FIFA 11 Demo: First Impressions

So I downloaded the demo a couple of hours ago and played for a good 30 minutes or longer. Here is my review on the demo so far. I hope this is helpful to the people who haven't played it yet and you get a feel for the game.

Overall Rating: 5/5

Gameplay
Right when you start in the Arena, you will notice the differences in gameplay. Shooting from distance is more difficult than in FIFA 10 and so are freekicks and penalties. It's a lot like the 2010 World Cup game if you have tried that. I like how the attacking player starts from a different position every time instead of standing at the center circle every time like in FIFA 10.

I tried the Be A Goalkeeper (BAG) mode and it was a bit fun. I didn't remember the controls, so I had to guess and try. It was really difficult at first, but I got the hang of it after a while. I could see a lot of cheap goals going in and abuse from players in Be A Pro: Online. We will just have to wait and see.

After trying out a few matches on three different difficulties, it was obvious this is the best gameplay ever on a FIFA game. Opposition players finally use skill moves and defenders are much more intelligent. Passing is also harder with the Pro Passing feature. The ball also requires more power to properly reach its destination. I tried ping-pong passing and I could only manage to get 3-5 passes in moving forward. The game forces you to pass back a lot more, which is more realistic. So you got to really be patient and intelligent with your passes, which is bad news for ping-pong passers and people who have no tactical intelligence.

Visuals
Great visuals overall. Detailed graphics in addition to the lighting makes it visually pleasing. The entrance scene of a match is great especially with the teams shaking hands and the mention of the referee's name by the commentator.

Celebrations look great especially with no cut scenes and the addition of team celebrations. However, I noticed with team celebrations that it kind of affects your individual celebrations. Teammates seem to charge at you quicker and disrupt your celebration. I could see that as frustrating when trying to celebrate a specific celebration and you need room and time to run around.

Audio
I didn't really pay attention to the fans in the demo, but the commentating seemed unchanged. Still the same old commentators with their same phrases. I guess I might here some new phrases when I play the full game.

Difficulty
I played a few matches on World Class, Professional, and Amateur difficulties. World Class and Professional difficulties were much harder than in FIFA 10. Opposition players frustrated me with their skill moves and their defense wouldn't give my players a chance. I think I made only 2 shots on goal over 4-5 matches. Each game ended in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw. I guess I just have to practice some more and get used to the new gameplay.

Amateur difficulty was a big difference from the above difficulties. I played one match in this difficulty and won 5-0. Opposition defense was awful in this difficulty and it felt like I was playing against the FIFA 10 CPU.

Bugs/Frustrations
During one of my games, Messi was injured after a tackle. When the ball finally went out, the referee blew the whistle to end the second half and take us into a penalty shootout. I was prompted to substitute Messi and I replaced him with Bojan. The substitution didn't take place and the camera just kept on circling the stadium for a whole 5 minutes. I eventually gave up and exited the game. I remember something like this happening on FIFA 10 as well.

The following isn't really a bug, but an annoyance. The sound of the ball hitting the post is a bit annoying and unrealistic.
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Share your experiences, frustrations, or positive comments. I'm looking forward to hear what others think.

Agree with all of that except haven't had that bug happen to me and the post sound doesn't bother me.

The only thing that sucks is that I have trouble scoring due to the shooting be so much harder than fifa 10. Headers seem to be pretty easy to score, was Arsenal vs Chelsea and I won 2-0, both goals from headers.

Ah, cool. Feel like downloading it now.

Any difference between the Europe and North America versions?

chemicalrubber wrote:Ah, cool. Feel like downloading it now.

Any difference between the Europe and North America versions?

Not that I know of.

I think its good, The computer does skill as well which makes it harder.

It was going great until a bug kicked in. No matter what I press, the player receiving a pass cannot control the damn ball, but instead kicks it downwards the screen. Annoying as hell.

Loved playing the demo for the first time last night. Things can only get better for the actual release date as the demo has always been poor compared to the real thing.

Very excited now .

I've got a weird situation here.

-I think the gameplay is still a little too fast.
-Yet I don't think the speed of some players is enough. I know you can't just hold sprint and hope to run down the whole pitch but......even players like Walcott and Messi struggle to beat lanky slow defenders in a sprint. It's more the speed difference between slow and fast players than the actual speed in general.

