A miss, a very palpable miss
Posted by: not-Greg in Camacho, FIFA09, manager mode, manual controls, tags: Camacho, FIFA09, manager mode, manual controlsI’ve started two separate Manager Mode careers on FIFA09. One on the PS3, with my traditional Coventry City. The other on the Xbox360, with Atletico Madrid, a team I played with online the other night and absolutely loved.
It’s unusual for me to play two careers. I love the immersion factor when it comes to a football game’s career mode. Spreading that attention across two careers means less focus and less immersion. But there’s a good reason for my apparent recklessness right now.
A week tomorrow, PES2009 should land on my doorstep (GAME willing). If it turns out to be any good, I know I’ll want to play it, and I’ll want to play Master League most of all. I doubt the new PES will displace FIFA09 in my affections now. There is just too much water under the bridge for PES—in its current arcadey form—ever to occupy the place it once did in my affections. It still pains me to say that, and I know what to blame. PES2008 on the PS3 represented a massive betrayal of one of the richest heritages in computer gaming.
But if the PES2009 demo is anything to go by, at least this year’s game might be playable for more than a few weeks. Certainly it’ll do me no harm—and a lot of good—to have a lighter alternative to FIFA09.
Which would mean less attention for those two Manager Mode careers I was talking about. But that’d be fine. I’ll always come back to them. And in the meantime I can have—buzzword coming up—fun playing them while I wait for PES2009 to land.
The career as Coventry City started with a win and a few draws. But then I encountered that through-ball bug towards the end of a crucial game. Which slightly soured me on FIFA09 for a day or two. At the moment I’m mid-table, having lost the last two fixtures in league and cup. I’m in no danger of being sacked. The goal for the season is to avoid relegation from the Coca Cola Championship. I’ll do that.
Atletico Madrid, on the other hand… In this career the board only wants me to win the Spanish title. Gulp. This is actually my first experience of starting Manager Mode with a top club, and I hope I don’t get sacked for my trouble. So far I’ve played just the one game and it ended 0-0. And who is that midfielder wearing the number 24 shirt…?
Yep, that’s the one and only Camacho, in his real-life guise of reserve central defensive midfielder at Atletico Madrid. I spent so many seasons playing with him in my PS2/PSP Master League career on PES2008 that the moment I saw him here in FIFA09, I had to promote him to the first-team lineup. I’ll be keeping an eye on his progress (he was rubbish in this game).
Finally, I’ve got the whole uploading-to-EA-Sportsworld thing cracked. It works for me this year, after not working at all last year. What this means for the blog is that the days of poor quality mobile phone videos for goals in FIFA are behind us. As long as the replay uploads keep working, of course..
I’ve tried my best to score a show-stopping, net-bursting goal to show off as my very first ‘proper’ replay. But I’ve been like Frank Lampard at Germany 2006 out there. It hasn’t happened yet. So instead what I have is a glaring MISS in front of goal. This is what can happen in FIFA09 when you get it wrong while using semi-manual shooting:
With full shooting assists on, that would have been on target for the low corner of the net and would probably have been a goal. No question. Which is precisely why semi-manual shooting is so great: you need composure and accuracy in front of goal, something I blatantly lacked here.
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My start on FIFA was false. With semi controls and professional difficulty, it is just right at the moment. I am so used to playing with assissted, I never realised how much the game was playing for me!
If I win the league i’ll point to the last match. It was one of those games Manchester United do all to well. I was away to Sporting- give away a penalty and got Del Horno sent off ealy on. They scored, and until the 85th minute I was on all attack while they clung on. 85th minute they concede a penalty and get there left back sent off! I score it, and take a risk and stay all attack. On the 93rd minute, with a desperate long ball, David Villa heads in a scrappy winner. Unbelievable.
With eight games left.. (i have a game in hand)
Mallorca- 65
Valencia- 58
Villareal- 56
A Madrid- 54
Barcelona- 52
Very enjoyable first season.
Greg I am relying on you to tell me whether I should swap in as many games as I need to buy PES when it comes out! I won’t be trusting the opinions of the mostly bias posters on PES forums.
Greg
I have just completed my first season with CELTIC winning the League and Scottish Cup. Again finals played at your home ground (although it may be different in the EPL) and again no trophy celebrations.
I will have to step up to World Class. I am playing on Manual and Semi controls.
