FIFA Soccer 09 Interview: David Rutter, Producer, PS3 & Xbox 360
SportsGamer had a chance to catch up with FIFA 09 producer David Rutter. He shed some light on the new FIFA title. For a more in-depth preview, check out the "First Look" from Gamespot. You can find Shanker's preview here.
General:
1. In FIFA 08, it seemed that too many gamers relied on fouling their opponent as legitimate strategy. The problem was too often bad challenges went unpunished, or potentially only a yellow card. For instance, when one player is on an attack, opponents would often slide tackle players away from the ball to take passing options away. In a real game, this would be an immediate red card. However, in FIFA 08 the referee would call for advantage and let the play continue. However, there really wasn’t an advantage because attackers are losing supporting players. How has the foul system been changed since FIFA 08?
Rutter: The team realized there was an issue with this online so there are three things we have done. First, we have introduced a new match-making system meaning that if you spot players who are doing this habitually you will be able to flag them so you will know you will not want to play against them again. Other people will be able to look at this feedback to decide if they want to play them. The second part is that the team has actively looked at this referees and the discipline system in the game and we have revamped it. We think gamers will be very pleased with this now. And third, we have really been working on player attributes and the physical side of the game. So you will see when tackles go in they are far more realistic. Not all tackles result in the player falling over as before, now, rather than the player going down if the challenge simply clips the player’s non-standing leg, they will be able to skip out of it and continue running. As a result, we have made it more difficult to bring players down 100% of the time when tackled. Those dastardly gamers who exploited the system before may be in for a shock when either their player is sent off or their willfully underhand tactics only result in leaving a player to run-in on goal. The new animations make these new variations on the gameplay look and feel exceptional.
2. FIFA 08 had an option to purchase alternate uniforms with experience points. Will there be any more jerseys this year? Throwback uniforms perhaps? Mix and match socks, shorts, and shirts?
Rutter: We have got some exciting developments coming your way in terms of downloadable content that we will be able to talk about very soon so I suggest checking back with me in a month.
3. FIFA 08 For the past few years, practice mode has consisted of Ronaldinho attacking the keeper in a one-on-one situation. Are there going to be any more practice options this year? Possibly practicing free kicks with a wall in place?
Rutter: There are a number of options available inside the practice arena. Firstly, for inexperienced gamers we will provide hints and tips in the form of overlays to show how to do different moves. You are also able to practice free kicks, and penalties. If you are outside the area and running at the goalie, press down on the D-pad and you will go to a free kick mode where you are standing. Press down on D-pad while inside the area and you will be able to practice the free kick.
4. FIFA 08 saw a huge improvement in goalkeeper play from FIFA 07. However, keepers still acted lost in too many situations, most notably defending the near post. In other situations the keepers seemed superhuman. How has the goalkeeper AI been improved to be more realistic? Can gamers click on goalkeepers this year?
Rutter: We have done a massive amount of work this year to try to humanize the goalkeeper. Rather than it being inhumanly stupid and inhumanly brilliant we have injected a great deal of realistic human behaviour into the system. You’ll see the goalkeeper make better decisions about positioning, come away from the goal line at the right moments, getting down on shots a lot more intelligently and a lot more authentically. We have also introduced a new system this year which enables the goalkeeper to react to what is occurring on the field in real-time. So if the goalkeeper makes a dive and realizes he’s not going to save the ball he can half change his mind to try to get an arm or a leg out to try to at least deflect the ball to make the save. Unfortunately you will not be able to play as the goalkeeper for FIFA 09.
5. In FIFA 08, often times when trying to click on a field player, response time seemed a bit slow. Then other times, after clicking on a player, it didn’t always feel like the user had total control. What has been done to allow for gamers to feel more in control of the players in FIFA 09?
Rutter: As part of the 250 key improvements we have made to the core gameplay this year we have done a lot of work on auto-switching and switching players when you want to choose them. At the moment we believe it is significantly more improved over last year and I would also encourage people to go into the game options controller set-up to adjust the switching mechanics to very manual or very automatic. Manual works better for most people in most circumstances so I would suggest giving this a try as well.
Custom Team Tactics:
1. This is the part of FIFA 09 that sounds the most exciting. Can you tell us a little bit more about what type of in-game strategies we can use? Will this involve creating new formations, creating different types of player movement?