Luxz0rz wrote:I've got a weird situation here.

-I think the gameplay is still a little too fast.
-Yet I don't think the speed of some players is enough. I know you can't just hold sprint and hope to run down the whole pitch but......even players like Walcott and Messi struggle to beat lanky slow defenders in a sprint. It's more the speed difference between slow and fast players than the actual speed in general.

There's an option in the settings where you can control the sprint speed with how far you push down RT or whatever button it is on PS3, turn that on and it seems to work.

Bergkamp wrote:

Luxz0rz wrote:I've got a weird situation here.

-I think the gameplay is still a little too fast.
-Yet I don't think the speed of some players is enough. I know you can't just hold sprint and hope to run down the whole pitch but......even players like Walcott and Messi struggle to beat lanky slow defenders in a sprint. It's more the speed difference between slow and fast players than the actual speed in general.

There's an option in the settings where you can control the sprint speed with how far you push down RT or whatever button it is on PS3, turn that on and it seems to work.

I tried to see if it made a difference.....I think it just allows you to sprinter slower than the max. When turned off...I'd assume you just sprint at max....so it doesn't really solve the problem.

Well when I had it off it was like the game chose what speed I sprinted, when I turned it on if I held it all the way down I was running past people with ease using Walcott.

1. Slow ass defenders can catch up with fast players e.g Ronaldo, Walcott.

2. Too much pressure from the AI

3. Goal post sound is terrible

Yeah the speed thing is a problem, but the sound when the ball hits the goal post can be easily fixed, and hopefully will be.

Favourite Points:
-Goalies are much better, less likely to cause problems.
-Adding posession, distance run, passing completed stats is a nice real life touch.
-Harder to score, i play on Wolrd Class in the demo as i played Legendary on Fifa 10 and it's harder to score then on the previous game.
-Ive noticed some AI players performing tricks instead of the bog standard dribble around me style of play.
-Inclusion of refs names being broadcasted is also a nice real life touch.
-Tackling seems more fun to do.
-Be A Goalie seems liek a fun idea but like the OP said online players around the ages of 15 and below will moan about every goal conceded.

Minor Problems:
-I never had Fifa WC so the whole penalty system is kind of annoying as i dotn know what to do to hit the target let alone score.
-Refs still seem a bit card happy, especially when booking players for their first tackle.
-Apart from the odd bits of skill performed by players ive not noticed the new Personality system.
-Hleb in the demo plays for Barca (Yes i know they will change it)

bcfcben wrote:Favourite Points:
-Goalies are much better, less likely to cause problems.
-Adding posession, distance run, passing completed stats is a nice real life touch.
-Harder to score, i play on Wolrd Class in the demo as i played Legendary on Fifa 10 and it's harder to score then on the previous game.
-Ive noticed some AI players performing tricks instead of the bog standard dribble around me style of play.
-Inclusion of refs names being broadcasted is also a nice real life touch.
-Tackling seems more fun to do.
-Be A Goalie seems liek a fun idea but like the OP said online players around the ages of 15 and below will moan about every goal conceded.

Minor Problems:
-I never had Fifa WC so the whole penalty system is kind of annoying as i dotn know what to do to hit the target let alone score.
-Refs still seem a bit card happy, especially when booking players for their first tackle.
-Apart from the odd bits of skill performed by players ive not noticed the new Personality system.
-Hleb in the demo plays for Barca (Yes i know they will change it)

Apparently they've added strict referees and less strict referees, so what you'll get away with with some refs, you won't with others.

Positives:
-I like the new Personality+ if you sprint with Ronaldo he'll run exactly like he does in real life, the way he kicks the ball is like the real life Ronaldo too.

-As people have said already, the in game stats are good and add a good touch of realism to the game.

-The general feel to the game is alot more realistic, through balls are intercepted more like in the real life game. I hated just being able to play a through ball from the edge of my area and put someone through.

-The game is harder which to me is a positive, I could beat teams 10 - 0 playing legendary difficulty on FIFA 10 now.

-Celebrations - I like when you hold A(x on PS3) the player does his own real life celebration.

-Goalkeepers are better

-Passing is so much better you actually need a brain to pass now.

-Player faces are brilliant.

Negatives:

-Fouls - I've noticed free kicks are given for the softest of fouls, Anelka just ran into Song in my area and got a penalty.