Another thing is the player EXPERIENCE points is improved, although I must say it is worrying in that my created player HERALDO who I played every game along with youngsters CADDIS and CROSAS and all have gained 9-10 points. My created player is now overall 69. Bear in mind that MM is a 15 year career I shudder to think what his final stats will be.
I found in my 7 season MM last season my Man City side became world beaters with the majority of players reaching the 90’s. I ended up winning on Legendary difficulty.
This could lead to playing with sides for only a couple of seasons and then moving onto pastures new.
I caught your opening 4 results with Madrid, I take it you are now playing on WC?
I’ve got the EA SportsWorld uploader service working too for the first time.
Probably my best finish on FIFA 09 so far…
http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/1288316
It will be interesting to see how the MM works out for you…after all it doesn’t appear that any (major) changes have been made since ‘08. Do you think the gameplay will make up for the lack of depth in MM and keep you going for the rest of the year? As Heraldo mentioned above it is kind of easy to build a team of world beaters in no time at all - makes me think you will need to put some pretty strict house rules in place if you are intending to concentrate on just a couple of careers for the rest of the year.
Also, im going to second Not Given - im relying on this blog to tell me whether to bother with PES this year…i have come to realise that the whole multitude of podcasts, forums, magazines etc etc just cannot be trusted to offer agenda free quality advice.
Not Given - I’m going to pretend I never read your remark (and Matt’s at comment #4) about looking to me for guidance on whether to get PES2009. I don’t need that pressure on! I thought PES2008 was fine for a couple of weeks—please remember that when you’re reading my opinions….
For the record, though, I’ll give PES2009 a thorough playing and treat it as if the whole PES2008 debacle never happened, and as if I’m not in semi-awe of the FIFA09 gameplay right now. If I get PES2009 next Thursday, as I should, I wouldn’t post 1st impressions until Thurs night, maybe even Friday morning.
Good to hear about your Manager Mode career proving such a blast. My own isn’t going too well—details tomorrow.
And I’m on a PC without the plugins needed to view your replay - have to look at it later on.
Heraldo - I’m still playing on Professional on my Xbox MM and—get this—I’m considering dropping down to Semi-Pro! For some reason I just can’t play against the top Spanish teams. My Cov MM career on the PS3 is going fine but the Madrid one is getting near the sack phase, I think. I don’t know what to do. The 360 just feels like a different game.
Matt - In answer to yours and heraldo’s concerns about the MM, I was worried about it before FIFA09 came out. As you know I love to play the career mode before anything else (including online) and that’s what always amazed me about Master League—just going on and on and always having a challenge. It seems that MM can’t do that, which is a bloody shame—FIFA2010 has GOT to have a robust, open-ended, ML-style MM, I think. With player regens and all.
The ML is the reason I would still consider PES. But if the gameplay is similar to 2008, i’m not sure I could stomach having to step down to that level again.
Out of interest is Mallorca the giant of world football it seems to be in my MM? They are grinding out results like a machine. I’m going to have to beat them, Real Madrid AND Sevilla to have a chance. It’s looking unlikely now.
Greg
Due to the vast increase in Experience points in this edition, I am pondering taking a smaller team through a MM career with the current squad players. St Pauli of Germany appeal due to the close affiliation with Celtic, who are 2 star team.
Your comments on how you are finding it hard in your Spanish MM and thinking of dropping the difficulty level. I wonder whether I should start with a Spanish side maybe the Yellow Submarines of Villarreal.
I want to start my MM story again but don’t want to be winning things from the off. Being in the 2nd Division with St. Pauli and low player stats may prove to be a lasting test. Decisions decisions. Any suggestions as I want to restart my story.
You should take the compliments from Not-Given and Matt as a testament to your writing abilities and honesty when they will wait to hear your verdict. I took your advice and purchased FIFA and TopSpin 3 on your recommendation and I am glad I listened and tried both titles, which I wouldn’t have in the past. FIFA and TopSpin have given me hours, days and months of enjoyment. The sites and magazines like WENB and IGN have agendas when reviewing games, someone like yourself gives their honest opinion.
Not Given - the ML is still for me the single greatest career mode in any football game (including the Championship/Football Managers). But for ML PES would not have been half the game it was for me. I remember playing endless tournaments on ISS (win every tournament with every team) and loving it, but that petered out after a few months. ML in PES took gaming to a new level for me. This is why I still yearn for a great playable PES in PES2009.
