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I played FIFA 10 a lot and pre-ordered FIFA 11 to make sure that I would receive the game on its release date. I have already played dozens of matches in several different game modes and completed over 40% of the virtual pro accomplishments. Here's my take on FIFA 11:
NEW FEATURES:
Manager Mode and Be A Pro Seasons Mode from FIFA 10 have been combined into a new mode called Career Mode. Now you can choose to be the manager, to be a player, or to be a player/manager. This mode is simpler than last year's Manager Mode. Some of the features such as players scouting and stadium upgrades have been removed. In my opinion this takes away from the game's depth. I used to enjoy just playing as the manager and simming matches, but I don't think it will be as satisfying in FIFA 10.
Be a goalkeeper. Goalkeepers are now playable characters both offline and online. This adds a little more variety to the game, although playing against the computer can be fairly dull because the AI rarely threatens your net. In offline games, FIFA 11's solution to the boredom problem is to give you a little bit of control over the computer players on your team. You can follow them with an overhead ball camera and tell them where and when to pass. As for the online play, goalkeepers are both a blessing and a curse. A good goalie can help your team win, but a bad one can easily ruin your game by intentionally allowing the other team to score.
Personality +. Players now look and move more realistically, although this only really applies to big stars on major teams. All of the players on a team like Chelsea or Real Madrid look pretty authentic, but if you drop down to a lower league like MLS, you will find that there isn't nearly as much attention to detail. Players who would never attempt difficult skill moves in real life will be doing fancy tricks and step-overs.
GAMEPLAY:
The actual game is fun to play. The controls are very good and responsive. The players move around fluidly. Shooting is fairly precise, although the chip shot is practically worthless now due to complaints about the ease of chipping the keeper in FIFA 10. Goalie control is simple and intuitve. Passing is pretty easy once you get a feel for the system. The defensive AI is much tougher than in FIFA 10. They are better at tackling and much better at reading passing lines and intercepting the ball. On the other hand, the offensive AI is still completely terrible. The computer is awful at making runs, which results in lots of low-scoring games. Even on the high difficulties, it is easy to prevent the computer from scoring because they hold to the ball too long and they always try to do the same thing on offense: run along the wings and try to cross it in for a header. If you can stop that, they probably won't score. This makes defense too easy and it also makes offense too hard because your bone-headed AI teammates will rarely make smart runs or passes that help you score. Instead you pretty much have to do it all yourself. On a positive note, there are hundreds of teams to choose from. Some people have complained about the national teams, but all of the big ones are in there and even some small ones like Slovenia.
VIRTUAL PRO:
Like FIFA 10, FIFA 11 lets you create your own virtual pro for use in offline and online matches. This was one of my favorite features in last year's game and the virtual pro system has been streamlined a little bit for 2011. You can improve your player by achieving certain goals such as scoring 10 goals in your career. This year there are more accomplishments than in FIFA 10 and the system used to track your progress towards the accomplishments is a little more organized. Also, there is more customizability with your pro's attributes and position. For example, if you choose to make him a forward, you can make him a "finisher," "target man," or "creator." All three options will have a different effect on his attributes. This allows for greater flexibility and strategy. However, you can switch positions at any time between matches, so nothing you choose is permanent.
ONLINE:
This is the biggest problem with FIFA 11. As of right now, there are numerous bugs and glitches in the online play. The Pro Club system is particularly bad. Screens freeze while searching or loading matches. Players lag out in the middle of matches. Math histories sometimes disappear, erasing the result. It seems like EA did not even bother to test these modes because they have not been working very well. There is no excuse for a rich company like EA to release a major franchise game like FIFA in an unfinished state. Many people who bought the game feel outraged about this. My guess is that EA will probably fix these problems eventually, but right now the online modes do not all work smoothly.
OVERALL:
This is a fun game. Right now I'm rating it 3 stars because EA released it with broken online modes. However, if I EA can fix these problems then this game will improve to 4.5 stars in my estimation. The actual gameplay is pretty fun. The only major problem is with the online lag and bugs. For FIFA 12 I hope that EA will improve the computer AI because the CPU players are utterly inept at manufacturing offense and threatening the goal.
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I am mainly interested in the Manager mode, so here are some quick observations:Can play Manager mode as a Manager and player, as a player only or as a Manager only. You will need to play on Professional or higher, if you want to make it to the Leaderboards.
Manager mode is simplified quite a bit, but menus are much more cumbersome. Instead of simply playing the games, you now have a calendar mode, similar to the one in Forza 3. To get to the game, you have to let each day pass (smart way to hide the longer loading times). Maybe I'll get used to these menus, but for now, they seem too complicated.
Transfers: You have now a menu to sort by any criteria you want. You can find many top players from Day 1 (unlike Fifa 10), but you will no longer afford them easily. In Fifa 10, you would make an offer slightly higher and the deal would almost always get through. In Fifa 11, if the player plays in the main 11 team, many times you would need to make his club a top offer (up to twice the asking transfer price). Once the club agrees, the negotiation with the player is a separate step. Fabregas would have to wait I don't have enough money yet.
Some things seem to be out (or buried in some obscure menus???)no Scouting, Stadium Improvements, etc. Lots of options are in though how to set up the team, what strategies to use, etc. Some were already available in Fifa 10, but Fifa 11 gives us even more.
