Fifa 12 Pro Club

Hey all, I'm am one of the General Managers for my Pro Club in Fifa 12, it is one of the most popular game modes out there in all of gaming, think I prefer Horde more though.


Anyhoo here's a bit of information on my Pro Club, The Soup a Star5

We were formed around new years day, as the Leeds Colts between myself, (MasonCooper42) and my good friend, DeadlyDemon666.

Over the next few weeks we won our first cup and added some great players, 01 Hellraiser, BigBadBird95, Holmsey91 and developed some great chemistry between us.

Over the next few months we added other players such as Tristano1995, LUFCRyan, Chiefy2times and x iL u c k y 7 and continued on a great run winning 4 cups in one day. we found we could do well but were so unlucky without a full time keeper, we found we could be undone rather easily.

in july we made the last additions to our squad filling out our midfield in a 4-3-3 formation, with BOA x Assassain, boy matt and WombRaider83 bringing great depth to our passing and attacks through their work in midfield.

we finished fifa 11 with a record of 308 wins, drew 47 times and lost 384 games.

not all of us have been able to accquire fifa 12 so far, but those who have, gave combined to put us into the top 1000 of the world.

Regular Players on squad. Position stated afterwards. Formations posted below so work out what position you would like to play and contact me or one of the fellow gm's on fifa, on here, or post in our thread on here.

We are a committed team that look for fun, our primary purpose is to win, although we tip our hat to a good team that can beat us through skill.

we play a number of formations based on the players we have.

most of the time we play 4-1-2-1-2. Another good time we play 4-3-3 (2), and recently we have been playing more of the formation 4-1-3-2.

We do lose games, and have lost about just over 50, but to all those elitest bastards on there, (havent encountered any on this site) if you dont want to play with us because we have lost some games, go fcuk yourself as you really need a life.

we have won more games than we lose, and are nearing the 100 win mark.

and to those who may not join because of our win loss record, we are here to recruit people to improve our chances of winning. As we dont like to lose.

Our primary need is defenders in my opinion, some of the other members slightly disagree when we are at full strength.

although you can never go wrong with a two or three defenders

Edit: We are know Playing more of a 4-2-3-1 formation. Looking for GK, DEF,

DeadlyDemon666, Central Defensive Midfield. General Manager. Club Captain (first choice for captain in game lobby)

MasonCooper42, Left Back (Second Choice Captain) General Manager.

Holmsey91, Striker. Fifa 12 Club Creator. Also General Manager

01 HELLRAISER, Striker/Central Attacking Midfield. General Manager

boy Matt, Striker/Cam

x iL u c k y 7, Striker/CAm

Reckanise, Left Centre Back

WombRaider83, Striker/Central Attacking Midfield.

These are the Teammates, i'd prefer it if you contacted me through the offical channels, here or through xbox live. 

Thoughts

Firstly let me address the distance between posts, It been nearly three weeks, I must apologise, been researching  (i.e doing nothing but playing computer games, stuffing my face and taking the dog for a walk)

I have too many games to play and too little time. 

I was going to do a post about what I want to see implemented into the next generation of consoles/xbox, but with a major lack of research, (thanks to epic and gearsmas, and xmas preparation, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.) I will do that in the new year when I actually have the time to create a list first and foremost and then have the time to research the instruments of enticement and improvement to the consoles.

In Other News: My favourite NFL team; The Indianapolis Colts finally won a game this year!!! YAY!!!! 

Oh and it's Christmas!!!

Now to today's topic; I'm not sure what to call this, so lets say it is about Artifical Intelligence (AI) and how it relates to real life situations.

AI is anything that the computer itself controls to play alongside or against you. (Enemies in a First Person Shooter, teammates and opposition in any sports game) 

Sometimes the AI can be your best friend, (in gaming terms you could refer to this as SI (Situation Awareness)) at other times it is just terrible. For example in Fifa Football one of the most popular game modes is Pro Clubs. If you do not have a GoalKeeper, you could be in serious trouble. One of the major flaws in the AI of this game is that they make really really really stupid mistake, like the GK will Kick a goal kick out as a small pass, and the timing is normally terrible, as it is random, it could be the first goal kick of the match or it could be the 89th minute and you are tied in the cup final. And if you do not have a defender prepared to cover, then chances are the other team, will intercept it and score.

