Official Premier League 2015-2016 Season (Page 6 for 2015)

[jfrost]

All I know is Manchester City is really overpowered in FIFA 14.

I don't know yet if I'll be buying 15.

As we should be.

I played the demo of FIFA 15 and found myself frustrated with the problems the game has had since 13 that EA seem either incapable or unwilling to fix. Maybe 15 is a shoddy hack job like the widely panned 360/PS3 versions of the latest Madden?

What problems do you have in mind?

Compared to 13, 14 has much worse passing. It's a lot harder to nail a decent pass and dribbling is so useless most of the time. Tackling defenders are always able to stop you.

I'd hope 15 would fix 14's problems, since it uses a new engine. But well.

[Sload Soap]

To be honest this is more my personal opinion but I've gone off the series since they introduced the new defending system and that dreadful penalty system. I haven't bought a football game since FIFA 12 so I'm off base.

In the demo passing and scoring is fine and the animation is top class. I struggled with the defending though and found it way too easy to be opened up by a through ball that if I had direct control over individual players I could cut out. As it is, it feels silky in attack and stiff in defence.

[jfrost]

To be honest this is more my personal opinion but I've gone off the series since they introduced the new defending system and that dreadful penalty system. I haven't bought a football game since FIFA 12 so I'm off base.

In the demo passing and scoring is fine and the animation is top class. I struggled with the defending though and found it way too easy to be opened up by a through ball that if I had direct control over individual players I could cut out. As it is, it feels silky in attack and stiff in defence.

Through balls on the ground are very difficult to get right in 14. You pretty much always have to lift the ball to get through the defense. In fact, I think it's much less realistic this way.

Also, players take like three hours to control the ball after a pass, giving defenders a lot of time to reach you and tackle.

[jfrost]

One thing it seems that they won't fix in 15 is how awful players are ranked high because they're famous.

For instance, Daniel Alves and Hulk are fucking awful, but they have awesome grades across the board. Daniel Alves is even used for the defending practice skill games. He's a terrible marker in real life.

[Sload Soap]

One thing it seems that they won't fix in 15 is how awful players are ranked high because they're famous.

For instance, Daniel Alves and Hulk are fucking awful, but they have awesome grades across the board. Daniel Alves is even used for the defending practice skill games. He's a terrible marker in real life.

I always thought those stats were based on the Opta stats so they look better than they are because both Alves and Hulk spend most of their time playing shit La Liga/Russian teams.

[Sload Soap]

With the Premier League's trip to Bizarro world over we had a relatively normal weekend of football followed by some pleasant Champions League experiences for those based in London and some experiences best forgotten in the north west.

Starting in the PL we see another weekend where league leaders Chelsea cruise to victory while their nearest likely rivals flatter to deceive.

The early game was a lively Merseyside derby in which Liverpool came within a minute and a Phil Jagielka wonder goal of their first win in three games. With Sturridge injured and Hannibal Lecter gone to Barca it's very obvious that Liverpool don't have the goals in them that last season propelled them to a serious, if unexpected, title challenge. Add that to a pretty poor defensive record and you get a team and fanbase that will have to dial down its expectations from title challenge to top four finish. Shame.

Chelsea, Manchester City and surprise package Southampton (first, third and second respectively) all won their games although only Chelsea looked in control cruising almost nonchalantly past Aston Villa 3-0. City started well going 0-2 up before gifting opponents Hull a way back into the game with a own goal and a penalty. Although winning 2-4 there were times when Hull could have gone ahead and really made things difficult.

And Southampton continue to impress beating Queens Park Rangers 2-1 with a really excellent Pelle goal settling matters.

United won at home to West Ham but had captain and professional granny botherer Wayne Rooney sent off for the sort of blatantly cynical challenge you rarely see outside of pub football. What an oaf. To top it off West Ham scored a pretty legit goal at the end of play only to have it chalked off due to a VERY tight offside decision.

In the late kick off we had the north London derby which saw Arsenal mostly dominate the game against Tottenham but eventually scrap their way to a 1-1 draw after going behind. Worse for the Arse, two key players (Ramsay and Arteta) went off injured.

I'm finding it harder and harder to back anyone but Chelsea to lift the title, even as a City fan. They just look so dominant both at the back and upfront. They dropped a lot of silly points last season but I just can't see that happening this.


Tuesday and wednesday nights saw the Champions League return.

