Be Excellent To Each Other

That's right blame me when I'm not around to defend myself.
I don't think it was me, I did have a few 'I've got the ball and I'm about a foot from my own goal' kind of moments, but I don't think I was ever directly responsible for it ending up in our own net.

BLISTERING SOCIAL INSIGHT: As the amount of online players for FIFA 09 has swelled, the number of available multiplayer participants for GTA4 has dropped, meaning that when I have got tired of my (admittedly largely drunken) self getting whupped by Manchester Bloody United at FIFA, swapping to GTA4 has seen me having to host - at best - a four player GTA Race. This is deeply unsatisfying, given that my ability at getting a respectable booze-addled placing in GTA is much more likely than achieving a similarly notable placing in a FIFA Ranked Live Match.

Also worth pointing out: the most entertaining matches in Live Ranked FIFA have been where Johnny Opponent has chosen a less-fancied team such as Man City or Birmingham City. In such cases, I've picked teams like Portsmouth or Wolves respectively, and won 4-3* or lost 3-2 as a result, much to the added enjoyment of both participants. Football was very much the winner, Des.

(* After thrillingly coming back from 3-1 down. FIFA is excellent when you're playing against someone who isn't (a) a spoilt little shitrag who magically 'loses' their internet connection upon going three goals down, (b) an annoying showboating little shitrag who simply has to play as Man Utd or Brazil no matter who their opponent has chosen, and who has spent innumerate hours mastering all the F2+UP-DOWN-UP-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT-STAND-ON-HEAD special moves, the "Tim Lovejoy on 606 saying players like John Terry should not be sent off because the fans pay a lot of money to see the best players"-loving dickwipes.)

burning or this tomorrow, or both?

I would play either, but our phoneline/internets buggered till Thursday

Be A Pro mode is scarily addictive.

Started as Roy Race, blond be-mulletted left-sided striker with FC St. Pauli in the German second division (because of a) shitty brown kit...



...and b) they were sponsored by Andrew Eldritch while he was living in Hamburg), got them promoted but was incredibly frustrated by their crappy midfield making my life much more difficult than it needed to be so intended to get a transfer out. Pressed the wrong button in the transfer screen so got stuck with my useless teammates for another season.

I am an idiot.

Struggled early against the improved defences I was facing, but rounded into form nicely as the season went on including a great spell of five games in which I banged in ten goals, eventually finishing as the top scorer in the Bundesliga with 32 goals in 34 games. My team's overall goal difference was +26, which gives you some idea of how much help I was getting from the rest of the side. My team status nudges up to Fan Favourite just in time for me to fly the coop.

Arsenal are in for me, but I'd be a reserve there so instead I go to Villareal in La Liga - same 4.5 star rating as Arsenal (St. Pauli are a 2-star side) and I'll be a Squad Member. Even so, they start me off with two games in the stiffs - 5 goals, 2 assists and two 10-ratings later (GOD, it's nice to play with people who can bloody PASS) and now I'm due to make my first team debut in the next game.

If you've not downloaded it I strongly recommend the Brazilian Portuguese commentary, by the way. Bloke shouting "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!" >>> Martin Tyler.

Looks like I'm getting this then. I want to play that

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: the Be A Pro mode on Fifa 09 is an RPG for football fans. I love it.

just disovered you can download mexican commentary for free on xbl (was looking for the nxe)m goooooooooooooooool

there are lots of reasons to be st. pauli, it complete fan owned anarchywith a reeperbahn boss

I'd love it to go a bit further - the press and managers big-upping or having a pop at individual players, dressing-room discord, angling for a transfer, Player Of The Year awards, that sort of thing. The stuff that's on the periphery of Championship/Football Manager or New Star Soccer.

I'd really like the chance to slag off my team-mates in the media. In every RPG I've ever played I end up going down the "nice" path because I'm too wet and woolly to even be unpleasant to computer-animated marionettes but ten games into my second season at St. Pauli I suddenly turned into Nicolas Anelka.

"EVERYBODY on this team SUCKS but ME. Just give me the ball, you fucking NOBODIES, then get out of my way and ADMIRE."

im not playing tonight, but if anyone needs an invite give me a shout on here. I dont think you need me to play games, but if its essential I can hand the manager status to someone else.

I don't mind looking after tonight's shenanigans.

I still have to eat so I'll be late.

Well currently it's just me in the lobby.

Just me and Ramsea now.

ik Am there

Oh god, we're so shit.

Yes, very much this!

I prefer the "any" player option when theres only a few of us online...I didnt know what that did until tonight.

A good 1-1 draw to start with, then a 3-1 reverse that should've been worse. It all went terribly wrong after that with a 6-1 and a 4-0 drubbing.

FeeXed

oh I forgot to say the fifa site is proper spiffy, and you can show your uploaded goals to other mugs on here.

Like my jeju united super free kick against real madrid.

http://www.eafootballworld.com/en_GB/video/1577511

Sorry for the no-show last night - our Shadowrun group was moved from Thursday to Wednesday. Normal service should be resumed next week.

sorry for my own goal (well niot really, but my keeper passed into hteir hands) in the 6-1 drubbing

hate that it doesn't warn you properly when you get almost the same colours..


sensi did it better..

