FIFA 12 Pro Clubs – What Went Wrong?

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At the best of times FIFA angers me, and that is an understatement. It is quite obviously a great football game but it is marred with such basic and at times fundamentally elementary problems that it almost becomes impossible to withstand it while maintaining a level of sanity. It’s true that I suffer from FIFA Rage and in fact for the last week I have been writing an article on that very subject but it has been continuously delayed because of…yes you guessed it, FIFA Rage!!

Since its inception in FIFA 2009, I have been an avid player of Pro Clubs. So avid in fact, that I can count on one hand the amount of nights in a row I have gone without playing it since its arrival. So many times I have sworn through sheer disgust that I would quit playing only to return the next night with my tail between my legs because I just can’t exist without it. Sad really I know.

So if I am to accept my fate as Pro Clubs’ bitch, then at the very least I request that EA take note of my analysis and suggested improvements for FIFA 2013 to make the pain of myself and so many others more bearable. My main focus is of course Pro Clubs, but I will also talk about some general improvements to the game itself, and be warned as this does border on becoming a rant! 

The 99 Overall VP Glitch

Starting with the most obvious here. The ridiculous 99 pro hack has become so common now that I’m literally considering just giving up until FIFA 2013 rears its ugly head (like I haven’t said that before). If this carries forward into FIFA 2013 like it did from 2011 to 2012 then I will be demanding a refund from EA, as should everyone else for that matter.

The fact that this survived from FIFA 2012 is testament to how little the developers care. Let’s think about it for a moment, for this glitch to even work, the data for a 99 rated pro needs to exist within the game for the hackers to then exploit; therefore wouldn’t it have been prudent to make the maximum you can possibly be, the legitimate maximum you can possibly be? And not have extra stats festering in the background for some geek in his pit of a bedroom to exploit. The gripe here is less about the fact that EA won’t stop this, but more about the data existing in the first place.

Match Searching

From my understanding, Pro Clubs in 2012 has been designed so you get matched with teams of similar amounts of players, which is good, but nowhere near good enough. Personally, I would like the option of searching for clubs within a given points range to prevent the chance of playing clubs ranked significantly lower than your own. I do not wish to risk the chances of losing 70+ points for a potential gain of 5 points which is effectively what happens in this scenario.

Alternatively, you could make all matches give a set amount of points for a win/draw regardless of the amount your opponent has, either option is viable. I would also like to filter out clubs that do not utilise a human any, for the simple fact that the CPU is way overpowered defensively. Incidentally, this leads me to my next point.

CPU Defending

Considering the advances video games have made in just the last 20 years I would have expected the sophistication of AI to have evolved beyond reacting to your joypad inputs. It reminds me of times as a child, playing Street Fighter II in the arcade and being met with a Shoryuken to the face every time I jumped at Ken, without fail. It’s exactly the same premise playing against a CPU defence on Pro Clubs. I turn one way, the CPU without any kind of delay, follows me in that direction, I stop and they immediately stop, I show them an inch of the ball and they steal it. I have absolutely no desire to play a mind reader, and considering I am not a masochist (honestly), I never play the AI in 1 v 1 games, career mode or any of that malarkey because I find it boring and totally methodical.

I expect an AI with sophistication, one that scales nicely with difficulty, but never to the point that they become robotic therefore reacting only to the inputs from your fingers; they should react to what you do, but not without delay, and should be prone to misreading you from time to time. There should also be a level of them attempting to anticipate your movement ahead of you doing it.

If the AI had this kind of realism, we would see fewer people using it as a cop-out in Pro Clubs, because lets face it, as it is right now, its ridiculously overpowered. I sit here with actual disgust at the clubs who adopt 5 at the back on ultra defensive with a CPU any, and yet further disgust for those who also track back with their own Virtual Pro’s and park themselves on the edge of the box. The only players I have more disdain for is people who do absolutely nothing but spend an entire match trying to manufacture a finesse shot because “it works”.

Shirt Pulling

If a player pulls my shirt, is it not a foul? The fact this action was included at all in FIFA 12 is an embarrassment to the game (football, not FIFA). Placing your hands on another player is a foul, I don’t care if it’s to tickle him, stroke him or sexually abuse him, it’s a foul. There is a set technique to shirt pulling in FIFA so as not to concede fouls and it is abused to the maximum. I see absolutely no legitimate reason for the inclusion of this within the game and it should be removed completely. The only reason I can think of for the inclusion of this is realism. Well in that case EA, lets include diving, play-acting, spitting, holding onto people in the box, blocking the keeper, crowding the referee, signalling to card another player, or in true Di-canio style, pushing the referee over.