Rutter: As part of your Team Management you’ll be able to edit 11 tactical sliders to change attacking and defending parameters of your team. This is a new feature this year we are calling Custom Team Tactics. Think of it as being the first team coach and being able to dictate how your team plays on the pitch. There is roughly 140 attacking and 40 defensive options. One example is to adjust the Defensive Mentality – in a high setting you’ll have nine players pushing into your opposition half trying to cut-out play in much the same way as in the team pushing for a win, desperate to get the ball no matter how vulnerable that leaves you defensively. To counter this, the opposition could play a long, lofted ball over your last man and your striker will probably have 30 yards of space to run into between the last defender and the goalkeeper. The opposite example is low Defensive Mentality. Choose this option means your defensive line is deep leaving very little space for the attacking team to play in your half of the pitch. An attacking team is going to be met with a 10 man defense – so they’re going to need to use some pretty inspired quick passing and movement to get near goal.
Custom Team Tactics completely changes the dynamic of all of the players on the pitch for the team that has the tactic applied. Just like real life it isn’t just about short passing or long passing. The important thing is the support play and how your team operates as a unit to be successful.
2. Will the offsides trap again be on the d-pad, as in FIFA 08, or will it be back on the trigger / bumper as it was in FIFA 07?
Rutter: We are pleased to announce you can completely customize your controller however you want. If you want those mappings, then the controller mapping set-up will enable you to do it. Essentially you create your own controller configuration, assigning actions to the buttons exactly how you like them for complete control. You can save these and even take it online which was a major request from gamers last year.
Online Play:
1. Often times, I can’t connect to an opponent when trying to play online. Overall, I would guess that I can only connect to others about 60% of the time. Has anything been done to help gamers connect around the world?
Rutter: We have done a lot of work on our match-making technology to make sure to put you in contact with other gamers we think are appropriate based on their connection and location plus what is available in FIFA 09 as part of a new player hub system. We are always trying to create a better online experience and you should see an improved success rate this year
2. In terms of in-game options to quit playing – there seemed to be several quirky things about FIFA 08. First, gamers could quit in the first 15 minutes, regardless of the score, and not receive a loss. So some people would simply quit the game if they conceded a goal early. Has this been corrected? In addition, has any sort of ‘Concede Game’ option been implemented? When I’m getting pounded by 3 or 4 goals in the 2nd half, I simply don’t want to finish the game, but also don’t want my DNF% to skyrocket.
Rutter: We don’t want to penalize people who have legitimately lost there connection to the server or have a poor internet connection. However, we are tracking statistics on players who are not finishing their games and should you want to make sure you are playing someone with a sufficiently high DNF % you can now select that and review their history as part of the match-making service we are providing for FIFA 09.
3. There has been much talk about this year’s pre-set strategies implemented in FIFA. Can these be used online? Does this mean created formations can be used online?
Rutter: Custom Team Tactics can be used online. You can assign up to 4 Custom Team tactics to your D-pad or your thumb pad if you want to re-map them as part of your controller configuration option. You will be able to use these online and you will be able to exchange these Custom Team Tactics online with other people via the EA Locker. You will also be able to use created formations online as well.
4. In regard to the various rooms when playing FIFA 08 online (my level, advanced), it seemed as though there weren’t enough variety in the types of rooms. For instance, the advanced room was for gamers with level 20+, but for the first couple months that the game was out, no one was ranked highly enough to enter the room. In addition, the individual level rooms typically only had a couple people with the exact level of the other gamer. Has EA added more rooms, such as a room for Level 1-5, then a room for Level 6-10, etc?
Rutter: I will be able to talk more in depth about our online features and new capabilities in the coming months after we make some additional feature announcements this month and at the Leipzig Games Festival in Germany in August. What I can say right now is that the new EA matching –making hub will create a significantly improved experience when looking for other gamers to play online and this, combined with what we will be revealing in the coming months, should create a much improved online experience.
5. Online Leagues were added last year, which was great. However, it would be amazing to get 8-16 guys together to battle it out in a mini-tournament. Have Quick Tournaments been added to FIFA 09?
Rutter: Well, we’re still working on the game so stay tuned. We’ll be discussing online features in-depth later in the year.
6. When playing online in FIFA 08, a user wasn’t able to see who the opponent is manually controlling. This can seriously change a user’s strategy, and when playing offline against an opponent a user can always see who’s being controlled. Has the user cursor been added to online play?
Rutter: Yes, we have addressed exactly what you have described.
Rutter: Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your questions. I have dozens of additional questions that have been submitted by your readers and I will try to answer these as quickly as possible. So please check back for my answers.
