FIFA 09 - Gameplay Review (Long one!)

[bluchampblogger]

I've got my FIFA 09 and I've been playing it over the weekend. There is so much in FIFA 09 that it is not fair to review the game after just a couple of days of playing. But you don't need to play for too long to understand the game play improvements and features. So I'll review the game play aspects of FIFA 09 in this post. See, I haven't played much of Be A Pro seasons, Manager Mode or even the online games. All I've done is to play the offline exhibition games and quick custom tournaments.

The most striking thing in game play is the pace of the game. It is noticeably faster than FIFA 08 and almost the same pace as Euro 2008. I can assure you this much that it is no way pacier than the actual pace of the premiership or la liga. Serie A? Yes, it is pacier than the Serie A. See there are three settings for pace - slow, normal and fast. What I refer to here is the 'slow' pace setting only. Some gamers like slow pace because that allows them to take time to think to weave attacks. Same with me. All of us should learn to play the quicker game, think on the fly and play more intuitively. As get used to the pace, it doesn't feel fast at all.

The quicker game play would have been terrible if it was not coupled with the high player response rate. Luckily for us, deliberately by EA, the players response it very quick which complements the quicker game play. The gap between the button press and the player performing as per your instructions is very very less. There is still some lag at rare scenarios but that's ok because that's the price you need to pay for realism. In FIFA 08, there was considerable lag in player response which made you accustom to a certain timing when it comes to button press. If you want to shoot from 15 yards, you gotta hit the shoot button when you're at 18-20 yards itself. I'm kind of so used to this timing that I used this in FIFA 09 as well, unintentionally. The result: the player shoots from 18 yards with the power and direction that suits for 15 yards.

If you want to enjoy FIFA 09, you should unlearn your FIFA 08 wisdom and play FIFA 09 to its merit. Make a list of all the do's and don't's of FIFA 08 and ensure to forget them and start afresh. Then how should you play FIFA 09? Just play like you would play football on the pitch. Just play it like real football. The players can do a lot of things, individually and collectively. It's only your ability to tap the full potential that would make the difference. In FIFA 08, I had this problem of the players on the pitch playing with a different mentality than mine. While I'm in a hurry, they would display no sense of urgency, because of the inherent lack of quality and capabilities. Now in FIFA 09, when I want them to play like their life is depended on it, they really do. They get tired, they get upset, they give their best, they're more human than ever. That's what I like best about FIFA 09.

The next key thing you'd see is the new animations. There are hundreds of new animations that the players perform that didn't in FIFA 08. Thanks to the new set of animations, the players' off the ball capabilities have improved tremendously. Defending is now a pleasure. Our defender can do some harmless shirt-pulling, constant jockeying, some body checking - all this without or before resorting to the hard tackle. So before you go for that risky hard tackle, you have multiple options to unsettle the ball carrier as much as possible, which is a great thing.

The jumping and heading animations are all fantastic. Now it's all about timing the jump and the header. Sometimes, you'd see an attacker and defender go up for a seemingly 50-50 high ball only for both of them to miss the ball because they mistimed their jump. The ball would fall a few yards away as a possible loose ball. Amazing animation, that one. The desperate dives, the last gasp defensive headers, the sliding shots, the in-the-air collapses - they are all here, making the game look as close to the real thing as possible.

The best new feature award should go to 'custom tactics'. FIFA has introduced this very serious and complicated feature with some gusto. You can now determine the playing style of your team. Custom tactics define how the rest of the AI players in your team play in the match. You can now determine if your players should prepare for fast set up or slow set up, prepare for short passes or long passes, prepare for lots of shots or less shots, prepare for lots of crosses or less crosses etc. The key is the word 'prepare' because they can only prepare and be in positions, only you make the pass or shot. You can also play narrow or wide. You can ask your players in the final third to be organised or play in free form. You can also set how your chances need to be created - from shots from anywhere or from crosses or from passes.

