FIFA 13

[itdoesntmatterwhatthissay]

I got all over excited at the weekend and had some Xbox points or whatever they're called that I didn't know about so bought some gold packs. I'm totally new to gaming online etc - I've only played FIFA really against the AI (played online seasons a little bit on FIFA 12) so didn't realise I'd got points. I think they were left over from when I bought the zombie version of Red Dead Redemption.

Anyway, I bought a few packs, sold a few players and played a few games against the AI to build up some more coins. Seems a good way to get coins quickly and build a team capable of competing online.

Players who go easily and cheaply if you have a bit of cash are Lucas (Brazilian CAM), Oscar (Brazilian CAM) Bastos (Brazilian LM).

Affix a tactic which uses them and hey presto, an easy 2000 coin bonus....seems the only way to really buy those guys you want.

The price fixing is quite annoying but at least it gives an opening for me to make some coins.

Also for more Microsoft points join Xbox rewards and do a survey, or referral, I used those points to buy a gold pack and the silver special of 11 silvers players and 1 manger. (all pretty crap)

Gonna have to explore the other modes.

Seriously the most frustrating game ever. Its not fun to play anymore. I've had to notch down the difficulty to world class to even have a chance of winning games.

What tactic do you use? I found that really important in making the best of my natural abilities of holding the defence and keeping the ball.

4422 doesn't work for me, 4321 online is hit and miss but 442 and 4212 let me work well.

For a while I had trouble on world class but now I can generally keep a clean sheet on Ultimate.

[jacketspuds]

Playing Career Mode. Much better than last year. Sold Bent to Barcelona for 14m and bought Lamela with the proceeds, who is class. There's a 17 year old CAM called Adryan who is also quality. Got him in the Jan 2013 window to replace Ireland and he is excellent already, and cheap as his rating is in the low 70's.

[GarethRDR]

Career Mode's been a labour of love for me so far. The game itself is great, but I've had numerous crashes/bugs such as...

1. Save games randomly overwritten.
   
2. Console hard-lock when loading careers whilst signed in to EA servers.
   
3. Crashes after transfer deadline day is completed.
   
4. Fixtures scheduled for transfer deadline day are automatically simulated without any notice of the match actually taking place.
   
5. Invisible ball during a domestic cup game.
   
6. Game crashing on purchase of "Club Takeover" item from EASFC catalogue, money then not appearing in transfer budget but item still showing as purchased in the catalogue (you can't repurchase items).
   
7. Console hard-lock if you accept a straight cash offer from club B for a player you're offering in an exchange deal to club A (the game still lets your proceed with negotiations after the player's been sold, crash occurs upon completing the deal).
   

I'm getting sick of doing EA Sports' beta-testing for them every year. #6 nearly had my controller flying into the TV.

[VillaGoMarching]

Career Mode's been a labour of love for me so far. The game itself is great, but I've had numerous crashes/bugs such as...

1. Save games randomly overwritten.
   
   
2. Console hard-lock when loading careers whilst signed in to EA servers.
   
   
3. Crashes after transfer deadline day is completed.
   
   
4. Fixtures scheduled for transfer deadline day are automatically simulated without any notice of the match actually taking place.
   
   
5. Invisible ball during a domestic cup game.
   
   
6. Game crashing on purchase of "Club Takeover" item from EASFC catalogue, money then not appearing in transfer budget but item still showing as purchased in the catalogue (you can't repurchase items).
   
   
7. Console hard-lock if you accept a straight cash offer from club B for a player you're offering in an exchange deal to club A (the game still lets your proceed with negotiations after the player's been sold, crash occurs upon completing the deal).
   

I'm getting sick of doing EA Sports' beta-testing for them every year. #6 nearly had my controller flying into the TV.

I'm just playing through the 'player' career mode. I think my favourite 'glitch' so far was 3 league games got forfeited by the opposition because none of the 3 clubs had enough players to take to the field. How often does this happen in a season? maybe once.

Most common of those you listed will be the hard lock, mostly happens in the pre-match screens.

[omariqy]

Need some players to sign for £1m to £5m. I;ve got Dragovic, Kongolo, Albaba, Tello and Insigne for Villa so far. Insigne is on loan though. Could do with another striker as Benteke is awful. Delph is a man possessed in this game.

[MCU]

Career Mode's been a labour of love for me so far. The game itself is great, but I've had numerous crashes/bugs such as...

1. Save games randomly overwritten.
   
   
2. Console hard-lock when loading careers whilst signed in to EA servers.
   
   
3. Crashes after transfer deadline day is completed.
   
   
4. Fixtures scheduled for transfer deadline day are automatically simulated without any notice of the match actually taking place.
   
   
5. Invisible ball during a domestic cup game.
   
   
6. Game crashing on purchase of "Club Takeover" item from EASFC catalogue, money then not appearing in transfer budget but item still showing as purchased in the catalogue (you can't repurchase items).
   
   
7. Console hard-lock if you accept a straight cash offer from club B for a player you're offering in an exchange deal to club A (the game still lets your proceed with negotiations after the player's been sold, crash occurs upon completing the deal).
   

