Gameplay

Since it’s widely acknowledged that the Winning Eleven game engine is, at this point in time, far superior than that of FIFA many of the following gameplay improvement suggestions and possibilities are to be taken as adjuncts to the most recent iteration of the Winning Eleven game engine.

As I mentioned before, it seems that the first generation of new console titles feature pretty graphics but not much progression (let alone innovation) when it comes to gameplay. This next generation of consoles promises to provide even more CPU horsepower to support more complex physics engines as well as even more realistic and adaptable AI.

Time wasting

While I’m aware (no pun intended) that CPU awareness is an integral part of CPU artificial intelligence in a soccer game(along with things like tactical acumen, team-work, etc) I’d like to see players in the next generation of soccer games show greater awareness of the context of the action. For years we’ve seen a prime example of this in certain games where, after you score a goal to reduce a deficit (say, scoring to make it 2-1) the goal-scorer grabs the ball from the back of the net and runs back to the half-way line to restart. This is context that’s hard-coded, you close a deficit within a goal or two and this goal ‘celebration’ cut-scene kicks in.

For the next generation of games I want to see real-time awareness of situations. For example, how awesome would it be to see a CPU player let an errant ball run out of play to win a throw-in? Despite the fantastic AI in Winning Eleven 9 you still see players running for loose ball when, if they just let it run, would earn their side a throw-in. For the next generation programmers could not only make CPU players aware so they don’t run after these kinds of errant balls, but also smart enough to try and shield off your attempts to get the ball back to prevent said throw-in/goal-kick, corner!

I mentioned earlier about having time-wasting represented as players taking a longer to take goal kicks, throw-ins or free kicks. How neat would it be to have this time-wasting extended to CPU players’ actions when the ball is in-play? It would blow me away to see the CPU, leading by a single goal in the 90th minute, run the ball to the corner flag and try and waste time by holding the ball there and/or trying to win a corner to waste more precious seconds! CPU managers could also show greater tactical acumen by making substitutions near the end of a match in order to chew up more time.

It’s a cut-throat offence

I think a fairly common consensus among hardcore Winning Eleven fans is that CPU lost its cutting edge when it comes to attacking play. I don’t play international tournaments with the top teams (I usually play as Wales), in the ML I keep a self-imposed Salary Cap of 10,000 points, in JL WE9 I use 2nd Division Montedio Yamagata, I often play on five or six stars of difficulty and yet even though the game is indeed hard when it comes to scoring goals or controlling a match, I’ve hardly ever been battered by the CPU. I don’t think I’ve conceded 4 or more goals in a non-multiplayer match in years. Again, I’m not saying that the game is easy, but the difficulty comes from scoring goals, rather than preventing them.

In the next generation of football games I want to see more cut-throat attacking when you turn up the difficulty. I think six stars/max difficulty shouldn’t entail the computer playing a more rushed game, but should mean the CPU plays with a more of a cutting edge – more intricate passing maneuvers, more possession, more through passes for breakaways, more long-range shots on target, and most importantly - more goals!

Tying into this, the CPU needs to have a higher free-kick scoring rate – the current rate isn’t realistic, I know this is partially down to my style of play (I tend not to concede a lot of fouls) – but I still want the CPU to strike fear into me when I do give away a free kick in shooting range. I want to feel my stomach drop and have that ‘Oh Shit’ feeling when I concede a foul on the edge of the box. As it stands, I often find myself shrugging, and just waiting to correctly time the jump of my wall.

Blow me down

Last night I was playing Kick Off 2 on UAEX (the X-Box-based Amiga emulator) and for a laugh set the wind to a few 'Moderate'. Even a small change in the prevailing wind had an effect on gameplay as high, floated passes veered off, carried by the wind. However, as with quite a few features in soccer games, wind is something that’s been missing in recent soccer games (Winning Eleven 9 shows a wind-speed before matches but I’ve yet to detect an effect upon gameplay).

