My FIFA 09 is on its way. I might get it sometime this week. While I’m highly curious how it would play and how I would like it, I also want to look back at the gripes I had with FIFA 08 to see if FIFA 09 addresses these issues. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, you must be new to football gaming. Bear with me and the rest of the gamers in BlueChampions. We’ll dedicate most of this international break to the new king of football gaming - FIFA 09. By the way, if you’re not a gamer, it’s not too late to start - buy a XBOX 360 and FIFA 09 - your life will be complete.

Remember, I had written a very positive review on FIFA 08 in this very blog. Now, I’ll start finding faults with the game I have enjoyed so much. While I have enjoyed this game so much so far, the only reason why I’m now listing down the gripes is to later on review the FIFA 09 game to see if they have been taken care of. Okay, here we go:

Game speed

Slow gameplay is nice. I hate the arcadish speed. The game must slow enough for you to think and execute tactics and moves. Slow game speed looks rather realistic but actually it is not. FIFA 08 is slower than the pace of the premier league. So how exactly is this slow game play achieved? The players move slowly, turn slowly, react slowly and the ball also moves slowly. This does not help when you want to make a quick counter attack or do a blitzkreig with blistering pace. This works best with slow build up play. Sure that’s one popular way of playing but quick attacks should also be possible.

Many a times, players don’t react quick enough. Their actions are no way near our speed of thought. You see some space somewhere and think of a smart move but by the time our player gets the ball, holds it and turns and then runs, the smart move is no longer smart. Even short passing game is not possible in FIFA 08. For short passing, the passes should be quick and the first touch should be spot on. FIFA 08 will reward you if the opponent does not press you much. If you get someone who closes down you at every opportunity, you’ll find it quite tough in FIFA 08.

Response time

There is a considerable gap between your button press and the action/animation by the player. This actually kills the game. In reality, I’ve got accustomed to this delay and have even adjusted my playing style to accommodate this problem. This delay kills the creativity as you painfully go through the motions. This also results in button bashing which in turn results in more investment in controllers. At times, because of the slow response time, the game feels like you’re playing in the worst pitch muddled with rain. I’ve soon realised that you need to play differently in these circumstances. That’s good thinking but when will I play football the way I like, the way I want to?

Poor AI colleagues

Your opponent AI players are all playing like Brazil while your own AI colleagues play like division 2 players. That’s unfortunate. Many times, you’d have the ball and expect your AI colleague to use the space ahead and run so that you can give him the ball, but you’ll see him standing there watching you. Such things are very common and they were a big issue with the game. When the AI colleague I’m talking about a Drogba or a Joe Cole, how could they just be watching instead of making a run? It does not do justice to the attribute stats that FIFA 08 has assigned to them.

Also, when you play co-op in offline or online, every now and then you might collide with your co-op partner. It sounds so stupid to say that because we are supposed to be controlling the players but the collisions are out of our control. This can be such a downer when it happens in the attack in the final third or in the defending third when the opponent is closing in on goal.

All are equal

FIFA 08 had a socialistic approach to the player attributes. Except the big boys like Drogba, Torres, Ronaldo etc, most of the rest are almost the same. I can pretty well play with any 11 players on the pitch and get the same performance and the result. Only the real star players make a difference. This makes the choice of first eleven quite easy. This is unreal. Pro Evo was class in this aspect. Each and every player had their specialty and you could see that on the pitch. Wish it’s back in FIFA09.

Also there is no fatigue factor in the game. Though the energy bar shows that the energy is reducing, you can play with all players for 90 minutes without making any subs. The fatigue and the reduction in energy levels are not very pronounced. Essien can run around for even 120 minutes but certainly not Anelka?!

Passing game

Passing accuracy was a pain. Even the best of players had problems is making simple passes. In a single player game, it’s quite difficult because the pass receiver would initially be under AI’s control. At least in multiplayer co-op games, you could tell your mate to be alert and receive the pass, when you’re about to pass. In football, the weight of the pass would differ between a 5 yard pass and a 20 yard pass. In FIFA 08, the passes were weighted almost the same irrespective of how long you pass on the ground. This resulted in too many intercepted passes.

Fewer throughballs

Through passes are an important weapon in attacking football. Not always easy to play the perfect through pass but they are quite common in professional football. Again, through balls have to be quick. There is no such thing called a slow throughball. If it’s slow, defenders will catch it. Throughballs don’t work not just because of the speed of the pass, it is because they are not supposed to work.

If the striker S1 is between defenders D1 and D2, and if S1 is closer to D1, when you make through ball in the region of S1 and D2, the ball should go between them. In FIFA 08, it would go straight to D2. That’s because the coding is such. When you release a through ball towards a particular direction, the path of the ball is modified by say 10 degrees. It does not see if the ball would end up at the feet of the defender or not. The code should be like this. When you release a through pass towards S1 and D2, the ball should go in the space between S1 and D2. Of course the player stats would determine how accurate this will be. Also there is thing called defender’s positional play.