It's the captain's responsibility to pick the kit. The England red vs Man Utd red was my fault as I hadn't noticed it, but in the next game I found that you could press X to change the kit colour. Whoever's captain needs to keep an eye on this before we ready up.

So how are Wednesdays working out for people?

im ok for this wednesday i think.

Me too.

One slightly unfortunate side-effect of my move to Villareal - the game's now a bit too easy. I'm up to OVR 88 and am averaging about 2 goals a match. We just went to the Nou Camp and did Barcelona 4-0, and I'm a first-team choice for England up front alongside Shrek.

Maybe time to jump up from Intermediate difficulty.

Has anyone else noticed that at times your player rating in Be A Pro seems to get "capped"? You'll get up to a 9.0 rating say, but then the green messages stop coming and nothing you do will improve the rating any further. Sometimes later in the game it'll suddenly decide to allow you to start accumulating the last rating point, but sometimes it doesn't. Am I imagining it? Is there any rhyme or reason to it?

Yes, but I think I've also figured it out. Imagine you're a defender and you just keep passing it between the back four. You'd get + points for passing forever, until you got to 10, right? Wrong. It'll cap your rating until you do something well that your position demands, like tackling or defensive heading.

Not sure if that's right. I've had at least one occasion where it wouldn't push me above the "cap" even after I banged in another goal (playing as a striker, obv). I've had games where I've scored a hat-trick and have still been stuck on a 9 (or, more annoyingly, I'll misplace a couple of passes in the dying minutes and drop to 8.8 or so).

I wondered if quality of opposition might have something to do with it - I scored in the first 15 minutes against Real Madrid and was almost instantly at a 10 without having done anything else.

Hmm, dunno then.

Hmm, after nearly a whole season I've been picked for an England friendly against PR China. A bit unrealistic seeing as I'm at League 2 Bournemouth, but I'm not going to complain.

FAO Everyone, possibly just those who've gone to the trouble of registering on pointless social networking site EA Football World: Don't forget to upload a video of something in order to get some easy gamer points. Here's my effort, a fantastic chip from the edge of the... oh, okay, it was a bodged cross that I got lucky with: http://www.eafootballworld.com/en_GB/video/2409534

I think I've uploaded a few already. Can you search for me?

I hope you managed to upload that one where I tackled your goalie.

Haha, I do that so often I can't remember it.

We must play each other again sometime.

Uploading five screenshots is also an Acheivement. Although the stupid website doesn't let you search by name for screenies, so if you don't grab them from the site within about 10 minutes of uploading you'll likely never see them again.


Was it the England team, or England A (aka "the Reserves")? I didn't break into the full England team until the end of my second season. By the middle of the third I was captain. In your FACE, John Terry!

I got a weird, semi-fatherly rush watching Villareal play Man U last night - the same sort of feeling you get when you sign an obscure player from the lower ranks of European football in CM, then he gets a big-money move to a Premiership club in so-called "real life".

First team. I played 90 mins, linking up well with Beckham down the right and got a 7.5 rating - got scythed down in the area to win a penalty in a 4-0 win, too.

you can only upload tree though.. i uploaded the most important goal i made until now, the 2-0 againjst inter which

A) won me the coppa italia
B) got me the achievement for heading
C) got me the achievement for wing play

and then as a unexpected bonus, the achievement for uploading a video

http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/video/21656

Nice!

I'm now at Milan, following the trail blazed by the immortal Luther Blissett. I'm playing as the fulcrum of a three-man forward line with Kaka(!) on my right and Ronaldinho(!!!) on my left.

I've been told that England are playing in the International Cup at the end of the season, although it's a pity there've been no club tournaments outside the league to play.

Yeah, remember that the BAP mode only came into Fifa 08, though. If they put all the features in straight away, they'd have less for Fifa 10. *rolls eyes*

Luther Blissett used to play for Bournemouth, too. Legend.

so who's playing tonight?

I'm around but I'll be on early and gone early. I'll have to leave about 9, sorry.

I can't make it tonight - I am going to a friend's.

I've been at work things until insaneotime 2 days in a row so I'm actually going to start Tomb Raider Underworld / Fall over and sleep for 12 hours (either's possible).

interestingly, the former evil empire complains that itswii licensed games are selling well..

i do wonder is that because of many people with a wii have also an other console and buy the licensed game for that (not that impressed with the all play modes), or is it because of the reasons mentioned here
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=319327

I'll be playing tonight. What time are people going to be around?

anyone playing then?

I arrived at 8.10 (UK time), and saw peacesquid and wullieooster online, invited them to a party. We tried to play as beex united, but peacesquid had not accepted his invitation. When he tried to do that, he was told he needed to leave his other team; which he didn;t want as he didn't know he could come back (can he?).. strange, as it the menu itums is called the plural 'clubs'. We tried to play as a team in another way, but when we selected 'play with friends' , you only gcould get friends, and not opponents, and we obv. hadn't 20

so in the end i played my Excellentship match against Wullieooster, lost after a tight game (according to W, i even had the upperhand) 1-0, and then lost Roma-Lyon with a lot of goals..

I turned up about half 8, saw there was only two of you and couldn't really be bothered.
Hopefully we'll have a better attendance next week (this is sounding shockingly similar to my real life football )

My kingdom for a simple UI where you can play 2v2 without wanting to scratch your eyeballs out trying.