CPU Fouling

This one really annoys the hell out of me to the point of wanting to self-harm. Anyone who has ever played against the CPU as an individual striker will understand my pain here. You receive the ball to feet, and a CPU defender on ultra aggressive will literally come through the back of you, wipe you out in the process and take the ball, foul?….NO!? A ball played in the air to you, and a CPU defender jumps over your back, knocking you down in the process, and heads it away, foul?….NO!? This needs to be either toned down or at the very least more fouls should be given against the CPU for the more blatant offences.

Custom Tactics

Custom tactics need to be more accessible and should be at the match room section. In the early years of Pro Clubs, specifically 2009 and 2010, the custom tactics were so much better, allowing me the ability to formulate my own variation of a flat 4-4-2 but with one of the strikers playing in a deep role, like a Wayne Rooney. In Pro Clubs I do not wish to pick from a given list of “allowable” formations, and then have to go out of my way to create custom tactics in the team settings section of an exhibition match to then add it to my D-Pad and to then activate in a club match. That is far too much of a hassle. Give us a wallboard in the match room where we can create custom formations, set player runs, attacking positions, defending positions etc, etc.

Club Customisation

Pro Clubs has long needed the ability to create custom kits and badges, with the ability to upload images created on a PC or similar device. While EA probably haven’t already included this due to the probability of some adolescent uploading an image of a penis, it is quite a flimsy excuse to not include such a feature. A simple disclaimer you have to agree to would solve this problem in a heartbeat. The current profanity filter is obviously not working anyway considering team names like “FFS EA” are perfectly acceptable but “Beastiality FC” is not (thank you Ksiolajidebt for this evidence). Back to the point, custom kits and badges will give much needed customisation to the look and feel of your Pro Club and make it seem just that, yours.

Higher rated random players

Regardless of whether you play with a human or CPU controlled Any, the random players you are given are simply not good enough to cope with the rating of human pro’s they are expected to play against. It is simply a mismatch in quality when you are expected to defend against 89 rated strikers with 72 rated centre-backs. I therefore propose that the solution to this problem is to streamline all random players to 85 overall. Not only would this solve the problem at hand, but it would also help instigate a rise in the amount of Pro Clubs actually choosing to adopt a human controlled any. The players you are currently given are so bad they have a turning circle wider than that of the Titanic….after the sinking, a first touch that is tantamount to an embarrassment of football and passing equivalent to that of of a sunday league player with no legs. Streamline them, improve them, enough said.

CPU build-up play

For those who use the CPU as your any, you will know that the majority of your time on the pitch is spent standing up top pressing A for ridiculously accurate long balls from a CPU defender. History shows I used to blame you for this, but what I know now that I didn’t then, is that you simply don’t trust the CPU to formulate a build-up, and with very good reason. At times they completely refuse to pass despite your blatant requests, and for some reason unbeknownst to all, continuously turn backwards when there is a clear forwards pass available. At times you can spam A to request the ball so much that when you finally receive it, your player nonchalantly kicks it away due to your overlapping button mashing.

For me this has led to much cussing out of rage. Other times you can ask for a pass from as little as 5 yards away and they will attempt to lob it at you in the air, programming at its absolute worst. Whoever was responsible for coding this needs to re-think their chosen career. It is completely unfathomable to me how the defensive side of the CPU can be so effective and astute yet when given the ball they crumble like a wet apple pie. Personally I am an advocate of using a human controlled any, but those who choose to use the CPU should not be forced into long ball tactics because their defensive players cannot be trusted with possession.

No more achievements (or a new system)

Lets face it, after 3 years of being tasked with the same achievements to unlock for your Virtual Pro it’s no wonder people turned to modding. And I use the word ‘Modding’ very specifically, not to be confused with the glitching that is ruining Pro Clubs as we speak. Pro Achievements should save year on year unless, and this is what I hope for, you overhaul the player stats and achievement system.

I request something more complex and sophisticated. I want to be able to delve deeper into my players talent tree (yes I play WoW) and specialise more. The best way to describe this is, given the current situation in Pro Clubs, you cannot be a CM; you can be a CAM, or a CDM, but not a general CM which is absurd. Similarly, you cannot be an inside forward but you can be a winger. You can be a target man but not a deep lying playmaker. More options please!

Football is more complex and has more positions than what you’re allowing us to be. A system that starts you out with core stats but then lets you spend points where you desire them which are accrued through match performances and matches played would be amazing. Obviously it needs to be more definitive than this but what I’m offering is purely an idea, not a system.

