Sunday, October 20, 2013
The Iron Cage
Reason, that highest faculty of man, essential to his life, which gives him...the means of existence and enjoyment: this same faculty poisons his life.
Friday, August 9, 2013
FIFA 13 - Feels So Good
Part 1: Reflections
There's no telling how many hours of my life I've handed over to Career Mode on FIFA. If I had instead spent that time to something else, maybe brushing up on my German or working out at the gym, there's no doubt I would be much better off. I've been playing it like a madman recently, partly because I'm trying to squeeze the last bit of idle fun out of the summer and partly because I just recently purchased the latest edition, FIFA 13. I debated on buying it for a long time, but when the FIFA 11 disc started to crack, it was only a matter of time. On the bright side, I snagged it for a cool $35. I'd say I've gotten my money's worth out of it.
I have many fond memories of creating great teams on career mode. I'm especially fond of my Northampton Town, Sunderland (they were the worst team in the BPL at the time), and numerous Arsenal careers. Some of the memories are very clear. I remember my two favorite strikers from NHT: Gyan and McManus. I remember how excited I was when I made my first signing: Brian McBride. I remember putting together a Sunderland team with Klose, Podolski Lampard, Ballack, Raul, van Nistelrooy and, of course, Del Piero. I remember when I first started getting interested in Arsenal (FIFA 04 on the GameCube): the Invincibles! They were right under my nose, but I didn't even know it. I just thought the Henry/Bergkamp comb was beast mode (which it definitely was). I must've been 14 or 15 years old at the time.
It was difficult to watch soccer back then. There was only the World Cup every fourth summer.
Part 2: Nerdgasm [Read No Further]
I've been telling myself for a while that I need to write more things down. It's generally a good habit, and it's a great way to preserve memories. You can re-live the little moments that would have otherwise faded away. I have the feeling that my FIFA playing days are numbered, so I'm going to record the trials and tribulations of my current exploits so that I can enjoy them forever. Given the amount of time I spend fiddling with this game, I might was well write some of it down. You are, of course, welcome to read it if you like, but only a FIFA nerd will truly appreciate it.
Arsenal
Season 1:
The first thing I did was to switch all the teams from the Rest of the World category (and Celtic) into Leagues 1 and 2. This included teams like Galatasaray, Orlando Pirates, Kaiser Chiefs, and Olympiakos. It's made the cup tournaments much more interesting to say the least.
I generally stuck with the default 4-2-3-1, but I did also use an attacking 4-3-3 when I wanted to mix it up and get some more width on the pitch. My back four were Gibbs, Koscielny, Mertesacker, and Jenkinson with Vermaelen filling in as necessary. I didn't really use Monreal that often. I started Arteta and Wilshere in the double pivot; Ramsay and Diaby were the understudies. For the attack, I had Santi Carzola/Rosicky in the middle, Podolski on the left, and Walcott/Ox on the right. Giroud/Gervinho was up top, and Szczesny was in goal. I loaned out most of the youngsters, I sold Sagna for double his value in the summer window, and I picked up Eriksen in the winter window for 18.5 M. If I'm not mistaken, it was also during January that I got Luke Shaw for around 3.5 M. Solid purchases if I do say so myself.
Although I won the domestic triple, I stumbled at the finish line and lost to Juventus in the Champions League final. The group stage of the tournament started out simple enough: Valencia, Marseilles, and Kobenhavn. I ended up playing Valencia again later on, but I also had to get through PSG and Barca. The two games with PSG were very close, but I beat Barca pretty convincingly in the semi-finals. I was feeling confident going into the final game, but it wasn't meant to be. Tevez scored a ridiculous goal early on, Ramsay got a straight red in the second half, and I couldn't stop hitting the post throughout the entire game. Luckily, I managed to score with a few minutes to spare, but Tevez hit another one in extra time to seal the deal. What a bummer. 2-1 to the Old Lady.
There's no telling how many hours of my life I've handed over to Career Mode on FIFA. If I had instead spent that time to something else, maybe brushing up on my German or working out at the gym, there's no doubt I would be much better off. I've been playing it like a madman recently, partly because I'm trying to squeeze the last bit of idle fun out of the summer and partly because I just recently purchased the latest edition, FIFA 13. I debated on buying it for a long time, but when the FIFA 11 disc started to crack, it was only a matter of time. On the bright side, I snagged it for a cool $35. I'd say I've gotten my money's worth out of it.
I have many fond memories of creating great teams on career mode. I'm especially fond of my Northampton Town, Sunderland (they were the worst team in the BPL at the time), and numerous Arsenal careers. Some of the memories are very clear. I remember my two favorite strikers from NHT: Gyan and McManus. I remember how excited I was when I made my first signing: Brian McBride. I remember putting together a Sunderland team with Klose, Podolski Lampard, Ballack, Raul, van Nistelrooy and, of course, Del Piero. I remember when I first started getting interested in Arsenal (FIFA 04 on the GameCube): the Invincibles! They were right under my nose, but I didn't even know it. I just thought the Henry/Bergkamp comb was beast mode (which it definitely was). I must've been 14 or 15 years old at the time.
It was difficult to watch soccer back then. There was only the World Cup every fourth summer.
Part 2: Nerdgasm [Read No Further]
I've been telling myself for a while that I need to write more things down. It's generally a good habit, and it's a great way to preserve memories. You can re-live the little moments that would have otherwise faded away. I have the feeling that my FIFA playing days are numbered, so I'm going to record the trials and tribulations of my current exploits so that I can enjoy them forever. Given the amount of time I spend fiddling with this game, I might was well write some of it down. You are, of course, welcome to read it if you like, but only a FIFA nerd will truly appreciate it.
Arsenal
Season 1:
The first thing I did was to switch all the teams from the Rest of the World category (and Celtic) into Leagues 1 and 2. This included teams like Galatasaray, Orlando Pirates, Kaiser Chiefs, and Olympiakos. It's made the cup tournaments much more interesting to say the least.
I generally stuck with the default 4-2-3-1, but I did also use an attacking 4-3-3 when I wanted to mix it up and get some more width on the pitch. My back four were Gibbs, Koscielny, Mertesacker, and Jenkinson with Vermaelen filling in as necessary. I didn't really use Monreal that often. I started Arteta and Wilshere in the double pivot; Ramsay and Diaby were the understudies. For the attack, I had Santi Carzola/Rosicky in the middle, Podolski on the left, and Walcott/Ox on the right. Giroud/Gervinho was up top, and Szczesny was in goal. I loaned out most of the youngsters, I sold Sagna for double his value in the summer window, and I picked up Eriksen in the winter window for 18.5 M. If I'm not mistaken, it was also during January that I got Luke Shaw for around 3.5 M. Solid purchases if I do say so myself.
Although I won the domestic triple, I stumbled at the finish line and lost to Juventus in the Champions League final. The group stage of the tournament started out simple enough: Valencia, Marseilles, and Kobenhavn. I ended up playing Valencia again later on, but I also had to get through PSG and Barca. The two games with PSG were very close, but I beat Barca pretty convincingly in the semi-finals. I was feeling confident going into the final game, but it wasn't meant to be. Tevez scored a ridiculous goal early on, Ramsay got a straight red in the second half, and I couldn't stop hitting the post throughout the entire game. Luckily, I managed to score with a few minutes to spare, but Tevez hit another one in extra time to seal the deal. What a bummer. 2-1 to the Old Lady.
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