Football Gamer - Pro Evo & FIFA on the XBOX 360

Exhibition matches – That’s where you’d get the best out of FIFA 09. I have played online games, offline competitions, offline leagues, manager mode, be a pro seasons, exhibition matches – every mode that’s available, all in WORDL CLASS difficulty. I can tell you with confidence that the game plays best in exhibition matches more than anything else.

I gave up on online games the very first week I had the game. All offline competition/league/MM game modes are crippled by two things (a) the AI’s scripted game play (b) your tactics and tweaks won’t work best. So there’s something unreal about the offline game modes. I’m not saying games are fully scripted. The results are scripted. And your team is being crippled to achieve that scripted result. Before the start of the game itself, there is a result that AI fixes for this game and achieves it SOMEHOW. Ok, scripting is in every game. I should be a good enough player to overcome that. But I’m not. That’s why I have made this thread.

Whereas exhibition games play such a great game of football devoid of AI scripting. So I have decided now that I would play a series of exhibition matches instead of playing a competition where I can’t (not allowed to?) progress beyond the second round. I don’t want to reduce my difficulty level to PROFESSIONAL because that’s way too easy and the game play is realistic in WORLD CLASS only.

In every gaming session, I would play about 6 to 10 matches. I would invariably start as Chelsea in a champions league or league, and start losing and drawing big time before I call it a day. Instead of going through this pain, I have decided to play that many number of exhibition matches for various reasons:

1. Unlike the other offline modes, the AI does not play with a desired result in its mind (?). Exhibition matches are the most open, natural and unspoilt version of this beautiful game. When you’re a goal up, in offline game modes, you’ll see your defenders pushing up when you don’t want to, you’ll see your defenders messing up with two-yard passes, you’ll find yourself passing to your opponent, you’ll find that none of your defenders bother to jump to win the incoming cross no matter how much you mash the buttons. In exhibition matches, the game played by the numbers – the player attributes with no turbo boost by AI to any of the values.

2. AI plays a very good game of football. It just plays a natural game with the flow and ebb of the game. AI plays a better open and creative game that can keep you guessing and you’ll be on your toes. Also it’s nice to see the AI challenge you in a very appropriate, honest manner. The teams will play true to their strengths and weaknesses only in exhibition matches. A good team plays like a good team and a crap team plays like a crap team. May be it’s not a coincidence that my best goals and my most satisfactory goals have come from exhibition matches.

3. The custom tactics and the speed/acceleration tweaks work best in exhibition matches. Try this yourself. Play team A vs team B in a competition or a manager mode or whatever offline mode. And then play the same team A vs team B in an exhibition match. See the difference. The exhibition match is much much more fluid and natural.

4. You can play as any team, instead of your favourite team. When you play in any of the game modes as one of your favourite teams, you mostly play the same formation (because that suits the team well) and the almost in a similar playing style every match because you’re using the same set of players. In exhibition matches, you could play as Chelsea one match, Lyon another, Napoli in anothere and so on. The variety keeps you going and makes a great gaming session.

5. You can choose which stadium to play, whether you want to play day, night or dusk. This is a big one for me. When I kick off in a pitch that I don’t like, it turns me off and shows up in my performance. Also I hate playing night matches in FIFA (be it 08 or 09). When I play exhibition matches, I can play in the choicest of stadiums in day or preferably dusk.

So it’s exhibition mode for me henceforth. When I play champions league, I might play Fenerbahce in knock out round, Valencia in quarters, Liverpool in semis and Barca in final. I might as well play four exhibition matches, one each against Fener, Valencia, Liverpool and Barca. It’s not that we need to win stuff to unlock anything. I just want to enjoy the game as much as I want to.

If exhibition matches are your most ignored offline game mode, please change your mind. Compare the gameplay and AI behaviour/style in exhibition matches and in other offline modes. You’ll realise it and agree with me. I’m going to play exhibition matches only and enjoy the game to its fullest potential. What do you feel?