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FIFA Street 3 Q&A Feature
Gwynne Dixon
22/10/2007
Hang up your pair of studs and put on some trainers. FIFA is on its way back to the Street, but this time it's on the next-gen consoles...
Void of actually spending hours of your childhood perfecting keepy uppies, the FIFA Street series might just be the closest that mere footballing mortals will ever get to performing Ronaldhino-esque tricks. This year's game is due out next spring and TVG sat down with Producer, Joe Nickolls, to discuss the third FIFA Street instalment.
TVG: What can you tell us about the game modes. How have they changed from last year and what's on offer?
As far as game modes go, there's your typical Play Now mode, but what we decided to do is give you a lot of variety to get into Play Now. So, there's first to three goals, first to five goals - that's pretty straight forward. Then we have Timed matches, we do Score Difference, we do modes where only Headers and Volleys work. We did some clever marketing math and that comes out as like 42 different ways to play! Or something like that, and that's just Play Now.
We have what's called FIFA Street Challenge, which is our single player journey. What we did is there's a whole bunch of games that you have to play and it takes about seven or eight hours to play that mode. It's a series of challenges; essentially you'll pick the game up, you'll go into the mode and it'll say 'Okay, you've got to take this team and take on the Youth Team.' Then you'll play the Youth Team and you should probably slaughter them on the first game that you play. The second match you play will be a lot harder. You'll take on a certain style of player and there'll be a bunch of guys like Gattuso, Rooney and stocky, strong players who have a distinct playing style, and you have to get through all of that. You go through all of these series of ladders and the end result is that you unlock more teams and you get more things to play with. So that's the single player journey.
TVG: As far as these unclockables are concerned, does that include new arenas?
No, we actually give you all of the arenas right up front, and then we give you two free arenas to download later on. By the time people are buying the game they'll be able to go online and download two new venues to play in for free. People will be able to download the different teams, so custom teams will be able to be put together. We have a bunch of classic players that are really cool.
Getting back to the game modes, we have Head to Head, which is basically best of three, best of five, best of seven in different game types that tracks your stats against each other, that kind of thing. We also have the Playground Picks and the way we describe that is the Pedro +10 commercial from the World Cup, where kids stand in a field and they're picking their favourite players in a line-up before coming out to play. We have that mode to, and you get some classic players in with today's players so that's a cool mode to play. It's like in school: You're all lining up against a wall and you're really hoping you're not the last one to get picked.
TVG: You can have Rooney next to Eto and Ronaldhino - that sort of thing?
Yeah, absolutely, and then one of the online modes we have is the World Challenge. Because our game is a quick pick up and play, not the sort of game you'd play for hours at a time, you can go online and play as your favourite country. Each win then drives that country further up in the online league tables. It's sort of like what we do with Interactive Leagues in FIFA, but less demanding. You go online and say 'I'm going to play as England!' If you win with England, you drive them up the chart. Over at Vancouver, if I decide I'm going to play as France, I'll drive France up the charts if I continue to win. So there's the chance to play for your country online as well.
Also, every mode I've talked about is online as well. One other cool thing I haven't mentioned is that in the single player game, if you're having trouble, you can have a friend come on and play co-operatively with you. So the single player is actually a multiplayer game and you can have friends that'll play co-operatively with you to win.
TVG: And on the online mode, presumably you have unranked and ranked matches as well?
Yeah, ranked and unranked - all that kind of stuff. Yep!
TVG: A new element for this year's game is that you've used the NBA Street: Homecourt engine. How's that benefitted this year's game?
What that bought us basically is: a Volkswagen and an Audi both come on the same platform, it's what you put on them, right? So, it's the same chassis, it's just what you build on it. Essentially, we took the chassis from NBA Homecourt, which gets us 60 frames a second right away making it a very efficient rendering engine, and then we put the FIFA AI into it. We didn't put all of the FIFA AI into it, because the FIFA AI engine has offsides, corners, set-plays and penalties - you don't put that stuff in FIFA Street so you don't need the engine to be worrying about those sorts of things. So, we took the things that matter the most and we put them in.
TVG: I thought I heard you guys make a little reference to Mario Strikers Charged in your presentation earlier, because it does feel a little bit like it...
You know, I think what we always try to get across is that FIFA Street is not FIFA, it's not PES. It's an action sports title and when you look at games when they come out and get reviewed, you'll often find that when you have the name FIFA on your game then people will immediately go 'It's FIFA, but it's not really FIFA!' People forget that FIFA is the governing body of football and it has nothing to do with anything else.
