Reasons why I won`t buy fifa ever again

[KenC]

Fifa 09 wasn`t released this year ...it ESCAPED with eyes staring wildly and with one leg dragging behind it. It is the most bug ridden unsatisfying faultily written piece of gaming software I have ever experienced since the far-off days of the Atari ST. Let`s look at the evidence.

Offline
NO PES control mode this year i.e the one where you can bring a second defender to the ball, unless of course you edit the devaux.txt file. The problem is when you do that , it screws up your manual thru ball and cross function, and also if you edit the mouse/keyboard controls while the devaux file is edited, it scrambles your gamepads.. This is presumably why the "new" type controls were not included in this year`s "release". The so-called developers couldn`t get it to work in time ..so they just put it out without the option on the official menu. Never mind the thousands of us who have built our game around these very controls!!

Adidas Live season. It states proudly in the advertising that you can play offline with all your player stats closely following real life... In fact the only mode available with live season is "Kick off" mode....A mode that nobody I know uses at all. Most people playing at home offline either play manager mode or if you have the mates round...it`s a tournanment league or knockout. What is the point of having Live Season available only in one off match mode?

Gamepad support again this year is an absolute joke, with anyone who does not have one of the "supported" controllers having to edit the devdata file or go and buy a new controller. How much programming skill would it take after all these years to simply include a generic controller config option (like PES)

It should state BOLDLY on the label that the game cannot be run on a computer which has no internet connection. Believe it or not EA there are still some people who do not have broadband (or even dial-up) and a small print ambiguous disclaimer is not enough.This may even be against trade descriptions ..if anyone cares enough to pursue it. Even if you have a good internet connection , the servers are so bad that it has taken many people hours of frustration to get connected to register at all.

The commentary has been the same now for about three years...."well I wish you hadn`t asked me ...because it`s been pretty poor". This starts to wear very thin after three full seasons.

The all new collision system is almost totally useless. It is unrealsistic to the point of being laughable, with players running into each other and causing loss of possesion that would NEVER happen in the game.

I have NEVER seen two players go up for a heading duel and both miss with the ball bouncing between them. Not even once let alone a dozen times in one game

The AI is still sadly lacking. Defenders still run AWAY from the ball when crosses come in. When you go a goal up in World Class or Legendary... You really have to dig in , because you just know that the programme is going to ping a 40 yard through ball or cross on to the toe of a striker to smalalalala past your helpless keeper , even though you have had 70% of the possesion up to then , to level the score or take the lead, usually in stoppage time.

Add your own offline gripes here....

Online
This is where it REALLY gets silly and I don`t think I would have enough space to describe what a steaming pile of rancid brown stuff this game is online.

But here`s a few examples.

The legendary "Ready to Play" issue, which has not been addressed to any degree of satisfaction either by EA support or by the moderators of this forum. All you will get is a "open your ports" type disclaimer. Most of us of course know that you still can`t connect to two thirds or more of players even with your router and firewall set up properly.

The lag issue when playing an opponent using keyboard and you are using gamepad. There is a big advantage conceded in this way. The only way round it is to quit when someone selects keyboard.

Player celebration disconnects. Anelka, Lampard etc... Score with some of these players and you get disconnected no matter whether you were winning.

Ball goes through the side net for an impossible"goal"

The new online patch turned the game into a bagatelle of no skill and superhuman keepers. It is now almost impossible to score from outside the box. The lump it and run players are having a field day.

Add your Online gripes here....

Support from EA has been poor too. "Please submit an error report" seems to be the standard duck of responsibility here. How are we supposed to get these? The game doesn`t generate any as far as I know??

The list is endless....we are all being taken for a ride. This is the same game we have all been playing for 3 or 4 years with minor tweaks and some better graphics (tough luck if you have an older PC). But what nails it for me is the complete absence of any honest "sorry we got it wrong" attitude from EA or any of its employees or reps. It is simply not good enough.
Will you be forking out another thirty quid next year for this kind of (non)service??
I know I won`t

[davidmmac]

I agree with a couple of your points in there about the need for internet access and the same commentary team for the past few years. However I think that overall Fifa 09 is the best fifa on PC in years, and I wouldn't go back to playing previous editions of fifa. Sure, It's not next gen, but it's still better than nothing.

