FIFA 13 Retail Impressions

[SmoothPancakes]

Looking forward to your impressions Smooth. It really is a great game. I am hoping to be able to pick up the full retail copy in the next few weeks. However, like yourself I am far too busy right now. I hope to get the game by the 15th of October as my schedule clears up a little by then.

Yeah, I'm gonna need to practice. Right now my settings are on Semi-Pro, with assistance, and I did some random slider movement, mainly in my favor. I got one match in before I had to come to work, playing as Real Madrid against some suck-ass Austrian team.

First time playing a full FIFA game since last time I played FIFA 10, probably back in early or mid 2011, and boy did it show. While I ultimately won 8-1, playing on 10 minute halves, pretty much all of my goals came on counterattacks. If I didn't get a counterattack, I couldn't do shit as far as getting the ball anywhere near the goal.

The final stats, I had something like 14 shots, 12 shots on target. They had 6 shots, 4 shots on target. We both had 16 tackles each, they won the possession battle, 51%-49%. We both had two corners, and while they had no cards, I ended the match with 3 yellows thanks in part to my poor tackle attempts as I got reaccustomed to playing FIFA again.

The final stats looking like that, considering I was playing as Real Madrid, with team ratings in the high 80s, against some 5th rate Austrian team with team ratings of something like 60-57-57, WITH the sliders turned up and tuned in MY favor, this is gonna take a while to get my skills up to par in this game.

It's a really fun game and I can guarantee I am going to end up playing the hell out of it. Just gotta get better so I can actually compete in career when playing with crappy teams.

[steelerfan]

Just as a general update, I am 15 matches into my Houston Dynamo career. I have posted a 5-3-7 mark thus far and am in 7th in the East. Considering I started 1-1-5, that's not too bad.

Oh, I've been hit for 13 Yellow Cards and 1 Red in those matches. While I'd love more, this is a huge improvement over FIFA 12. I've already had Ricardo Clark serve a 1-match ban for the Red he got and Brad Davis has 4 Yellows so a suspension could be heading his way at some point too.

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[SmoothPancakes]

I think it's safe to say they've got a very strict ref in this QPR-West Ham match. 70 minutes in, 6 yellow cards so far. Now if we were seeing numbers like that in FIFA 13.

Edit - Upon further review, it's actually 8 yellow cards so far (9 if you count the first yellow for QPR's player sent off), 7 for West Ham alone and now a red against one of the QPR players for second yellow.

[JBHuskers]

Hell I got two reds in my Capital One Cup match first match after friendlies. I paid for it as I lost 3-2 in my nPower Champions League.

Currently 1-0-2 in the nPower Champ, my last game though was a 6-3 match, so I've tightened up the kick accuracy and goalie ability to hopefully fix that. The previous two matches were 3-2 & 3-2, while the friendlies and the Capital One Cup match were low scoring.

The funny thing about being two men down with red cards in that Capital One Cup game, I won 1-0 and the goal was scored AFTER the two reds were handed down.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, I'm off to a horrible start with the Colorado Rapids, only like 2 wins, 2 draws and a bunch of losses. I'll have to look up the exact record when I get on in a bit.

I went the route, starting in the MLS and making my way to Europe after a season or two. I want to get some time in with the local league/squads before making my way across the pond, especially since once I get to Europe, I'm not gonna "downgrade" my managerial career to return to the MLS from all the fun over across the Atlantic.

[SmoothPancakes]

Full time, the final count, 8 yellows for West Ham, 1 yellow and 1 yellow-red for QPR. 22 fouls for West Ham, 10 for QPR.

So, when can we expect to see today's referee get added to the game? Any way to patch him into '13, or will we have to wait until '14?

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, I'm off to a horrible start with the Colorado Rapids, only like 2 wins, 2 draws and a bunch of losses. I'll have to look up the exact record when I get on in a bit.

I went the route, starting in the MLS and making my way to Europe after a season or two. I want to get some time in with the local league/squads before making my way across the pond, especially since once I get to Europe, I'm not gonna "downgrade" my managerial career to return to the MLS from all the fun over across the Atlantic.

Okay, actually not as bad as I thought. 9 matches played, I'm 2-4-3 at Colorado, sitting in 6th place in the Western Conference with 10 points. It's gonna be an uphill battle though, and I think first place is outright eliminated from possibility for me. Real Salt Lake has first place right now, sitting at 9-1-0 through 10 matches and 28 points. I don't think that's a comeback I'm gonna be able to pull off, not with this Rapids squad.

[JBHuskers]

I went the route, starting in the MLS

Please clarify. You went the route as in matching what Steelerfan did in FIFA 13, or you went the route by getting completely shitfaced?

[steelerfan]

Please clarify. You went the route as in matching what Steelerfan did in FIFA 13, or you went the route by getting completely shitfaced?

Or, he actually did what I did - both.

Prior to my weekend of FIFA, I spent 9 hours between 2 bars on Friday and had to be driven home. God damn I was fucked up. I barely remember the last couple of hours. Fucking Rumple Minze.

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[steelerfan]

Got two online matches in with snoop tonight. I won the first, 4-3 on Slow with 10 minute halves and Semi controls. In the second match, I won 1-0. We played that one Slow, 15, Manual controls. Manual controls is brutal, but otherwise there is too much scoring (unless you want MDCR-minute halves, which is no fun).

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[SmoothPancakes]

Starting to come together a bit. Just won a VERY hard fought game against FC Dallas, winning 1-0 thanks to an own goal in the 40th minute. I needed that win as I'm battling with the Whitecaps and Dallas for 5th place in the West.