Game Faces

Game face is a feature within FIFA allowing you to upload a photograph of yourself thus altering the appearance of your Pro to look like you. It does this with varying degrees of quality and accuracy depending on many factors such as the quality of the image, or whether you use side-shots, but here is the kicker, only YOU can see it! Considering I already know what I look like, this is very underwhelming. It won’t improve the game and admittedly is purely for aesthetic value but if you’re going to include this option, then to make it visible online to others is surely to be expected?

Chesting

The ability to chest a ball effectively is just not a possibility in FIFA at present. The amount of times I’ve been put 1 on 1 with the opposing goalkeeper courtesy of a long through ball only for it to bounce in front of me causing my player to then either stand and wait for it to drop or run beyond it is absurd. The chesting needs to be a lot more useful than it currently is. When running through on goal, and the ball bounces, your player should proactively take it on the chest and knock it slightly forward to allow continuation of the momentum in your favour, whereas in the current model they will fail to do so allowing the defenders to recover. Give us more control when pulling balls out of the air, make chesting more useful and allow us to shield bouncing balls more effectively.

Impact Engine

The impact engine, although potentially a very good idea, is currently broken completely. The amount of times I’ve collapsed over another player resulting in my head becoming stuck in their crotch is laughable; Or stood on someone who is on the ground, only for them to get off the floor and elevate me to a ridiculous height. Admittedly it has provided me with some side-splittingly hilarious moments, but it does need to be improved upon.

Licensed Referee’s

Considering this is FIFA I find it hard to believe that these are not already included. That being said, the latest EURO 2012 downloadable content does not have licenses for all the nations, the most notable being Wales, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised. It would simply add a new level of realism to the game if licensed referees were included instead of the stupidly named ones we get at the moment. Similarly, real stadiums for the same reasons.

I am sure there a lot more elements of FIFA 2012 that need to be improved upon for FIFA 2013, especially considering I have focused primarily on Pro Clubs which is just one mode of many. However I draw this analysis-come-rant to a close.

Stay tuned for my upcoming piece on ‘FIFA Rage’, yes it does exist!

  • david williams

    hi i am trying to play pro clubs and its not working have they cancelled this one to put on fifa 13!!!

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  • Guest

    People need to stop ragging on teams that don’t use a human any. If I wanted to play as the entire team I would play head to head. With Pro Clubs I just want to play as one guy. Also, it’s not exactly easy to get 11 guys on one game all the time. Also, computer D is terrible… even in one on one scenarios. All you have to do is run right by them.

  • SMEGATR0N

    Good points. I was actually thinking about making a site/page myself at how much rage I have at this game I love.

    AI defending. People say they’re too good when playing AI instead of ANY. Many times I’ve seen them being inept. Heading balls back in to the box, jumping under high balls, getting bundled over way too easily, just stopping randomly while going for balls and allowing a pro in, never reacting & going for loose balls, or balls being passed across them. Yes I play CPU, buy there’s only 2 in our team, and we get more fun out of playing our own player. The AI was much better at world class, EA should never have listened to poor players that thought it was too hard to score. It should be relatively difficult to score, but it wasn’t impossible, far from it.

    Scoring I totally agree on. Too many times teams start over so they can get the points for the monthly leagues. You can finish a game being beat 3-2 and you lose a rake of points. Scoring like in ultimate team would be good, and being paired against teams of a similar standing would be best. Perhaps a league system like ISS used to have for single games would be good, where you’re playing against team around you to progress up the table.

    Need to sort the glitch of easily scoring from the angle of boxes with the finesse shot. Everyone looks for it and CPU defenders never try to stop it. (so I think the AI being better than ANY in defending is not always true – only against tricky players).

    Hacking pros – I’m not sure it’s only up to 99. In 11 I seen pros as high as 127! I’d heard that people had found a way to hack all EA games before 12 was out. If EA can’t do anything about this, then don’t take away the facility to see the rating of a pro when the teams are matched up. This was a total copout if you ask me, masking the problem rather than fix it. We always backed out if seen a pro that was hacked.

    CPU constantly chip passes in the air rather than on the grass and often long balls are hit too high, usually over my head. There’s no way to control it, especially as a n opposing player just dives through you and takes it. And when you go to take the ball, the touches are as such that the other team wins the 2nd ball a lot. Would be good to have little touches to help shield the ball.