Gameplay: AI plays slightly better defense, long passes work better, dribbling is better. Shooting is not as spectacular as it was in Fifa 10, but maybe closer to reality. For a pure fun game, you may want to keep Fifa 10 around, because Fifa 11 is more tactical and scoring is not as easy as before.
Multiplayer: you will need to activate a unique code that comes with the game. If you buy a used game, double check with the seller to be sure they didn't use the code.
Graphics: seems to be the same engine, but the players definitely look better than in Fifa 10.
Bottom line different game from Fifa 10, but still fun. Should you buy this over Fifa 10? Fifa 10 is a pure fun, more arcade type of game. Fifa 11 is more of a sim and is more tactical. Both are great games and different enough to be worth owning.
Updated Feb 19th: I am removing one star from the rating, because as of mid-February, the rosters didn't get updated with the January transfers. In Manager mode, the game claims it checks for latest teams, yet still the old teams show up. Torres is still with Liverpool, Pienaar is not with Spurs, Dzeko is not under Man City, Suarez not with Liverpool, etc. This detracts from the game experience. For a game called Fifa 11, they should have 2011 teams. I will update rating if game gets patched.
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the game is good and i feel it is the best soccer game out but it has it's problems. the bigest problem i have with the game is how unrealistic some of the gameplay is. for example it is so easy to score of crosses just cross the ball in and you got a great chance to score. also its way to easy to score goals and make passes and like alot of EA sports games it has alot of glitches and game freezes also beware if you buy the game used you will need to buy a online pass just to play online pass cost 10 dollars having said that i still preffer this over pro evo 2011Honest reviews on FIFA Soccer 11 - Xbox 360
I have been playing FIFA for years now and have been thoroughly enjoying it all these years. I got this game on a release date delivery ( just like the years before). I play strictly offline and on Manager mode mostly. I have played through over 2 seasons now and here is my feedback on what i think of the game.gameplay ai has gotten tougher, but sometimes you feel like the referee is working against you. free kicks are awarded to cpu on a 10 to 1 ratio. you find yourself playing conservative football for 90mins only to find that the ai gets in on a cheap header through a fk awarded in the 91st min.. manual passing seems to have gotten better and i thoroughly enjoy it. pressure from the cpu defenders seems to be excessive and they are on your face. you have 30 different skill moves to make but they wont leave space to do anything. most of the time the second you get the ball they are on your back or face to push you and get it away.. overall i feel that improvements were made but excessive agressive ai doesnt always feel realistic.
manager mode replaced by career mode with options to play as a player, manager & player manager. i have played as a manager, although the game doesnt crash like the previous years here are my gripes.. found a simple bug on a calendar, one would think after aug 12 would come sep 12 .. not in fifa aug 2012 is followed by sep 2011 and then oct 2011.. this is pretty basic and should not be seen in a title like fifa.. it takes a ton of time to simulate the days that you dont have a match and its boring to sit and watch it move through day after day..
graphics same as last year
sound same as last year no change..
i dont use the creation center, virtual pro and online so i wont write about it here..
having said all that i keep playing this stupid thing over and over again.. its frustrating when you get scored on in the 89th min.. but may because i have played the football games through years or lack of a better choice this disk still sits on my xbox and gets played every night.. i have not played the PES series for years now and i am not sure if i will be satisfied making the switch this year.. but for now i am hoping they would release a patch or 2 fix the obvious bugs.
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I decided to wait a while before writing this review, knowing that by the time the review was written most of the people who wanted to buy this game had probably already done so. Still, I thought writing a review was important because I've reached the point where I have taken this game out of my Xbox and I'm no longer going to play it.The first thing I noticed was how good the graphics are -it's really an incredible game to look at. Player faces are great, the stadiums which are included are great-looking, it really looks very, very good. Now the bad.
I spent most of my time playing this on career mode at the professional difficulty level. Here are some of the interesting things you'll notice (suffer through?) during game play:
Somehow defenders can come from behind a player sprinting with the ball in the other direction and steal the ball without any kind of slide and calmly head the other direction. As soon as they make contact, they have the ball. This makes break-away goals next to impossible, even with the fastest players in possession.
It's nearly impossible to score from the middle of the field due to the defenses habit of gang defending. As soon as I have the ball anywhere near the front of goal, at least two defenders will converge and steal the ball. Meanwhile, I can be practically attached to players all over the field without stealing it from them. I have given up a ton of goals where my defender was in the perfect position but it didn't matter. Extremely frustrating.
Heading the ball is a mystery to me. Because I can't score from the middle of the field, I decided to focus on crosses. Thing is, it seems to be random whether my player wins the cross and even more random whether the ball is on target. I have tried aiming everywhere, and the ball will still go into the crowd half the time. That's when I win it. My son counted in one game and I lost 12 headers in a row. Player skill level doesn't matter.
If you play career mode with MLS teams, there is no off-season transfer window because the game strictly adheres to European transfer rules. So the only time you can purchase/sell players in an MLS season is during the summer transfer window. And if you want to improve your team, it's best to buy players from your current league or a lower-tier league because no upper-tier player will play for your team, no matter how much you offer.
Turn off hand balls. You'll concede penalties in nearly every game otherwise. It's hard enough to play against better teams with just the fouls that are called when you're lucky enough to steal the ball.
This review is long enough so I've just included the things I found most frustrating. I could probably write a book. It's unfortunate to say but with each version of this game the graphics get better while the gameplay gets worse. I'm not sure what they can do to improve things, but EA needs to take a fresh look at this franchise.
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