When we first purchase a new FIFA game, we generally tend to play with the teams we support first. Then, as we become bored with our team, we tend to play with various 5-star teams, such as the usual suspects: Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Manchester United. After that, we try and unearth our ‘online team’ – the team you think you play best with to gain points online.
After a while though, it gets less enjoyable playing with the best teams game after game; and then we play with the lower-rated teams with average players – but with the odd player we base our team around.
Here, I show which teams rated less than five stars are always a joy to play with:
Belgium: 4 ½*
Belgium boast one of the best team of individual in the world. Rated at 4 ½ stars in FIFA, when you play online, you are often pipped against weaker teams – giving you a better chance of a high-scoring victory.
With a solid goalie keeping goal for the Belgians in Thibaur Courtois, and three of the best defenders in the game – even though they are not the highest rated – in Vincent Kompany, Jan Vertonghen and Thomas Vermalen – they are one of the hardest teams to score against with their physical presence.
In midfield they boast the best defensive midfielder in the game with Marouane Fellaini and with him they have the skill and accuracy of Steven Defour and Alex Witsel – who is surely a contender for best young player in the game itself.
Upfront they possess three of the most deadly strikers in the game – who all acquire deadly speed. However, out of the three [Christian Benteke, Kevin Mirallas and Eden Hazard] Eden Hazard is their main man in the team – the player who you will always be aiming for upfront in most attacks.
It is a head-scratcher that Belgium is not a five-star rated team as their team can certainly put up a fight against the best. If you do choose to play with Belgium, you will play against weaker teams which can be easily exploited with Belgium’s solid defence, skilful midfield, and their trio of deadly strikers.
Tottenham Hotspur: 4 ½*
As I mentioned before, most FIFA players will play with their own ‘online team’ – which is usually not the team they actually support.
Well, I support Manchester United, and the team I play with online is Tottenham Hotspur.
With Spurs you get one of the best goalkeepers in the game, a physically powerful defence, a solid midfield, and two of the fastest wingers in the game in Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale.
Their two centre-backs are physically empowering in Younas Kaboul and Jan Vertonghen; but their real uniqueness comes with their two full-backs. Kyle Walker, the young, English right-back has the pace, power, and passing ability to scare any team in the game. Benoit Assou–Ekotto is similar to Walker as he possesses undeniable pace and a dazzling left foot.
Although they may lack a star striker, playing with the ‘false number 9’ formation with Tottenham almost makes them unbeatable. With Scott Parker breaking up the attacks, it gives Gareth Bale – who, in my opinion , is the best player in the game as he possesses astonishing pace, a powerful left foot, and he can defend – to run up the wings and get a chance on goal.
All in all, Spurs are the ultimate non-five-star team to play with in FIFA 13.
The Welsh wizard is a nightmare to play against in FIFA 13
Republic of Ireland: 4*
The Republic of Ireland may not be everybody’s first choice in the quest for online promotion, but nevertheless, they have an overall strong first eleven – with a solid bench to back them up.
They have two average centre-halves in their rank in Richard Dunne and John O’Shea in an otherwise weak defence. However, their midfield is solid, and extremely difficult to break down with the likes of Aiden McGeady, Glenn Whelan and Kevin Andrews – with James McClean adding pace to the team on the left.
Up front, the Irish have three strikers to choose from – who may lack the pace to scare five-star opposition – but have to ability to put away chances with their lethal finishing in Shane Long, Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle.
Ireland has an advantage in that they are a four-star international team: by being four-star, they are likely to be faced with 3-and-a-half-star teams or other four-star teams, which makes them favourites in most matches.
So, if you do choose to play with the Republic, it will be a hard-fought game no matter what the outcome of the game.
Honourable mentions:
Swansea City – a solid defence and their midfield has the passing accuracy to beat any team. Attack lets them down.
Sevilla – a frightening attack with the always-reliable Álvaro Negredo heading the strike force for the Spanish team. They are a team which also boasts Spanish speedster Jesus Navas and the crafty Jose Reyes. Only downfall is their ageing defence.
Borussia Dortmund – unlucky not to have made it into the top three with their star-studded line-up. Neven Subotic and Mat Hummels, arguably the two best defenders in the game, lead the defence whilst hugely-talented attacking midfielder Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski are the two main men in attack. Only downside for the German club is that they may be over-reliant on those four players.