Fewer Long Shots

Long shots are dumb. I’ve scored long shots and have seen people score as well in FIFA 08. But the success ratio is very low. When you give space and time to a Lampard or a Ballack at a 25 to 30 yard distance, at least 8 out of 10 times, they would trouble the keeper. You can say that I suck at this game. But I know that I win 4 out of 5 online matches. I can’t be too bad. The long shots don’t go in because of the way the ball physics is made. The ball physics is not really true.

Like in all video games, this game is also scripted to behave in a certain way, but not the accurate way. If everything happened the way it should, most of us would master the game and start winning easily. That would impact the longevity of the game. The game makers will make sure that it is difficult for you to master. Beyond a point, they will also give some unfair advantage to the AI opponent to make things difficult for you so you keep you interest.

The unfair AI advantage

This exists in every single game but the art of game making is in hiding this advantage as much as possible and making the gamer believe that he has to do better. Many times FIFA 08 unashamedly shows the injustice to the human player by boosting the AI to an incredible extent. You think Colchester would ever make a string of 10 passes in the attacking third? I understand that at higher difficulty levels, it should be tougher for the human opponent. But even a mediocre Chelsea would be too strong for a good Colchester. This also means that at high difficulty levels, There is very little difference between the teams. Because when the AI wants a certain result, it would get it. That’s why you mistake Bolton for Barcelona sometimes.

Dark Nights

Night matches are not bright enough. Day matches are fine. Matches at dusk are lovely. The night matches are not just illuminated enough. The bright part of the rectangle pitch is in the shape of a PSP, while all the corners and sidelines are pretty dark. When I play offline, I particularly avoid playing night matches. They even affect the game play to some effect. In reality, night matches excites me much more than day matches. Only in FIFA 08, as much as possible, I completely stay away from them.

Cheap tricks

There were many cheap tricks in this game, the most popular is what you might have encountered in online games, called ‘cut-back kings’. Those are the guys who pick teams like Man Utd and sprint down the wings like crazy and make inch perfect high-speed low cross to the box (aka cut-back) to be easily finished by their waiting striker. This works best with teams that have very fast individual players like Ronaldo.

Cut back is a very common tactic in the online games. It nearly killed the online gaming of FIFA 08. I soon learned how to tackle them and it is no longer a problem for me now. I can restrict them with my tactics. But these guys do only this all the 90 minutes. Every single time they get the possession, they give it to Ronaldo, run down the wing like a train and then cut back. In a way, it was the fault of the game. In real football, it is not this easy to perform a cut back. The fact that cut backs are a very sure shot method to score in online FIFA 08 against most opponents forced the ‘cut back kings’ not to try any other method or simply play football. Cut backs take the fun out of the game, especially for people like me who play the game for fun and not for points or ranks.

Teams on Turbo Boost

Some teams have been rated very very highly that the gap between them and the rest is wider than it is in real football. This is an issue in online gaming. Until Jan 2008 update, it was Barcelona and after that it was Man Utd. They were too good to be stopped. But then again, you learn to play them and then to beat them. Not really an issue for me, but most online gamers they hated to play Man Utd or Barcelona. I don’t have a problem in having some super teams, which are way above the rest. But then when I play as Sevilla and beat Man Utd, I should be getting more points than what the Man Utd would get in beating me as Sevilla.

In other words, if you play with smaller teams, you should get more points when you win and lose less points when you lose the match. That would make things fair. Again, it’s not for me as I don’t care about my points or rank, but it would be fair for the thousands of them who take it seriously. Especially the people who always choose Man Utd, irrespective of who they actually support, choose them only to win games and score points. An point adjustment in line with the team chosen, would at least discourage them from choosing Man Utd all the time. You’ll get an idea when I say 8 out of my 10 opponents would be Man Utd, while I play as Chelsea, Bayern, Sevilla, Valencia, Roma, Rangers etc.

Shortened Be A Pro experience

Be A Pro was a fantastic feature in FIFA 08 but unfortunately you could only play one-off exhibition matches. If you had played ‘captain you country’ in Euro 2008, you’ll know how Be A Pro should have been. I’d love to play Be A Pro just like the ‘captain your country’ mode. You can deny that it was a great appetizer to have just exhibition matches for Be A Pro. I have tried playing as centre back and wing backs and have realised how difficult it is play in defence. Be A Pro is a mode that would enhance your football knowledge and experience immensely in terms of understanding the game, positioning and decision making. Be A Pro should have been a longer feature.

At the time it was released, FIFA 08 was a great game. It was the best of the lot. It was the closest thing to real football. I thoroughly enjoyed my online and offline experiences with FIFA 08. I’ve had some great moments with this game having played countless hours of virtual football. Despite all those things I have mentioned above, I loved and still love FIFA 08 and hope that FIFA 09 is a better game.

I’ve played the demo of FIFA 09 and have read the expert and user reviews. So I can confidently say that FIFA 09 would be the best ever football game. I’ll play FIFA 09 and post the reviews this weekend. See you!