    Achievements – Def need to be changed. As so many players boost their pro on online friendlies, there should be some good ones like speed etc. that are only achieved playing world class, with some done through time. What happened to the scoring 400 goals There should be some that can only be achieved by putting the time & hard work in to it. And what on earth was that slider all about EA? Now players can put the CPU to nothing and make you totally immense to boost your pro.

    I’m like you, I’ll be taking mine back if there’s as many glitches & bugs. It’s like they never play the game they create. And it’s a joke that we’ve had to put up with as many server issues as we have. Clubs should be the ultimate mode of Fifa, as close to you playing football virtually as you can get. They should make a much better way to play it.

    Also, I’d like to see you having your pro club, and an amateur club (with limited achievements for to) if you want a game of clubs when none of your friends are able, and you don’t get punished for leaving your team

  • Dontshootsheep

    very wrong with cpu been over powered. our defence is the worst defence ever and they cannot pass at all and dont get me tarted on the goalkeeper. Its a game mode to control YOUR PRO. Go play head to head or ultimate team if you want to play someone controlling everyone

    • http://twitter.com/GameCraic_Jb The Craic Bear

      You have totally missed his point, whereas everybody else who commented before you didn’t miss it, so read closely. The CPU is overpowered in the sense that it can anticipate your every move when one-on-one. The CPU’s behaviour can also be edited by the use of custom tactics, which can make the game even more frustrating for the opposing team.

      Collectively, yes, the CPU are bad in defence in regards to positioning, and everywhere else on the pitch, but in regards to one-on-ones, it’s ridiculous.
      Because of this, it is frowned upon by a sizeable portion of the FIFA VP community if a team doesn’t bother using an Any player when they have less than 6 to 8 players. 
      I don’t know why any club would go through the pain of awful defending and play-making that is out of their hands from the CPU instead of having full control over the game themselves.You say that Virtual Pro is a game mode to control your pro. Where on the face of it all that may be true, players are still given the option to control either their own player or the rest of the team, so the game mode isn’t strictly about controlling just 1 player, unless a team has 11 players.

  • AliGSix

    The computer are terrible they constantly chip the ball just play it along the gorund and never close down players allowing for an easy finesse shot in top corner it is increasingly frustrating

  • RAGE MAN

    Absolutely spot on. I was laughing at how much it could have been me who wrote this article!… *Off to Rage quit*

  • Tonysheeley

    All good points here but VP Goalkeepers need fixing. To have to score a cutback every time you play a VP GK is a joke and they need to be toned down or removed as its too easy to be a superhuman keeper on FIFA12

    • http://twitter.com/GameCraic_Jb The Craic Bear

      Stuff some Kryptonite down your shorts pre-match; maybe that will weaken the VP GKs!

  • Gurstacey

    Fantastic article – I think if all these were addressed we would have the perfect game! However one more thing …. custom keepers!! Impossible to deliver a cross that they are unable to just pluck out of the air, impossible to score from range, impossible to pass round them for your team mate to knock into the open net! It seems that they have been given some sort of teleporting ability!

    • Michael

      Thanks for the feedback. I have been getting more and more frustrated with VP GK’s lately. Not least because they can simply hold LB and most of the work is done for them but also the teleporting onto the ball issue that you describe. Often when I witness this I assume theyre glitched but upon checking them out, theyre not. Definitely needs sorting.

  • Rhalko23

    I had never played a soccer game before I bought FIFA 12. But the more I play it, the more it reminds me of another certain EA Sport disaster – Madden. The same AI flaws, the same ‘personality’ plagues both games. I’ll start with two issues Madden is most known for: ‘Mirror Defending’ and ‘Player Warping’.

    Mirror Defending is the term I use to describe how EA codes their defensive AI. Michael touched on it in his article – the ‘mind reading’. AI reacting to your move instantly as you make it. They ‘react’ to your skill move faster than your own player does, and you’re the one making the move! Madden is NOTORIOUS for this with the CBs. When they are dropping back into coverage, they don’t react to any moves the WR tries to juke them out with. They mirror every single movement instantaneously. The better the CB, the closer they mirror. This mirror defending DESTROYS FIFA – in my opinion the best part about this game is going around someone 1 on 1 with a skill move a ripping off a shot. But this is physically impossible with an AI that reacts to your moves before you make them.

    Compounding upon the previous is the use of an Any Player. Michael states that it makes the game ‘easier’ to let the computer play defense. I have two issues with this. First off, I don’t know what it is, but the computer defenders on our team are flat out atrocious in 90% of our matches. Our team gets 1/4 of a second to react after receiving the ball before getting wrecked by the other team’s defense. Then their AI casually moves the ball downfield like it’s no big deal, crisp passing and solid dribbling. Our defenders don’t pressure their guys at all, just letting them dribble around. The only way we can get any defense is to drop our human CAMs back down to manually play defense – without someone pressing the ball we’d never get it back.

