FIFA 11 - Main Thread

Axwell

I was lucky enough to recently get to head over to EA in Surrey to the FIFA 11 Producers day and get to sit in on a presentation of the new game and its features, to play a 75% complete version of the game and speak to Line Producer David Rutter.

Key Features of FIFA 11:

Personality +

Personality+ Player models
New player models have been created which reflect player likeness and body type and how that player would react on the pitch to different situations. This creates clearly differentiated players with individual personalities. Dribble styles will also match that of the real life player and how they move and react with the ball.

Personality+ Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers have been improved to reflect their real life style of play whether they be acrobatic or traditional. They will also have a dive attribute which will affect their ability to reach further shots and deflect them away and a reflex attribute to determine their reaction times to shots etc. Goalkeeper AI has been improved based on response to feedback on FIFA 10 (See video)

Personality+ Celebrations
User Controlled Celebrations 2.0 enables you to perform your players’ trademark celebration & interact with teammates in real-time and celebrate as a group.

Pro Passing
A new passing system where pass accuracy is determined by a gamer’s ability on the control pad, and player skill, situation and urgency on the pitch. Poor decisions or over/under striking the ball will mean error-prone outcomes. New types of passes such as swerve passes will enable players to make a safer and more effective play. Depending on the player receiving the ball and their position be it defender, midfielder etc their ability to make the pass and the outcome of the pass will be determinded by the above. (See videos)

Personality Plus videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAODoypMeZs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BORh3qBVKM

Goalkeeper AI Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHq-u_92LXY

360 Degree physical interaction between players
A big part of the game this year is based around the 360 degree fight for possesion between players. Players will jostle and fight to hold off a defending player before a pass has been received, hold off players while making runs and attacks and shield players from making tackles to take the ball off their feet while maintaining possesion.

Advanced AI
This year the AI has been greatly improved - the CPU players now can perform skill moves and are controlled by a proper AI system which allows them to react to situations in play and determine the best decisions and their outcomes.

My Music and My Audio
With FIFA 11 players have the ability to import their own mp3s at the front end and then use these throughtout the game menus, as entrance music for their team coming out on the pitch or at key points in the game such as when they score a goal. Chants can also be downloaded from many of the sites online providing these and can then be assigned in the same fashion when your team comes out on the pitch or you score a goal. These can be assigned to individual teams or leagues. Due to the content being local you will only hear these chants and music on your own console but it adds another factor of realism to the game with the chant system.

Creation Centre
This allows you to go online and create your own players and put together a dream team based on the players you create. Every attribute of the player can be edited the way you want aswell as managing the overall team formations and tactics. You can also apply custom kits and crests to your team. These teams can then be used in the unranked modes of the game, in tournaments, kick-off matches and your players can be incorporated into the new career mode.

Career Mode
This year in FIFA 11 Manager Mode has been dropped and replaced with the impressive Career mode. This allows you to start as a real player, created player or your own Virtual Pro and evolve into a player-manager or a manager over your career. Players now receive instant feedback and enjoy a vastly improved status system. Plus, authentic tournament structures, results and new calendar system, featuring simultaneous simulations across multiple leagues. It also features new Team Management and an improved transfer system for simpler player comparison and Friends Leaderboards to compare stats and earnings.

FIFA Theatre
This allows you to save highlights from any match played. After the game you can go into the theatre and there will be the key highlights of the game which you can then watch, save to your hard drive and/or upload to easportsworld to show your friends. This also works with all online modes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMpkiT_CrcI

Axwell

During a short 10 minute interview with David Rutter I got to ask some questions based on the feedback given on here.

Indoor Football - There wont be indoor football in FIFA 11 however it may included in future versions. The main reason is that there has been a huge amount of work put into FIFA 11 to improve it on FIFA 10 and the work involved to try incorporate indoor football aswell would just be too much. A lot of work would have to go into developing the physics for rebounds off the wall etc and changing the keeper physics and AI to work with the smaller and lower goals.

Custom formations - Custom Formations at present have not been removed and are still part of the game. The developers however do have a kill switch which they can activate which would ban custom formations from all ranked modes. They however have not made a decision on whether or not to implement this as part of the game or not.

Manual Chips - As far as David Rutter is concerned the manual chips have been fixed for FIFA 11. Having played FIFA 11 myself I can say I agree and anyone who has played the World Cup game can see the improvements made in it also even though its made by a different development team. David did however point out that while they have fixed the manual chip no doubt people will look for and find some other exploit to use in FIFA 11.

