The Newbie Chronicles

John (00:02.794)
Hello gutties and welcome to fut in review episode 614. It's a special bonus not announced episode. My name is John and I am joined by Non Alder, then the teddy bear is Chris. Hi Chris. I'm quite all right, both wearing orange as well. So we're already getting in the euros, euros mood.

GPM (00:20.066)
Hi mate, how you doing?

GPM (00:26.946)
Yeah, I thought I better wear it early because I mean, I don't expect the Dutch to do very well, so I imagine him to be home quite quickly.

John (00:32.042)
Yeah, and I bought the shirt for way too much money. I was like, I probably should have bought it, buy it next week. But hey, at least I can show it's legal, it's supporting, it's official shirt as well. And I'm even wearing orange braces now. It is real. Definitely looking forward to that. Chris, it's a special show. And if you are watching the YouTube version or the Spotify version, of course, with video feed, you can see someone else sitting there.

GPM (00:48.258)
I hate Israel.

John (01:01.962)
on the side of us, waving already. It is our special show and it's my pleasure to introduce someone new to the FC community, to the FC podcasting, but not new to podcasting himself. It's my pleasure to, well, let's just say it, the man with the best hair in the business is none other than James. Hello, James. Hello, it's good to see you in this environment, my friend. How you doing?

James (01:20.206)
Hello. Yeah, I joined the wrong studio. Where's the Formula One?

GPM (01:26.914)
I'm sorry.

John (01:29.93)
Change for people that don't know you. Where could they know you from?

James (01:33.65)
I do a little podcast with yourself, John, F1 in Focus, where we just talk about cars going fast in circles.

John (01:42.762)
which apparently is way more boring than FIFA or fruit. According to Chris.

James (01:45.394)
yeah, maybe, yeah.

GPM (01:50.102)
no, I like the Indy 500 and they really go round in circles, don't they?

James (01:53.906)
Yeah, literally, yeah, the ovals, yeah.

John (01:56.33)
That's not going into Formula 1 racing today though, because you are here for a special reason. You've started to play FC24 and that has been your first football slash FIFA game in... How long?

James (02:11.346)
a long time. I think the last, the last, the last football game I played was world to world cup, no road. Sorry, world. When I can speak road to world cup 98 on the N64.

John (02:14.538)
Hello, almost two decades.

GPM (02:14.806)
I'm out.

John (02:30.314)
Yeah, that's a long time ago.

James (02:31.986)
Yeah, football's not my thing usually. So yeah. Yeah.

John (02:36.266)
Which is interesting, because two weeks ago I got a message saying, is this game, where can I buy this game? And is it okay if I start playing it? Can you say something about what made you start playing FC24 and what makes this show so special for us today?

James (02:53.906)
well, what got me playing it was attending the creep meetup and especially this year because we were streaming it for, you know, putting it on Twitch and stuff. And I'm normally just there to do the photography and nod and smile when people start talking about football. and we had a really good setup this year because of the streaming where I could kind of half watch the game while I'm preparing to take photos.

And watching the game like helped me get into a position to know like, you know, if people are moving up the field or whatever one way or another, I know maybe something's going to happen. There's going to be a shot and a goal or someone might miss. And I like to just capture the reactions. So I kind of watch in the game via the laptop because of the streaming setup, waiting. And then I was watching it. I'm like, it looks quite fun actually. So yeah, I got home and thought.

I don't mind playing that, maybe give that a go. So yeah, I messaged the coach and asked for some tips.

GPM (03:55.938)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

John (04:01.194)
And here we are, starting a new series in Noobie Chronicles, special delivery to you. It must be weird though, because you're not a football fan. Just get that straight, right?

James (04:05.202)
Yeah. Yeah.

James (04:11.41)
No, I don't follow football. I don't watch football. I occasionally watch the World Cup. That's about it. That's the only football I ever watch. I know a few names from the past probably, but that's about it. Like I don't know who's on the current England squad. Never mind any of the other national squads. I don't have a clue.

GPM (04:30.386)
you

John (04:33.226)
So your target is to hit the pro scene, right? Yeah.

James (04:37.28)
yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's dominant. Yeah. I got one goal. It's to win it all.

GPM (04:39.234)
Yeah

John (04:44.106)
No, in all seriousness though, we're doing a little thing. So you came on, played this game for the first time ever, like totally ever, you didn't even participate in a tournament, the friendly tournament we had in Crete. And the goal is, on the event next year in Crete, that you are not only participating, but you are trying to go for the win there. So that gives you a year to train, right?

James (04:58.418)
Nope, did not.

James (05:09.234)
I don't know about trying to go for the win really, but yeah, it'd be quite fun to play actually. Yeah. So yeah, it'll make the trip more than just a photography trip as well for me. I'll be able to play the game a little bit as well and join in with the laughs and stuff. I mean, I already do, you know, but yeah, it'd just be a slightly different experience.

John (05:30.41)
Let's talk about slightly different experiences. What games do you normally play? Is it a far leap from FC24?

James (05:36.69)
Yeah, I don't really play any sporting games. I used to play the NBA games. That's about as close as I would say I've ever come to play in like the FIFA games. Other than that, I play like a mix of everything. Like I quite like the racing games, obviously. You know, we've talked about that before on our podcast. Action games.

If it helps, my favorite franchise is the Witcher series. So the Witcher 3 is like my top game of all time. But yeah, Diablo, Witcher, Formula One. Anything that looks good, yeah.