I'm getting sick of doing EA Sports' beta-testing for them every year. #6 nearly had my controller flying into the TV.

Gareth, I've noticed whilst I've been in the Fifa menus that sometimes something from your career would pop up in bottom right hand side of the screen. I believe something about a takeover came up the other day.

Oh, and I'm still loving UT. Decided to sell all of my players yesterday and ended up buying a Ligue 1 side with about 6k. Got a couple of crackers in there aswell. 100 chem. In division 2 online now and somehow won the div 3 title after losing my first 3-4 games.

[ChrisVillan]

Need some players to sign for £1m to £5m. I;ve got Dragovic, Kongolo, Albaba, Tello and Insigne for Villa so far. Insigne is on loan though. Could do with another striker as Benteke is awful. Delph is a man possessed in this game.

Benteke's been the business for me. Seems to suit my (non-)style. Cracking finisher from the edge of the box.

[GarethRDR]

Need some players to sign for £1m to £5m. I;ve got Dragovic, Kongolo, Albaba, Tello and Insigne for Villa so far. Insigne is on loan though. Could do with another striker as Benteke is awful. Delph is a man possessed in this game.

Benteke's a beast! Him and Bent as a front two, I've had them both top the goalscoring charts in consecutive seasons. Benteke also winds up near top of the assists chart as well. Villa was the career I had to restart, so I set myself a wee challenge to make it more interesting by not spending any money until season 2. This actually works out quite well, as player growth is much more generous this year so by the time season 2 comes around players like Lowton, Bennett, Delph and Bannan will have vastly improved, you can flog the deadwood and you'll have a hefty chunk of cash to spend. Went with a narrow midfield and the following line-up...

(El Ahmadi's not playing that deep in my actual formation, I've got him as a CM and not a DCM but I'm limited by the online generator)

Subs

Given

Lichaj

Baker

Gardner

Holman

Weimann

Agbonlahor

That line-up got me to 10th and a cup semi-final, without spending a penny. I'd either flogged or listed Hutton, Dunne, Williams, Warnock, Westwood, Herd, Albrighton, N'Zogbia Grealish, Cameron and Burke and loaned out Carruthers (Ireland's eventual replacement) for experience.

At the end of the first season, Given had retired and though Makoun had come back in he immediately announced plans to retire, so frustratingly I couldn't flog him for more cash. I did use that as an opportunity to loan out Gardner, though (he'll eventually replace El Ahmadi in the middle). When Delfouneso came back from his loan, I swapped him out for Weimann and sent Weimann out on loan instead (having previously gotten three seasons in before losing my initial save, I know that Weimann develops into a beast).

At this point, I needed a fourth CB (preferably as cheap cover/competition for Baker), a new GK and some more strength in the middle of the park. I wanted a fairly realistic recruitment strategy, so brought in Alex Pearce from Reading for £2m, Andy King from Leicester for £3m and Ádám Bogdán from Bolton for a cut-price £2.7m as he was in the last year of his contract (note to omariqy and something I really do like from this year's game, is that they've built in the ability to get players for way below their market value if they are in the last year of their contract, so look out for bargains when you're shopping on a budget).

I'm about a month into the second season now, floating around the Euro League spots, I still have ~£25m in the coffers and Bogdán and King have ousted Guzan and Bannan from the team (I've switched Delph over to the left of midfield with King on the right). Recommended purchases, definitely. At the rate Benteke's developing, I'll be able to sell Bent if a decent offer comes in and either buy a mega-money replacement or start phasing Weimann in.

[Troglodyte]

Really happy with my Ultimate Team at the moment, and just won the Gold Cup again \o/

Currently my first choice line-up is:

      Diego López


   Miranda   Piqué   Pepe


Jesús Navas Fabregas Costa Eliseu


      Callejon


    Benzema Falcao

It's excellent. I have around 100k coins too, and I'm not sure what to invest in. I was thinking of getting Puyol or Mascherano to replace Miranda in defence, but I have reservations about both of them (Puyol's pace, especially with me playing 3 at the back and Piqué not being the quickest; and Mascherano's height). A replacement left midfielder would be nice, as Eliseu is pretty much just about pace, but I'm not sure there really is anyone, without sacrificing the speed that is important down the flanks, both in attack and defence. Might go for Casillas in goal. Xavi in midfield is also an option but I'm wary of becoming too weak defensively and physically in the middle.

[MCU]

Really happy with my Ultimate Team at the moment, and just won the Gold Cup again \o/

Currently my first choice line-up is:

 Diego López


Miranda Piqué Pepe


Jesús Navas Fabregas Costa Eliseu


Callejon


Benzema Falcao

It's excellent. I have around 100k coins too, and I'm not sure what to invest in. I was thinking of getting Puyol or Mascherano to replace Miranda in defence, but I have reservations about both of them (Puyol's pace, especially with me playing 3 at the back and Piqué not being the quickest; and Mascherano's height). A replacement left midfielder would be nice, as Eliseu is pretty much just about pace, but I'm not sure there really is anyone, without sacrificing the speed that is important down the flanks, both in attack and defence. Might go for Casillas in goal. Xavi in midfield is also an option but I'm wary of becoming too weak defensively and physically in the middle.

