Customer Reviews

FIFA Soccer 11

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I'm a huge FIFA fan, and owner of 08, 09 and 10. I thought it couldn't get any better after FIFA 10, or at least didn't thought about possible add-ons, when I first played the demo my first impressions weren't exactly the best, yes the gameplay has improved a lot and become more real, but the actual fact is that the best thing about FIFA was it's feeling of an unreal/real football, the game speed, players movement, players passing and crossing were all really fast (becoming actually faster than real life) so it felt very competitive. This game has become more realistic reducing it's speed as a con, at least those were my impressions from the demo.

Even though I turned on the fast game speed on, the game still feels a bit slow against FIFA 10, but that's not an issue because it is the right speed (at least for me) not being too fast, nor too slow. In the earlier FIFAs you didn't have to be a gamer to be good, you just had to know about football, and that had it's pros and cons, being its pros that anyone could play it and it became more competitive, and was a blast with your friends (even though none of them were video game geeks), this new FIFA version is more difficult to play and requires more skills to be able to master it, for instance I hated when someone who never played video games before beat me up on FIFA, this won't happen now. It is a completely new gameplay and you will feel like everything you knew about FIFA is gone.

The free kicks are brilliant and very effective and easy to learn (if you played FIFA 10), the 11 vs 11 matches promise a lot and you will almost feel like you are playing a real match, the career mode didn't get any new features worth mentioning, except for the be a pro goalkeeper which is fun the first matches but gets quite boring after several matches, and the squads are all updated (in the demo Madrid didn't have Ozil for example), the crowd chants and new celebrations are fantastic and very impressive can be a huge plus for fun overall. In addition to, the dribbling feels improved and more realistic and there are even new teams to the roster, plus the new Personality+ which is great but it should cover more players and not the mainstream ones.

I only have two problems for now, first of all I hate the penalty kicks new system, it is true that in the past they were very easy and the penalty shootouts lasted hours, but now they seem to be quite difficult (at least for new players), I haven't gotten the kick out of it yet, fairly said I only have a day with the game so they might become better in the future. My second issue is that they could do a bit more with the career mode, I don't know you guys but I'm quite bored of the same manager mode from FIFA 08... Maybe they could have put something new like a story mode where your be a pro player comes from a small club to end up in Manchester or Madrid.

Overall the experience is very good and fresh, it will feel like an entirely different game though, but it can be good to change the formula a little bit sometimes. The new add-ons like the crowd chantings and be a goalkeeper are solid, and the creation centre promises a lot (I haven't mess out with it yet).

Hence FIFA 12 would have to do A LOT to improve this new version, and if you are a casual soccer fan, EA SPORTS fan or just a gamer who doesn't have any FIFA at all this could be a GREAT option. If you have FIFA 10 and don't want to spend $60 in a new improved version you could still stick with it, or trade it in for the 11.

PROs:

- Great new gameplay will make gamers feel a new experience

- Veteran gamers won't have issues adapting to the new gameplay

- The crowd chantings and celebrations are a fantastic feature

- Players look better than ever, and the field looks awesome!

- The creation centre is better than ever and promises a lot for new leagues and tournaments online

- The 11 vs 11 can be quite fun, specially if you have a lot of friends who have the game

- The dribbling, passing, crossing and shooting feels more realistic than ever

- Personality+ is a great feature and amazes a lot

CONs:

- It can be quite frustrating to adapt to the new gameplay (haven't met any case yet, though)

- The penalty shootouts aren't solid and needs more improvement

- The online connection to the servers needs to be improved (this has been a common issue with EA servers for a long time)

- Needs a new and fresh career mode

- It can be quite frustrating to increase your be a pro stats

Let me first and foremost state that I'm a newcomer to the international football, having only gotten interested for the past year. My first Fifa game happen to be last year's edition, Fifa 10. Football is definitely a game for those of us with patience and attention to detail, so it's not for everyone. I would not recommend any Fifa game to anybody unless they knew the rules and would prefer the game for what it is, an authentic take on football, rather than look for some type of instant gratification.

Fifa 11, is definitely a MASSIVE improvement from its predecessors. I'll essentially list out the major changes from Fifa 10 to 11.