[Madscooter17]

Good for you.

[redevilO7]

i agree with you kenc, ea can never do a perfect job !

[SoccerPC]

Originally Posted by KenC

Fifa 09 wasn`t released this year ...it ESCAPED with eyes staring wildly and with one leg dragging behind it. It is the most bug ridden unsatisfying faultily written piece of gaming software I have ever experienced since the far-off days of the Atari ST. Let`s look at the evidence.

Offline
NO PES control mode this year i.e the one where you can bring a second defender to the ball, unless of course you edit the devaux.txt file. The problem is when you do that , it screws up your manual thru ball and cross function, and also if you edit the mouse/keyboard controls while the devaux file is edited, it scrambles your gamepads.. This is presumably why the "new" type controls were not included in this year`s "release". The so-called developers couldn`t get it to work in time ..so they just put it out without the option on the official menu. Never mind the thousands of us who have built our game around these very controls!!

Adidas Live season. It states proudly in the advertising that you can play offline with all your player stats closely following real life... In fact the only mode available with live season is "Kick off" mode....A mode that nobody I know uses at all. Most people playing at home offline either play manager mode or if you have the mates round...it`s a tournanment league or knockout. What is the point of having Live Season available only in one off match mode?

Gamepad support again this year is an absolute joke, with anyone who does not have one of the "supported" controllers having to edit the devdata file or go and buy a new controller. How much programming skill would it take after all these years to simply include a generic controller config option (like PES)

It should state BOLDLY on the label that the game cannot be run on a computer which has no internet connection. Believe it or not EA there are still some people who do not have broadband (or even dial-up) and a small print ambiguous disclaimer is not enough.This may even be against trade descriptions ..if anyone cares enough to pursue it. Even if you have a good internet connection , the servers are so bad that it has taken many people hours of frustration to get connected to register at all.

The commentary has been the same now for about three years...."well I wish you hadn`t asked me ...because it`s been pretty poor". This starts to wear very thin after three full seasons.

The all new collision system is almost totally useless. It is unrealsistic to the point of being laughable, with players running into each other and causing loss of possesion that would NEVER happen in the game.

I have NEVER seen two players go up for a heading duel and both miss with the ball bouncing between them. Not even once let alone a dozen times in one game

The AI is still sadly lacking. Defenders still run AWAY from the ball when crosses come in. When you go a goal up in World Class or Legendary... You really have to dig in , because you just know that the programme is going to ping a 40 yard through ball or cross on to the toe of a striker to smalalalala past your helpless keeper , even though you have had 70% of the possesion up to then , to level the score or take the lead, usually in stoppage time.

Add your own offline gripes here....

Online
This is where it REALLY gets silly and I don`t think I would have enough space to describe what a steaming pile of rancid brown stuff this game is online.

But here`s a few examples.

The legendary "Ready to Play" issue, which has not been addressed to any degree of satisfaction either by EA support or by the moderators of this forum. All you will get is a "open your ports" type disclaimer. Most of us of course know that you still can`t connect to two thirds or more of players even with your router and firewall set up properly.

The lag issue when playing an opponent using keyboard and you are using gamepad. There is a big advantage conceded in this way. The only way round it is to quit when someone selects keyboard.

Player celebration disconnects. Anelka, Lampard etc... Score with some of these players and you get disconnected no matter whether you were winning.

Ball goes through the side net for an impossible"goal"

The new online patch turned the game into a bagatelle of no skill and superhuman keepers. It is now almost impossible to score from outside the box. The lump it and run players are having a field day.

Add your Online gripes here....

Support from EA has been poor too. "Please submit an error report" seems to be the standard duck of responsibility here. How are we supposed to get these? The game doesn`t generate any as far as I know??

The list is endless....we are all being taken for a ride. This is the same game we have all been playing for 3 or 4 years with minor tweaks and some better graphics (tough luck if you have an older PC). But what nails it for me is the complete absence of any honest "sorry we got it wrong" attitude from EA or any of its employees or reps. It is simply not good enough.
Will you be forking out another thirty quid next year for this kind of (non)service??
I know I won`t

Sooooooooooooooo true !

