FIFA 18 Beta...

[Ted]

Whatever the default is....assisted?

[Jason]

I asked because I like how the passing lines are displayed on the screen. I played the demo and realized that I could enable them in the FIFA Trainer settings. Last year's game was all or nothing with the display, so I turned it off and forgot about it.

[Ted]

Yes, I like the trainer and keep it on always.  It has helped me get better at making sure I'm pushing the stick in the right direction and at the right time, but has also helped me to see that sometimes the cpu passes passes poorly and it isn't my fault because it must be them using the player's passing skill.  It has eased my frustration with errant passes when they happen.  I know clearly whether it was my error or the player not having good skill.

[Jason]

What difficulty level do you play on? Pro?

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[Ted]

I'm on world class now that my career team has earned promotion to EFL Championship.  The recent videos on my channel are on pro.

I played my first season in EFL2 on semi and played almost every game.  By the end of the season it was too easy, but I kept it there for consistency.  I got promoted to EFL1 and moved up to pro.  I finally found a system I like.  I sim every game except for the last match of the month and play that one.  I'm happy with the statistical consistency, the difficulty, and getting through a season before getting bored.  I spent two seasons in EFL1 before getting promotion to EFL Championship.  I played the playoff final, which was against a team that was one higher in the table than me, on pro and won 3-0 pretty handily.  With Champ I have moved up to world class difficulty with the same sim/play system.  I'll see how it goes this season.  Basically if I get promoted I move the difficulty up and demotion I'll move it down.  So far I'm lower-mid table in Champ after about 1/4 season played.  The 3 games I've played myself have all resulted in draws so it's been a significant jump.

I play FUT using different difficulty depending on what I'm facing and how many points I'm trying to get.  I even play that on amateur sometimes, but have played up to legendary as well.  I mostly move back and forth between amateur and semi in FUT because I can earn more points toward packs at the lower difficulty and that game mode is all about points to earn better free packs at the end of the week.  The really interesting part is that their system is similar to the old Honor League system we used to play.  You can play any difficulty you want and it adjusts your rewards and ranking based on what you accomplish during the game and at what difficulty you play on.  I'm never going to break into the top 100 playing on semi, but I did get to Gold 1 which is like top 30%(?) and got 3 nice packs and 10k coins as a reward. 

[Ted]

Another free kick goal.  This time with Goretzka in FUT.  I love these.

[Jason]

FIFA 18 is currently on sale for $47.99 on PSN, but I'm still holding out for my $39.99 price point. I remember buying PES 2015 for $47.99 only to see the price drop to $39.99 the following week. Sony was nice enough to credit me the difference after I called them, but I'd rather not deal with the hassle. I'm also waiting on my free $50 PSN card for signing up for the PlayStation Visa credit card.

[Ted]

Nothing wrong with waiting.  It will still be as good a game when it's cheaper.

[Jason]

Here's another game that has made big strides since last year with greatly improves graphics, tons of new animations and HDR. It's like night and day comparing this game to FIFA 17, which I loved too. The new animations have impressed the most. Even something as simple as the players sprinting looks so much better than last years hyper-active sprinting animations.

They must have done some work on the defensive AI too because I'm having very competitive games on Pro while I had no problem beating every team on Pro in FIFA 17 as recently as a few weeks ago.

[Ted]

I see a lot of comments about the defense and most people online saying it's harder this year.  Of course they changed the defense buttons and what they do, but the option to select legacy defense controls is there and I've done that.  It was just too hard to tackle otherwise.

I am disappointed in that some of the camera angle replays I saw in the demo have just not appeared at all in the full release and I really can't understand that.  Maybe it's only available in certain league's presentations.  Who knows.

[Brad Company]

Now I won't need another footy game for 4 years..https://blog.us.playstation.com/2018/04/30/fifa-18-free-world-cup-update-available-may-29/

[Jason]

I'm shocked that EA is releasing this for free. Good job by them!!!