Pros:

Authentic passing: Definitely something only the purists of the sport will truly appreciate. This feature is probably the reason why people cannot simply pick up this game and enjoy. I'll admit it takes a lot of time to master. Keep in mind, for the sake of making the game as realistic as possible, EA took out the "pinball" passing from Fifa 10 that let everybody blast precision passes from all parts of the field to one another. Yes, it made things easy, but international football is definitely not an easy sport in any sense. You have to pass ahead of your teammates to catch them in stride, as players do in real life. Not only that, but you must take control of the person you're passing to right after you kick the ball, this is not automatic and you have to really pay attention. Passing is definitely the most frustrating part of trying to play this game, I'll admit it had me flustered for the first week I had this. But with practice, you'll truly appreciate what EA has done this year.

Graphics:

They get better every year, admittedly.

AI:

The computer got smarter, thank goodness. I thought I could play this game on Professional, having played Fifa 10 extensively, but it was a no go. So I've been playing on Semi-Pro to build my skills up. Even on this difficulty, defenders and opposing players will AGGRESSIVELY come after you for the ball. You can't sneak passes past them because they're smart enough to stick their feet out to deflect it. They're also smart enough to do moves to shake you off, rather than running in a straight line or whatever, they definitely got brains this time around. Their passing is refined as well, they consciously survey the field looking for open teammates to pass to.

Career Mode:

EA revamped up their career mode by allowing you to either play solely as your own created player, solely as a manager, or to do both. Options are neatly organized in my opinion.

Troublesome features/parts of the game:

PK shooting: Yes, it's a lot harder this time around. But realistically is it easy? Of course not, so why should it be any different in a game trying to EMULATE the game. Like anything, it takes practice. I myself think this was something EA needed to make more difficult.

Transfers: I read somewhere EA would make transfers more "realistic" by allowing you to negotiate with the club before the player, but either way, it's still ridiculous. I was using FC Barcelona trying to pry Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal. His list value is upwards of $68 million, so I offered $70 million. Arsenal said they would consider a slightly better offer. So I exit out and reenter the transfer screen to offer him a new deal. Then they're asking for something like $80 million? Yes, he's a superstar player, but the transfer system in here is still basically based on how much you're willing to offer. EA needs to redo this completely, allowing for MANY new variables when trying to sign players. I think personal feelings (where they grew up), playing time, club prestige, club success, success of the manager, and finally money should all account for how much players will consider your team. Haggling and offering players should definitely be included. Barcelona recently offered only roughly $35 million Euros for Cesc in real life and I think it's because Arsenal knew he wanted to go back and everything. Such should be included in the game by allowing factors to alter prices for players.

Be a Goalkeeper: Was EA serious with this? Who in the hell would want to be the goalkeeper? This is basically the EA trademark of having a yearly BS feature they hype up that's completely worthless.

Player Celebrations: This was another hyped up feature EA was touting this year. But honestly, since playing the demo.. I've thought the player celebrations were incredibly unrealistic and saw your teammates celebrate like complete idiots. If you watch the elite teams play, after they score a goal.. they don't do this crazy crap. Only teams from the nobody leagues go out of their way to think up a celebration. This was probably the one thing I hated the most this year.

CONCLUSION:

FIFA 11 is definitely the epitome of sports simulation. It's second only to NBA 2K11. Fifa 10 was great, but everything it did right, EA returned it this year and made the game play as realistic as possible. This is not a game for casual gamers, but meant for seriously players. Only consider it if football is one of your top 2-3 sports because you cannot pick it up and dominate as you would want.

EDIT 11/1/10

I recently bought PES 11, just to thoroughly compare between the two. I came to the conclusion that if both games were some how combined, then THAT would be the greatest football sim ever. Both games offer something entirely different. If you're looking for a fun factor for you and your friends here and there, FIFA 11 is for you. The controls and game play are a lot easier to grasp. If you want to play a season mode, but not really care about all the international tournaments, then FIFA and its generic "cup" games would suffice. And lastly, if you're into yearly EA gimmicks, then this is for you, with its player celebrations and "be the goal keeper" junk. Visually FIFA is superior as is its ease of finding what you want in terms of their menu set up. I think the players in FIFA have more appropriate stats, while PES's preloaded roster has a lot of questionable stats assigned. Balls still hit the goal post WAY too often in Fifa.