[psusnoop]

Got two online matches in with snoop tonight. I won the first, 4-3 on Slow with 10 minute halves and Semi controls. In the second match, I won 1-0. We played that one Slow, 15, Manual controls. Manual controls is brutal, but otherwise there is too much scoring (unless you want MDCR-minute halves, which is no fun).

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Two very fun games last night, the second on manual was really interesting.

The touch needed for even the simple passes made the first half really interesting as a few times we both passed to places that left us shaking our heads lol. The second half though things started to feel better and started to really put some good pressure on low on me and made work really hard at trying to keep him from breaking the game wide open.

I think we both had really good looks a couple of times though only 1 went into the net. Lol

I'd say for me, if I was playing online in a competitive format, manual would be my vote! Otherwise your going to have a shootout big time.

[SmoothPancakes]

So if I apply for a job, and I get picked, I assume I have to sign off on the deal and sign the contract before I would actually switch teams, correct? I just want to make sure I won't automatically end up switching teams after simply applying for a job and being chosen by the team.

While I'm enjoying my time as manager at Colorado, I am currently very tempted to apply for the job at Sporting KC, seeing as they had a financial takeover earlier in the season and currently have a transfer budget of $122,000,000, and are listed in the browse jobs section. Oh the things I could do with $122 million. While I have, currently, $3,252,571 in my transfer budget with the Rapids, it pales in the amount of wheeling and dealing and roster building I could only dream of doing with $122 million.

I've been managing fairly good here at Colorado. I was able to somehow manage to buy Xisco from Newcastle United for $3.8 million with one of my middle of the pack players thrown in to up the pot and get them to accept the deal, then turned around and shipped Martin Rivero off to Newcastle Untied for $6.5 million (while one of my top rated players at 73 overall, he was constantly getting injured and causing havoc in my starting XI, so for that money, and Xisco joining the squad, it was worth the chance and risk). I actually had 5 different teams, all offering $6 million or more that I agreed to let negotiate with Rivero, Newcastle United won, so I ended up indirectly swapping players with them. I could have had $7.25 million from Sevilla, but that jackass Rivero rejected their offer, costing me three quarters of a million dollars in transfer fee gains.

I actually have ended up on the good side of that swap since that day, as Xisco has been a beast for me so far, while there was a story in Breaking News talking about how Rivero's controversial transfer has been under scrutiny due to an average run of form and asking how long the manager will have to wait for him to live up to his $6.5 million transfer.

[steelerfan]

I would assume you're right, Smooth. I'm sure you can check, then turn your system off if it makes you do something you don't want to do.

Are you simming matches? With the first transfer window not open until midseason in MLS, I had to play 16 matches before the Summer window opened. Just wondering how you're gotten so far, so quickly.

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[SmoothPancakes]

I would assume you're right, Smooth. I'm sure you can check, then turn your system off if it makes you do something you don't want to do.

Are you simming matches? With the first transfer window not open until midseason in MLS, I had to play 16 matches before the Summer window opened. Just wondering how you're gotten so far, so quickly.

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I've just been playing the hell out of this game. I'm only playing around 8-10 minute matches, haven't made the jump up to 15 yet, and I'm putting in a good number of hours a night during my down days of the week. I'm busy as hell with work Thursday through Saturday, but the rest of the week is quiet as hell, leading to a lot of free time, especially in the evenings and overnight hours to play. I'm pretty much playing a match, advancing to the next one, playing the match, etc. Just jumping from match to match, playing as many as I can get in during the night each night.

[steelerfan]

Gotcha, man. That is cool. This is such a great franchise. I'm glad to see you back on board with it. I really wish more guys here would open their eyes to what they're missing out on.

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[SmoothPancakes]

Gotcha, man. That is cool. This is such a great franchise. I'm glad to see you back on board with it. I really wish more guys here would open their eyes to what they're missing out on.

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Yeah, I enjoyed FIFA 10 while I played it, but there was just something with it that couldn't really hold my attention. It was just sort of dull and boring at times, especially in the MLS. But FIFA 13, I'm loving. I can't stop playing this game. Even playing my first season as manager in the MLS, I'm having a ton of fun this time around with 13. I've been having so much fun, that I'm debating on if I even want to jump ship for Europe after this first season like I've been planning for months now, or stick with MLS for a second season, either staying with Colorado or going to Sporting KC.

And I found out the answer to my previous question. If you apply for a job, you'll get an email a couple days later (it was 2 or 3 days for me, not sure exactly which number) thanking you for your interest in their job opening. I don't know if a club will turn you down if you apply for a job, but Sporting KC liked me enough to offer me the position, with the standard contract and standard options of Stall, Accept or Decline. I'm stalling right now while I try to decide if I want to stay at Colorado or move to that mega-budget heaven at KC.

And I agree, we need to find a way to get more people interested in this game. It is such a great game, and one of the premiere games. There may be some minor issues here and there, that luckily I'm blind to any issues this game has right now because I haven't really read about it anywhere online other than here and it's my first FIFA game since FIFA 10, so it plays beautifully in my opinion, but I know it has always been regarded as one of the best playing sports games for years, it and NHL seemingly fighting for Sports Game of the Year honors every year. I'm trying to get two or three of my friends to consider giving it a chance and buying or renting it, try to get more people trying it out and playing it, because FIFA really is a true gem that goes unnoticed by many here in the US.

[SmoothPancakes]

Oops. It turns out there are very small time limits on those contract offers. Advancing 4 days to my next match after stalling on the contract offer from KC, there was a story about of the talks collapsing and the offer being rescinded because I took too long to decide on the offer and that Sporting KC wanted a manager with more enthusiasm for the job.

[JBHuskers]

Shit or get off the pot

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[JBHuskers]

Looks like there is a mass problem with Ultimate Team and people staying connected. Hope that gets fixed soon.