I was really disappointed to hear that FIFA’s MM had had no work done on it this year. But strangely, it does feel freshened-up in FIFA09—that feeling’s probably due to the new menus though, and the new gameplay. We’ll see how things stand in a few months. Again strangely, a strong PES2009 with a great ML mode would extend the lifespan of FIFA09’s MM. And for FIFA2010 I’d like to see EA try to exceed ML (not just match it), just as they have exceeded PES with the gameplay IMO.
Haven’t played Mallorca yet. I’ve only played 6 fixtures, drawn 5 and lost 1. It’s been pretty grim and I’ll post about it tomorrow.
Heraldo - I am finding it tough in Spain and again I just don’t know why. I was playing on Professional with semi controls on my Cov career no problem. I can only put it down to players and teams in FIFA09 really being differentiated this year, and the teams in Spain are accordingly tough to break down.
I recommend Spain (or Italy?) if you want a challenge. Otherwise a really lower league team with rubbish players wold give you that authentic (dare I say it) ‘ML’-style experience of playing with Defaults and building up from scratch.
Thanks for your comments re the blog and the games. I do take it as complimentary, but 1st impressions aren’t always (or ever?) reliable, as PES2008 showed all too clearly. Everyone bear that in mind! The only worry I have is that PES2009 will seem ‘fine’ to me to begin with just as PES2008 did. I’ll be a lot more cautious with it this year, but the demo is promising IMO and, well, we’ll have to see.
I won’t be listening to you anyway
as I pre-ordered from ShopTo along with FIFA 09 about a month ago. I will probably receive it a week later as my Mrs will have to post it down to me.
I will give it a good go and if I don’t like it, I will trade it in. I like the demo but it just doesn’t not have the razmatazz of FIFA. 2 different games with differing styles, I will play both probably.
I am still pondering Spain or Germany. I will play a couple of games on PS3 and decide.
I have opted for Valencia after playing a couple of friendlies against Atletico Madrid and Barcelona both resulting in 1-0 defeats. The Estadio Mestalla is breathtaking under lights and the atmosphere was electric coming through the speakers with a thumping sound. The Mrs came running up the stairs as it was vibrating throughout the house
I will start the story soon.
Good choice! I am Valencia too.
The crunch match with Mallorca was insane. A complete stalemate until the 87th minute when David Villa scored this goal http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/1303184 .
Two games left and it stands-
Valencia- 77
Mallorca- 75
If I win or draw the next game I will have went unbeaten at home all season, but 5 losses so far away from home. Which is very realistic for the Spanish League, were even the big teams lose matches away regularly.
Why are you all calling him Greg?
It’s obvious he’s not-greg.
heraldo - As long as PES2009 has ‘proper’ PES gameplay, I know I’ll be satisfied with it.
Good luck with Valencia (get that blog going again). I’m finding this Spanish league so tough it’s untrue. When I played Valencia that pesky David Villa intercepted one of my patented cross-field aerial passes between my fullbacks, and raced away to score. It was embarrassing….
Not Given - Your MM sounds like a true epic. I still can’t access EA Sportsworld vids from this PC and I’ll have to check out your replays in the morning. Don’t overwrite them between now and then! In tomorrow’s post I mention my efforts to score a goal worthy of posting to the site and then on the blog. At the moment it’s all test vids for me, and ‘comical’ misses etc. It’ll come….
Big Al - Actually, I’m not-Greg
If I had my time again I’d actually choose a different username. For some reason, no one remembers the real Greg Downs’ playing career….
That’s it over. I think I have to lie down in a darkened room after that. It went down to the last game, I was away to Real Betis. If I lost and Mallorca won, they would have taken the title. It was a nervous defensive game with us afraid to make a mistake, until the 80 something minute when Villa, yet again, scores our late winner! Such relief. Mallorca had won too, so I won the league by two points.
Not sure what to do now- increase to World Class (i’m definitely not winning the league again) or go to full manual on professional. I resigned with Valencia again, I have Europe to conquer now..
not-Greg Sorry Big Al
Just starting it now as I type. I am going to adjust the formation slightly as the midfield 2 felt slightly wrong in the friendlies earlier. Looking forward to it, I struggled to break down the defenses of Barca and Atletico.
You will be happy then as it appears the PES gameplay is back from what I’ve played of the demo. Are you still playing the demo or will you await the full release?