If you're looking for a more difficult to play/master football simulation that has the most minute details put into the game of football, PES may be for you. I love the fact that it has all major international tournaments: Copa Liberatores, Euro Cup, Copa del Ray, Champions League and even the World Cup built into it. Getting a patch can get you all non-licensed leagues (Bundesliga/EPL), as well as several more UEFA/FIFA sponsored tournaments. Presentation-wise, PES looks amazing but it is difficult to find what you want, especially in their version of a manager mode. Graphically it does look more cartoony. Performing moves and using the thru-ball are more effective here. Extras such as different balls, shoes, etc. do NOT cost money, rather are earned with in game points. There's also SO much room for customization. You can basically download on line countless teams, players, jerseys, chants, shoes, balls, whatever you want; Fifa definitely doesn't allow you to do that.

I just want to say, that I'm not retracting my review for before, I'm merely telling you that my hindsight is 20/20 now after trying both offerings of football this year. Neither one is thoroughly superior to the other, but they both offer a lot of pluses in their own way. Depending on what you would prefer, that would be your "perfect" football sim. I myself will keep both as they offer something the other doesn't. If you are a football die-hard and have been your entire life, PES would probably suit you. If you are just picking up football now, and would like a good introduction into the sport and you want something that would make you go crazy trying to play it, FIFA would be for you.

So my local GameStop was selling FIFA 11 at midnight and I decided I just couldn't wait so I picked it up.

I'm a hardcore soccer fan, and I look forward to the release of both FIFA and PES every year. FIFA has been great and the improvements in the last 3 years have made it better than PES (IMHO). This year, the A.I's Field Player intelligence has improved (as well as the keepers), the passing has been modified and players behave more like themselves. The "Personality" feature has really improved this game. I was a tad bit skeptical when I read about the changes and looked at some of the initial videos. Then I played the demo and I still had concerns. I'm glad I brushed those concerns aside and picked up a copy because even though I've only played about 5 matches so far and have ZERO feedback as far as online play or the new "Be a GK" system, I already love this game. This 2011 version is not just an upgrade to 2010 or a simple "Kit" Add on. The game feels entirely different and it takes a while to get used to. I play legendary on both FIFA 10 & WC10 and I'm currently playing World Class on this one. I gave it 5 stars on the "fun" factor and 5 Overall because even though there's always room for improvement, this is the best FIFA yet in my opinion. We'll see what PES brings to the table this year.....It's going to be tough to dethrone FIFA though.

Let me start by saying, I own Fifa 08, 09, 10, Fifa World cup and now Fifa 11. Fifa 11 is a fantastic game for purists of the sport. It is without doubt the closest simulation of football in Video games today.

EAsports have gone out the way to give you a very realistic game, which if you are a true fan you will enjoy.

But in the process something was taken out. The Fun factor.

The game has been slowed to simulate real Football, the quick exciting breakaways, pinpoint passing and crisper control of your players are no longer there. They have been replaced by creating parity between the players. Drogba, Messi and Ronaldo no longer blow by inferior competition that produced spectacular goals. Defending is much easier in Fifa 11, so expect much more realistic scoring in games.

The bottom line for me is I believe that for the Fun Factor you cannot beat EA's Fifa World Cup 2010. The Mini Tournaments are great, the controls and the game are faster and more accurate and overall a much better game to play. I may occasionally play Fifa 11, but I will still play a lot of World Cup.

If you are not a football fan or if you are a football fanatic (as I am) you will have some issues.