    And secondly, 95% of the time a team uses an Any Player, said Any Player doesn’t even play manual defense. They play off the ball and hold RB, which has the added benefit of making the AI defenders ‘press the ball’, because RB is the double team button. So they just sit around off ball and make whichever defender is the closest rush in a wreck whoever has the ball. You can always tell when an Any is using ‘RB Defense’, because the defender rushing you won’t have a name over his head, but as soon as he wrecks you and takes the ball the Any Player’s name will pop up.

    95% of the Anys we run into play as an Any for one reason – they get to control the passing on offense. They spend all their time on defense holding RB, and then as soon as they get the ball they can control it how they want, instead of relying on retarded AI teammates to kick it around.

    If EA really wanted to make defense realistic, they would get rid of the A Button and RB Defense. Holding A to ‘mirror your opponent’ and RB to have a computer do the same is something kindergarteners do. Real defense involves holding the trigger to strafe, reacting to what your opponent does, and then taking a stab at stealing the ball. Not holding down a button and letting the AI do it for you. I can’t believe they even allow the use of that online period. It is so refreshing to play against an Any that actually tries to play real defense. It creates a mini chess match in every one on one situation, where he’s trying to guess which direction you’re going to go this time, or what skill move you’re going to try. AKA how it should be.

    And second is Player Warping. Player Warping in Madden takes many forms: LBs warping several feet into a hold to tackle a player they previously had no lineon – CBs warping from one side of a WR to the other just as the ball arrives to knock away a sure completion – OL warping several feet to block a LB at the last moment before he tackles your RB – and WRs warping the last several feet to make a catch that looked incomplete a second prior. All of these contribute to the feeling that Madden plays feel ‘scripted’, as in the game knows the outcome at the snap, it’s just sometimes the players aren’t exactly in the right spot, so they fix them at the lat moment.

    I see this same thing happening in FIFA. Mainly with defenders who warp around to take passes away, and it comes in several forms as well. The one resembling Madden the most is where you play a through ball to the outside of your striker, who is running stride for stride with a defender, who then at the last minute speeds up and swoops in, taking the ball away and clearing it out. It also happens when you’re dribbling 1 on 1, trying to shield a defender from the ball, and his leg will reach around you and poke the ball away, almost as if it’s 8 feet long. Or the defender just clips right through you and takes the ball like you aren’t even there. Or guys warm the last few feet on a jumping header to take away a sure ball.

    The bad thing about this issue, unlike the previous mirroring, is that it is not just coding related. The player warping is directly related to the engine that EA uses for all of their sports titles on the new generation consoles. I doubt that it is fixable until they switch to an entirely new engine.

    While I’m ranting, I’ll delve into a few other issues as well. Starting off with User Keepers, which follow directly with my complaint about Any Players. Holding down LB for an entire match, letting the computer make super human reflex saves for you is not how this game should be played. Just like defending, the strafe needs to be used, and you need to make the reactions yourself. FIFA would be much more fun and high scoring if the players themselves had to read and react to the attackers, instead of just holding down buttons and letting the AI do everything perfectly for them.

    Related to the previous is the attribute system. User GKs should not all be 6-8 with super human reflexes. That is just absurd. But that doesn’t even begin to get into the issue with their stat system. The way they have it set up allows for no variability. Every CAM starts with the same stats, and after doing all the achievements, will have the exact same stats as any other CAM on the other team, barring height changes. Which is absurd enough in itself. Why should a player get slower if he gets taller? Anybody want to tell LeBron that? Why should I not be able to make my player taller AND faster? “Well because then everyone would make their player taller and faster duh”, you say. I have the perfect solution – give players a certain amount of XP to use to build their player as they progress through the levels. Not enough XP to max out every stat. But maybe to max out a couple stats and make the others just ‘pretty good’.

    So I could create a player who is 6-2 but very fast, has great ball handling and crossing. But as a result he is just average at shooting, short passing and defending. Or maybe I want to create a 5-6 striker who is very fast, but can jump very high and is great at heading, and is great at finishing. But then he can’t handle the ball, or pass very well. Or maybe I want to create a 6-2 striker who is fast AND strong, capable of bullying defenders. None of this is possible because of the attribute system EA has installed. And, incidentally, giving players only a certain amount of XP to spend means that they can’t max out every stat to 99 like the can in the current system. Problem solved. Plus it would amount to much more variety in created player style.