When I was playing Inter vs Milan at the beautiful San Siro at dusk, me and mate (playing co-op for Inter) thought that it's all getting too congested in the centre (middle vertical third). It was getting difficult to pass or to keep possession as the Milanese defenders were closing down on us vigorously. All that we had to do was to go to the custom tactics and increase the playing width slider from 35 to 75. The difference was bloody obvious. When you're leading with 10 minutes to go, and if you want to hold your lead at any cost, you can set custom tactic set up to slow set up with short passes.

The other time, we found that our back four is pushing up too far up front. Reduced the pressure slider from 65 to 10 and the aggressiveness from 60 to 15. The defence started doing what I want them to do. The custom tactics works like a charm. The more you understand and exploit this, the better you'll be at this game.

The AI is just superb. Interestingly, the AI plays like human beings now. They make mistakes, they make hard tackles, they make fouls, they get yellow cards and they even get sent off. I simply love this aspect. It gives you a chance against the AI. It makes you look for these things and exploit the AI like you would do to a human opponent. The intelligence of your fellow AI players is already controlled and improved by the custom tactics settings. The intelligence of the AI opponent is top class. There are no cheap AI tricks or cheats as far as I've seen so far. AI simply plays like one hell of a human opponent.

There were some 'bugs' reported by the gamers since the game was released. Luckily for me, I didn't find them or they didn't spoil my fun one bit. Firstly, people were complaining throughballs are the one heavenly way to score and there is now way you can stop if a perfect throughpass is played. I don't think so. I was defending the throughballs very well indeed. It all starts with your positioning - vertical and horizontal - of your defenders, and then how soon they close the gaps, how well you can jockey, nudge, body check and finally tackle, if need be. Or you can even advance the keeper. If the striker still scores, forget it. You can't win every single time.

Then people thought that the ball hits the bar/post too often. That happened to me initially before I learnt to shoot properly. If you haven't figured out the shooting you're bound to go off target. But why should it hit the bar? It is surely unrealistic to see the ball hit the ball half a dozen times in every match. Well, if you hit off target - you could either hit the bar or the ball can fly over the bar. If it flies over the bar, the game should start all over again from a goal kick. EA must have thought that pulling those just above the bar shots to hit the bar would also keep the ball in play and also adds to the excitement and a possible rebound goal. Makes gaming sense. However, since I've started to improve, I don't hit the bar, I only find the keeper :-)

Some were unhappy that crossing is no longer a weapon. I must agree that crossing in FIFA 08 was very easy. Whereas in FIFA 09, crossing is as good as the receiver of the cross. The header/volley by the receiver of the cross depends on the timing of the button press. If you time it perfectly, the header might go in and the cross becomes a good one. I'm perfectly happy with the way crosses work in FIFA 09. We can at least get rid of the 'cut back kings'. The tweaking of crossing alone has cut down on the cheap (low cross by Ronaldinho and cut back by Henry) goals.

Finally, my take on how FIFA 09 has treated Chelsea FC in the game. What hits you first is that the Chelsea kit is all wrong. Chelsea blue is not the same as the blue used by EA for the jersey. And the club logo on the chest is smaller than it should be. The gap between the adidas logo and the sponsor name 'samsung' should be much wider. Even the neck cut is not proper.

Now you might ask me why I bother about these things when the game is so good. Correct, I don't bother. I never bothered when PES5 had only West London FC with a plain blue kit. But it is EA who pride that they have the licenses and hence 'if it's in the game, it's in the game'. When I saw that the FC Inter's jersey is horribly wrong, I thought Chelsea's could have been worse. One big plus is all third kits are readily available. You don't need to unlock the kits with the crazy challenges like score three 30 yard goals with the centre back and all that.

EA have re-created the Stamford Bridge superbly. It gives you real feeling of being in the Bridge with the stadium model, the wave of fans wearing blue, the chants and everything. When you're playing Be A Pro, you'll get a very nice view of the stadium from the player's angle. One gripe is that during the day matches, the pitch at Stamford Bridge still does not look nice. So purposefully, every single time in exhibition mode, I change the condition from 'day' to 'overcast' where it looks very fine indeed.

