Games today.. I.e. Fifa.

So I like playing games, not all games, but I play most types of games and often enjoy them.

Maybe it's my age (25) but lately, playing games just isn't as fun as it used to be.  I have thought about why they aren't as fun before and I have come to the conclusion that it is the gaming companies not making as good-a-quality games as they used to.

Before I start, let me say that I use the Playstation 3.  I have had an Xbox360 but it broke after playing far too much Gears of War 2.  I like to think I am half-decent at playing games but I am not what I have come to accept 'l33t' at them... It's very much a spare time hobby to me. 

Before the PS3 I had PS2 and PS1, before that I had a Mega Drive and a Master System, before that an Amstrad 229293923 (or something!) - a fair few generations of consoles I think you'll agree.  Obviously being 25 I missed what I like to call the 'golden days' of gaming machines such as the Atari and Commodore 64 etc but I have played them by lending them from older friends' garages or lofts. 

Oh, I also own a Wii...

So why have I -after 18 years of enjoying games when growing up - begun to question the enjoyment I am getting out of the newest iterations of the gaming universe?  Is it because games are now released, without being released as full games?  Is it that - as I mature - my tastes and opinions of what is good and what is bad differing?  Or could it be that they are getting worse??

Well in my opinion - Some games are getting worse and it's mostly due to how successful they have become.. 

Let's look at a company called EA (Electronic Arts).  They have produced a series of games since 1994 called FIFA (add number).  I have owned every, single one since the first, I am a football (English to our American friends) fan, I am OK at playing it in the real world and I enjoy playing it in the virtual world.  I have played the good versions and the bad versions but the latest couple of versions have been sub-standard.

Being a football game means that there is a new version released every single year.  This is mostly because a lot of changes occur in football over a year, whether it be players moving clubs, new young players becoming professionals, older players retiring, changes in the kits or even rule changes.  But these aren't the things that bother me, these things can't become worse, these things are sort of, set in stone as it were..

My gripe about FIFA is, the things that were bad in the older versions are still untouched in the new ones.  For one example, FIFA Clubs - A mode in which you, along with other real people, play for one club as a single player - has had one or two fundamentally erronous flaws for about 2/3 years.  Having browsed the 'official' forums of the game, I can safely say that I am not alone in thinking this but having a human controlled goalkeeper is often so overpowered, that he can make incredible - often impossible - saves by holding 1 or 2 buttons on the control pad. 

Being a goalkeeper isn't a problem, some people actually do want to play as the goal keeper, but when there is a moving circle which indicates where you should stand and a button dedicated to keeping you within it, I can't help but feel it can be a little cheap when it is coupled with sub-fraction of a second reflexes and the ability to make the goalkeeper 6"7'ft - effectively 'filling' the goal. 

I made a little mental tally of how many games my team (who don't use a goalkeeper) won against a team who play with a goalkeeper:

Played 9: Won 2, Drew 4, Lost 3

In 1 game out of those 9, my team scored more than 1 goal (2).  This kind of makes the game boring and predictable.  It also makes the games play out all the same because there are only a very few ways in which to score past a human controlled goalkeeper.  One of these ways is to get free of the defence and pass sideways to a team mate when 2 on 1 against the goalkeeper.  The problem is, is that scoring this way repeatedly is both 'cheap' and boring, not to mention it only works 6 times out of 10..

Another problem is the AI (artificial 'intelligence') doing incomprehensibly stupid things.  The one thing which drives myself and the FIFA playing community crazy is the goal kick problem.  This occurs when the AI goalkeeper (on your team) is about to take a goal kick and passes it along the ground to the first defender in front of him, despite there being an opposition player stood right in front of him.  When the goalkeeper does pass it and the ball is inevitably intercepted it leaves the attacking player a simple 'tap in'. 

As is the original point of this blog - these problems have been in the game since 2009 (not the human goalkeeper, that feature was only included in 2010 onwards) so why have they not been corrected?  What are the millions of people who pay £40 a year actually paying for except new looking menus, updated teams and rosters and updated kits? 

The newest game has been out since the end of October 2011, feedback to the company through the 'official' forums have been pleaded for since December but still, the requests of thousands fall on deaf ears..

No doubt that when the patch is released sometime in February that EA will claim to be the good guys in 'updating the teams for free' since the January transfer window has now closed.. My question is, 'why not fix the core of your game?'. 

I would start on downloadable content, but I think that might well be saved for another day, this blog is already long enough and I've only just started on one or two of the games problems!

If you got this far, I hope you have a good week, thanks for reading,

Mr C.