I am a great fan of EA Sports' football (American soccer game FIFA. This is one of the main reasons why I started to take an interest in football. Earlier I only watched cricket but now football has moved it to second place.
Since buying my first pc in 2002, I have played all FIFA releases except FIFA 2005 and a couple of World Cup/ Euro special releases. I do not enjoy playing with the national teams. I find that monotonous and rather dig the manager mode for club footballs. Teams I enjoy playing with (and also support in real life) are- Manchester United (English Premier League), Real Madrid (Spanish League) and AC Milan (Italian League). Most of the football lovers will frown at my choice and ask why I don't like Barcelona, the recent best team both in real life and in FIFA but I cannot explain too much reason behind my choices. They are as they are.
Now I come to the main woe behind this post. Now-a-days I don't have time to play that frequently (may be one match per day or less), so I only play EPL. The recent manager mode is cool and lets you manage the team along with those nerve wrecking matches. Since FIFA 06, I cannot perform well with my favorite club Manchester United any more. As much as I like them, I lose most of the important matches with them playing in the difficulty level as suited for me (most difficult levels I've played are Professional for FIFA 07 and currently Semi-Pro for FIFA 08). Of course you can tell me to play at a lower difficulty level but avid gamers of FIFA series can tell you how boring it becomes to play when you master one difficulty level and score 7-8 goals in every match. To me, the beauty of this game is not how many goals you score but rather how you score.
In an attempt to find an alternative, I started playing with Chelsea for FIFA 06 and 07. I kept myself telling I really like this team while my heart was always in Old Trafford. Since Jose Mourinho left Chelsea I lost all my interest from that team. When I got my hand on the new release FIFA 08, I thought I could finally start playing with ManU. But when I raised difficulty to Semi-Pro from amateur, I found it is impossible to win with this team. As always ManUtd is a 5 star team with the likes of Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs and Ferdinand, but with this team I get beaten very badly by 3 star teams like LA Galaxy and Derby County. After getting lost and humiliated (don't get me wrong, 2-0 loss is my margin of humiliation) by the weaker teams for the umpteenth time, I finally abandoned hopes of playing as ManU.
Who am I playing as now? Have I switched to La Liga? The answer is no. I found salvage and started doing well again with a strong 4 star team- Arsenal, not star-studded as the others but very effective. I am winning most of my matches and last night beat Reading 4-0. This season Arsenal is also doing well in EPL and I think I have started growing a liking to this young squad.
From now on I'll support both the teams with ManU having the preference for head-to-head clashes. Make no mistake this policy is for real life only. When I'll face ManU in FIFA 08, I'll be very happy to tear them apart.
Bottom line of this post:
(in front of tv) Go Red Devils !!!
(in front of pc) Go Gunners !!!
Since buying my first pc in 2002, I have played all FIFA releases except FIFA 2005 and a couple of World Cup/ Euro special releases. I do not enjoy playing with the national teams. I find that monotonous and rather dig the manager mode for club footballs. Teams I enjoy playing with (and also support in real life) are- Manchester United (English Premier League), Real Madrid (Spanish League) and AC Milan (Italian League). Most of the football lovers will frown at my choice and ask why I don't like Barcelona, the recent best team both in real life and in FIFA but I cannot explain too much reason behind my choices. They are as they are.
Now I come to the main woe behind this post. Now-a-days I don't have time to play that frequently (may be one match per day or less), so I only play EPL. The recent manager mode is cool and lets you manage the team along with those nerve wrecking matches. Since FIFA 06, I cannot perform well with my favorite club Manchester United any more. As much as I like them, I lose most of the important matches with them playing in the difficulty level as suited for me (most difficult levels I've played are Professional for FIFA 07 and currently Semi-Pro for FIFA 08). Of course you can tell me to play at a lower difficulty level but avid gamers of FIFA series can tell you how boring it becomes to play when you master one difficulty level and score 7-8 goals in every match. To me, the beauty of this game is not how many goals you score but rather how you score.
In an attempt to find an alternative, I started playing with Chelsea for FIFA 06 and 07. I kept myself telling I really like this team while my heart was always in Old Trafford. Since Jose Mourinho left Chelsea I lost all my interest from that team. When I got my hand on the new release FIFA 08, I thought I could finally start playing with ManU. But when I raised difficulty to Semi-Pro from amateur, I found it is impossible to win with this team. As always ManUtd is a 5 star team with the likes of Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs and Ferdinand, but with this team I get beaten very badly by 3 star teams like LA Galaxy and Derby County. After getting lost and humiliated (don't get me wrong, 2-0 loss is my margin of humiliation) by the weaker teams for the umpteenth time, I finally abandoned hopes of playing as ManU.
Who am I playing as now? Have I switched to La Liga? The answer is no. I found salvage and started doing well again with a strong 4 star team- Arsenal, not star-studded as the others but very effective. I am winning most of my matches and last night beat Reading 4-0. This season Arsenal is also doing well in EPL and I think I have started growing a liking to this young squad.
From now on I'll support both the teams with ManU having the preference for head-to-head clashes. Make no mistake this policy is for real life only. When I'll face ManU in FIFA 08, I'll be very happy to tear them apart.
Bottom line of this post:
(in front of tv) Go Red Devils !!!
(in front of pc) Go Gunners !!!