In terms of how the players are rated, I think most of the ratings are fair. I'm not comparing our ratings with that of players from other top teams. I'm just seeing the ratings vis-a-vis the real life player capabilities. Cech 88, Bosingwa 81, Carvalho 85, Terry 88, Ashley Cole 82. I wonder how Ashley Cole is just 82? That's a mistake. Based on last two seasons' performance, Ashley Cole the left back is a better player than John Terry the centre back. Joe Cole 83, Essien 86, Lampard 84. Now again, Lampard can't just be 84! He is the most consistent player in the premier league over the last 5 seasons! Anelka is rated 83 for which he must call EA personally and thank them. Kalou is 79 and I might just agree. Mikel is only 81 while I would put him at 84 or something. Ballack is 86 and Deco is 85. Deco should have been better. Drogba is 87. Malouda is 83 and thankfully Alex is 82. And you Franco-lovers, he is just 71 but he might add about 10 more points for the next FIFA version.

What I see in FIFA 09 is that the game is lot more open, random and beautiful. You can recreate almost any moment from your Super Sunday. If you need a goal, you need to work for it. It's lovely to see that you can employ various styles of football in FIFA 09. I even tried long passes to target man and it works superbly well. You can sprint through the wings, you cut through the centre, you can play slow build up short passing game, you can play fast build up mixed passing game, you can try out long balls, you can simply do anything you want. It's like a piece of clay, it's up to you to do what you want with it. I'm thoroughly enjoying the game, the best football video game ever. As one reviewer put it, the only negative is that you don't find enough time to play this beautiful game.

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www.bluechampions.com - the chelseafc fan blog

[Strngboy]

Man, now i know why you only have 6 posts. (just messing)

Good stuff. I can't wait to finally get it here in the states.

[toopgui88]

Thank you have your time and effort on this review.

Great review!

[ocimpean]

So, for 09 they just tweaked the response timing and added some animations. OK, got that. And they increased the speed, another thing I hate.

What about saves on the Hard Drive?
What about training mode?
What about the Manager Mode?
Same old ****

Is this FIFA 09 or FIFA 08 patched?

For my part, I will vote with my money, and the vote is NO. If more people will refuse to buy, maybe E.A. will pay more attention to customers in the future.

[bluchampblogger]

Originally Posted by Strngboy

Man, now i know why you only have 6 posts. (just messing)

Good stuff. I can't wait to finally get it here in the states.

Thanks mate. I'm a regular visitor here but I hardly post anything. This time, the game is sooo good that I couldn't hold myself back. I'm surprised there is no sticky for reviews for the final game.

One last thing. The more you play this game, the more you'll love it!!!

[Jimmyboy34]

Fantastic review, your spot on, this is how i feel about the game, and when they patch the through ball side step it will be amazing. It was good for you to mention the AI offline because we are all not online players, to be honest i dont really care about online gaming.

and your right the San Siro at dusk looks amazing. I had a great Milan Derby there. Beware of Shalke, giv ethem a game on Pro, there are amazing going forward and play different to a lot of the AI teams very very aggresive

[bluchampblogger]

bump

[cooler08]

Originally Posted by ocimpean

So, for 09 they just tweaked the response timing and added some animations. OK, got that. And they increased the speed, another thing I hate.

What about saves on the Hard Drive?
What about training mode?
What about the Manager Mode?
Same old ****

Is this FIFA 09 or FIFA 08 patched?

For my part, I will vote with my money, and the vote is NO. If more people will refuse to buy, maybe E.A. will pay more attention to customers in the future.

They did a bit more than that. the gameplay is consideribly different to 08 but unfortunatly it's just as buggy. with EA's huge budget they should have included a Save replay feature and at least added the dummy wall to be used in the Arena and some mini games to improve our skills.