Issues for those not into football: The game play is more difficult than old FIFA games and the programmers have seemed to really handicap player's ability to dribble around defenders and take long shots (even the really good players like Rooney, Messi, Ronaldo, etc.). Also, having some understanding of positioning your players and various football tactics will help you really get into the game, and most people don't want to learn football strategy to play a video game. FIFA has made it more realistic; which is great for some, but could be a train wreck for others. As another reviewer so adequately put it "they have made it more like real life, but real life sucks"

Issues for football fanatics: The passing is hard and doesn't always come off as planned; which can be really frustrating. The players rating and abilities are a joke. i.e. With full energy, I have had defenders catch Chicharito (J. Hernandez from Man United) in a perfectly timed break for goal; which if you have ever seen the little green pea break on a through pass you will know that there are no defenders that are going to catch him. Also, contrary to Chicharito's situation, Wayne Rooney (also of Man. United) is a speed demon on the game. In the real world Rooney is not slow, but Messi he is not... What sucks about all this is that you are not going to get to really enjoy the true skills of the players you love to watch on TV; while some may be pretty accurate, most are not even close.

The one shining aspect of this game is the ability of good/great defenders to tackle without penalty. Actually, that is the key that unlocked the fun in this game for me. Once I learned to defend really well, I found a lot more possession which leads to attacking opportunities.

Really didn't know what to expect, but I quickly adapted to the controls and am a big fan now of the career mode. The only thing I don't like is that when playing some people online, it seems like they have infinite running ability and no one can seem to use anyone else but Real Madrid and just run the ball with Ronaldo. But other than the online people, this game is bomb with great graphics, gameplay tactics, and game modes.

Let me begin my first review by saying that this is by far, the best soccer simulator in the market; if you are looking for an arcade style gameplay, then you have to pass this one by.

Graphics are simply amazing, on a HD tv with HDMI cable, they are just simply brilliant; they have improved a lot compared to the ones from FIFA 10.

The stadiums look very detailed, weather effects are similar than FIFA 10, although not so noticeable specially when raining.

One thing that hasn't changed much is the public, they all have similar movements, not dynamic at all, just when you score they all stand up, and thats it, not so real after all, but hey nothing is perfect.

In terms of sound , simply memorable, you can clearly listen the original chants from most of the teams, and also you can customize them!!

Gameplay, is slower, players animations are smooth and like their real life counterparts, the new personality features adds a great sense of realism to the game, it feels like if you're watching a live broadcast but you control the players.

The experience will drag you in and it will make you waant more of it.

Definatelly for those looking for a great replay value and a lot of fun, what are you waiting for? go get it ASAP!!

This game is the best of its class. Stunning Graphics, Great Lines by commentators, terrific gameplay, in depth cotrols, and loads of fun. I cannot reccomend this game highly enough

Dear All Football Game Players,

I might have a short story to share with all of you before I tell you my feeling about FIFA 11.

I am a Die Hard Football Video Game Fantantic to begin with. Each year I spend almost $120 to buy both PES and FIFA. Personally speaking, I used to like Winning Eleven alot on PS2, and I was a Die Hard Konami or you say Japanese Video Game fans!!

So I bought PES 2008 after I purchased PS3. Was disappointed with it and tried FIFA series the 1st time starting with FIFA 2008. I prefered the Graphic and Gameplay on FIFA and was impressed with the amnount of licenensed teams and leagues it provides. So I go on with Euro 2008, it was pretty as well.

I did get both FIFA 09 and PES 2009. At that time I was so impressed with FIFA 09, the soundtrack, graphic, realism of the gameplay. FIFA 09 was like a turning point for EA and win over Konami PES fans. PES is much like an Arcade Game, good to play with people who don't follow Football as much, but just want to get a hand on football game.

Year move on, I got FIFA 10 and PES 2010 (while it was on sale). Again I was impressed with FIFA 10. Much better Graphic and control.

Of Cos I bought SA World Cup 2010 as well and was much surprised to the contents it carries and put some much expectation on FIFA 11.

Then FIFA 11 finally arrived at my doorstep. Couldn't wait to play it.

Well, the Graphic again is much improved from FIFA 10 and the content (music) is as good. But it comes to game play.....

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea to make the game as realistic as real. But somehow, it lost the ingridients of fun. It feels a bit slower and sometimes I thought I was trying to push the stick to its limit and still lack the speed as FIFA 10. Changes the game speed to fast, but not much difference.