The next generation of soccer games should not only bring back wind but also make general weather conditions (and how they affect the playing surface) more important. Weather should be appropriate to the season but should be dynamic during a match. Some matches could have a light drizzle throughout, but others could see the drizzle progress to a torrential downpour. This rain should not only make the ball slippery (resulting in a few more mis-controlled passes, poor throws, and a few keeper fumbles) but the rain should also affect the pitch as the match goes on. How cool would it be to not only see a pitch get close to being waterlogged at the end of a rainy match, but also see that the ball stops/slows in visible puddles and newly progressing muddy areas. The muddiness of the waterlogged pitch should also affect each player’s stamina resulting in players getting tired more quickly.

Importantly, however, the inclement weather effects shouldn’t be over-exaggerated and the majority of matches at the beginning and end of a temperate European league season should be in good weather conditions.

On the flip-side, good weather (and in particular sunlight) should affect the play as well. Sunny days in the early Autumn and Summer should have an affect upon players’ awareness when they are facing the sun. For example, if a team is facing the sun in a particular half the players could have a 5 point decrease in offensive and defensive awareness. Nothing drastic (don’t want ‘Sir’ Alex to complain too much) but something that may cause some of the weaker players to make mistakes they usually wouldn’t. This may be slightly harder to implement, particularly because not all football stadiums are oriented East to West.

Paying the penalty

I started off brainstorming ideas for how penalties could be changed in the next generation of football games (as the current regime in both FIFA and Winning Eleven is more or less random) however this presented so many problems and potential solutions that it was almost an article in and of itself! So, to save this from being a novel I’ve decided to post my ideas for penalty shots in a separate article which I’ll post later.

To analog, or not to analog?

One of the biggest dividing issues when it comes to gameplay amongst the Winning Eleven hardcore is the use of the D-pad versus the Analog stick to control player movements. Many Winning Eleven ancients (such as myself) prefer the exacting precision of the D-pad, while others like the freer movements of the Analog stick. Regardless of which control scheme to you use, Winning Eleven still confines player movements to the cardinal directions of the D-pad (with in-betweens accomplished when turning/swerving at high speed) resulting in a maximum of 16 directions you can turn in.

Clearly, this doesn’t reflect real life where a player has a 360° range of motion. Since the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution game engine has been based upon this control scheme (just think back to the original ISS PE/WE 4!) this would be a monumental change and one that KCET should only attempt if they’re able to tweak the AI (on both sides of the ball) and ball physics to accommodate the change.

That said, the next generation of consoles clearly has the processing power to be able to support the changes – its up to KCET to incorporate this feature without ruining the balance of the game.

A flowing game

I mentioned in the graphics section that I’d prefer that the cut-scenes for events such as fouls be eliminated and simply depicted from the in-game view/angle. Along with increasing the immersion of the gaming experience, another benefit would be to allow gamers to control the pace of the match. What do I mean? Say a team is protecting a lead with 10 minutes to go and they’re awarded a foul – they won’t exactly be in a rush to take the free kick. Conversely, if the team chasing the game gets a free kick they’ll often take it quickly.

Winning Eleven 9 incorporated an element of this as players take a while to get into position after a free kick is awarded. However, totally eliminating the cut-scene and keeping the camera in the gameplay view will facilitate greater control over the kick. Furthermore, your attacking bias setting could decide how quickly your team gets the ball into position to take a kick! For example, if you have your attacking bias set to max then a player on your team will quickly grab the ball after the foul and put it down on the floor ready to take the kick when you press the appropriate button.

This could also be applied to throw-ins and teams that have their attacking bias set to minimum/defending will take their time to grab the ball and perhaps even hand the ball off to another player to take the throw.

More complex free kicks

Winning Eleven has recently included a bit more variety when it comes to free kicks – you can bring a second player to the party to roll the ball into the path of the shooter, you can also get that second player to fake the roll-off and take a direct shot on goal, and finally you can just use the second player as a decoy.

