Winning ugly
Posted by: not-Greg in FIFA08, FIFA09, manager mode, pes2008, tags: FIFA08, FIFA09, manager mode, pes2008There’s a great air of excitement this year as we draw closer to the October launches of FIFA09 and PES2009. I think about it every day. I spend more time than I care to admit checking all the various websites connected to the two games. It’s intense. I thought last year was pretty intense, but this year is intenser.
This time last year, as a proud new PS3-owner, I was gearing up for my first-ever next-gen football game experiences. Like every other PES fan on the planet, I was certain that all I had to do was somehow stay alive until the end of October 2007. Then, football game Nirvana would surely be mine. Oh dear…
FIFA08 was first out of the traps last year. As it will be this year. We’re now less than a calendar month away from getting our hands on the FIFA09 demo. The full game will be out not long after, in six and a half weeks… I’m by no means a fully-converted FIFA fan (yet), but I’m pretty excited.
And I’ve recently started getting (back) into FIFA08 again. I went off and mostly played the PSP/PS2 versions of PES2008 this year. That distracted me from FIFA08—the best next-gen football game yet. I’ve rediscovered the joy of FIFA08. One of those joys is hinted at in the title…
Real football is often not a very good game to watch, or play. The thing about FIFA08 that has attracted the most criticism from its opponents (diehard PES fans and others) is its slow, stiff, almost too sim-like character. Chains of 0-0 scorelines are not uncommon at certain times. Usually these runs of goalless games come along when you’re trying to settle into a new skill level. But they can happen at any time.
Over the past few weeks I’ve really struggled to adapt to World Class. Back in January and February of this year (feels like centuries ago now) I was playing FIFA08 almost every day, and not having the same difficulties with the game. I was finding it challenging—I can’t imagine FIFA08 not being challenging—but I wasn’t really struggling to adapt to the rhythms of the game. I wasn’t constantly trying to do things that are really not possible in the all-new FIFA. I mean the kinds of things that are done in PES almost as a matter of routine. (Yes, it really did take a FIFA game to show us just how arcadey Pro Evolution Soccer has become. Irony is not the word…)
I was mired in mid-table with my Manager Mode team, Dagenham & Redbridge. I was playing my home games on Professional and my away games on World Class. Even so, I was only scraping wins at home (on a difficulty level that I conquered almost a year ago). I was drawing half of my away games, and losing the other half by 0-1 or 0-2 scorelines.
The problem was obvious. Even now, after all the many times I’ve gone on about it on the blog, I was making a huge error… I wasn’t trying to play FIFA. I was trying to play PES in FIFA. I was trying to reproduce all my signature PES moves, my favourite PES routes to goal, and even my PES defensive methods (i.e. just squeeze a button or two until I get the ball back). They don’t work in FIFA08. None of them. Treating the new FIFA as if it’s PES (or even as if it’s the old, arcadey FIFA) is not a good approach to have. I firmly believe that this is what fully 90% of all PES fans who have played FIFA08 and hated it have done. They’ve tried to play PES, failed, and judged FIFA08 a bad game.)
I dug in, and played FIFA08’s brand of the beautiful game. Sometimes it is indeed beautiful. Sometimes it’s indifferent. And sometimes it’s downright ugly—hence the title of the post.
Winning ugly for me meant being content to sit back and let the CPU have the ball when it wanted it. It meant defending with concentration, sometimes for long periods. It meant snatching scruffy goals in the midst of otherwise torrid matches. This went on for a few games—then it all clicked again. I started playing with the same flair and intuitiveness that I used to have before I slightly drifted away from FIFA08 back in March.
I picked up draws in games I should have lost; I also picked up wins in games I should have drawn. The highlight of this period was a great 1-3 victory away from home against Ipswich, a top 6 team in the Championship. Scoring three goals on World Class difficulty—one of them a classic FIFA08 scissors-kick from a high, looping cross (your timing has to be spot-on)—was a delight.
All these results I’ve picked up have moved me into 4th position in the table heading into the January transfer window. Sticking my neck out, I’d say I’ve got a good a chance of promotion this season. I’ll ruthlessly exploit FIFA08’s extremely dodgy transfer market and see what top strikers I can pick up with my whopping £20 million budget.
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