Through pass is much harder or almost impossible to do. Shooting at the goal is the worst part. It makes me feel like Droga, Lampard, Kaka or Klose were starved, since none of them can really gives me the power shot like I did on WC2010 and FIFA 10. As first I thought, maybe the control has changed a bit. But I was having no luck to find the shooting power like I used to have on FIFA 09, 10 or WC 2010. I was so frustrated with this, cos I tried my best to get to the box and shoot...well a weak weak ground ball, even though I saw my bar was 3/4 full.

I thought this game is supposed to get all the good genes from the past FIFA and make it the best.....But whats going on...or wrong?

And so I guess

I started off playing Winning Eleven (PES) from the PS2 days, then played PES 08 and 09 on my friends' Xbox360s. What I loved about the series was the fast paced gameplay and relative ease for doing moves. PES 2010 felt different, and I stopped playing it.

I finally got a PS3 last year, and by then my friends had switched to FIFA 2010. I held off on buying that version but played it a couple times. I felt it wasn't that good. Finally moving on to FIFA 2011, I decided to buy it and I have mixed feelings about it. I personally feel like it is pretty similar to FIFA 2010. What I don't like about the game is that it is that the default gameplay speed is too slow. Players move slowly, passes are not weighted at all even when you hold it down all the way. It is too easy to defend in this game. You literally cannot run at a defender with the ball and get around him by any means. I like the different moves and stuff, but in a real game they are useless, by the time your guy executes the move the defender is already in his face taking the ball away. Defenders seem to jump automatically to the perfect spot to cut you off, even when it seems you have enough space to get by them. You definitely have to work the ball around to be successful. Which is more realistic, but once in a while it'd be nice to be able to do a move and get by a defender.

While you have to pass it a lot, it can be frustrating sometimes when the game tries to pass to the wrong person than you intended. Sometimes there will be two teammates near each other, where one is marked by a defender and the other is wide open, and the pass goes to the defended teammate. It's really frustrating because you can't aim it any more precisely since they are close to each other, and you can't hold it longer because they are about the same distance away. It's especially annoying when you're close to scoring and they pass to the wrong person, when the wide open guy could've scored. I suppose you could just do manual aim passing, but that is just too much work.

I have also experienced what someone else called micro-pausing, which I think is a good way to describe it. Sometimes even when you are playing offline, the game will pause for 1 second, and sometimes it happens frequently. I don't think this should happen, especially when the game is not animating that many objects on the screen. This problem is even worse when you play online. When playing online sometimes the replays will come on and this happens, where it plays half a second of the replay, freezes for a couple seconds, plays another half second. And you can't skip the replay when this is happening, so sometimes you have to wait up to a minute for the replay to end. When this happens multiple times in a 12 min. match, that's unacceptable. I wish you could just turn off the replays.

For the offline games, I realized that you can change your settings for gameplay speed to fast. On this setting, the game is much more enjoyable to me and the defense is not as hard to get by. I wish you could do this for online games as well, but they have to be the normal speed online. One good thing about this game would be more realistic/easier goal scoring. It is frustrating on defense sometimes, but the offensive player seems to always have the advantage on headers in the box. Also, your defender is sometimes out of position to defend headers in the box. So crosses actually work well in this game, even when the guy is not wide open, they can still score. You can score from shots outside the box easier, as well as on free kicks. Penalty kicks are ok. I feel like the aiming is not done very well, as you have to hold it to go further to the side, but past a certain point of holding it the aimer goes moves much faster and you miss (you have to do this in the training mode to see the aimer). In general PK's are harder to score, which makes them more interesting. Overall I think they made this goal scoring improvement so that people are more excited about their goals, especially when it happens more frequently and in cooler ways.

I wish I could've tested out PES 2011 and this game before I made my purchase to see which one is better, but I ultimately went with FIFA because my friends play it. I know I have talked mostly about my complaints with the game, but overall it is pretty good and still enjoyable, just not great. If you buy it, I think you'll see what I mean.

UPDATE:After playing this game more online, I have lowered my rating to one star. It is laughably bad how bad the lag is. The game micro freezes every 5 seconds, which messes up your passes if you pressed the button right before it freezed. It's ridiculous that they can't make a game in this day and age that runs smoothly. Plenty of other games do. This game is best played offline, against a friend on the same screen. Only then is it fun...