And so, when we make the game, we want it to be reviewed for what it is. It's an action sports game that you can play with your friends really fast, pick up and play, but you can play for hours if you want to, because once you get into the finesse and controls of the game, you can make it a really long experience.
If you look at Mario Strikers, it's kind of done the same thing accept that they've done it with turtles and little Mario dudes running around. If Mario Strikers is on a scale of one to 10, it's a 10 on arcade goofiness. But, there's no real football AI in there, it's really just a bunch of little guys running around and doing power-ups. We're much more football orientated; our over the top characteristics come through our animations, but we still remain true to football.
TVG: For our readers who've played FIFA Street 2, what are the changes specifically regarding gameplay for FIFA Street 3?
The big difference for 3 is that we've done an enormous amount of work on the gameplay and AI. What enabled us to do that is the NBA Street: Homecourt engine, which allowed us to get something up and running really quickly. We've been joking with people by saying that we had Lebron James running around kicking a basketball the first time we ran it. But we did! We're not lying. And what that did is it got us an engine that allowed us to start building the AI to work in that engine. It makes for fast responsive controls, 60 frames a second (which doesn't sound exciting to people, but it's key in a videogame - you've got to have 60) and the new animation system that allows you to interrupt animation. So, if the ball's up in the air and I decide I'm going to shoot, then I'll seamlessly blend into a shot. Likewise, If the ball's by my head, I don't have to wait for the ball to get down to my foot, I'll head it in; or if I pass it then I'll pass it with my head over to you.
We've given people a lot more control. I know that when people pick up the game, they'll go 'Wow!' The people I've been speaking to today, they've all said 'I feel like I've got a lot more control, I can do a lot of things and I kind of know how I'm doing them,' and that's what we want. The way I've been describing it to everyone today is that when we give the game to the press and we want them to review the game, play it and enjoy it; we want them to look at it from the angle that the main FIFA game of which we sell bazillions of units across the world every year, that is the five course meal; it's the fillet mignon cooked exactly how you wanted it. FIFA Street 3 is the cheeseburger, because sometimes you just want a quick burger - I love hamburgers! I want one right now and I want to sit down, play it and be satisfied. And that's what we are; we're still football, but we're an action football game that you can play with your mates before or after the pub, or during a pub-like experience at your home - we want that to be the focus of the game and I think we're there.
TVG: Do you think players of FIFA Street 2 will feel at home with the control setup for FIFA Street 3? Or will they fire up the game and find that it's all different?
I think they'll say it's a lot different, but what remains is the ease of use. When you play the game, you can button mash your way to success if you need to. The controls are similar to FIFA in the sense that there's still shoot and pass, and all of the buttons that you'd expect. Conservative and aggressive tackles are on the same buttons, switch player is on the left bumper (new for FIFA Street players), but I think the biggest difference for us now is the right analogue stick. We use the right stick for virtually every single trick and that's something new for the FIFA Street consumer.
TVG: Yeah, that seems to work really well...
You know, it feels intuitive and I think that's because more and more games are coming out that use the right stick. When PS3 and Xbox 360, or even the first DualShocks on PS2 came out, people weren't comfortable using the right analogue stick as they preferred to use buttons. But as time went on and people became more comfortable with that right stick, they started using it and it became intuitive. What we've done is we've used contact sensitivity with those animations, so if I'm running along the wall and I tap down, I'll kind of tap the ball against the wall and get it around to me. Or, if I hold it, then I'll run up the wall. It depends on how long I hold onto the stick and the direction I put it in. It becomes really intuitive and I think people will find that the tricks on the right analogue stick are the biggest change, and then we've tried to preserve the controls from FIFA so people have a built in familiarity of the product.
TVG: With the specialist traits for players, what range is there and what do they all mean?
If you've got a guy with a target above his head, it means he's a shooter - he's got the most accurate shot.
TVG: Like Beckham?
Actually, no. We've got Beckham as a play-maker, because he's able to do the best passing. Everybody knows him for taking the best free kicks - he curls that ball in every time. He also does the best corner kicks, but he's not the type of player that runs up and shoots every time as he prefers to get the ball into the hands of somebody who can. So he's a play-maker, someone who passes the ball around. You get a finisher like a Crouch, or a Ruud van Nistelrooy (although he's not in the game); they're always sniffing around the box and then they get there to finish the goal. We have a trickster like a Ronaldhino - very good with his feet, fancy footwork, very good at ball handling and getting the ball away from people. Then you have somebody like Gattuso, who's an enforcer. They're very tough, strong players that are hard to get around. They're very good defensively as well, getting the ball away from you and shutting you down.
