Whats Fifa? well, it’s a hugely successful Gaming franchise that’s been around since 1994 and is based on Football (soccer) with a release of a new game every year since myself being a big Football fan it’s my top sport and the one game I buy almost every year, but why do I buy it? why is it released every year? is it worth it?

Football, Love it

Firstly I’m a big football fan and if your not, then this game wouldn’t be for you, no doubt there are good graphics. gameplay and sound etc… but like most sports games though, you need to have some sort of appreciation to the sport if not the play value would be very limited.

As for me not only do I enjoy all of that I look at the players and teams developed over the years. Fifa alongside Football Manager over the last 20+ years has given me a massive amount of knowledge with players from all over the world which to sum I get isn’t very interesting, but I enjoy looking at home some f the young players have gone on to become huge and some that haven’t, because I bought them or played with them on the game.

The Stigma of FUT

Now these for some FUT is a big deal, its get criticism for gambling, Loot boxing etc…and over the years I’ve played it on and off, but I’ve always generally never spent real money on it, the idea is you collect coins, open packs and get new players, for some, it’s collecting several teams that has all players link together and for others it collecting that ultimate team that they want, either way, your playing against other people, doing challengers, buying and trading players if you spend that real money you can get more packs or in-game currency to improve and that’s what gets slated.

Years ago it was a League season or Cup, I’ve played a lot of Cups/tournaments as certainly for the first few years this was the fun of it, when they put their focus into Total manager people were clamouring for it to be in Fifa,  as both FM and LMA Manager were showing the way to go in the management side of the game, now FIFA couldn’t do both, a top football sim game alongside a hugely detailed and fully depth manager sim, but PES master league set the standard where FIFA had to follow.

PES for many years was the alternative Football game, and arguably between 2007 to 2012 it was better and PES6 is still regarded one of the best Football games in history, it changed Fifa focus as they had never been beaten in reviews, standards and gameplay, it may have still slightly outsold PES but that was available in more countries and had an older name, but the Football gaming fans knew PES was better, Fifa had the better feel of the game and purchased rights to many leagues and teams, but that wasn’t PES, it was the Gameplay, the feel of it and their Master League was much better, in came Fifa Resurgence, this alongside FUT online reputation through them back to number 1.

Career

Generally, these days I play the Career mode, every year I do 2 league campaigns, one from Sep to Feb, and Feb to August, why August? I tend to finish my game sin late Jul August so I have break, as the game comes out every year with slight tweaks and improvements I could get bored, and over the years I’ve worked hard at restricting myself, I generally don’t play more than 2 games a day, if I have time at all, for me that’s the beauty often of FIFA as the years have gone by, pick up for 30 minutes-ish, and carry on with the day, with kids, Work, Blog and assortment of other things through the years gaming time is often restricted, especially as I have other games to play, but with all of this it still gives me time to play my seasons, I start as a manager and randomly play through the world over the years, as I said I play two Career seasons a year, often they last between 5 -10 years of seasons, and trust me I can vary it.

I support Liverpool and I never play as them…odd I know, I’ve tried but for whatever reason it doesn’t work for me or on the game, this year, for example, I’m playing Brazil League and in Feb moving to League 2 in England, Last year was MLS and Championship/Premiership, a year before Seria A in Italy, and Germany and so on, as you can see I rotate around the world from France, Spain, Holland, America etc. England is the only one that has a shorter rotation, where I play more often, however when I do these leagues often the Teams have changed through the years.

I’m ok at Fifa, I play on Legendary and I haven’t lost many games against people or online, these days I’ve kind of retired from that Competitive play, the pressure, stress, anxiety and anger of it all isn’t needed these days with everything else in my life, but it doesn’t take anything away from focusing an effort into my career, using scouts, player development, trying formations etc losing is still tough to take, especially when the FIFA gods say so and make it happen (FIFA players will understand that) and that adds to my love, if there’s one game every year that I will buy its this, the slight tweaks the slight changes, the new players change in teams etc… I don’t mind, Fifa fans will know why, even this year with the new console generations, I will get it with FIFA as they get the new ones out, it’s my main console game, its great and it still gives me enjoyment since I first played it when it was just FIFA International Soccer, and then the indoor mode, all the way up to the FUT and VIola days, it’s not my greatest game because I can’t say that for something that comes out every year with slight tweaks, but no other game has the number of hours that I’ve played.