[Mats94]

i agree, never fifa

[mjstokes85]

Originally Posted by KenC

NO PES control mode this year i.e the one where you can bring a second defender to the ball, unless of course you edit the devaux.txt file. The problem is when you do that , it screws up your manual thru ball and cross function, and also if you edit the mouse/keyboard controls while the devaux file is edited, it scrambles your gamepads.. This is presumably why the "new" type controls were not included in this year`s "release". The so-called developers couldn`t get it to work in time ..so they just put it out without the option on the official menu. Never mind the thousands of us who have built our game around these very controls!!

Hold the pass button when defending and you bring 2nd defender to the ball, or, read the manual first and find this out.

[KenC]

Originally Posted by mjstokes85

Hold the pass button when defending and you bring 2nd defender to the ball, or, read the manual first and find this out.

It`s not about whether you can bring the 2nd defender ..it`s the PES style button set up which is now not available that I was referring to. This config for most people who used it was most easily recognised by the 2nd defender being available on the "shoot" button. Apologies for not making it easy enough for you to understand. Hope this clears it up.

[nutunited]

Originally Posted by KenC

It`s not about whether you can bring the 2nd defender ..it`s the PES style button set up which is now not available that I was referring to. This config for most people who used it was most easily recognised by the 2nd defender being available on the "shoot" button. Apologies for not making it easy enough for you to understand. Hope this clears it up.

You were rather pathetically unclear actually Anyway, what exactly do you mean editing devaux.txt screws up through ball and crosses?

[KenC]

Originally Posted by nutunited

You were rather pathetically unclear actually Anyway, what exactly do you mean editing devaux.txt screws up through ball and crosses?

When you set a controller cofig in devaux to

| xx| 1| x|

to enable PES controls, it then becomes impossible to independently change manual through ball on/off and manual cross on/off . Also if you set the devaux setting as above, and then you subsequently alter the mouse/keyboard config from the in game menu, it affects your gamepad settings. This is why it was left out of the final release. By the way.... I was only pathetically unclear to those who were pathetically unable to understand what I was saying or who didn`t have a clue what I was talking about in the first place.

[nutunited]

Originally Posted by KenC

When you set a controller cofig in devaux to

| xx| 1| x|

to enable PES controls, it then becomes impossible to independently change manual through ball on/off and manual cross on/off . Also if you set the devaux setting as above, and then you subsequently alter the mouse/keyboard config from the in game menu, it affects your gamepad settings. This is why it was left out of the final release. By the way.... I was only pathetically unclear to those who were pathetically unable to understand what I was saying or who didn`t have a clue what I was talking about in the first place.

Stop making excuses for your pathetic lack of clarity

Anyway, you can change your manual through ball/cross settings first - then change devaux.txt to PES controls... Works for me

[KenC]

Originally Posted by nutunited

Stop making excuses for your pathetic lack of clarity

Anyway, you can change your manual through ball/cross settings first - then change devaux.txt to PES controls... Works for me

I certainly was not making any excuses for anything.

Congratulations on making your PES control setup work...I will try your advice for crosses/through balls because it is particularly annoying. You just underlined my whole point though...which is that we are HAVING to edit and juggle and customise because EA released an unfinished game. Not everyone is up to editing.

[07patty]

Originally Posted by davidmmac

I agree with a couple of your points in there about the need for internet access and the same commentary team for the past few years. However I think that overall Fifa 09 is the best fifa on PC in years, and I wouldn't go back to playing previous editions of fifa. Sure, It's not next gen, but it's still better than nothing.

agreed. Its not "next gen" but the graphics on some of it is pretty amazing.

Originally Posted by mjstokes85

Hold the pass button when defending and you bring 2nd defender to the ball, or, read the manual first and find this out.

I don't think he's actually heard of a manual ..

Oh and by the way, i don't think that was constructive critiscm..