Finesse Shooting from long distances out - Finesse shooting has changed a lot in FIFA 11 with the addition of Personality+ where individual players wont be able to accuratly achieve the same results doing the the finesse shot. So only skilled finishers and more accurate players will be able to score them and only from closer distances. David Rutter admitted himself to being a "finesse shot monster" and having to change his gamestyle for FIFA 11.

Save Language on start up screen - David wasnt aware that this appeared everytime and said that on his version it doesnt but that maybe on the commercial release it had been set that way. He took note of it and will look into it with the development team to see if its still an issue in FIFA 11.

Spectator Mode - Spectator mode isnt available in FIFA 11. Again due to the vast improvements and work gone into FIFA 11 this is something that may be considered down the line in future versions of the game.

Live Season matches and being paired with players who have live season when you dont - This one lead to a bit of a debate between myself and David. Obviously EA see Live Season as a way to generate revenue and also offer players something they can pay for which will give them an advantage over other players. I suggested that in reality while this is true it probably a) puts people off playing ranked matches and b) encourages quitting. I suggested that those with Live Season only be paired with those that have it, again he took note of the feedback and will discuss it with his development team.

AI in clubs - The AI in clubs has been improved so you no longer have a huge gap between that stats of the Pros and the otherplayers on the pitch.

Option to save replays and share with friends - As described above this feature is in FIFA 11 in the form of the FIFA Theatre.


Manager Mode glitch - Manager mode has been removed and replaced by the new career mode and they have looked into these glitches from the previous manager mode and looked to remove those.

Gameface for Mac - This will be available and should be finished at this stage.

Removing the crossbar glitch in clubs - This was one David wasnt aware of so he took note of the glitch to pass on to the developement team.

Quittters - Again this lead to a bit of a debate between myself and David. His argument was that sometimes people have a genuine reason for quitting and that the system gets sent a signal only after someone quits which is where the 3-0 result comes in. I suggested that anyone who has a genuine reason to quit will be turning off their console anyways and that in my opinion there is no need for a quit option in the menu during the game at all. That this made it to easy for quitters to simple pause and quit when they began to lose. That if there was no quit option it would be too much hassle for them to have to switch off the console or go to the dashboard and load the game up again. He acknowledged this and said he will look at it as a possible solution and removing the quit option from the menu.

Handball option - There is a handball setting this year in the game however it you need to turn it on in the options it isnt on by default and it isnt "controlable" during gameplay i.e the option to deliberately handball.


What I found from the interview and the day overall was the EA and David Rutters team are very open to feedback from the community that play the game. They have a facebook page and regularly read it and take note of comments and feedback along with the EA forums.

This feedback all gets compiled in a system they have called Dev Track which I got to see examples of on the day. It contains a worklist for the developers based on bugs and glitches they are working on themselves while creating FIFA 11 with individuals assigned to specific issues. It also contains a whole section with End-User Feedback (EF) which is a list of all the feedback people have given on the EA forums and facebook. These are all the bugs and glitches people reported in FIFA 10 and they assign people to work on these and fix them in FIFA 11.

I would suggest that people make use of the EA forums and the FIFA 10/11 facebook pages and voice their thoughts and opinions on the game and the bugs and glitches as these only help to improve the game each year and from talking to David that is his aim each year, to bring the fans and bigger and better game.

Just to note at the time I went over the game was 75% complete but still looked very polished and smooth. The gameplay has improved a great deal and the new personality+ and pro passing really add to the game and make it more realistic and more challenging. Im sure between now and the release at the start of October more details will be released and further tweaks will be made but at 75% I was hugely impressed by it compared to FIFA 10.

Thanks to David Rutter for his time and answering some of the questions put forward by our league members and to Boards.ie and Aoife and Sarah at O Leary PR for organising the trip!

neil_18_

Axwell wrote: »

Career Mode
This year in FIFA 11 Manager Mode has been dropped and replaced with the impressive Career mode. This allows you to start as a real player, created player or your own Virtual Pro and evolve into a player-manager or a manager over your career. Players now receive instant feedback and enjoy a vastly improved status system. Plus, authentic tournament structures, results and new calendar system, featuring simultaneous simulations across multiple leagues. It also features new Team Management and an improved transfer system for simpler player comparison and Friends Leaderboards to compare stats and earnings.

