With my recent acquisition of EA’s FIFA12, it has gotten me to thinking about the desire for the common fan to relive the experience of playing for their favorite club. This goes for the Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series as well. Then, on the other side of this coin, there is the simulation of managing a team, as seen in games like Sports Interactive’s Football Manager.
I have been playing FIFA off and on since their 2000 installment. One of the things that turned me off to the game series for a while, was the insipid design of their controller schematic. It was not until the middle of the 2000s that any problems that I had with the series were gradually rectified. Then, EA started acquiring license rights for teams all over the world, which made the game a bit more realistic. Now, you could live out your dream of playing for Exeter City in the Npower League 1, or in the case of FIFA12 you can play as AFC Wimbledon.
In the case of the gameplay, the series has always felt lacking, to me, against the PES series. The pace of the game always seemed a bit slower. The finer points of defending and finished always seemed a bit suspect. However, the style and visuals of the game were always outstanding. To me, a game like FIFA or PES relied equally on style and substance. It has felt, for the last few years, like the FIFA series has absolutely demolished PES on style.
In 2011, upon finally buying a PS3, I got a chance to play both online. That is an entirely messy kettle of fish unto itself. FIFA online, in a lot of ways, is a very trying experience. Usually because you end up playing against the same teams: Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, or Barcelona. In response, I would chose random teams that ranged from Sheffield Wednesday to Chievo Verona. I might not have always won, but I would do whatever I could to give my opposition the hardest time possible.
Eventually though, in the 2012 installment of the FIFA series, there were drastic changes to the control schematic. EA changed the defensive controls, and in a lot of ways, opened up the game. While I see the merit, in the offensive context, as a player who thrived on crowding players off the ball the game has taken a lot of my strategy away. I have not completely adjusted to this alteration yet. But I am slowly improving.
Prior to the 2012 edition, I had played Konami’s PES every year since 2006. Where they may be short on leagues to play in, or licensed teams to play on, the creation center was far superior to its counterpart in the FIFA series. Even to the point of how in every iteration of the game, I had created a team of my friends into the game. I got to create the crest, the strips and the players themselves. The sheer depth of the ability to create the strips, from the style of shirt, in terms of design, all the way down to the location of the crest on the shirt, and text for sponsorship on the front; it far and away excelled compared to its EA opposition.
In the last couple of years Konami managed to obtain the licenses for the UEFA Champions League, and UEFA Europa League, as well as the Copa Libertadores. However, it does not have much in the way of team licenses. They usually have 2 English teams from the Premiership. They usually have some of the Spanish La Liga. There is usually always the entirety of Serie A. As well as the Dutch Eredivise. To go with a smattering of other teams from all over the world. PES also has an amazing level of depth when it comes to unlockables. There are player packs that can be bought with experience points. Or classic national teams who can be purchased the same way.
In terms of game play, PES always felt superior. The controls never felt sluggish or the pace of the game feel slow. The passing was crisp, especially when it came to creating free headers while making a deep run off the wing. Set pieces, especially corners, were almost always precise. My prowess at free kicks proved better in FIFA than PES, where I had a better percentage of conversion from corners. In terms of my own overall skill on PES, I could usually hold my own, but I did not always take advantage of, or create opportunities to put teams away. I have never been great at either FIFA or PES, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of playing.
My status as a devotee of FIFA and PES changed in 2010, when I joined Twitter, and was introduced to the world of Football Manager. It was not until I purchased FM2010 that I was able to fully understand the addictive aspect of the game itself. I had read about the game on sites like Run of Play, where Brian Phillips’ long series about managing Pro Vercelli in FM2009, helped to solidify my desire to play the game.
Upon getting the game, I started a career as manager of Ipswich Town Football Club. One of the settings I chose in that career, was that I was managing fictional players. It was a completely different world from what I knew from playing FIFA and PES. I had no control over how my team played. I just gave them instructions, I created tactics, I chose lineups. I just had to hope that my players were able to carry out the plan I had laid out for them. My luck with Ipswich Town was minimal at best. Which ultimately led to me being sacked. Following that tenure, I moved on to Eastwood Town, and later Nuneaton Town and Hampton & Richmond Borough. My success at Football Manager was limited, laughable at best.
In the 2011 edition, Football Manager added the ability to post accomplishments, both positive and negative, to Twitter. I took to managing Ipswich again, though this time I was managing real players. Following a dismal run with Ipswich, I took played around with my friend Ben McManus’ created database. After playing around with that for some of the late spring, I moved from that to starting another career in Italy, managing Hellas Verona. At Verona I had what would qualify as an amazing run. I won my first trophy with the Mastini, the Italian Serie C Cup. And we nearly won promotion into Serie B. It was at that point at the end of that season where I purchased FM2012.
In FM2012, I started out my career at Paris FC, in the French Championnat National. After a dismal run, I was sacked half way through the season. After finishing that season unemployed, I moved to the north of England, to manage Northwich Victoria.
I have learned a handful of things about Football Manager. First, I have a bit of hoodoo when it comes to managing in England. Maybe it has to do with the teams I choose to take over the helm of. I manage teams that have trouble sustaining their form over the length of the season. I also tend to manage teams that have one outstanding goal scorer. At Ipswich, it was Jason Scotland. At Hellas Verona, it was Thomas Pichlmann. And currently at Northwich Victoria, it is Wayne Riley. These outstanding players are nothing when their set up men, usually attacking midfielders get injured. This does not mention the slides my teams go on, when those fantastic scorers go down hurt. I unearthed a kid who could have set the world on fire, if he had a few years of experience under his belt in Andrea Seculin, my wonderkid keeper at Verona. A kid who kept 22 clean sheets in all competitions, at 18 years old. I am still learning about how to fine-tune my training to not wear my players out. I am still learning how to interact with my players to get the best out of them. My team talks are formulaic, but it seems to work when needed. I have not figured out how to utilize all of my staff yet. Especially when it comes to match preparation.
The sheer depth of things to learn and pay attention to in the Football Manager series continues to astound me. The changes to the way you can give instructions to your team on the fly have proven to help me, as a manager. And the recent alteration to the addition of tone in your team talks, have made me aware of how to treat my team to get optimum results. But that does not even touch the game play experience. The game itself is a lot like chess. Since you do not have the ability to control your players, you are just playing a game of anticipation of your opposition’s moves. But is that not the mark of a good to great manager? It seems to be so, to me.
To move away from really discussing the games, there is one more aspect to each that deserves mentioning. There is ability to write your own story. In FIFA and PES, you have a bit more control over the outcome of the results. You can play as one individual player, or you can play as the entire lineup. Therefore you have a bit more say in what happens. You can build yourself up into a legend over the course of seasons. In the case of FIFA, you can move from being a playing legend into being a management legend. In a lot of ways, that is merely a very singular scope. But you can still have an element of control over the results. Football Manager takes that narrative aspect, and moves it into another level. There is the story of your career as manager, with all of its twists and turns. There is the story of interactions with players and coaches, or journalists and other managers. This alone makes Football Manager so different from other football games. The experience is completely different. And that is part of what makes it attractive as a gamer.