[Antiphon]

Though i never say never, I agree totally with you. I regret the buy of Fifa 09, and am still fighting for my money since i cannot play online for whatever reason. I thought after PES 2008 turned exactly out like on Xbox 360, IT WOULD BE FRIGGIN POSSIBLE to do the same with Fifa 09. But NOOOOOOO, PC users are DORKS (me included) who spend their money on inferior products. I already skipped last year and just bought it this year since i read it had next gen graphics (which it does not have fully). So good bye, you fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....

[First_rain]

YA , EA should stop producing Fifa for PC. it such a huge harm for their reputation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DemonGun]

After playing fifa09 for near 2 months, I would said I like the game.

[KenC]

Originally Posted by 07patty

agreed. Its not "next gen" but the graphics on some of it is pretty amazing.


I don't think he's actually heard of a manual ..

Oh and by the way, i don't think that was constructive critiscm..

So explain to me how "I don`t think he`s heard of a manual" is constructive?
All of the above are real issues like them or not. Feel free to join the discussion but don`t you think peurile juvenile asides are a waste of time?

[Garry_C]

Originally Posted by KenC

So explain to me how "I don`t think he`s heard of a manual" is constructive?
All of the above are real issues like them or not. Feel free to join the discussion but don`t you think peurile juvenile asides are a waste of time?

Well said..
I liked ur points about the offline game..

[nutunited]

Originally Posted by KenC

Congratulations on making your PES control setup work...I will try your advice for crosses/through balls because it is particularly annoying. You just underlined my whole point though...which is that we are HAVING to edit and juggle and customise because EA released an unfinished game. Not everyone is up to editing.

I don't even use them...
In fact, I don't even use my controller for FIFA
I just had to figure it all out for when I made the controller fix thread

Agreed though, we definitely shouldn't have to edit these things ourselves - bloody slack on the dev teams part

[Terry1044]

The issues with this game are very well known, and yet new threads stating already aired views continue Ad Nauseam.

If EA was to budget for and create a next gen PC version of the game for 2010, then all these "I'll never buy another FIFA game again" end users would immediately buy another FIFA game.

All of this nonsense will play out again next year.

[KenC]

Originally Posted by Terry1044

The issues with this game are very well known, and yet new threads stating already aired views continue Ad Nauseam.

If EA was to budget for and create a next gen PC version of the game for 2010, then all these "I'll never buy another FIFA game again" end users would immediately buy another FIFA game.

All of this nonsense will play out again next year.

With respect, the whole point of starting these threads is to raise the awareness of discontent being felt by the end users to EA in the hope that when they DO release a next gen game , then it will be a well tested release with all issues ironed out and then hopefully all this nonsense WON`T play out next year.
If they can run 10 minute ads with Rooney et al in prime time slots then of course, they DO have the funding to produce a result, but they won`t if they think they can continue to get away with shoddy releases like 09. That is why I felt it was necessary to register my own annoyance.

[Terry1044]

Originally Posted by KenC

With respect, the whole point of starting these threads is to raise the awareness of discontent being felt by the end users to EA in the hope that when they DO release a next gen game , then it will be a well tested release with all issues ironed out and then hopefully all this nonsense WON`T play out next year.
If they can run 10 minute ads with Rooney et al in prime time slots then of course, they DO have the funding to produce a result, but they won`t if they think they can continue to get away with shoddy releases like 09. That is why I felt it was necessary to register my own annoyance.

You don't understand the way a game publisher works. The on air advertising budget has nothing to do with the Development Budget for the PC version of the game, which in this case represents a tiny percentage of overall sales, and where only a limited amount of Development time is budgeted and allocated in order to slightly enhance the previous version of the game.

As an example, since FIFA 06, I have asked for the ability to change the Ref's kit as well as the home and away teams kits. I wanted this in order to avoid kit clashing.

Nothing has been done, and therefore the same issue is with us for FIFA 09. You can choose the home kit and the away kit, but the game does not perform any interrogation of your choices and just randomly assigns a Ref kit color which may then clash with one of the teams playing.

This is a very simple programming fix, but it's not deemed game critical and it has therefore not been addressed for the last four years.

