The defending players should have even more advantage over the forwards. I don't know why but it happens often that I can't switch the players and the forward just makes a simple run through the middle. It happens even on world class when I take the forward down the middle with few swings to the left and right. If the defenders had more advantage there would be much less chances created as it drives me nuts to see 15-20 shots on goal from each side in a 4min game.
Add the strength of the goalie for at least that he covers the middle of the goal and 25-35% of the left and right of his goal(goalie-which is by the way smarter but weaker than in Fifa99) - you would get a game with max7-12 shots on goal from each side. The scores would be more realistic- 1:0, 2:1. It would be a real joy to score a single goal(winning goal-why not)as it is in real football. That's what we are all crying for-realism/ or am I wrong. It is most known that Americans like more dinamic games (more dinamic concerning the score). They (EA)probably are trying to bring this to football-this is not possible gentlemen. Football isn't basketball-Thank God.

I agree with your post whole-heartedly.

FIFA 2000 swung much too far in favor of offense. I think this is partly because lot of people complained that it was too easy for defenders to take the ball away in FIFA 99.
Now we have the game with the opposite problem, it is too easy to get by the defenders.

Very good point guys but try lowering the attacking bias of your opponents and even yourself this does seem to help with more realistic scores.

Thank God I'm not the only one.
There's one more thing buggin' me most: 360 spin. How many times do you see it in a real game. You simply spin your player-through the defender, he simply pulls out an elbow and gains about 1-2m of advantage. The stepover was a far better and more realistic trick-they should have left it instead of 360 spin or they should have created a single stepover trick which is most common in real football.
The computer players are way too fast on world class-it again comes down to playing pinball (fifa99 world class)-one touch and go.

Once again I agree with you. If they wanted one trick for offensive player to get him past the defender they should have used the fake stepover instead of spin.

This does not bother me as much though as the other things I mentioned. I think of this more as a graphical representation of all the little things a player could do in real life to get by a defender. Of course they can't put them all in the game, just as they can't put in the game all the different ways a player can strike the ball.

Could anyone give me the tips for management when playing vs World Class as all my players seem to be covered at the first ball over the halfway line. It happens although I try to take the ball from the last player as quickly as I can with first touches. Wings are usually simply cut off which is stupid as the game comes down to dragging the ball through middfield making as many tricks as I can which is not football - it's a trick contest.

Just play the game a hell of a lot and you will find it get easyer. As for the 360 spins etc, none of them are real because you don't see players flick the ball up to themselfs like they do in the fifa games.

I agree entirely about the unrealistic moves and how the nutmeg should have been retained in preference to the 360, but I think the flickover is even more unrealistic, at least in terms of how often something that would be tried in real football, let alone come off. I feel like I have only minimal defensive capabilities in fifa 2000, free kicks into the box and backheaded into the net account for a good deal of the computers goals against me. Not only that but corners as well, you have less ability to defend them now I feel. Sigh. Every new version only seems to bring things to gripe about, nobody ever has made the perfect football sim and i suspect won't for quite some time. Nothing beats playing it for real at the end of the day.

Well yes I forgot one of the biggest shortcomings of this game, the players can head the ball for a score with amazing power.

Not only that they hit the ball with the head with great power-they jump at the same time as the defender and allways hit the ball
despite being behind the defender-Are all forwards 10cm higher than the defenders? It' the only question that comes to my mind.
Anyway I don't think that all of this that we say will bother EA as I said before.
They prefer more goals over reality - as in basketball. FOOTBALL ISN'T BASKETBALL-THANK GOD. Scoring a single goal in football is a real joy and satisfaction. There shouldn't be scores like 7:6, 5:4 etc. They are probably trying to bring the spirit of NBA into football. It isn't fair to us buying the FIFA games over and over again. Please do something for us - make it real !!!!!!!

One thing I did to help out the opposition's defense: I editted all the team IGMs. I noticed that every *single* team was set to complete offense -- no wonder they had so many holes at the back!

I'm getting more ties on World Class, and wins of the 2-1 variety more often.

Here's what I did:
1.) Edit all tams IGM: set them to a more reasonable back 4 (with a sweeper works well), or even 5 with wingbacks and setting their attack/defense to neutral or +1 to attack. I haven't played with their strategy pages (man-to-man, etc.) but that might help too.

2.) All GKs are 7-7(or 6)-5 for skills, positioning, and aggression, and all the defenders have been pushed up to 6 or 7 for strength, tackle, heading, and control.

3.) Plus I used the speed patch, and took all strikers down to 3 or 4 on shooting. (so, wonder of wonders, they *miss* often!)

The game seems a lot more reasonable now... the midfield is furious and there are more shots but fewer goals. It is a pain to edit all the teams though!

Jeff

Goalie is very clumsy if the defending player follows the ball aimed towards the goalie. He sometimes lets the ball through and you conceive the most stupid goals.
He runs out of the box stupidly sometimes.

Just wanted to say setting IGM at 50 percent is no help at all, I still got high scores(5-) and at least 20 shots per each team. The thing with this game is the defender has a terrible hard time taking the ball away from the attacker. A good attacker can go through 3 defenders no problem, this would never, ever happen in FIFA 99, maybe a defensive breakdown once per game, but over and over?! I was playing Holland 74 vs Germany 74, and Cryuff was slicing through German defense like hot knife through butter! This game is bogus!

Good topic this...

Yeah, realism's lacking all right. Jeff's comments might help in increasing it...but then again, editing all teams manually is bound to be a pain. I hope someone comes up with FEd2000 soon, as FEd99 did help in solving many problems with its nifty features. Anybody's heard of anybody making such an editor?

Another stupid trick:
Press R1 button while running towards the defender without stopping. It makes the forward go straight through the defenders body. It looks stupid and it's not realistic at all. Shielding is something completely different. This is the most ridicolous trick I have ever seen in football games.

Why are the sliding tackles punished at such random criteria. Slide from the back (inside the box)is not a foul, while the simple slide from the front in the midfield is oftenly punished with yellow or red card.

The 360 degree spin is rubbish and unrealistic as is the sprint they are meant to be footballers not cartoon charachters!!! the defender/attacking system would work better if there was more support from attackers in the AI so then the forwards would follow up parries or deflections its so obvious if only i could program!!

I have a problem. Whenever I play on professional, get off 30+ shots and score 10+ goals per game. Now I play soccer and watch it too and that is ridiculus. Now if I pump it up to World Class, it's impossible to win, or at least more of a challenge to me. The AI is too hard. There is no randomness in the game, it's all straightforward, which it isn't in REAL SOCCER!
Also ALL of the MOVES ARE UNREALISTIC, esp. the spin move. GET RID OF THEM!!

If only would goalkeepers save 20% more then they do. They are simply too week. Ther are not random at all and the can't save the easiest shots. When it comes down to any kind of shot even close to the box it is 70% a goal. The results are therefore unrealistic and the game becomes annoying as it looks like playing basketball. I have to say that World Class in fifa99 was far harder as it took me few months to win all the cups on World Cup. I succeded to win the ECC by only playing 1 month. It's not very challinging to play any more I have to say.