back into their half. They’re sucking up pressure well and making it hard for Man Utd to break down their defence. But sit back for too long and you’re asking for trouble and, spying a gap at long last, Rooney releases Scholes, and pegs it into the box while screaming for the return pass.
To reiterate, that’s just one tactical slider set at its extremes. You can be far more subtle, also adjusting aggression, width, positioning, passing speed and more. It’s a far subtler approach than typical footy game tactics. As Rutter notes: “A long-passing game isn’t just about hitting the ball long – it’s about changing the support play, so your midfield needs to be further up for the ball to be knocked down to run on to”.
“Why is this exciting?” Rutter anticipates. “Every game you play will be slightly different. Online, too. You won’t know what’s around the corner. It’s more like real football – you can have a frantic opening, then it gets more relaxed, then a goal is scored and the other team needs to react. This doesn’t really exist in games at the moment. I will feel the game change.”
Flamenco: you’re doing it wrong.
And we’ve avoided it until now, but this seems like the appropriate juncture to bring in PES. Many have noted how, in the past couple of years, the franchises have almost reversed roles, with FIFA the more considered experience, while PES has become more frantic, even arcadey.
“As an independent observer, I’d make the same conclusions,” says Rutter, not very independently at all. “Years ago people played FIFA and saw it more as the arcade game and people played PES and thought, you know, that’s a really hardcore sim of football. And it’s flipped, and it’s almost been imperceptible the change that’s happened.”
This is, we are told, the year Seabass and his team finally pull their fingers out and give us the PS3 and 360 from-the-ground-up PES we’ve been waiting for since the start of the current generation. For FIFA, complacency would now be the killer.
Thankfully, regardless of whether you can spot 250 tiny changes, or just 2.5 bigger ones, we’re not seeing much evidence of that so far.
FIFA 09 is due out later this year.
More Fifa 09 screens!
To get the full image check here: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/images/community/fifa09/fifa0901.jpg
Another Fifa 09 interview this time with Gary Paterson!
Couldn’t post the video here, so get the video on this link: http://www.svenskafans.com/fantv/clip.asp?id=6146
New Fifa 09 interview for Xbox 360 and PS3!
It is a interview by David Rutter where he talks about new features in the game. Enjoy! ;P
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