The AI is just as poor sometimes when passing the ball, and will chip it to you from about 4 yards away.

Despite that, in career mode, it is annoyingly good, as it just holds onto the ball and pass the ball around and away from you when you try to predict where they are going to pass next. So it is good in some aspects.

The problem is, you cannot train with the AI, for example the Barcelona Football Club in games and real life, and are famed for the attacking free flowing passing play. They all have a great chemistry within the team as they have been playing that way for years and years and years. Cesc Fabregas, Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Xavi, Andreas Iniesta, have all come through the Barca Academy and have played probably in excess of 4-500 games together easily in their lifetime.

It has probably gotten to the point where they know almost telepathically what one of the other's are going to do. You just can't do this with Computer Controlled AI, as they do not play consistently enough to predict. One Game they are the MVP, next they can't string two passes together.

The difference from game is excruciatingly annoyingly, the Barca players have confidence in each other, which leads to significant trust, once you trust someone, especially a team mate in a sport grows your own confidence, and allows you to play freely.

It dosen't help that computer ai dosen't play their positions correctly. I play Left Back for my club online, and the other three defenders do not play offside well at all, their positioning is poor for lack of a broadcastable word. Communication is also an issue. You can tell if someone is playing badly, you can have a word, whether to have a go, or encourage, or even to say calm down, and just do some simple passes alright. You cannot do this with a Computer as it dosen't understand. If you didn't ask for a pass, i'm not entirely sure what the ai would do.

Communication, Consistency, are the main problems of the Computer Controlled AI. Which is bad considering it is there as a CRUCIAL MEMBER of the team in every game, this is very much a bad thing.

Sometimes AI can be useful. Take the Game Halo: Reach. You play Noble 6. The 6th member of Noble Squad. A team of super soldiers. The other five whenever you play alongside them are invincible. (very Handy feature) but they lack a killer instinct as a soldier. Considering the achievement in this game is to complete the game on it's hardest difficulty on your own, (a very considerable task) you would think that the team mates would be better than what they are.

As it turns out though, this is not the bad news you would think. You see said achievement I mentioned, states that you have to do this solo, and this is the first game where you are not the only super-soldier around. Meaning the previous games Halo's 1, 2, 3, had sub-par allies while you were a big weapon of destruciton.

Odst: had a squad but it felt more like you were doing all the work.

The allies I believe have been made to be sub-par to make your efforts more important, so that you become the hero that the achievement requires you to be. Only the very best are really going to get this achievement. I've only done 2 missions so far. Of which I really abused my team-mates just picking off whoever beat them up for the last ten minutes while I hide in the corner silently crying.

One game where I have found the Allies useful was a World War II game, Call Of Duty 2. The COD series, in single player, has always been solely about the player, it is all on you, and how you must fight to win the fight before they get themselves inexplicably killed. However they are useful in when you get a bit further ahead of the level and hide in a corner as they will move up and clean a room out.

But The allies of COD do fall down, as the game just simply asks you to put what seems like the entire allied forces on your back and carry them to victory.

The Best AI in any game, Is Rainbow 6 3 on the original Xbox. You gave them an order they did it. They got execute complicated orders as well. Like Open, Flash and Clear (Open door, throw Flashbang, then execute enemies.) Absolute dream. The 4 man team could hold their own in a firefight, although they would follow you, and I think their get into cover skill was lacking a bit. But they would spot enemies and if under right combat instructions, (Fire on Sight, Fire when shot at) would take out said enemies before even I knew what was going on.

I'm not too sure what to expect from Computer AI, but the very least I expect is for said AI to back me up sufficently. Whether it's Fifa, I'd expect it to be able to tackle, pass, and shoot efficently, or a shooter, I expect it to be able to at least kill something, and to know when to revive a team-mate.

I do not know if this is possible right about now, but I do wonder if it is possible to create an AI in a game which is superb, that rarely misses, that wont mess about.

I think the closest you come to that is on the hardest difficulties on most shooters. especially in the now standard Horde Mode in every shooter worth it's salt.