What?! :eek:

Do you have to start as a player or is there an option to start as a manager?

Axwell

neil_18_ wrote: »

What?! :eek:

Do you have to start as a player or is there an option to start as a manager?

You can start as a manager aswell and play a 15 year career. Along with the options of being a player or player-manager.

neil_18_

Axwell wrote: »

You can start as a manager aswell and play a 15 year career. Along with the options of being a player or player-manager.

Phew. Thanks for all the info. I never post in here but i've been lurking around everyday since you met with the producers!

Axwell

neil_18_ wrote: »

Phew. Thanks for all the info. I never post in here but i've been lurking around everyday since you met with the producers!

No problem!

thewools

Looks very promising - if they can sort out the quitters to a degree then the game will be A1++++++

joe123

Cheers for all that Axwell. Im veering on the opposite of what most are thinking on Fifa 11. I think this new personality plus thing could ruin the game. Already its bad enough trying to get games against people who are willing to not pick an Inter,Madrid,Barca or Chelsea.

But what it sounds like to me is now the bigger teams and better players will have even more of an advantage over the lesser ones.

Axwell did they say anything else on the custom formations/tactics? Obviously they know its a problem if they have a kill switch for them?

Axwell

joe123 wrote: »

Axwell did they say anything else on the custom formations/tactics? Obviously they know its a problem if they have a kill switch for them?

David Rutter didnt consider it a "problem" as such, he believes as do I that custom formations are part of the game and during the world cup plenty of teams played custom formations including the"6-0-4". However they are aware that people obviously go that step further and have an 8 at the back or a clustered christmas tree type formation etc like you see in clubs and stuff which is why they developed the kill switch. They just havent decided yet whether to enforce it or not as part of the ranked game setup. The game was only 75% finished at this stage and they were still working on it so its one of these things that will be decided before the game comes out. Again this is why feedback on the EA forums and facebook are important. To voice your opinion on what the fans do or dont like and its something he and his team really look at and take on board.

NTMK

two articles from euro and ign
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fifa-11-hands-on
http://ie.ps3.ign.com/articles/110/1108064p1.html

joe123

Axwell wrote: »

David Rutter didnt consider it a "problem" as such, he believes as do I that custom formations are part of the game and during the world cup plenty of teams played custom formations including the"6-0-4". However they are aware that people obviously go that step further and have an 8 at the back or a clustered christmas tree type formation etc like you see in clubs and stuff which is why they developed the kill switch. They just havent decided yet whether to enforce it or not as part of the ranked game setup. The game was only 75% finished at this stage and they were still working on it so its one of these things that will be decided before the game comes out. Again this is why feedback on the EA forums and facebook are important. To voice your opinion on what the fans do or dont like and its something he and his team really look at and take on board.

I know its not the place to debate the whole custom tactic thing again. But when teams in the world cup had defensive formations they werent just able to counter attack so quickly. In fifa its like wall of defense....bypass midfield and you then have four forwards v four defenders. That never happend in the world cup.

Axwell

joe123 wrote: »

I know its not the place to debate the whole custom tactic thing again. But when teams in the world cup had defensive formations they werent just able to counter attack so quickly. In fifa its like wall of defense....bypass midfield and you then have four forwards v four defenders. That never happend in the world cup.

Its not the place to debate it as you say and its been done to death at this stage so theres no point. But based on FIFA 11 and the new features this is one of the reasons for the pro passing, you cant do the quick ping pong passing from FIFA 10 and just pass the ball up to the striker perfectly from the defence with 2 or 3 passes that go exactly to each player.

These are the improvements they are putting into it to try and counter other issues without taking out elements completely. I dont know if they will turn off the custom formations during ranked matches or not, its something that will be revealed closer to the time if they decide to but even if they dont the game play has noticeably changed a lot with these new features that people will have to adjust to a different style of gameplay and tactics and how they generally play the game.

Helix

every time i meet rutter he manages to give me guff for being a villa fan

every time

even at e3 when he walked past me in the lobby

for this i shall always reserve a special piece of mock hatred

also, i have to say, when i played it in may i found there to be bugger all difference between 11 and 10, apart from the fact that the ps3 version looks infinitely better than the 360 one

corcaigh07

Axwell wrote: »

Manual Chips - As far as David Rutter is concerned the manual chips have been fixed for FIFA 11. Having played FIFA 11 myself I can say I agree and anyone who has played the World Cup game can see the improvements made in it also even though its made by a different development team. David did however point out that while they have fixed the manual chip no doubt people will look for and find some other exploit to use in FIFA 11.