[HMaFiA]

That was definitely the best review i've read!

[Altairs Creed]

Originally Posted by ocimpean

What about saves on the Hard Drive?
What about training mode?
What about the Manager Mode?

what about...get over it?

[StratinPhx]

Nice detail in your review, can't wait till tomorrow to pick this game up. there will be an online learning curve for us folks in the western hemisphere, being that some of you folks have had a few weeks to get used to the game and all.
i've been playing 08 online the last week and a half or so (with fifa 0, and with all you guys across the pond playing 09, it appears that only the hacks and us north north and south americans are still playing 08. Let me tell you, the game play has been horrific.

i was playing someone yesterday, and all he was doing was slide tackling the entire 1st half, so i kindly left him a message < could you please refrain from slide tackling just a little >

his response to me was (lalalala *****, u r terrible) i was beside myself, i couldn't believe the audacity, and lack of respect, i wish he were my kid, cause he'd be picking drywall out of his teeth after that response

[James_P]

stopped reading where it said 'gameplay improvements '

FIFA 08 was/is the best football game ever, just needed slight improvement, FIFA 09 is a long ball ridden frustrating floaty football mess, and the games are very boring

[cooler08]

Originally Posted by James_P

stopped reading where it said 'gameplay improvements '

FIFA 08 was/is the best football game ever, just needed slight improvement, FIFA 09 is a long ball ridden frustrating floaty football mess, and the games are very boring

I agree unfortunatly. the general gameplay seems to pinball like fifa 2001. the goals are quite boring also. just run down the middle and slot it in the corner. since i got fifa 09 on the 4th oct i havent played fifa 08 once, i'll play it this week and see how it compares.

Fifa 2010 will probably just be fifa 09 with a few new animations, some bug fixes and some AI improvements.

[bluchampblogger]

Originally Posted by James_P

stopped reading where it said 'gameplay improvements '

FIFA 08 was/is the best football game ever, just needed slight improvement, FIFA 09 is a long ball ridden frustrating floaty football mess, and the games are very boring

I don't agree. I loved FIFA 08 but I knew how much it was falling short. FIFA 09 is certainly miles beyond FIFA 08. As I said the more we play the more we like. After a week of playing, only now I'm slowly coming to terms with the game in creating chances, scoring and style etc. I'm loving it even more.

You say the games are boring??? I'll tell you the matches that I play are exciting like hell. FIFA 09 is a huge entertainer. Don't write it off without giving it, its due chance.

[bluchampblogger]

bump

[James_P]

Originally Posted by bluchampblogger

I don't agree. I loved FIFA 08 but I knew how much it was falling short. FIFA 09 is certainly miles beyond FIFA 08. As I said the more we play the more we like. After a week of playing, only now I'm slowly coming to terms with the game in creating chances, scoring and style etc. I'm loving it even more.

You say the games are boring??? I'll tell you the matches that I play are exciting like hell. FIFA 09 is a huge entertainer. Don't write it off without giving it, its due chance.

Firstly, I apologise, I said I stopped reading the review on 'gameplay improvements', I did read the review which was good but disagree

Im suprised more people on this board aren't complaining about this game, every person I play against, they just play direct long ball football, sprint through on goal, place it past the goalkeeper, the annoying cutbacks from 08 are still in this 09 version aswell on top of that

You always got more varied games, and more skilful football on FIFA 08 in my opinion, the only annoyance for me was cutbacks but they were easier to defend than the through balls and sprints on 09, i just have no confidence in my defence at all, i got about 150 cleans sheets on 08 from 400 games, Ive had 4! in about 50 games on this

[naruto16]

Great write up!!! Totally agree with everything you've said!

Fifa09 is a good improvements over Fifa08. We simply have more options to play the game. WAYYYY better animation, ie: now they can actually clear off the line with a proper sliding kick at the line. They just watched the ball go out in 08 LOL.

I have only got it for one day and Im alreay loving ittttt

I just hope they give us back the kit number selection in manager mode.