-Handballs - I know there's an option to turn them off but I like to have them on for realism but in one game I had 8 free kicks given for hand ball because the animations on the game doesn't let the player move his hand away from the ball.

- Bugs - There is loads of bugs on the demo but hopefully they're all gone by the full release.

Overall - Alot of minor improvements has made it a major improvement on FIFA 10, a definite buy for me.

I love the celebrations, when you can run into another player onto your team and they'll celebrate together .

I found the demo, and improvement of Fifa 11. Can't wait!

Dan wrote:

bcfcben wrote:Favourite Points:
-Goalies are much better, less likely to cause problems.
-Adding posession, distance run, passing completed stats is a nice real life touch.
-Harder to score, i play on Wolrd Class in the demo as i played Legendary on Fifa 10 and it's harder to score then on the previous game.
-Ive noticed some AI players performing tricks instead of the bog standard dribble around me style of play.
-Inclusion of refs names being broadcasted is also a nice real life touch.
-Tackling seems more fun to do.
-Be A Goalie seems liek a fun idea but like the OP said online players around the ages of 15 and below will moan about every goal conceded.

Minor Problems:
-I never had Fifa WC so the whole penalty system is kind of annoying as i dotn know what to do to hit the target let alone score.
-Refs still seem a bit card happy, especially when booking players for their first tackle.
-Apart from the odd bits of skill performed by players ive not noticed the new Personality system.
-Hleb in the demo plays for Barca (Yes i know they will change it)

Apparently they've added strict referees and less strict referees, so what you'll get away with with some refs, you won't with others.

Knowing me ive probably had strict refs every bloody game.

bcfcben wrote:-Hleb in the demo plays for Barca (Yes i know they will change it)

So does Ibrahimovic.

So much better, to the touch, to the shots. I love how defenders in a last ditch attempt defenders will hook their legs round to claw the ball in any angle by the other players feet.

When I hit the bar it sounded a little like a cat smashing into a bin a 2'oclock in the morning, none-the-less it's an amazing demo.

EDIT: Ariel through balls seem to be the new easy goal tactic, and players do the rabona through ball way to much.

I love it. I find it a lot of fun to play. The post sound doesn't annoy me and I find the penalties great too. The AI is doing some great skill moves too and I love the graphics and animations. The defending is still tough for me, I don't get many one-on-ones but I'm working on it.

atastycrumpet wrote:When I hit the bar it sounded a little like a cat smashing into a bin a 2'oclock in the morning, none-the-less it's an amazing demo.

EDIT: Ariel through balls seem to be the new easy goal tactic, and players do the rabona through ball way to much.

Yeah I noticed that too. Lobbed through balls seem easier than on FIFA 10. But it could just be because I'm using Barcelona.

Aerial through balls haven't done much for me. That's probably a good thing.

Anybody notice how the AI tends to make more mistakes now, adds that extra human error sort of feel instead of the AI being near perfect with every pass like they used to.

I like it how the volleys and shots from long range are a bit more realistic. Ball physics seem to be a tad better too. I had Xabi Alonso running onto a rolling ball from outside the box and it was like I was watching a real match. His kicking action combined with an epic strike that rattled the crossbar was pure delight. Would have been even better if the post sound wasn't so crap.
Also like how it makes that noise when the ball bangs into the back of the net.

I'll just dish out the negatives that I've found after playing:

When a player gets injured (both times it's been the opposition) a different player is shown to be down injured than the one who got injured in the first place. And then the different player is shown going off (I think) with the right player's name coming up

I've used Arsenal a few times, and every time I've tried a couple of runs down the line with Walcott. For some reason he seems slow as fuck.

Walcott seems less pacey, I think through balls are also made faultess, finding myself through on goal and with players to cross to. I'm going to play on World Class for the first time now and see what happens, I'll give feedback after a few games.

Danny B wrote:I've used Arsenal a few times, and every time I've tried a couple of runs down the line with Walcott. For some reason he seems slow as fuck.

This is what everyone thinks really. You can't just hold sprint and expect to get through.....although I do think that dribbling (without sprinting) is much more effective now as there's more fluidity in it....so you can swerve a lot.

In a 1v1 race Walcott would win but most defenders on the wing don't let wingers just sprint past them.