Anyway, Keep Gaming, and send me moments of pure gaming pleasure for me to publish on here.

Regards

Mason Cooper 42

It's Late but

Merry Xmas, It's a bit late from most people's xmas day but still, happy wishes and all that.

I got, Kinect Sports Season 2, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Batman: Arkham City, and Saints Row the Third.

I also accquired the games Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead: Undead Nightmare and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary just before Christmas.

So I am going to be playtesting these games vigorously through the next two weeks hopefully, and get towards a decision on these games and whether they are (firstly worth your time to play, and whether or not it is a mandatory purchase)

Secondly, I will be conducting with joe, via Twitter mainly our review of the gaming year that was 2011. except cheap jokes, and well lots of references between the industry and our game of the year!!!!

Sorry about not posting here, been busy, and will be busy over the next couple weeks. Playing games, Dog Sitting, sleeping, eating, buying a new bed, tv and tv stand.

Remember folks, anything you think me and joe should look at in the gaming industry, let us know, and we'll look into it.

Also remember to show us any or all the great gaming moments

Remember to keep gaming

Regards, Mason and Joe, The Gaming Issues Team.

change of slight pace

My Perfect F1 Calendar


1. Australia. Melbourne. Albert Park, is great track
2. Malaysia. Sepang. One of the few half decent Tilke Tracks. Soon he will have over 50% of f1 tracks.
3. Bahrain. BIC. This is a good track, DRS will significantly improve this track this year.
4. China. Shanghaii. Biggest population and market of all. Track is medium-alright, but they need more fan input and attendance.


5. Turkey. Istanbul Park. Great Track, but same as china, need more fans.
6. Spain. Valencia. Get rid of Barcelona track, Its rubbish these days, that chicane eliminates drs, at the only overtake spot, and the teams know far too much about the track for it to be interesting.
7. Monaco. Really, need i say more?
8. Canada. Montreal. Gilles Villeneuve Circuit. This should never leave the calendar ever. When was the last bad Canadian GP? Go on i dare you to think right back to find one


9. Britain, Silverstone. I think I've made my point here.
10. Germany. Nurburgring. Much better track than Hockenheim.
11. Hungary. Classic Track, First to accept Formula 1 behind the iron curtain in the 80's and i think it stays for a long time yet.
12. Belgium, Spa. If Bernie gets rid of this, he needs to go, and be shot, thousands of times, brought back to life, and then shot again thousands of times.


13. Italy. Monza. I dare you bernie to get rid of this. I dare you. Just don't drop the soap in the italian jail.
14. Singapore. This isn't as bad as the track i thought it would be. It's great as an event.
15. Japan. Suzuka. Again, try and take this one away without an FOTA riot.
16. Korea. This track is brilliant. If Bernie was less about money, and more about the product this race can work.


17. India. New Dehli. This Track is awesomely fast, and quite cool. but we need the fan turnout, or just sachin tendulkar to show and it should be a sellout. 
18. Brazil. Interlagos. Great track but i'd get rid of if they attack the mechanics. You can't guarantee the teams safety. No race. Period. I'd go to argentina.
19. USA. Texas Road Course. Jury's out on this one.
20. New York Street race. The one in 2013, I'm liking this one so far.
21. Abu Dhabi. The poetic juxta-position of the sun setting on the f1 season is too much for me to put it anywhere other than the season finale.


I also have no idea where you would put the russian gp, though i imagine its august time? But the russian track looks terrible to the point where you'd fancy your chances overtaking at monaco more than russia. seriously. here is the layout.http://www.flickr.com/photos/75417274@N00/5081341299/




what i would do is merge F1 and the IndyCar series. can you imagine f1 cars going around ovals? as that would almost instantly crack america. by merging the two series it would become a major challenge to the drivers, making it a more appealing to young kids all over the world.


And more importantly some of F1 biggest markets have raceable ovals.


Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroSpeedway_Lausitz 2 Mile Tri-Oval
Britain. Rockingham. One and a half mile oval track. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockingham_Motor_Speedway This one has a unique shape.
Japan. Motegi. These fans need a second race. they make the italians look like the chinese in terms of support.
There's also this considering where Bernie wants to go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phakisa_Freeway.

