FIFA 21 Discussion (Console Versions)

(Game engine image from next generation console)

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Great, clouds looks more HD..
 

Basically what we already knew.

Some nice little tidbits in the Deep Dive. I like a few of the changes/enhancements on paper.
 
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The only thing I wanted to know more about was the 'enhanced opposition AI'. It's the only thing that's not even mentioned in the pitch notes. Nice. Don't care at all about anything not gameplay related. I imagine that if you care about off the pitch features/systems that was a bit underwhelming.

Wake me up on the next leaked video from the beta I guess. Hopefully the guy who will sacrifice his account won't waste our time again by playing on beginner level or something.
 
Odd that they didn't touch upon the "enhanced AI" in the Deep Dive, but mentioned it in the trailer? Is the enhanced AI just the AI they touted in the initial trailer? As in, the one that's supposed to mimic "FUT pros?" Is it different? I mean, that should be number one with a bullet at the top of the Pitch Notes page!
 
The only thing I wanted to know more about was the 'enhanced opposition AI'. It's the only thing that's not even mentioned in the pitch notes. Nice. Don't care at all about anything not gameplay related. I imagine that if you care about off the pitch features/systems that was a bit underwhelming.

Wake me up on the next leaked video from the beta I guess. Hopefully the guy who will sacrifice his account won't waste our time again by playing on beginner level or something.

Trying to get breadcrumbs where I can, it was interesting to see the spots movement on those gif in the pitch notes. It looks like cb are marking the opposition striker when their team is in possession of the ball. If it actually happens in the actual gameplay too, then that's something new compared with 20.
 
Can't deny, from the video, I really like the training change.

That's the second major career mode change in two years (the first one being the change in the morale system, introducing press conferences and player conversations) that I think is a genuinely big, innovative change that adds another dimension to your career mode - having to keep everyone happy.

(Innovative for football games anyway - Football Manager has been doing this stuff for years, but we'll never get half of FM's features.)

Figuring out your training so that you don't overwork players, but keep their sharpness, AND keep them happy? That's pretty brilliant.

...IF, and only IF, it's balanced properly. If it's easy to max-out fitness, sharpness and morale every week, then what's the point - and that's exactly the problem with the morale system too. Unhappy squad? Just tell the press you believe in them, and their morale is as high as a title-winning team's (and they all get massive attribute bonuses that completely ruin the gameplay).

Two genuinely fantastic additions, that are absolutely pointless if they're not implemented properly (unless you're on PC, in which case, a modder like @paulv2k4 might fix it for you, if you're lucky).

...

The AI bit at the end of the video is promising as well. Yes, it doesn't make up for all the "agile dribbling" bullshit. No, I don't think the gameplay will be amazing now. But it 100% proves that they know what's important to Career Mode players. There's no talk of how much easier it is to dribble, or how it's easier to score. What we get is "it's harder to get through the AI defence".

I mean, who thought we'd ever hear EA saying "it's harder to break through the defence" without it sounding like a bug report?

All their marketing up to this point has been about how much easier it is to beat defenders and score goals. Yet with the Career Mode stuff they're talking about the exact opposite. So... I think that raises big questions.

They know what we want. When do we get it? Will the game become a GaaS on next-gen? Will we ever get a split in development? They seem to accept that Career Mode guys don't want to score more goals. They know we're out here! That's what that trailer says to me.

Trying to get breadcrumbs where I can, it was interesting to see the spots movement on those gif in the pitch notes. It looks like cb are marking the opposition striker when their team is in possession of the ball. If it actually happens in the actual gameplay too, then that's something new compared with 20.

I noticed this too.

I'm trying not to be hopeful because that would clearly be insane - and I'm also really pissed off that the EA head guy was talking about how Career Mode has had so much done to it. I really, really wouldn't say it's changed a great deal, if you can get through all of it in a less-than-three-minute trailer.
 
Trying to get breadcrumbs where I can, it was interesting to see the spots movement on those gif in the pitch notes. It looks like cb are marking the opposition striker when their team is in possession of the ball. If it actually happens in the actual gameplay too, then that's something new compared with 20.

They've already mentioned this before though. And they've said that it requires two cbs with really high defensive awareness stats or something. So I guess we can talk again about whether players should do the basic things regardless of stats or not :))

Also doesn't this look way too rigid? Looks like another situation where everybody is standing around while a 1v1 is going on. But yeah not gonna fret too much. We'll have too see more.

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Holy shit. Another big thing (to me) I've just noticed.

You can see the opponent's "probable lineup" and tactics (not even their ACTUAL lineup, which would have been the way I thought they would have implemented this) before a game, so that you can adjust your tactics accordingly.