    The collision/impact/foul system is utterly broken. So much contact can go uncalled, and yet the slightest brush sometimes results in a foul. Players catapult off each other, trip over one another – I had a keeper slide through me on a breakaway, tripping me in what should have definitely been a red card. And when he stood up, he stood over my player unable to get around me, until my guy slowly got to his feet, and then he drove right through me again to pick up the ball, sending me flying again.

    I have seen way too many times where I’ll be dribbling, the defender will come flying in and bump into me, and I’ll get called for a foul, even though I was the one dribbling! I’ve seen advantages played that weren’t advantages at all. I’ve seen offsides calls that are horrendously not offsides. The whole system is garbage.

    While we’re on the topic of garbage, whoever coded the FK system in FIFA needs a new job. This obviously wasn’t beta tested. Whenever a computer player takes a FK from your own side of the field, it may as well be classified as an automatic turnover. I started calling them ‘Free Turnovers’ instead of Free Kicks – it seems more appropriate. The computer kicks it within a 15 foot radius of a teammate maybe 20% of the time, otherwise just booting it straight to the other team. And on that 20% they actually get it near you, the computer wins the header from you 95% of the time. We retain possession on FKs probably less than 5% of the time.

    On the same topic is CKs and scoring-chance FKs. 95% of the time you don’t score/put it in the keepers hands, the other team gets an automatic fastbreak. I’m not exactly sure how this always happens. Something about having just 2 or 3 defenders back, standing around at midfield, and not knowing how to deal with players running at them. Whatever it is, it was coded atrociously, and the ensuing fast breaks result in the unstoppable 2 on 1s and automatic goals.

    One last rant – something I call ‘ADD Syndrome’. EA has been dumbing their sports games down for years. Just like Activision dumbs down their Call of Duty games so that even the most inept 7 year old can pick up a controller and actually have chance, EA has been doing the same with their titles. Everything is easy to pull off, nothing is too complicated, and years of experience only amounts to a slight advantage in any match. And simply put, it is more profitable for EA this way. Putting out a difficult game that is a pure simulation just for the hardcore Pro Club fans turns many casual fans off and doesn’t sell as many copies. But making a ridiculously easy game where all you have to do is hold a button on defense and mash a joystick on offense means that any 7 year old can pick up the game within minutes and ‘have fun’. And this keeps EA’s pockets full.

    So back to ‘ADD Syndrome’. Since EA made this game so easy that even 7 year olds can pick it up and play, that means there are plenty of 7 year olds playing. And what do 7 year olds hate to do? Wait for things. They cannot wait for anything. Especially not for a dumb little soccer ball bouncing all over the field while they chase it down. What 7 year old would want to spend time chasing down a soccer ball when they could just have the ball warp to them each time – fun comes quicker that way! If they wanted to chase a ball they would go outside!

    I challenge anyone to play a game of FIFA and count how many balls go straight to players on the field. And I don’t mean intended passes – obviously those should hit their target. I’m taking about random bounces. Things like deflected passes. Clearances. Goal kicks. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that when a player attempts a full power cross and the defender in front of him partially blocks it, that the ball randomly bounces directly to a player 100% of the time.

    Go outside and try it. Watch an actual match of soccer. Look at all the random bounces that land in the middle of nowhere that players have to spend 5-10 seconds chasing down. Then play a game of FIFA, and watch how almost each and every time, these random bounces curl and warp directly into a player. It happens without fail. And it does create a faster gameplay, because no time is wasted chasing the ball down and building play back up. And that’s what the kiddies want. It’s like instant respawns in Call of Duty. No time spent chasing the ball. Just warp it to me each time so I can get right back into the action!

    I guess that’s enough ranting about Pro Clubs. I really think the idea behind it is great, it’s just that EA is the wrong company to try and pull it off. I wish them the best in 2013, but I am fully confident than nothing I have listed above will be attended to before the new game comes out. Because why fix something that isn’t broken, right?

    • Tony

       Good comment! Some interesting points made.

  • Soccerguyfl86

    would be nice to mention the over powered super saves human GK makes .. i think the highest ranking a VP GK can get should be 85 overall

    • http://twitter.com/GameCraic_Jb The Craic Bear

      They don’t need to lower the rating, they just need to make reflex saves more realistic, and less like they’re going through a time-warp to pull off insta-saves.