You'll find that there are different player types (the ones I just mentioned). Each one has fortes and a series of moves that only they will have. There's also an icon that represents, at a glance, what kind of player you've got.
TVG: While stats aren't the stress for the FIFA Street franchise, there is a five star rating alongside the traits for each player. What characteristics make up that stat?
Basically it's the statistics we use that boil down to how successful they're going to be at pulling off a certain move. We have some teams - China, for example - that are nowhere near the strength of a team like France, Italy, Germany or Spain, and it's based upon the attributes of all of their players, kind of like a world ranking. We use all of the statistics that are in FIFA - the mother ship - and we look at that, then the players are ranked accordingly. So, if you've got somebody like Robinho; he's pretty fast so he'll be a little faster than the other guys.
So, we do take those into account and, if you know who the players are, you'll know what they're good at. But if you don't know who they are, a quick glance at the attributes will give the player an understanding that this is a small fast guy or a big thug. The stats do come into play, but we don't expect the players to pour over whether a player is left or right footed, because that's not the type of game that it is. It's accurate in the sense that they play to their strengths, but we don't get down to their eye colour.
TVG: We thought the background sounds of the players in-game were a really nice touch. English guys saying "Pass it back!" like they would in a kick around with their mates, while French guys do the same thing. It really sounds like you're on a pitch...
Well, we were. We've done a couple of sessions; we did a session at EA Canada where we had a huge football pitch and miced up a bunch of Brits as well as every other nationality we could find, and we got them saying what they normally say. But then we also did professional sessions down in Los Angeles, where we got some Spanish and German people in etc. We got between 4,000 and 6,000 lines per language and it's funny because we didn't realise what sort of an impact it was going to have until we heard it. There's nothing better than having England playing France and having all the French guys yell at each other in French, and then laughing and saying things in French as they do well. Then the Brits come on and say "Tap away at the ankles!" And little things like that, which you'd usually hear in a game and it sounds real because it is real!
TVG: With the match types, most of them are self-explanatory (like you've already mentioned). But what's the difference between 5-a-side and Timed? Is it that 5-a-side doesn't have gamebreakers?
Yeah. The reason we didn't have gamebreakers in 5-a-side is because my colleague Richard said: "You know, there are going to be people who're going to play this game and won't want to just use tricks and gamebreaker." So, 5-a-side simply turns gamebreaker off and you've got to do it on skill alone and not rely on getting that sure thing goal with the gambreaker. The Timed matches basically play to a time limit and whoever has the most goals wins - if there's a draw it goes to golden goal.
We also have a second gameplay camera. The gameplay camera you've been playing with is one, but we have a second simulation style camera that looks more like a FIFA match, so you can actually play it with a bit more of a simulation feel if you like.
TVG: You mentioned that you've used the FIFA AI, from the main game, in FIFA Street 3. Obviously it must have been quite a task to transfer the AI, what with there being a much bigger pitch and 11 players etc.?
It was a huge challenge and that's what we focused most of the team on for most of the development of the game - getting that AI to work. When you compare this game to FIFA Street 2, you will find that it's so much better. The AI is so much better because it does what it's supposed to do. The pitch size is tricky just because it's a variable and the guys have got to know where to run and know what to do. I think one of the biggest challenges though is, unlike FIFA, the CPU players have to know when to do tricks and what kind of tricks to do.
So, we've added all these different attributes that the players have to check, and they check them 15 times a second. What they check is: 'Should I do a trick here? Do I have room to do a trick? If I do a trick, what kind of trick should I do? And how long is this trick going to take me? Is it going to get me a lot of gamebreaker points?' It asks all these things of itself and for the first time ever in a sports game, the CPU will use every single animation that we've captured. When you play the CPU, you will start to see things like the CPU taking the ball down - it's got some room - it'll run off the wall and trap the ball, it'll pass the ball over into a bicycle kick. It'll do all these trick moves because it's trying to get the gamebreaker as badly as you. So, they utilise all that stuff and that was the real challenge - teaching the AI 'Yes, get the ball in the net. Check, pass, shoot and look good by doing some tricks while you're at it.' That was the big challenge - teaching them to have a style.
TVG would like to thank Joe Nickolls, Producer on FIFA Street 3, for taking the time out to speak to us. FIFA Street 3 is due out during spring 2008.
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Date Added:Fri 9th Nov 2007 16:10
I love the stylised approach they've taken with the visuals, cant wait to see more - sound aweso... [ Read full comment... ]
JAZZ-1991
Date Added:Mon 22nd Oct 2007 23:05