Sunveer Sandhu
Images courtesy of:
PC Gamer – http://www.pcgamer.com/review/fifa-13-review/
As Sony finally announced the upcoming Playstation 4, they teased gamers by revealing many different aspects that the ‘next-generation’ console will possess. However, they still left many fans wanting to know more.
Here I explore three major questions that Sony left unanswered:
What will the console look like?
Sony certainly teased gamers across the world with their launch of the Playstation 4 at a press conference in New York on Wednesday. It may look as if they went with the ‘give the fans something, but leave them wanting more’ technique by addressing some of the accessories and gadgets that the Playstation 4 will possess – such as the games, but leaving the question of ‘what will the console look like’, unanswered. Fans were left frustrated by the lack of a physical product reveal – and they were quick to vent their frustrations out on Twitter, with one gamer tweeting: “Stayed up for two hours for the Sony press conference and they don’t even show us the console design?!?! #wasteoftime”
The reason, it may appear, is that Sony does not even know what the Playstation will look like themselves, with Sony’s worldwide studio president Shuhei Yoshida stating: “The console hardware isn’t finished, but we thought this was a really good time to show our games.”
Jack Tretton – the President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America – was quick to address the complaints of the fans as he assured gamers that the design is not the most important aspect of the console, and they will care more about “what comes out of the box, not what it looks like. I can promise you that it will be plastic, it won’t be triangle-shaped or round. You’ll see the box in due time.”, he stated.
So, should Sony have waited until the Playstation design was fully completed before setting out a press conference watched by millions around the world; or was this an intelligent ploy to leave games on the edge of their seats – imaging what was described as “the next generation console” might look like?
Although Sony failed to show what the PS4 console will look like, they did introduce what the controller will look like – prompting positive feedback across the globe.
Release Date
Sony have stated that the Playstation 4 will be released sometime in 2013 – for game consoles especially, it is unheard of to confirm a brand new console will be released in the same year that it was announced.
We have seen over the years with the likes of Microsoft and Nintendo Wii announcing the release of game consoles – they’ve showed segments of what the game will possess in one year; the following year they would show an upgrades version of the console; and then later that year they would show the world the final, completed version with a confirmed release date.
However, Sony have built up the excitement for the Playstation 4 before their rivals could do the same. Now, when Xbox do announce their newest version, it will be compared with the Playstation – and not the other way round.
Price
There have been many rumours regarding the price of the Playstation this past week, with many suggesting that it will be near the £120 mark; whilst others suggest it will be nearly £700. Though we still don’t know the exact price at which the PlayStation 4 will launch, SCEA CEO Jack Tretton assured fans that the price of software will not be rising [above the £450 mark which the Playstation 3 originally cost].
The pricing issue has sparked huge debates worldwide, with Playstation fanatic William Usher predicting that “if the console arrives at more than $400 this holiday season then I can see only core gamers picking up the Playstation 4. If the console launches for anything less than $400, then it opens up for a wide range of demographics.”
With Jack Tretton confirming that Playstation 4 game prices will not be increasing, and stating that games will vary from “99 cents up to those $60 games”, could this pave a way for Sony to go for a higher starting price for the Playstation 4?
Sunveer Sandhu
Image courtesy of:
Tech Radar – http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/ps4-controller-revealed-introducing-the-dualshock-4-1132650
As a computer game fan myself I have been left with a bitter taste how computer titles have failed to progress at the levels video games have- still favouring to play classic titles over the newer releases despite significant advances in technology, with all that has bettered the older forms are simply better graphics, but not necessarily bettered the complete experience;
1) Carmageddon (1997)
Carmageddon was developed as a remake of the cult classic film Death Race 2000 adding some unique spice and zest to the car-racing genre of the late 20th century, despite the controversies along the way.
The added sense of violence and explicit language made this title more than just a car racing game, as it became a censored frenzy of death and bloodshed as you tried to ‘waste’ your opposition in ‘Robot Wars’ fashion.
Despite the initial aim to finish a course, it merely becomes just an after thought as the death of pedestrians, the occasional animal and your opponents takes priority, being rewarded for such acts in the way of power ups and credits which can be used to make your car even more of a killing machine.
With challenges also being set to kill a certain amount of humans in one race, the idea of a racing game quickly becomes forgotten.
On initial release, the game was banned from countries such as Germany and for a short time the UK, something quite understandable when your character shouts out “say your prays” and “sorry bitch” as you seamlessly drive over pedestrians, with the evident dark evil of your character apparent as you see the joy of death spread over your characters face in the top corner of the screen.
