I've been playing this most of the day because I got myself a month's subscription to Origin Access Premier, just to see what this was like, to give it a real try before I buy. And let me tell you, I've never been more underwhelmed. In summary, don't buy this game if you have 17 or 18. I know you deserve so much better than this recycled experience, and in your heart, you know it too.I've been playing this most of the day because I got myself a month's subscription to Origin Access Premier, just to see what this was like, to give it a real try before I buy. And let me tell you, I've never been more underwhelmed. In summary, don't buy this game if you have 17 or 18. I know you deserve so much better than this recycled experience, and in your heart, you know it too.
How does it compare to FIFA 18? Well, it's got better graphics, a couple of gameplay adjustments and UEFA Champions League. It's got an all new commentary team, but that's just for the Champions League. You'll still have Martin Tyler and Alan Smith trotting out exactly the same lines they have for the past 7 years in the majority of games - you're too young to remember this Alan, but goal posts used to be square instead of round. Really Martin, I didn't know that, it's not like I haven't seen three shots go in off the post in this game alone and you've said that every time. You're welcome Alan, why don't you try a generic statement about a player. Oh, if it had gone between the posts it would have been a goal. Alright, final whistle, goodbye from 2011.
Remember everything that frustrates you and annoys you about FIFA 18? Well, it's all in FIFA 19! The controls are just as unresponsive and inconsistent as FIFA 18. It's got inconsistent AI all round, defenders that can outpace your fastest wingers and wingers that still outpace all your defenders and the AI can still go from 0-60 in a microsecond while you're stuck with lead in your boots. They'll be able to walk it in while your players refuse to respond, and if you do tackle it'll probably be a foul. Your AI teammates will lunge at the opposition in the box without prompting, giving away penalties. Your players controlled by you will happily walk right through the ball at the opposition's feet. Big guys get muscled off the ball by, oh, just about everyone. Your players will definitely fail to auto-intercept the ball, even when the opposition fires it straight through them. And the opposition will definitely intercept the many passes of yours that go nowhere they’re told. No, not every game - just every third game or so it'll make it feel like you're not part of the game at all.
There's a whole bunch of discussions happened around how FIFA games have been scripted, and EA have denied it. I believe EA: the games aren't scripted, but the AI difficulty is abysmal and entirely arbitrary. A while ago EA said that FIFA was realistic and so there was a random element to everything you did. That randomness apparently extends to everything: ball control, refs, all the AI. Of course, except for about one game in three, and then suddenly you’re a passenger. You may as well just put down the controller and admire it: at regular points in those matches the game will do what rarely happens in real life professional football and walk the ball through the middle of your defence and distinctly unrealistic speeds. And I'm not saying that doesn't happen in real life. But for a game that's apparently striving for realism, it happens a lot compared to real life. And it happens at the same points - say, when you're about to win a FUT division title. Coincidence? I don't know.
It's not all bad. Being absolutely honest, the moments when you can fox the AI that's been running rings around you by 20-30 buildup passes, breaking down their defence and slotting in a perfect cross are great. And I was enjoying a lot of it. But the game also recognises - and the commentators will mention - when you're deliberately holding up play. And if you do get tripped up, or your pass goes in the wrong direction for no reason, the reason you're doing it will become painfully clear. Because as soon as you lose possession, the game will punish you.
FIFA 19 barely looks better than the others and plays almost exactly the same. FIFA has been stagnant for a while, and only impresses the terminally credulous, who look to hand over as much real cash as they can for FIFA Points. But this is the first time in a long time I feel like the series has demonstrated how stagnated its developers are: more interested in modelling faces we can barely see for the majority of the game than making it a good game. The new timed shot is a step in the right direction, but for yet another year of yet another AAA priced game with yet more microtransactions, and losing all that progress, it's not enough. It's one thing that could go some way to making player mistakes more about skill than just saying that "random is reality".
When it comes down to it, football fans pay a lot for football products. Not only going to the games, but getting merchandise, and paying for TV. We pay other people good money to show us reality, to show us dodgy decisions, to show us things that happen randomly on the pitch. No one wants this random stuff thrown into a game world - where we'd rather rely on our own actions than std::srand().… Expand
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