How did you get so many coins/good players?

[Troglodyte]

I got some Xbox points with the game when I bought it on release day on Tesco, and have earned almost 3000 Microsoft points in a couple of weeks through Points2Shop (click my sig!). It takes a while to do surveys etc on there (although there are some easy offers) but I had some spare time so managed to earn a lot. Most of this has now gone on packs, so I sell those players and I've also won a few coins in matches now, and used most of the coin bonuses in the EAFC catalogue. I've been doing a bit of trading to bolster my coins, too. It's worth it though - this squad is ace!

[omariqy]

Benteke's a beast! Him and Bent as a front two, I've had them both top the goalscoring charts in consecutive seasons. Benteke also winds up near top of the assists chart as well. Villa was the career I had to restart, so I set myself a wee challenge to make it more interesting by not spending any money until season 2. This actually works out quite well, as player growth is much more generous this year so by the time season 2 comes around players like Lowton, Bennett, Delph and Bannan will have vastly improved, you can flog the deadwood and you'll have a hefty chunk of cash to spend. Went with a narrow midfield and the following line-up...

(El Ahmadi's not playing that deep in my actual formation, I've got him as a CM and not a DCM but I'm limited by the online generator)

Subs

Given

Lichaj

Baker

Gardner

Holman

Weimann

Agbonlahor

That line-up got me to 10th and a cup semi-final, without spending a penny. I'd either flogged or listed Hutton, Dunne, Williams, Warnock, Westwood, Herd, Albrighton, N'Zogbia Grealish, Cameron and Burke and loaned out Carruthers (Ireland's eventual replacement) for experience.

At the end of the first season, Given had retired and though Makoun had come back in he immediately announced plans to retire, so frustratingly I couldn't flog him for more cash. I did use that as an opportunity to loan out Gardner, though (he'll eventually replace El Ahmadi in the middle). When Delfouneso came back from his loan, I swapped him out for Weimann and sent Weimann out on loan instead (having previously gotten three seasons in before losing my initial save, I know that Weimann develops into a beast).

At this point, I needed a fourth CB (preferably as cheap cover/competition for Baker), a new GK and some more strength in the middle of the park. I wanted a fairly realistic recruitment strategy, so brought in Alex Pearce from Reading for £2m, Andy King from Leicester for £3m and Ádám Bogdán from Bolton for a cut-price £2.7m as he was in the last year of his contract (note to omariqy and something I really do like from this year's game, is that they've built in the ability to get players for way below their market value if they are in the last year of their contract, so look out for bargains when you're shopping on a budget).

I'm about a month into the second season now, floating around the Euro League spots, I still have ~£25m in the coffers and Bogdán and King have ousted Guzan and Bannan from the team (I've switched Delph over to the left of midfield with King on the right). Recommended purchases, definitely. At the rate Benteke's developing, I'll be able to sell Bent if a decent offer comes in and either buy a mega-money replacement or start phasing Weimann in.

Interesting. I must give Benteke more of a chance. He scores everytime he shoots pretty much but the issue for me is he is far to slow in reacting or getting space for himself. Bent on the other hand can get away a first time shot and usually hits the target. My formation is similar:

Subs:

Given

Kongolo

Delph

Albrighton

Holman

Gabby/Benteke

Clark

[villarule123]

My team is now:

Wiese (83)

Piszczek (82)

Naldo (80)

Subotic (81)

A. Cole (84)

Ramires (81)

Gotze (84)

Reus (84)

Lavezzi (86)

Gomez (87)

Hulk (84)

[NurembergVillan]

How's your chemistry looking on that one?!

[AVFCforever1991]

Those 3 up top don't look to have any chemistry at all

[villarule123]

100 chem

I did want to have a complete Bundesliga side but there isn't any decent LW/RWers or they are too expensive.

[Troglodyte]

Hulk and Lavezzi can't have good chemistry individually, though? Still, looks a strong team.

[hatacake]

does anyone else seem to get stuck in the one on one bit before a match when trying to play online? not sure the max time it takes to load the game but i waited about 10 mins earlier until i eventually quit

[villarule123]

Lavezzi and Hulk have 6 chemistry, to be honest I didn't know you could even find that out individually, does it make them perform differently even though I have 100 overall?

I just looked on the auction and there isn't any German LW/RW that are gold, and the only LW in the Bundesliga is Affelley who is on my bench. There isn't a single gold RW from the Bundesliga. So I have tried!

[Troglodyte]

does anyone else seem to get stuck in the one on one bit before a match when trying to play online? not sure the max time it takes to load the game but i waited about 10 mins earlier until i eventually quit

That happened to me a few times on FIFA 12, but I haven't experienced it so far on 13.

And villarule, if you did want to use Bundesliga players, you could covert (or sign converted) right midfielders into right wingers. I imagine you're pretty happy with your squad as it is, though.