As for the gameplay, the control of the car is superb, easy to drive when your cautious and realistically harder when your travelling at excessive speeds, usually aimed at people. The graphics are similarly great, especially for the time of release.
The game went onto release two more editions to complete the sequel but they never managed to meet the unusual greatness of the original Carmageddon.
2) Championship Manager (99/00)
Unfortunately the Championship Manager series has ceased to continue the early brilliance it showed in this particular edition after the split between producers, Sports Interactive and Eidos in 2003 led to the creation off Football Manager, the title that now has a monopoly of the football management market.
However I would still choose Champ-man 99/00 over any recent Football Manager edition due to its outstanding simplistic gameplay and experience.
Although the graphics where basic, looking back now, it’s classic appearance has some sort of hold over you, somehow giving imagery to Gazza’s Euro 99 tournament.
Navigation through what is quite a detailed game was perfect, something the modern day Football Manager’s are arguably not. There was nothing flash implemented into the logistics and that worked well.
Despite the modern day titles having the edge over this particular edition in terms of match day graphics, they were still impressive. Even though nowadays you can actually watch miniature footballers play the game, that feature only became a novelty, something you experiment with for a few games but then as you become accustomed to the gameplay, you soon revert to the traditional commentary option on full speed, echoes of the Championship Manager 99/00 gameplay.
Although there were evident hiccups to the software for the game as the often lack of speed and efficiency would often become annoying, this only becomes hindsight now we have more advanced technology, at the time it was a marvel.
The attention to detail even then was impressive as gaming website Eurogamer proclaims, ‘the sheer complexity and accuracy of the database is very impressive, and you will be hard pushed to find many holes in it.’ Going on to rate the game ‘9/10’.
3) RollerCoaster Tycoon (1999)
Like most games and films, the first edition is always the best and there is no change with this title either.
The immediate success to the revolutionary title, soon led to expansion packs littering shop floors as Hasbro looked to make the most of an extraordinary game package.
Gamers have always loved creating their own destiny in games and Rollercoaster Tycoon typifies this, through a series of targets and challenges you slowly build up your dream amusement park.
Despite having the proficiency to do what you want, there are slight story lines you must follow, however that is only through meeting targets such as the amount of guests that enter you park, how you do that, still remains in your hands, and that’s what makes it so great.
One of the biggest appeals to the game is the creativity it allows you to bring to your park, through the use of alternative design types you are able to experiment with nearly anything, whether that is the logistics of the park to the creation of rollercoasters.
Customisation of rides doesn’t just stop with the ability to add in corkscrews, climbs, loops and turns, amazingly you have the options to put your ride underground, through tunnels and bend it around a forest landscape. Of course this will add further costs to your construction but something that lets the imagination run wild as you create mind-boggling coasters.
UK based Gaming website Gamespot is also similarly full of praise for this title, stating, “RollerCoaster Tycoon is another fun management simulation from the mind of Chris Sawyer. One can only hope he continues to make games in the future – and with less time between them”. Going on to rate the game 8.6/10.
4) Ages of Empire (1997)
Ages of Empires, which has gone onto, release three more, less successful developments has become one of the finest war based strategy games available on the gaming market, in particular the 1997 edition.
A standout feature of the 1997 title was the superbly powerful intro, which as far as introductions to a games go still ranks up there as one of the best I have seen.
The Ensemble Studios production gave gamers multiple platforms of participation, with the option to take battle on land and sea.
The user to begin had the single player option, which developed as a sandboxed mode; starting from scratch in the Stone Age and building your way up through to the Iron Age, where you come up against other colonies that are trying to accomplish the same goal.
In order to complete the single player mode you must explore the map in search of the other colonies and take them out one by one until you are the last one left.
The second more strategic option to the game is the campaign mode where you are given set targets that you must complete. The story line is epic and certainly cannot be progressed at ease. Your colony is often tested as the game puts defence into flow rather than you just doing all the attacking.
If you are still left wanting more after the two polished modes, you have the ability to create your own scenario however that feature was often time consuming if you wanted to create a worthwhile gaming experience.
Despite initial unfair negative reviews, the Ages of Empire series picked up several highly credible accolades including this particular title that was awarded ‘Computer Strategy Game of the Year’ from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, fending off competition from StarCraft, which picked up Computer Game of the Year.
5) Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (1998)
At the heart of this stealth based war game, you are n control of six highly trained operatives (each with a personalised talent) who carry out inaccurate fictional scenarios based on WWII, with the mission to break ‘beyond enemy lines’ in order to gather enemy Intel to supply the British military ready for invasion.
The point and click interface works particularly well creating a solid gaming platform as you dictate your men through the levels, taking out the necessary targets to get to your ultimate goal.
Gaming site, IGN heavily praises the first in its sequel stating “With their latest game Commandos, Pyro is injecting new-life blood into the real-time strategy genre with a game that will have players on the edge of their seats, waiting for their chance to strike.”
And they are not wrong, like any well made stealth based game, you become involved in the gameplay, beginning to feel the senses of a real commando; adrenaline, nerves and bravery, as selecting your time of execution becomes the crucial line between completion and enemy detection.
Pyro’s first installment of Commando’s is extremely challenging, one that cannot be completed all on first go, you will try and fail many times before you execute your plan perfectly and that’s what is so great with this game, unlike with modern day titles such as Call of Duty, where you can take multiple rounds and somehow still survive, in Commando if you bugger up, your stuffed.
There is only one difficulty in Commandos. Bloody hard.
Rightly being awarded with high praise including the 8.2/10 rating from IGN.
By Josh Wright
Timesplitters (1, 2 and Future Perfect)
Where to begin with Timesplitters? The franchise started all the way back in 2000 solely on the Playstation 2 as a mainly multi-player FPS. While it did feature a single-player mode with a unique and interesting plot, it was mainly the ‘Arcade’ mode that grabbed the gamer’s attention. The gameplay was fun, playing with another 3 players proved popular, and the graphics were different (in a good way) compared to other first-person shooters. Two sequels, Timesplitters 2, and Timesplitters followed this game: Future Perfect, which featured similar style of gameplay but each developed on the other. While the three games did have a relatively small fanbase, they are undoubtedly some of my favourites games for the PS2 and didn’t receive the applause that they deserved.
Red Faction
How to follow an FPS? That’s right, feature another! Red Faction is a series that is more commonly known as an adventure 3rd person shooter, with the last two games in the series, Guerrilla and Armageddon both featuring this style of gameplay, but it originally started out as an action-driven FPS. The outstanding feature of the original Red Faction was the revolutionary ‘Geo-Mod’ technology, who allowed destructible settings throughout the game. Not only this, but the game was just pure fun. Lots of guns, huge environments and the unlimited destruction made it a brilliant game. It did receive hugely positive reviews, with a critic score of 88/100 on Metacritic, but the original seems to have been forgotten over time. 12 years after it’s release and it still plays well and feels fresh compared to other over-produced which have come out recently.
DJ Hero
The spin-off of the highly successful by sadly finished Guitar Hero franchise, DJ Hero was the complete opposite, offering gamers the chance to play remixes on turntables rather than classic rock songs on guitar. What is special about DJ Hero is how exclusive it is. When it was released there were many guitar-orientated games in the market, but with DJ it was a completely new area of gaming. The pity about the game was that it didn’t sell near as many copies it was predicted to sell before it’s release, meaning after the sequel it came to an unfortunate end, despite receiving critical acclaim (critic score of 86/100 on Metacritic). But for me, even now 3 years later it is a hugely original game that deserved more attention when it came out.
Perfect Dark
Goldeneye 007 is repeatedly seen as the standout shooter on the Nintendo 64, but one that is often forgotten is the timeless Perfect Dark. Released at the beginning of the century, it used the engine from 007 but improved it in many ways. There were many highlights of Perfect Dark. First of all, it had optional high-resolution graphics (not the same HD we’re used to today) a better sound system than other games. Another key feature was the female heroin, only Samus Aran (Metroid) and Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) were the most prolific women in gaming. Many other parts of the game, including the Artificial Intelligence, level designs and difficulty of the game shone. While Perfect Dark did receive glowing reviews when it was released, it seems to have been forgotten in time and should be a game to be remembered for how ahead of it’s time it was.
Metroid Fusion
I’m sure many of you have heard of the Metroid franchise. Super Metroid on the SNES being one of the greatest games of all time and the several 3D releases on the Nintendo Gamecube, but there were two Metroid games released for the GameBoy, and Fusion is the first of these two. Fusion is probably the least known game in the entire series, but is one of my personal favourite handheld games ever. It brought an original storyline and a different twist on the usual Metroid formula. Yet it was a relatively unknown game that had a very small fanbase compared to the rest of the franchise. Despite unanimous praise (92/100 critic score on Metacritic), it has definitely been forgotten since it’s release.