These Rumors.

These rumors about the third generation of Xbox Consoles starting leaking/being rumored from June the 14 when game developer Crytek announced two things, firstly announcing the development of Timesplitters 4 for next generation consoles, (Wii U Launches rather soon at time of publishment) (Editor's Notes: Before anyone asks, we know that new consoles are coming, but when is the question, now back to ever increasing intro) 


Where was I? ah yes, Crytek not so long after Crysis 2 announced Timesplitters 4 but more importantly it confirmed, not suggest, but COMPLETLY CONFIRM the existence of Microsoft new money maker. And that it will be revealed sometime in the next year, possibly at E3 2012.


Before than, I joined a site called Trueachievements.com (Ed: think where all achievement hunters/whores gather to trade secrets and to work together to achieve them) where one of the major features of the site to me, was the ability to create your own blog. (Which essentially is a word document on a site) My first post around March and which was 3 months before the announcement was this about the next xbox. I wrote this and now I am copying the link am and going to analyse it.
http://www.trueachievements.com/gamerblog.aspx?gamerid=272643

I am going to focus purely on the features, as the main one I suggested in the blog post and resulting forum conversation, i argued for the bbc iplayer and channel 4 and 5 intergration. Now I would of loved that before to be included in the next gen Xbox, Microsoft are implenting it in just 6 days as I type this. Among other things of course.


Microsoft are implenting Youtube, Bing search, BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, LoveFilm, UFC PPV's into the Xbox 360 ever increasing range of media services available, and this is just in the United Kingdom


Now as i stated above in my previous blog post , I don't know just what Media packages Microsoft have agreed to help offer in other locales, (Admission that's lazy on my part, but i digress, even if I did research it would take longer to research what offer service Microsoft could offer in each locales that Xbox Live operates)


So far, lets assume what being added in 6 days, is to stay for good on the live service.


The entire list for the United Kindgom, right now for the next generation stands at ...

1. Sky Player. (BSkyB are the biggest TV group in the UK, that you have to pay for) This player adds a good edge to the Xbox Live service, providing live sports, movies, drama and their prime time shows. One Service that the player does not offer, is their anytime service on their satelite box, where they allow you to catch up on any programs you may have missed recently. (perhaps this could be an upgrade for the next Xbox)
2. BBC iplayer. (BBC are probably next biggest and are provided for by the british taxpayer) Unlike Sky, this does not include live television, but it is an exclusive catch up of all your television, this service will be a great additon to the Live service.
3. Channel 4 On Demand, (I am not sure of the names of this and the next service, but I am fairly sure of their purpose.) On the other major digital television providers in the UK. Virgin run this service very very smoothly. It again is the same as the BBC Iplayer only Channel 4 shows. Channel 4 do not produce a lot of shows themselves, Infact I don't think as a studio, Channel 4 produce any shows. They do buy the rights to broadcast nearly all of the shows.
4. Channel 5 On demand. Same as the previous 2.
5. Twitter. I think this is a slightly watered down version of the site as I do not believe currently on the xbox version of Twitter you can view pictures from sites linked to like twitpic.com. In the next edition of the 360 I would like to see a full fleshed out Twitter with the ability to view all pics (barring those who have child protection on. (I'm Looking at you Hayley Williams))
6. Facebook. We have an incredibly watered down version of this, we can update status, view status updates of other people, comment on those, and view pictures and that is it. Now I am not sure how many Serious/Hardcore/Plays More than the average guy would accept this but flesh the entire facebook experience by including possibly Xbox only versions of farm town and most of their games, allowing the devleopers to increase their coding experince by making 3d versions of text based games like Zombie Slayer, and Galaticos Football. Although I am pretty sure these mentioned games are created and developed by 3rd party companies. 
7. LoveFilm: Xbox Live already has a film rental service.Zune I believe it is called. LoveFilm is essentially the same service and a more well known service. Now I have never used the service but I have never heard a bad thing about the service. They commonly brag in their adverts about having over 30,000 films for you to rent. This will be a great addition to the Xbox Live Service. It will use Microsoft Points and if you don't have the points you cannot rent I think, I'll confirm when I get the chance to sample it.
8. Last.fm: This Service is superb already and dosen't need anything changing. What happens is you search for a musical artist and the service streams a song of their's with accompanying pictures to enlighten the song. Then the service finds another band that has a similiar style and genre to the first artist and plays you one of their songs, before repeating with several artists. This service is great at finding new musical interests for whomever uses the service.
9. Youtube. What I think will be intergrated into the live service is the ability to watch videos, but not much else. We won't be able to upload our own gaming videos, without one of the most commonly used methods to upload videos. For the next generation, My first point of the next list will cover this. I want to be able to upload our own videos.

