It's similar to the capture the flag mechanic
HEXUS: How will the player rating system affect performance on the pitch and what parameters are involved in determining whether your rating goes up or down?
Simon There are a massive number of parameters. There are some linked to the team, but it’s mostly about the player. There’s a big dependency on where the action actually takes place and your positioning on the field. So for instance, if you give the ball away in your own third, there’s a much bigger penalty than if you give the ball away in their final third. You can’t just run around all over the pitch like a madman as you’re not holding your position. We had to think about it carefully and for instance if you’re playing as full-back you might get up with the strikers and score a hat-trick, but that’s not a good performance as a full-back, so you get penalized for playing out of position. So, central defenders and fullbacks, wide midfielders and central midfielders and wingers and strikers all have their own version of the ratings system.
HEXUS: I understand you’ve also tweaked the penalty kick system. What’s changed?
Simon The camera has been changed slightly and makes the goal look a lot closer [than FIFA 08]. You can move goalkeepers along the line, they can wave their arms above their heads and it runs fluidly into your dive animation. We’ve tweaked the shooting model to make it a little bit more realistic and added pad rumble in the preparation of the kick and when the ball hits the woodwork. That’s on PS3 as well.
HEXUS: How have you managed to capture the passion of national rivalries?
HEXUS: There must be so many different calculations going on. How is the points system going to work?
HEXUS: Hmm, so…if I’ve chosen, say, England and someone else has chosen France, two teams which I guess are pretty close in ranking, but my opponent is a much higher rank than me, winning 100% of his matches to my 10%, will I get more points for beating him?
HEXUS: There’s a small amount of customization in the game. I like the idea of putting my own name on the back of my shirt. How far do you think customization can go in football games? Do you think they’ll be a time where you’ll use the face-mapping function to put our heads on players, or perhaps in-depth shirt customization or branded products?
Simon We wanted something that worked for everyone, not just the 16 teams who are actually going to Euro, like England. So, we’ve got a meta-game called ‘Battle of the Nations’. When you first start the game we have a video that explains the concept of the game and you’ll be asked to choose which country you want to play for.
Simon If you’re France and you’re playing Andorra you might only get 150 points for winning that match, but if you’re Andorra playing France you might get 500 points for winning. So people need to think about the challenge they’re taking on because they will want to get the highest score possible for their country, yet still make sure their country beats everyone elses. It avoids the Barcelona syndrome. We’re trying to push the better gamers to take on more of a challenge by playing with the weaker teams and it also allows the weaker players to play with the stronger teams and be in with a chance of winning an online match.
(Simon said after the interview that no matter which team you play as during the ‘Battle of the Nations’ mode, the points still go toward the first nation that you choose when you first started up the game)
Simon No, with this it’s just the teams that we take into consideration. It’s like playing poker; you don’t know who is going to turn up in this competition.
Simon Customisation is definitely a direction we want to go in the future. Since we began on this ‘Be A Pro’ journey we’ve had this aim of, by 2010 world cup, it would be fantastic if we could get 22 of the best English guys, French guys etc, and send them over the South Africa so they play their world cup at the same time as the actual one with 10 players on each team. To do that you want the player to be you, and want the best possible way to create a player that looks like you. Why shouldn’t sport’s companies, like Adidas, approach you if you’re one of the great English gamers, and say we’d like you to wear our special boots in this game.
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