I think the next generation of football games (particularly Winning Eleven) could improve upon this by having free-kick specific ‘set-plays’. Both FIFA and Winning Eleven currently have strategies that you can implement during a match such as ‘Counter Attack’, ‘Offside Trap’, ‘Opposite Side Attack’ and so on. These are achieved by specific button presses (or combinations) during play. A possibility in next-gen games is to have similar (or the same) button presses or combinations trigger specific free kick plays. This would also work in tandem with the earlier suggestion of free-flowing play with respect to fouls and free kicks.

To give an example, you’re playing Winning Eleven 11 (ha ha) on the PS3 and are chasing a match using Chelsea with 5 minutes to go. Your attacking bias is set to max and suddenly Joe Cole is fouled 25 yards out from goal. Because your attacking bias is set to max, Lampard (who is closest to the ball) immediately picks it up and puts it at the site of the infraction. At this point in time you could take the kick quickly, but instead you hold down L2 + X to trigger a free kick set play. Suddenly Cole and Robben move to stand on opposite sides of the ball as Lampard backs off as if to run up and strike it. Press Circle and fill up the power-bar to the appropriate level and Robben rolls the ball towards Cole while Lampard runs up to strike it. However, before Lampard gets close, Cole instead strikes the ball, curling a lofted pass to the far post looking for the head of Terry or Drogba.

Sounds neat, eh?

Throw it in deep!

I think it’s a safe bet to say that almost 99.9% of soccer gamers prefer the throw-in system in FIFA (where you control the pass receiver) than that of Winning Eleven (where you control the thrower). It just makes more sense to be able to directly control those players you need to get open, rather than wait for the CPU to try and guess what’s the appropriate run.

I’d love to see the FIFA system adopted by Winning Eleven but with a few enhancements. I like that in Winning Eleven you can select the player taking the throw but it’s still rather cumbersome as you have to pause the game, go to a sub-menu, select the thrower, then un-pause the game. One simple solution would be firstly, a la Football/Championship Manager, have you select throw-in takers for each side of the pitch in the tactics menu (just like you currently select free kick and penalty takers). This would eliminate stupid situations you see in Winning Eleven 9 when strikers are taking throw-ins. Next, once you win a throw, you could tap L2 to automatically switch the thrower to the nearest player on the same team. And, if you hold down L2 it instantly brings up a team sheet graphic (superimposed upon the action) where you can just use the D-Pad/Analog to manually select the thrower. I think this would be particularly useful if you end up subbing off one of your designated throw-in takers and can’t be assed to go back into the tactics menu and switch things up.

Its all tactical

While EA Sports has recently added some newer set-plays and strategies to FIFA 2006, KCET have been stagnant with the same strategies present in the past few versions of the game. Winning Eleven 9, however, did see the introduction of some newer positional types with Wing Backs and a ‘In-the-hole’ Attacking Midfielder types added. Regardless of these additions, an even greater number of options when it comes to tactics and strategies (pertaining to both individual players as well as an entire team) is required in the next generation of football games.

One addition I’d love to see (even in the next PS2-based Winning Eleven) would be an option of a set play/strategy that allows you to control when your keeper comes up and joins the attack. There’s been a few times I’ve been trailing late into a match and had a free-kick in a good position for a cross – but the computer didn’t bother bringing up my keeper to cause some confusion. I’d also like to see sub-sets of strategies, for example the Counter Attack strategy could be broken up into ‘Wings’ (where your left or right sided midfielders/wing-backs cheat up the field to spring an attack), ‘Central’ (where you’re concentrating your counterattack through or above the midfield) and ‘General’ (which could be a mixture of the two).

Another addition would be to specify which players come up (or stay back) for attacking and defensive corners (a la Football Manager). Furthermore, there could also be an option to select which players do what for the corner. For example, you set one player to attack the near post on an attacking corner, another to attack the far post, and another to stand in front of the keeper! This way you specify if you wanted both your tall central defenders to come up for a corner as well as specifying what you wanted them to do. Finally, you could also specify that you wanted one of your midfielders to hang back outside the box for a shot!