This is what Microsoft already have/are implementing into the 360. What they may or may not have considered is a number of different things. I will list a few things that I would like to see tomorow when I have had proper time to research and prepare my list of things to add.

It's been a while

It's been a week since I last spoke here. Err damn you Skyrim, where has my life gone? you ask. Into creating a monster tank character in Skyrim, I had originally created him to be into two handed weaponry, but grinded out my blocking to level 100. Which coincidentally does get rather good, so I've scrapped that guy to properly create a bad-ass tank with level 100 Heavy Armour, Two Handed Weaponry, Smithing ( I want that dragon armour damn it), Alchemy, Enchanting, and Restortation Magic, as good as the armour will be I may still need healing.

The game is so addictive, I put in several hours a go into this game, and to think I was never going to get, on the suggestion of another well respected games journalist not only have I gotten this game, I went and got the predecessor Oblivion Game of the Year edition as well.

I have a few minor gripes about the game but that is exactly the point, they are so minor you cannot really complain about them, as I have said it is far too easy to level up your characters in what you want.

Take the new Tank guy I made, and Tank is his name no less.

Heavy Armour/Blocking is the same easy grind, takes a while, (doing both together might take about 5 hours) go out around the central city of Whiterun, (first big city you come to, you cannot miss it.) look around the outskirts to the north and there should be a river, (Editor's note: There are multiple places in what I am describing, but the strategy remains the same.) The river in question is near a mission you pick up from Whiterun. On this river there may be or not, but hopefully for you there should be a MudCrab.

Annoy it and it should attack you, as a low level set your healing spell up to active, and just let it continually attack you until you badly need to heal, run away slightly and heal at the same time, it may only take about 15 hits from the mudcrab to level up heavy armour. Restoration takes a while but it has been empowered, regenerating mana/magicka faster now, and at double strength/half magicka needed to cast spell. it's more effective, as you will find it harder to come by magicka naturally without potions, and if you do this for any extended period of time you will run low on potions and if it is after you become Thane of Whiterun, dragons can swoop in at any time, at any place.

Also big tip remember to save your game every ten minutes or after every time you level up. Especially if you push the boundaries of your endurance and the mudcrab unleashes it's special attack of a double attack and kills you, all your progress will be undone.

oh and do not get me started on the Dragons. sheesh.

You cannot just play skyrim, it is recommended but you really need to buy this before you kick the bucket.

Am currently working on a post about the gears of war series and why you should play them. Once I've properly done skyrim, i'll review it properly.

The Games Industry and Controversy. (Possible first part of many, Watch this space)

Notes: This post will be dealing with very delicate matters, so I advise if you are under the age of 18, please read this with an adult. Thank you. 

A few years ago I was in college and my group was given an assignment to create a report and present our findings on a media project that caused major controversy. We were given a list of items or media products, (Films, Tv Shows,) Now I had originally choosen the movie, The Warriors. Classic movie I know but it hadn’t caused much controversy other than a few fights in cinema’s. Football/soccer has caused more controversy than that.

So as my project wasn’t going to be all that good and in search of a better grade, I asked the teacher whether I could switch up my project to something that was a) offensive, b) controversial, and c) something I had seen/witnessed. D) understood and e) could talk about for a period of 5 minutes. That media product was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I knew that in circles of people who thought it is their destiny to purify television and the media. Those three little letters would cause a major headache.