    • Michael

       The keepers are pretty easy to beat in my personal opinion, a quick trick, or pure power tends to catch the majority of them off guard. Finesse shooting is pretty redundant against them though. Having said that, I have spent much playing 11v11 in this compared to FIFA 11 so maybe I just havent come up against a really good one.

  • Sean

    The Computer AI isn’t overpowered defensively. They’re terrible since they switched it from World Class to Professional. I play as the entire team in my H 2 H matches. In Pro Club I just want to play as 1 guy with a couple of friends but all you have to do to pass our cpu defense is just run by them. Playing online isn’t very fluid either, it plays very sluggish. I have tried playing as a ANY, but the response time from the players just doesn’t make it fun.

    • http://twitter.com/GameCraic_Jb The Craic Bear

      The defense are indeed bad, however, when a player isn’t sprinting past them, and is just one-on-one with a CPU defender, the CPU tracks your every move, and knows what you’re going to try and do instantly. That’s the most irritating thing about playing against the CPU defense. 

    • Michael

       The AI can be terrible at times, but a lot of it has to do with custom tactics. If set up right the CPU can be totally and utterly inpenetrable. Left to normal tactics and you are quite right, just sprinting in a straight line baffles the hell out of them. Being the Any isnt fun at all, its just downright disgusting, makes even the best players look terrible.

  • Mikey

    This is fantastic. I say fantastic, I mean soul destroying, as it sums up perfectly what ruins a game mode that can be so fun yet still drives me to insanity.

    The worst thing is now I’ve realised that this game is so broken that it’s forced me to the some of the very things that drive me to such rage.

    In every game I play, I very proudly try and do everything the RIGHT way. On CoD for example, I have never once used Last Stand, or a Noobtube, or Akimbo Machine-Pistols. On Fifa I do everything I can even at the hinderance of myself to not abuse the game in the ways it’s so frequently abused.

    But now I find myself on Clubs, and we regularly play 5 at the back with no any, unless one of us is feeling brave enough to suck it up and play with those donkeys, we frequently put on Ultra Defensive when that CM is just refusing to get back, and a quarter of the goals we score are dirty.

    What has this game made me become?

    And looking at what EA has released about Fifa 13 only makes me dread it even more. Depending on what else comes out they’ve done to the game, this might be the first Fifa since 2000 that I haven’t bought.

    A good article mate, but a depressing one.

    • Michael

       Thanks for your response. The most depressing this is that clearly EA havent read my article :P . What improvements they are looking to include in FIFA 13 is basically ignoring the truly broken things, and once again ignoring the very large and loyal community that is Pro Clubs. This mode could be special, but instead they pander to H2H which really needs no alteration at all. Sigh.

      • Mikey

         Exactly, the thing that brings the most people coming back to Fifa is Clubs. Career Mode is great but after a while it gets samey, Ultimate Team is great until you get your Ultimate Team, then what? H2H is great until you get to Division 1, then what? Clubs is the only thing that keeps me playing Fifa more than anything else, because every game can be different. And that’s even with the minimal work they’ve put into it, the Accomplishments are the same, the club-unlocks go as far as different stadiums and the cusomization is non-existant, and yet I’ve still racked up 1000+ Clubs games in both Fifa 11 and Fifa 12. Just imagining what it could be like if they actually fixed such basic errors in the game and made some basic additions to the game mode is the most frustrating part.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503060663 Alex Parker

    My friends and I have reached the end of our rope with Fifa now. I had an ‘incident’ a few weeks ago where i ripped my xbox’s plug out of the wall after we went down 7-0 to two 99 rated midgets, a 5 man cpu defense and a fully statted giant human goalkeeper (who twice saved our shots from the opposite side of the goal, presumably manipulating the air on the goal line.) We had 26 shots in this game, 20 on target. They had 8, and 7.

    We’ve given up on the game completely. all 4 of us went out last week and bought Pro Evo 2012. We know it isn’t as good as Fifa technically, the passing’s a bit wooly, its a bit quick, the shooting is frankly baffling so far… but we’ll get better. We’ll have fun and we won’t swear at our tvs, and crucially, we will never come across a 99 statted midget who is double the speed of our defense. So far we’ve been having a great time playing 4 vs CPU, and a couple of games against other communities (where we got a little bit battered to be honest, but refreshingly because the opposition was better than us rather than because they were playing with 3 Jesus’ up front.)
    I agree with every single word of your article, but I also believe EA have no interest in improving things for the decent, sporting minority. I don’t think they care about sensible sportsmanlike customers at all, I think they care about selling the game to as many people as possible. Almost every time you load your game up on pro clubs, there are two 5ft2″ strikers.