Chelsea did well with a Nemanja Matic header enough to see them win away at Sporting Lisbon while Liverpool's poor run continued with a 1-0 loss away to Swiss champions Basle. Arsenal had the best mid-week beating turkish outfit Galatasaray 4-1 with Danny Welbeck getting his first professional hat-trick. Nice.

Elsewhere Real had to come from behind to Ludogorets to win 1-2, Atletico beat Italian giants Juventus 1-0 in a hard fought game while Bayern and Dortmund both won comfortably to keep themselves top of their respective groups. In the week's sexiest clash, Paris Saint-German beat Barcelona 3-2 in a game where Barca legend Xavi became the player with the most CL appearances (143) and David Luiz wasn't a complete fuck up.

I watched the City V Roma game and it was a frustrating affair. We are trying to hard to walk the ball in and by the end I was shouting for someone to just fucking take a shot, among other things. It ended 1-1 but it was a game that needed to be won and makes progression from the group unlikely.

To compound this, the press (and United fans) seemed to want to focus more on the empty seats at Eastlands rather than the game itself. Now I know as a City fan I am kind of pre-programmed to see Manchester United lead conspiracies everywhere but when on the same day City and Chelsea were playing in the CL the BBC runs a pointless article about United possibly playing friendlies abroad on their weeks off with this picture

in the byline, I can't help but feel aggrieved. It's enough to make me stop paying my license fee. Well, that and the bias towards the Tories/poor form over the Scottish referendum.

I'll end on some good news: the demo of the latest Pro Evo is very promising and better than FIFA I think.

[Blu]

I've been torn with FIFA the past few years. For Pro Evo, does it have the player rights and team names?

Tying the Spurs in Emirates was a less-than-desireable result but we'll have to move on. At least we saw Danny Welbeck get his first ever hat trick in his senior career.

I admit I didn't catch many of the games this weekend other than West Ham vs. ManU. I lol'd at Rooney's being sent off. That was great.

Thanks for the summaries, Sload!

[Sload Soap]

I've been torn with FIFA the past few years. For Pro Evo, does it have the player rights and team names?

Tying the Spurs in Emirates was a less-than-desireable result but we'll have to move on. At least we saw Danny Welbeck get his first ever hat trick in his senior career.

I admit I didn't catch many of the games this weekend other than West Ham vs. ManU. I lol'd at Rooney's being sent off. That was great.

Thanks for the summaries, Sload!

I think you had more pressing things to attend to. Congratulations by the way. Or best wishes, whichever one is most appropriate.

As for Pro Evo, the demo doesn't have a PL team in it which I'll take as meaning the league isn't licensed but the teams are still in there, probably as Man Blue, North London Red, etc. I think the Premier League has an exclusive deal with EA if I remember rightly, except for United who are big enough to barter their own deal. So, out of all the teams United will probably be the only licensed one. Brill.

The kits and badges bother me more than the names TBH. I always sort of enjoyed the weird and geographically inaccurate names Konami gave the unlicensed teams like Europort for Liverpool (kind of makes sense), Lake District for West Ham (makes zero sense) or Dublin for Aston Villa (I don't even...).

[Blu]

Hahaha, thanks Sload. I was getting ready and got to see the end of Everton vs. Liverpool and the entirety of ManU vs. West Ham.

What are your opinions on Football Manager. I've always wanted to dive into the series but haven't necessarily explored it enough just yet. I think that's maybe where I'll go if FIFA doesn't get any better, but I hear it's more or less looking at a bunch of spreadsheets.

Pro Evo sounds good, but I still dig the FIFA Street Series for some fun gameplay. I find it incredibly hard to score in FIFA 12+

[Razzmatazz]

I'm playing FIFA 13 on Wii-U (essentially FIFA 12) and I find tapping the right shoulder button as you shoot, means you slide it under the keeper every time. It's how I got my 17 year old starlet to score 40 goals a season for Kilmarnock lol. The downside to that is that it gets a bit boring - much like dummying the keeper used to on Pro Evo.

I've no desire to get a newer FIFA because they haven't changed the Career mode, it's the same each year (I think).

As for the Premier League, it's definitely Chelsea's to lose. Another trophy for Mourinho then. Let's just hope we don't end up with Chelsea and City battling for the title each year, as it would not only get predictable, but with the money they have spent, it's two teams that have bought their success, largely with foreign players.