I also knew what I would talk about, and that is the “hot coffee” mod in the PC and Playstation 2 versions of the game. In the game your character Carl “CJ” Johnson could have many girlfriends and you had to take them out on dates, eventually if you impressed her enough, you would be invited in for coffee, of which every person over the age of about 17 who has been on a date understands means jackpot. Now in the normal shipped version of the game, what you are meant to see is nothing. You just see the outside of the building you just entered while your mind ran rampant at what you could hear. Heck if you left the stereo on you could listen to that while you took care of business shall we say.

I’m writing this straight from memory as I had played that game to death in the time I had it. (a thought occurred, I should still have it somewhere J) so you can see I should of went with this from the start of the project.

Anyhoo back to the point. The mod hot coffee could only be accessed through I think illegally hacking the game to unlock it. At which point you could actually see how CJ took care of business. Which sent the world mad, that minor citiziens, people under the age of 18 years, were or could be allowed to view such graphic images. I mean it wasn’t enough to make you listen to it like “Fable” which had come out a couple years before GTA and had simulated this. Heck in the eyes of the holy preachers, Fable allowed you to be homosexual should the need or urge arise, and they got away with that scot free.

But the Just and Holy got mad at GTA, and it wasn’t even Rockstar’s fault. Lets review why shall we.

A)     They hid the evidence deep in the code, and to view it, you had to hack the game on the Playstation 2. PC was much easier, just had to find it mind you.

B)      They certainly didn’t give the game it’s rating. Now I’m from the UK and this game was my 18^th Birthday Present, for that reason. You had to be over the age of 18 to purchase this game, and in nearly every country in the world, you have to be over that very same age to view what most people offended by this would call this. Adult Entertainment. The problem lied in the hands of the North American or US based authority in grading and granting Certificates for media. They did not give San Andreas an 18, but made it something like a 15 rated title.

C)      Technically most people against call it one thing. I can claim to not ever have seen adult entertainment, but I know it when I see it. This certainly was not that. Infact it was more funny than hidden down the seedy backalleys of the internet. Rockstar abandoned this feature pretty early in the games development. Infact the version that everyone got on their PS2’s was pretty bad, the characters were fully clothed and although their actions would be the one thing that would annoy most upstanding citiziens, but hey, I don’t think there would be anything like teaching your kid the facts of life while mowing down civvies with a combine harvester.  

One thing you can fault Rockstar for though is leaving this content in the game in the first place. I mean what did they expect. The U.S.A went into complete meltdown and fury over Janet Jackson’s nipple, being displayed for less than a second, and in that instance you had no idea what had happened. Yet the poor sods who had the public indecency to air this during the Super Bowl no less got fined millions.

Just like the super bowl incident, Rockstar should of envisioned this being a potential problem and made sure that this never saw the light of day. However I wouldn’t of gotten the top marks available for the project so…

The world is very oversensitive about even about the most insignificant of details. Take Fable like I mentioned earlier, the final decision you have to make in the game is whether to throw away a weapon of mass destruction of which kills anything with one hit, or to keep it by attacking your blind sister. This ironically went without even a murmur which dictates to me that the other forms of media, (Cough Press, Cough) have pre-mediated their target of rockstar and GTA before it even hit/hits the shops, but maybe that just creates a better press for the game increasing sales. Is that a risk that is even worth taking? Who knows.

A very recent example came from the mega-juggernaut that is Call Of Duty. Just before their most recent release, and I have already warned readers about this scene a while back in the blog about this. This information was coincidently leaked a couple of days before the launch of the game. The details released to the press involved a little girl being blown up by terrorists. Now the timing of this information leak suggests to me that they are/were trying to hype the game that one last time. Now with that in mind ask yourself this. Would you buy a game just to see a little girl get blown up? If the answer to that is yes, go to a psychiatrist immediately.

I really do not know if video games, (which is the most profitable out of all media industries) is trying to be more controversial, all I know is, that some of the bigger titles can never go without it. (Yes I am looking at you Rockstar) but what I DO KNOW is that games do not need it. Companies are perfectly capable of producing a superb game with all the war and death and merciless killing attached to it without trying to annoy anyone who will not like it.

Now keep gaming and producing moments for us to publish in all it’s glory here.

Thank you for reading. Mason Cooper out.