Not-Given
We will compare our careers. Are you sticking to the current squad or have you signed players? I will bring in my created player and play with the squad I’ve inherited. Also are you still playing UEFA? I am continuing my CYC with Scotland we have made the finals and I am Captain. I haven’t tried the BAP mode on FIFA yet.
I am in negotiations for X Alonso at the moment- as a long term replacement for the aging Albelda. My team is 4-4-2, or 4-2-4 when attacking sometimes. Vicente on the left, Joaquin on the right, Baraja amf, Albelda dmf. David Villa and Silva/Morientes up front.
I’d love to play Euro 2008 but the XBOX is dying/dead. I could probably put it in now and play 10 minutes before it crashes.
About to play the Super Cup against A Madrid (probably do that tomorrow). Spent 6-7 million on staff upgrades too..
Not-Given
Congratulations and good luck in the Super Cup.
I am about to start my 1st match away to OSASUNA. I have tinkered with midfield formation in the centre, that’s where my created player plays but not just now, and pushed the wide men further forward in the LM/RM positions, from here they attack and defend.
I am keeping away from the Staff Upgrades as my players stats went through the roof in my Celtic MM. Prolong the career a little longer.
Luckily I am not worried about that- I am not a great player so I doubt i’ll ever be winning leagues on WC or Legendary. Sometimes it’s good to be an average player!
Osasuna! A tricky team for me, they thrashed me 3-0 away and I thrashed them 4-1 at home. You said you played on WC right? I played 8 or so games in that league on WC, started off winning them comfortably, and eventually couldn’t win again. Semi assisted and pro level offers me a good challenge now, as you can see by scraping the league by two points! I am unsure whether to increase the difficulty or not…
Good luck against Osasuna!
heraldo - I haven’t played the PES2009 demo since the day it came out, which was also the day I got FIFA09. That tells us something, I think. I still feel sad about PES’s decline.
Not Given - finally saw your replays. I love the dinked finish over the keeper! I’ve still not scored one like it, but as you’ll see in tomorrow’s (Friday’s) post, I think I’d better stop trying so hard to rip the net and just focus on getting bread and butter goals.
If everyone is downloading their goals from EA Sportsworld and wants to upload them to the internet for safekeeping and/or to show off, forget YouTube for FIFA09 goals.
YouTube won’t accept the raw .flv files, and even when converted and uploaded their quality is very poor. Use LiveLeak, which I’ve just started using and seems pretty good. My first replay streamed from them will appear here tomorrow. They accept the .flv file and there’s no drop in quality. Quick and easy.
Oh, and - OSASUNA!!! Arrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh….. Remember they were my bogey team in PES2008 (PSP). And I’ve just played them this morning myself. See what happened tomorrow…
not-Greg
OSASUNA what I will say at this moment in time as I will be detailing the match tomorrow is “IT’S THE BEST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED AGAINST AN AI TEAM”. It was that good a match to be involved in.
Thank’s for the heads up on uploading from EA Football World. I will give it a try, I am getting excellent quality from my digital camera only for YouTube to reduce the quality dramatically.
NOT GIVEN
not-Greg will tell you that I thought I would never get past Professional difficulty. I did and progressed to Legendary on 08 with full manual controls. I switched to Semi-Shooting as I scored a total of 12 goals on FULL MANUAL. It was so hard.
Go with the difficulty that feels right, you will know when to up the difficulty when you start winning with ease. I got to the stage at WC when I could score at ease and started pussying about trying tricks.
Due to the Custom Team tactics this year, I can see a difference in the AI teams and they now make tactical substitutions which wasn’t the case in 08.
heraldo - lol, just ‘Greg’ is fine here… I only went with not-Greg originally in the unlikely event that the real Greg Downs happened along and objected to me impersonating him…
Looking forward to your Osasuna match report. I notice you’ve restarted your blog again.
Re. LiveLeak, they’ll take the EA Sportsworld .flv file and show it pretty much as-is. The only slight downer is a change in the aspect ratio, but it’s barely noticeable.
not-Greg
I don’t want Big Al coming along and giving me a bashing
Yes I restarted the blog, I re-read earlier posts when I first started my FIFA MM and see the improvements made since. You could say it’s a diary of my FIFA and PES adventures, which I can read at any time. I enjoy doing it.