Finesse Shooting from long distances out - Finesse shooting has changed a lot in FIFA 11 with the addition of Personality+ where individual players wont be able to accuratly achieve the same results doing the the finesse shot. So only skilled finishers and more accurate players will be able to score them and only from closer distances. David Rutter admitted himself to being a "finesse shot monster" and having to change his gamestyle for FIFA 11.

get in! two major problems fixed, big steps in making a better game. Im a bit worried at why they are including a delibate handball though!

GTR63

I'd rather they just fix the Glitches of Manager Mode than try to stick the Be a Pro into it.Although the Be a Pro Seasons are a boring chore to get through.Doesn't sound like we'll get a indoor mode soon,it doesn't have to have the physics of a normal game on grass,i'd just like it to be fun.

Axwell

Helix wrote: »

also, i have to say, when i played it in may i found there to be bugger all difference between 11 and 10

Im not sure how complete the game was in May when you played it but I find that impossible to believe to be honest. The way players jostle alone is a huge difference in gameplay, players jostle for control to win the ball back, shield the ball while running with it or position themselves shielding the opponent before receiving the ball, they control the ball while running moving it away from the person jostling with them to keep it out of reach.

The headers are completely different too with different header animations depending on the position of the player and the type of header required, whether a power header when attacking the ball like say Puyol in the box attacking from a corner for Spain or a defensive header just knocking it down to a team mate.

Each of these has a different animation assigned to it. The graphics are more crisp and there are more details gone into each player including facial expressions. Thats just some of the features from playing it for the while I did a few weeks ago.

Helix

no new stadiums either

Kirby

corcaigh07 wrote: »

get in! two major problems fixed, big steps in making a better game. Im a bit worried at why they are including a delibate handball though!

Realism. Football simulations should represent what goes on in real football. And you can't do it on purpose so it isn't open to abuse. And its off by default. So purists can use it if they want.....which is good.

Helix

Axwell wrote: »

Im not sure how complete the game was in May when you played it but I find that impossible to believe to be honest. The way players jostle alone is a huge difference in gameplay, players jostle for control to win the ball back, shield the ball while running with it or position themselves shielding the opponent before receiving the ball, they control the ball while running moving it away from the person jostling with them to keep it out of reach.

The headers are completely different too with different header animations depending on the position of the player and the type of header required, whether a power header when attacking the ball like say Puyol in the box attacking from a corner for Spain or a defensive header just knocking it down to a team mate.

Each of these has a different animation assigned to it. The graphics are more crisp and there are more details gone into each player including facial expressions. Thats just some of the features from playing it for the while I did a few weeks ago.

it was 50% done in may, and it played pretty much identical to 10

graphics are certainly crisper, and a little more detailed, but the meat of the game was very much the same. im not entirely sure how much of the new gameplay stuff we were playing though, coz they seemed more intent on showing off the custom chants and the fact that the players eyes follow the ball, rather than talking about gameplay mechanics, so i suspect we were given essentially fifa 10 with the new visual mechanics lobbed in there

didnt bother playing it again at e3 though

SantryRed

In regards indoor football I doubt we'll ever get it tbh. They'd probably make a whole new game for it ala FIFA Street 1 and 2.

Axwell

corcaigh07 wrote: »

get in! two major problems fixed, big steps in making a better game. Im a bit worried at why they are including a delibate handball though!

Its a feature they have but its not something you can control, for example you cant just press B and do a handball. The impression I got was that it will happen in situations where a player will say try take down a ball coming over his shoulder and will handle it trying to cushion it and get called up on it by the ref. More an addition of something that happens in real life than a new action you can take in the game.

They have improved things like the way a player runs on to the ball, for example running past the ball and then trying to take a shot with the ball almost under your foot or behind you, also players run on to balls coming over the top rather than stand and look behind them watching it coming towards them. So I think its more in that situation where the handball might happen or for example the ball ricochets off a players arm during a freekick and a handball is given.

GTR63

Helix wrote: »

every time i meet rutter he manages to give me guff for being a villa fan

every time

even at e3 when he walked past me in the lobby

for this i shall always reserve a special piece of mock hatred

also, i have to say, when i played it in may i found there to be bugger all difference between 11 and 10, apart from the fact that the ps3 version looks infinitely better than the 360 one

I hope they improve the 360 version.If this statement is true.Can't stand the PS3 Controller particularly the L2/R2 Triggers & the fact they won't put the Left Analogue Stick where the D-pad is.Surely they've a few new modes.