Fair play. I've begged for this for years.

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Also...

I'm taking from this:

"Much like in real life football, the speed at which players develop depends on their age, abilities, potential, form, and playtime. Give a young player with great potential a few games and help him perform, and he will turn into a better player at an accelerated rate. Keeping him on the sidelines for too long can have the opposite effect, so it’s up to you to make the decisions that work best for your team."

...to mean that high morale doesn't boost player attributes any more. Which would be a big tick for realism.
 
Hm, a not-so-good thing I've just read in the Pitch Notes. Regarding the new training system:

"When simulating a Drill, the grade you get will always be the highest grade that you’ve obtained when playing it. By default, Drills that you haven’t played yet will award a maximum grade of “D” when you choose to simulate them."

So if I get an A+ in a drill, for the rest of my career mode save, if I sim that drill, it'll be an A+?

Am I reading that right?
 
Hm, a not-so-good thing I've just read in the Pitch Notes. Regarding the new training system:

"When simulating a Drill, the grade you get will always be the highest grade that you’ve obtained when playing it. By default, Drills that you haven’t played yet will award a maximum grade of “D” when you choose to simulate them."

So if I get an A+ in a drill, for the rest of my career mode save, if I sim that drill, it'll be an A+?

Am I reading that right?

If that's the case, that's OP as hell. It would have at least made more sense if the maximum you could get was based on ratings obtained from playing it.
 
Some of the changes to off-pitch stuff like player morale/development and training stuff sounds nice, I'm not going to not give credit where it is due... But it's also completely pointless if the gameplay on the pitch is so garbage.

It's like being able choose a nicer bread for a literal shit sandwich. Still not going to eat it are you? If the filling (gameplay) was passable, then the bread being nicer (modes/extras) might make it much more enjoyable. With anything like current FUT style gameplay, I wouldn't play it even if the career mode was better than FM.

This "Deep Dive" was about the last shred of hope remaining for seeing something like offline specific sim gameplay. I guess I'll check back next year to say the same about FIFA 22.
 
Once again, there's a deep dive Q&A session - I've asked the following, please give them a like if you think an answer would be nice!

EDIT: Never mind, the Q&A has already started, bloody hell.




 
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The answers so far (will update the thread as they tweet):




(Shit, sorry about that above one @Placebo...)



(The above answer only applies if you buy the special edition, so disregard it!)
 
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Continued (Evo-Web only allows you to post five pieces of media at a time)...





 
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It's all moot until we know for sure that the Career Mode fixtures are going to be challenging on the highest difficulty. I don't care about advanced training drills, being able to see the opposition's first 11 pre-match or if you have total control of every player's diet - IF this game is easy as piss like it has been in FIFA 17, 18, 19 and 20 then I'm not interested.

And I don't trust EA when it comes to fixing AI with the god awful Frostbite Engine (I presume they're still using it? I haven't read otherwise.)
 
A lot of stuff to digest. Some of the new things sounds awesome, if they'll manage to keep the career gameplay somewhat safe from the online fiesta we could have a very good game. Problem is I don't think they entirely will.
 
Continued again (apologies for the spam, but it's handy to reference)...






(Hey, they answered one of mine! And it turns out they really have fucked up this feature!)
 
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Any talk of a co-op mode within Career Mode in FIFA 21? I'd love to play through a few seasons with a friend.
 
Any talk of a co-op mode within Career Mode? I'd love to play through a few seasons with a friend.
Nope. They'd have mentioned it by now if that was in (because a co-op mode has been added to FUT)...

(Thank God for Parsec on PC, and Share Play on PS4, which gives you a perfectly functional workaround.)
 
Nope. They'd have mentioned it by now if that was in (because a co-op mode has been added to FUT)...

(Thank God for Parsec on PC, and Share Play on PS4, which gives you a perfectly functional workaround.)
Thanks Chris.

I've never thought of using Share Play before - is it laggy?
 
Thanks Chris.

I've never thought of using Share Play before - is it laggy?
Works pretty flawlessly in my experience, except that the video quality is a little muddy on the other end. But it doesn't bother me (and you can do it with just one copy of the game)!
 
Continued, again... Hey, at least they're answering questions...


That's the most interesting thing I've read all day. Wish they could expand more. I was getting a bit tired with the hundreds of questions about training. Do people enjoy clicking at menus and watching numbers go up so much? 😆

Hopefully it means what I think it means. That stronger teams will try to attack you/press more and weaker teams will be more defensive regardless of their default tactics. If true, great! As long as tactics are balanced and playing against an attacking team does not mean easily exploiting the space they leave behind and scoring 5 on the counter, lol.
 
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