[nicholas282]

Originally Posted by Strngboy

Man, now i know why you only have 6 posts. (just messing)

Good stuff. I can't wait to finally get it here in the states.

dont bother with PES 2009, you will only be selling it once you get FIFA 09

[bluchampblogger]

Originally Posted by James_P

Firstly, I apologise, I said I stopped reading the review on 'gameplay improvements', I did read the review which was good but disagree

Im suprised more people on this board aren't complaining about this game, every person I play against, they just play direct long ball football, sprint through on goal, place it past the goalkeeper, the annoying cutbacks from 08 are still in this 09 version aswell on top of that

You always got more varied games, and more skilful football on FIFA 08 in my opinion, the only annoyance for me was cutbacks but they were easier to defend than the through balls and sprints on 09, i just have no confidence in my defence at all, i got about 150 cleans sheets on 08 from 400 games, Ive had 4! in about 50 games on this

I'd say never judge a game on how people play it online. 'The kids' would make any great game look mediocre by finding out cheat tricks and sweet spots. It's unfortunate that they make the game look so dumb. You can still beat them but when you see them playing silly, you lose interest in the match and consequently put less heart and efforts and lose the match.

Talking about defence, I'm pretty confident about my defence. I've pushed the sliders to the left which you can also try. Do you go to each defender and set his defensive priority to high and attacking priority to low? Try that. When it comes to defence, the biggest weapon is the 'player change'. How quickly you change the players and get to the correct defender matters a lot. My player change settings are set to 'manual' because I want to decide when I should change and to which player I want to change. Try that too. Does wonders.

[Forizeal]

I love this game, and this is comming from someone who doesnt even like the sport

[bluchampblogger]

bump

[Timh222]

Originally Posted by James_P

Firstly, I apologise, I said I stopped reading the review on 'gameplay improvements', I did read the review which was good but disagree

Im suprised more people on this board aren't complaining about this game, every person I play against, they just play direct long ball football, sprint through on goal, place it past the goalkeeper, the annoying cutbacks from 08 are still in this 09 version aswell on top of that

You always got more varied games, and more skilful football on FIFA 08 in my opinion, the only annoyance for me was cutbacks but they were easier to defend than the through balls and sprints on 09, i just have no confidence in my defence at all, i got about 150 cleans sheets on 08 from 400 games, Ive had 4! in about 50 games on this

Dude, what do you want? to have mastered the game in the first few days/weeks of owning it?
Obviously you were good in 08 by the number of clean sheets you had, but how long did you have to play become that good?
I did notice the game had more through balls and open field to run and score, but then I realized I was playing semi-pro (which the CPU set me up on automatically).
When I moved up to the next skill level the defenses were definitely better and less easy to float through balls over. Either they were in better position, or they were able to jostle you off the ball. maybe check to make sure your playing a higher skill level.
If not , I guess in your case your complaints are valid then?

I guess you could always try to use a sweeper if someone on line is continually trying through balls on you.

[xhappyfeetx]

Hey does anyone know I can add a picture to my online profile? Right now when I play all I have is a black shadow of a man next to my team name. How can I change that?

[Strngboy]

Originally Posted by bluchampblogger

Thanks mate. I'm a regular visitor here but I hardly post anything. This time, the game is sooo good that I couldn't hold myself back. I'm surprised there is no sticky for reviews for the final game.

One last thing. The more you play this game, the more you'll love it!!!

Agreed!!! After finally getting my copy and playing it, I find that it is light years ahead of 08. Smooth gameplay, and BAP online is addictive. Good stuff my friend.

Hopefully see you online.

[jackcos13]

Pretty good review, apart from this

Cech 88, Bosingwa 81, Carvalho 85, Terry 88, Ashley Cole 82. I wonder how Ashley Cole is just 82? That's a mistake. Based on last two seasons' performance, Ashley Cole the left back is a better player than John Terry the centre back.

I kid, a very good review there, better than some proper reviews from journalists.