     If you are a 5ft2″ striker, you don’t want the game to be fixed. You’ve given up on sportsmanship, decent football, any sort of class. You’ve decided that you can’t beat ‘em and you’re going to join ‘em. You’re going to lump the ball over the top all game and run onto it with players twice the speed of any defense, and then you’ll cut in and full charge precision shot the ball into the opposite corner. Then you’ll probably do a couple of cartwheels or some break-dancing. Well done you. EA wants to keep you happy. EA doesn’t care that you’ve no class.

    One mode that would tempt us back for Fifa 13 (by papering over the cracks rather than actually fixing anything) would be online co-op career mode. If we could take control of a team and play a league season online against the CPU, we’d never play a human ever again, and we’d deal with the ludicrous AI safe in the knowledge that at least it wouldn’t be capable of stat-glitch us…

    • Robinwoudstra

       Wow you described exacly how I feel at pro clubs atm…

  • Rob 92

    Also they need to reduce the max height and increase the minimum height; people always abuse it with 6ft 10″ goalkeepers, 5ft 2″ strikers who just play through balls knowing they can easily outrun the defence and not to mention the huge strikers that just nod in every cross that is made to them :-|

    I never understand why my club gets so much abuse about us using a human any? isnt that more skillful than having the CPU play your any doing all the defending for you and doing spectacular long passes which barely fail….

    • Michael

       I am not too sure on the height issue mate as people are actually these heights in real life and in essence the VP is supposed to be an extension of oneself. However reducing the pace of a 5ft 2in player would be great. And reducing the strength of a 6ft 10in player so that centrebacks are not so easily bullied in the air by them, would be a better solution imho. I do agreed with your point about playstyles though, and when I say this I do not mean just FIFA but gamers in general have got to the point where it is no longer about playing a game the way it is intended, but playing it in a way which offers quicker and easier personal progression. An example of this would be quickscoping in COD but I dont play that enough to know too much about it so I wont elaborate. And yes, A human any is much better, in fact I make a point of messaging clubs win or lose for them using a Human any, just to point out that they’re “doing it right”. Thanks for your comments mate.

  • Sphinx

    This is the most accurate rant I could have hoped for. There I was, moaning for days upon days with a couple of friends with equal views – This mode is so flawed and incredibly frustrating. What irritates me even more than everything you’ve mentioned here ( and you’ve covered the majority of my frustrations ) is that the standard of person you come up against on Clubs doesn’t give a f*** about how flawed it is, because they’re too busy creating 5″2 players with afro hairstyles that either ;

    run down the wing, draw the goalkeeper and pass it to their equally moronic teammate who is ( somehow ) behind the defence ready to tap it in.

    and or ;

    The typical generic finesse shot because “it works” .. Failing that, they’ll have their teammates create a 2187ft striker to nod in every single cross.

    So in short; they won’t care enough to make a big deal about the problems because they’re too busy winning by being the worst team. The “I don’t care as long as I win” attitude. 

    The level of frustration this game holds is beyond anything I’ve come across in my life, and I have a girlfriend. This is incredible news.

    • Tony

       ”The level of frustration this game holds is beyond anything I’ve come
      across in my life, and I have a girlfriend. This is incredible news.”

      hahaha!

    • Michael

       You could not have been more correct about the general attitude of the players you come across. I’ve lost too much of my life and patience messaging others about the way they approach the game, lol. Thank you for your comments they are much appreciated. :)

      • Harmonyvid35

        I’d like the ‘Pro’ to evolve more naturally. The more short passes you complete, the better your short passing stats become. The more tackles you miss, the worse those stats become. shouldn’t be too hard to code (then again … it’s EA), as all the main stats are already recorded during games.

        PS. I’m surprised your article didn’t mention ‘midget pro football’, or have you become so accustomed to playing 5ft 120lbs midget speed merchants? Someone should show an EA dev a picture of Usain Bolt.

        They’ll fix very little for 13 (as a lot these problems could have been patched), but you said it yourself, you will be buying the next one, which is the same old story for EA sports titles (and they know this). 13 -a beta for 14, which will be a broken mess of a beta for Fifa 15.

        • http://twitter.com/GameCraic_Jb The Craic Bear

          Harmonyvid, I totally agree with your opinion about player progression. We did a podcast earlier this evening and talked about that very method. I don’t want to have to keep working towards stupid targets and challenges upon each FIFA release.

    • http://twitter.com/GameCraic_Jb The Craic Bear

      To be honest, we should all storm the EA Sports offices and give the boot to the people in-charge… you know, before we get arrested.