2014年5月19日星期一

This being a World Cup game

Still, minor gameplay bugs aside, there's plenty of fun to be had here. This being a World Cup game, there's a range of modes beyond the standard FIFA pack, that Cheap FIFA 14 Coins have been designed to make the most out of the anticipation surrounding the big competition. One of the coolest is known as "Story of Qualifying", a mode which challenges you to recreate - or rewrite history. Whether you're dropped into a game playing as England, who find themselves 5-0 up against San Marino and have to score another five in the last thirty minutes of the game, or you're asked to take control of Ireland during their qualifier against Kazakhstan, where they found themselves 1-0 down and gained a penalty in the 90th minute, it's up to you to achieve a number of objectives in each match, that may or may not be historically accurate.
While most of the challenges let you play along with a friend, there's more than a few that use FIFA's "Be a Pro" mode, which locks you to control of a single player. Apparently an incredibly popular FIFA mode, it's never been one we've really gelled with, as you're left relying on your AI controlled team to not massively cock everything up - and there's only so much one man can do to correct it. Thankfully, these challenges are few and far between this time around - and the other big mistake from the last World Cup game has been rectified here too, in that you can now choose which difficulty you play on. In the last World Cup game, the game's challenges were locked to a specific difficulty level (usually at the higher end of the FIFA seven-level difficulty barometer, which ranges from Amateur to World Class), effectively locking out anyone who sucked at FIFA, but still fancied having a go. This time round, you can choose for yourself - but annoyingly, it only starts at Semi-Pro, which is the game's equivalent of "normal". While it's certainly better than last time (as we can at least hold our own on Semi-Pro), if you aren't good enough to play at Semi-Pro, then you're still effectively locked out of part of the game - at least, until you get better...
However, Story of Qualifying is a mode that still has yet to really hit its stride. When the finals take place, a new mode, called Story of the Finals will unlock, with challenges being added on a daily basis as the tournament proceeds based on matches that have taken place. Whether you'll be recreating England's amazing win, or (possibly more likely) avenging their defeat on penalties, this is a great way to be involved with the tournament as it goes on - and, most importantly, all the challenges that get added will all be free! All you need is an internet connection, and the game will automatically update.
Beyond the innovative Story of... modes, there's the usual range of modes and features here, each with a World Cup flavour. There's Captain your Country, which locks you to a single player in Be a Pro mode style, as you vie for a place on the national team, and aim to eventually work your way up the captaincy, alongside the more traditional World Cup and Road to the FIFA World Cup modes - the former dropping you in at the finals, while the other lets you go through the trials and turmoil of qualifying - although you'll likely manage more than a 1 all draw against Montenegro.

2014年5月12日星期一

Argentina’s Road To World Cup

The 2014 World Cup is coming soon, the countdown has begun in earnest with digital clocks round the city.
Manager Alejandro Sabella wants to unveil his final squad to Brazil in the next few days with a worry of Gonzalo Pipita Higuain’s recent injury, and a press fracas over the people’s player Carlos Tevez, the perennial abundance of Argentina’s frontmen dominates the agenda.
Tevez, 30-year-old, has enjoyed a superlative season with Juventus but he has never been part of Sabella’s national project. A fact that has become a bone of contention generating minor demonstrations and widespread emotional outbursts in some circles.
Messi, 26-year-old, is still a bit of an unknown quantity for his country, despite earning some 83caps.not a natural leader, his boy-next-door demeanor and by now renowned economy of words hide the power behind his name. Whether he overtly executes his influence or simply by osmosis makes whoever happens to be the manager try out the system in which he appears more comfortable, the fact is he has become the centre of expectation.
For years the national outcry was why he didn’t deliver with the nation as he did with Barcelona. Now Barcelona is no longer deemed an adequate model to aspire to, there is complacency at the ease with which the nation qualified.
This could be a mistake. The smoothest ride to a World Cup finals the country has known, under the leadership of Marcelo Bielsa in 2002, saw one of the quickest exits in memory with Argentina failing to get past the group stage.
All approaches tried, but failed. Nothing has worked beyond activating the emotional responses and angering or delighting spectators. Perhaps it is time to stop focusing so much expectation on individuals: whether Tevez and Messi can coexist as number 10s is less serious than whether a country so geared to raising little boys for international sale can start to develop some defenders as well as attacking midfielders.
This summer if Messi fails to deliver the actual World Cup back to the football Association, profound structural changes within the establishment. We are hoping new blood in to this old beast. That might be a way out.