That is how EA works. The PC version of this game is the least important to them because of the sales that the platform delivers. Go and look at the Forums for FIFA 06, 07, 08 and this one and just look at how many of the same issues come up over and over again.

It will be the same with FIFA 2010. I purchase a new FIFA game every two or three years in order to update the squads, but I do so knowing that the list of bugs will be pretty much the same as in the version that I currently have.

EA has a company slogan: "Let's treat a symptom while the disease marches on".

[KenC]

Originally Posted by Terry1044

You don't understand the way a game publisher works. The on air advertising budget has nothing to do with the Development Budget for the PC version of the game, which in this case represents a tiny percentage of overall sales, and where only a limited amount of Development time is budgeted and allocated in order to slightly enhance the previous version of the game.

As an example, since FIFA 06, I have asked for the ability to change the Ref's kit as well as the home and away teams kits. I wanted this in order to avoid kit clashing.

Nothing has been done, and therefore the same issue is with us for FIFA 09. You can choose the home kit and the away kit, but the game does not perform any interrogation of your choices and just randomly assigns a Ref kit color which may then clash with one of the teams playing.

This is a very simple programming fix, but it's not deemed game critical and it has therefore not been addressed for the last four years.

That is how EA works. The PC version of this game is the least important to them because of the sales that the platform delivers. Go and look at the Forums for FIFA 06, 07, 08 and this one and just look at how many of the same issues come up over and over again.

It will be the same with FIFA 2010. I purchase a new FIFA game every two or three years in order to update the squads, but I do so knowing that the list of bugs will be pretty much the same as in the version that I currently have.

EA has a company slogan: "Let's treat a symptom while the disease marches on".

Again, with respect, I wasn`t suggesting that the EA advertising budget is in any way linked to the development budget for Fifa PC, merely that EA clearly have plenty of money to spend in raising awareness of the Fifa product. You do make some excellent points concerning the diminishing returns to EA from the PC platform and I agree with all of those. However, when they push that big corporate boat out it also includes aboard it , the minority of purists who have been with the PC platform since day one. This certainly includes me, and by the sound of it, you too.

The advertising doesn`t say Fifa 09 is GREAT (except for the PC version ..... which we haven`t bothered too much about this year).... ?
In my opinion it is the launch of a massive corporate product which should provide a similar standard of quality regardless of which platform it is geared for.

I switched refs off 2 or 3 versions ago for precisely the reasons you cite.

[The Doctor76]

Originally Posted by Terry1044

You don't understand the way a game publisher works. The on air advertising budget has nothing to do with the Development Budget for the PC version of the game, which in this case represents a tiny percentage of overall sales, and where only a limited amount of Development time is budgeted and allocated in order to slightly enhance the previous version of the game.

As an example, since FIFA 06, I have asked for the ability to change the Ref's kit as well as the home and away teams kits. I wanted this in order to avoid kit clashing.

Nothing has been done, and therefore the same issue is with us for FIFA 09. You can choose the home kit and the away kit, but the game does not perform any interrogation of your choices and just randomly assigns a Ref kit color which may then clash with one of the teams playing.

This is a very simple programming fix, but it's not deemed game critical and it has therefore not been addressed for the last four years.

That is how EA works. The PC version of this game is the least important to them because of the sales that the platform delivers. Go and look at the Forums for FIFA 06, 07, 08 and this one and just look at how many of the same issues come up over and over again.

It will be the same with FIFA 2010. I purchase a new FIFA game every two or three years in order to update the squads, but I do so knowing that the list of bugs will be pretty much the same as in the version that I currently have.

EA has a company slogan: "Let's treat a symptom while the disease marches on".

Which is exactly why I hope Konami get the Fifa licence when it comes up for grabs. While Fifa's gameplay is good, so is PES' and the attention to detail, as well as heading and ball physics, are second to none. Throw in thirty plus leagues and you're onto a winner.

Incidentally, does anyone know when the licence is due to be renewed?

[davidmmac]

Originally Posted by The Doctor76

Incidentally, does anyone know when the licence is due to be renewed?

According to this website it runs until 2014