By Joseph Knight
Images courtesy of:
Red Faction – http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/208/3/6/red_faction_poster_by_romansiii-d58v558.png
DJ Hero – http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3640/3588800773_cbe7b0c5ef.jpg
Metroid Fusion – http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/138/0/6/samus_aran_suits_wall_by_maleficent84-d3go2xq.jpg
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The original Modern Warfare brought the Call of Duty franchise to the future with a fairly large bang, which had critics and fans alike amazed by the game’s single and multi-player features. The sequel that followed was a prime example of a game highly rated by critics but frowned-upon by gamers.
The reason? Familiarity. Playing Modern Warfare 2 was similar to playing an add-on pack on the original. The single-player campaign only contained 8 hours of gameplay, but worst of all was the multi-player. It featured maps layouts that were similar to those in the previous game and barely any new guns at all. Metacritic show the critics gave the game an average score of 94/100, whilst users gave it just 5.9/10, a clear difference.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Gradually as the Grand Theft Auto franchise got older it got better, with it’s un-doubtable peak at San Andreas, which many people regard as one of the greatest games of all time, and the best of the sixth generation of console gaming. Rockstar then followed this game with GTA IV, a game that promised a lot.
GTA IV wasn’t that it was necessarily a bad game, it was just that critics had set expectations so high of the game and it was bound to disappoint. The average rating on Metacritic by critics was 98/100, the highest of any game on the website, but people, including me, were underwhelmed, with the user score only being 7.6/10. Sure, the graphics and gameplay were better than the previous games in the series, but the lack of activities besides the story missions meant the game was fairly linear, despite it’s huge environment.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Yes ok, this is the second Call of Duty I’ve mentioned in the list, but instead of Infinity Ward’s versions I’m including Treyarch’s doomed try at making a CoD spin-off. The first Black Ops brought the series to a completely new time period, the Cold War in the late 1960s.
Black Ops 2 received similar criticism to Modern Warfare 2 by users of the game, with it only getting a score of 4.7/10 by users on Metacritic. There were just far too few changes throughout the game. The single-player was slightly improved, due to the constant transitions between the 1980s and future plots and making the latter very… Well, futuristic. But the multi-player was all too similar, despite blantant attempts by Treyarch to make it different. It was like both Treyarch and Infinity Ward took tips from each other on how to make sequels of their games.
DmC – Devil May Cry
The original Devil May Cry became a huge hit in the early 2000s, and is known as the game that truly started the hack-and-slash genre of gaming. Four sequels later and DmC, the fifth in the franchise, comes out.
Critics lauded the game for it’s originality compared to the previous sequels, but the user’s views definitely contrasted with them. They complained that DmC was too different from the classic Devil May Cry style. The main criticism being the combat was dumbed down, the plot was poor and was full of dubstep music. Yet again another game which is over-rated by critics but many people find average at best, with only a user score of 4.1/10 on Metacritic.
Tetris
The final game in the list is nearly 30 years old, first appearing on arcade machines all around the world, it has become one of the most recognisable games ever. There have been countless remakes of the game on different consoles, but all have the same premise, piecing together the varying tiles to complete a line.
Whilst critics, and in fact many people do regard this as one of the greatest games ever made, there are those who completely disagree and instead regard it as one of the most over-rated games, and over-rated sequels ever. The main criticism? It’s simply boring. It’s more of a time-waster than anything else. There is nothing special about it. Finally, the various incarnations of the game on different consoles are exactly the same, with the graphics just polished up-to-date on every version. All of these are reasons people give for disliking Tetris. Is it the most over-rated game ever? That’s up to you to decide.
By Joseph Knight
Images courtesy of:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs45/i/2009/155/7/4/Modern_Warfare_2_Wallpaper_by_V_o_E_C.png
Grand Theft Auto IV – http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3262/2575457790_2cea2efec9_z.jpg?zz=1
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/346/5/6/cod_black_ops_2_for_windows_8_oblytile_by_masakari666-d5nsxv8.png
Tetris – http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4056/4367445715_b149d8f4a2_z.jpg?zz=1
New High Score 