Axwell

Helix wrote: »

it was 50% done in may, and it played pretty much identical to 10

graphics are certainly crisper, and a little more detailed, but the meat of the game was very much the same. im not entirely sure how much of the new gameplay stuff we were playing though, coz they seemed more intent on showing off the custom chants and the fact that the players eyes follow the ball, rather than talking about gameplay mechanics, so i suspect we were given essentially fifa 10 with the new visual mechanics lobbed in there

didnt bother playing it again at e3 though

Well it sounds like a lot of the Pro passing and Personality+ wasnt part of what you played based on that. The eye movement tracking the ball etc was something myself and a few others I was with noticed during replays and messing around with those but wasnt something they really focussed on during the presentation so I can only gather that this was the next stage of the game at 75% with a lot more added in than when it was at 50%.

Helix

aye 50% is generally only a "well it runs" point. we even crashed it twice tbh - though i think one of those times was through the shock of emile heskey scoring a goal

Axwell

Helix wrote: »

aye 50% is generally only a "well it runs" point. we even crashed it twice tbh - though i think one of those times was through the shock of emile heskey scoring a goal

LOL well that was an understandable reason for it to crash. What we played was much further on and apart from some textures for kits etc not being finished on all teams the game was running and working like a finished product. Obviously the other game modes werent in the menu so we couldnt try them out on the version we got to play but there was huge differences in the gameplay between it and FIFA 10.

Fowler87

So going by the new features, EA are trying to revert to a more manual style of sim which can only be a good thing. Finally the end of the no midfield game!

Axwell did you mention to Rutter whether there will be any changes/impacts for people using full manual controls compared to the default assisted setting, ie the quicker speed of power bar or whether more win points are awarded to people who choose to use manual controls against opponents using assisted controls?? Thanks

corcaigh07

Axwell wrote: »

Its a feature they have but its not something you can control, for example you cant just press B and do a handball. The impression I got was that it will happen in situations where a player will say try take down a ball coming over his shoulder and will handle it trying to cushion it and get called up on it by the ref. More an addition of something that happens in real life than a new action you can take in the game.

They have improved things like the way a player runs on to the ball, for example running past the ball and then trying to take a shot with the ball almost under your foot or behind you, also players run on to balls coming over the top rather than stand and look behind them watching it coming towards them. So I think its more in that situation where the handball might happen or for example the ball ricochets off a players arm during a freekick and a handball is given.

read it wrong, thought you could abuse it, lol!

@Kirby, you said that now and its good in theory but i can see you ranting and raving when it happens in-game time and again. I mean the ball hitting the ref is good in theory as well but not when it happens in almost every game breaking down your attacking move and starting the other guys attack.

Handball was in on of the old good PES(maybe 5?) and i remember not one person liked the handball rule as it slowed play up for something neither player has any control over.

EDIT:its off by default, no big deal. i should read more slowly and carefully!

Lamposts

Shame the custom formations are still there. At least they won't be in clubs anyway.

Axwell

Fowler87 wrote: »

Axwell did you mention to Rutter whether there will be any changes/impacts for people using full manual controls compared to the default assisted setting, ie the quicker speed of power bar or whether more win points are awarded to people who choose to use manual controls against opponents using assisted controls?? Thanks

I didnt but I dont think it was mentioned in the other thread as a question. We only got a 10 minute slot with him anyways and some of the more common questions people wanted answered led to a bit of a debate which made it difficult to even fit in as many as I did. Im sure if you post on the EA forum or facebook you would get a response about it. He has a twitter account too which he replies to when he gets time and answers questions. I know he is only back in Vancouver since this morning though after the Producer tour for the last 2 weeks or so, so I would imagine he might be slow to reply for a day or two while he catches up on some R&R.

Nothing asked about online momentum?.... that's the big breaker for me i have to say.

Would consider it more worthwhile then asking about Indoor which was just some pipe dream that got started on here, it was never going to happen, it hasn't featured in 12 years and the games were more arcade-y then so it was easier to implement

Good read all the same.

Thanks

GTR63

Axwell at the end of IGN article they teased Be a Pro Keepers did they mention this & did they mention any new game modes for this years game.