John (06:16.746)
It is a far cry from playing FC24. What makes then... So you see a couple of guys play a tournament abroad. You never played this game at all. You came back and said, let's play this game. But the most... Well, we wanted to give you a little bit before we make this podcast. A couple of weeks later, you are still playing this game. What makes you actually pick it up and say, like, you know what, after playing this for a couple of... This could be something I'll keep playing.

GPM (06:18.402)
Yeah.

James (06:45.938)
it's the ultimate team side of it that I really, really like. I've not played any of the other game much yet. I like the idea of, it turns it into like the way I compare it is it's almost like a looter sort of game, you know, where you like, like playing Diablo, you go and you find a new sword and your new sword will be slightly better. And then you can use that and you find new armor and stuff like that. You just.

you're finding new players and the way you find new players is play the game in open packs and hopefully get an upgrade out of it. And it makes it feel like a puzzle game because you're like, you've got the chemistry side of it and then you've got like, I mean, I don't know what it's like earlier on in the game because I'm jumping in near the end of the life of this game, I believe. So like all the players have like play style plus things. So it's like trying to find good ones of those on the right player and

GPM (07:32.066)
Mm -hmm.

James (07:42.802)
and all that sort of stuff. I just really enjoy it. It feels like, yeah, it feels like your team is your team because you are creating it with, you know, what you're given. And I really enjoy that side of it.

GPM (07:56.226)
I've always said that actually, sorry. Yeah, and I've always said that I think it's a role playing game. So if you're like me, I like the Final Fantasy games. As you say, you're building your characters or the start of the game will be a weird one for you because you've entered where it's actually silly season at the moment with the type of players you've got. And to go back to using gold players, it can be a bit of a grind and that's one you've just got to kind of fight your way through. But yeah, I mean, I played Diablo with you as well. It's very much like Diablo. You know, you're building up your characters and with the advent of

John (07:56.65)
I see, there's nothing.

James (08:01.458)
Yeah.

James (08:11.986)
Yeah.

GPM (08:25.794)
Evolutions as well. I don't even touch them. It's added that extra element as well

James (08:30.578)
Right. I've had a look at evolutions and I've looked at like who I can upgrade. I don't think I've actually done any. But yeah, I just enjoy the aspect of like opening the packs is kind of, I guess that's why they try and sell them as well because you're kind of you're opening the pack and you're like crossing your fingers and your toes hoping that you get the blue animation rather than the gold one or whatever and get something good out of it.

GPM (08:54.05)
Hahaha.

James (08:57.97)
which I feel like I've been a little bit lucky the last few days with those actually. But yeah, talking about like what it's like at the start of the season, I'm actually kind of looking forward to a new game coming out and going through the life cycle of the game rather than jumping in right at the end like I've done with this one.

John (09:16.106)
Yeah, he's now sending me 97 rated players and stuff. It's insane. sorry.

James (09:19.378)
No, it's 96. Be fair, come on.

John (09:25.322)
Is this an okay card? Then he shows me the team of the season, Bellingham. Like, yeah, he's decent.

GPM (09:31.49)
No, very good.

James (09:31.89)
No, today it was Hernandez and DePaul that I opened today, which I thought they were quite good. I don't know who they are.

GPM (09:39.682)
shocker with the children. Yeah, very good, very good. I just want to say apologies to DePaul's mother. That's DePaul with insulted his mum and out out of his last Friday wedding day as well.

James (09:49.074)
Yeah, I've

James (09:53.234)
Yeah, I'm sure she raised him well.

John (09:53.354)
Yeah, we got some mails from them, actually. Yeah. Like, OK, I'll make sure we edit it out next time. Although now I'm definitely not going to do that. Just, I mean, it's interesting, right? You start the game and you say, well, we played non -food in Creed, so you haven't seen that side of the game yet. You come in, you start playing FC24, you start playing Ultimate Team. You like opening the packs and doing the grind for it, which...

GPM (09:56.898)
We need to be nice to the mums.

James (10:16.066)
And yeah.

John (10:22.954)
This state of the game is pretty fun to do so as well, of course, but do you actually enjoy or don't enjoy the playing side of things?

James (10:31.73)
it's a mixed bag. I kind of like it. No, I do like it. To be fair. I do like it. I've had, I've had some of those like gaming moments. Like, I don't know, like when you play other games and you like something happens, like it'll be a story event or there'll be something that happens and you kind of, you think back on it like two hours later after you put the game down, you think like, yeah, that was really cool. And I've had moments like that with FIFA or foot or.

you know, FC, where like yesterday I had to go to the champions mode and like you can qualify for the weekend league thing, which I don't know much about, but I had to go at it. I won, but let's see, I lost two games on the bounce and I thought I got no chance at this. Then I won a game. Then I lost a couple of games. Then I won a couple of games. And anyway, the 10th game to qualify, I needed the win.

GPM (11:01.538)
out.

James (11:31.058)
to make the qualification or whatever. And I had, I lost, spoiler alert, I didn't get through, but I had a really good game. I really enjoyed it. Like we, the other player went up one, then I kind of pulled it back. It was one, one, then they went up two, one, then I managed to pull it back right in like the last five minutes, two, two, went into extra time. And I think I lost in the second half of extra time.

I like I really enjoyed it. I felt like it was a really good like close game. I didn't get frustrated by it because I felt like the like the skill level was maybe like similar or at least I didn't feel like I was being completely overwhelmed by the other player. And I've had a few games like that like playing rivals where you just have like really good games win or lose like they just feel like good games. You know, like I might go down a couple of goals and then make a bit of a comeback and still lose or I might win.

or I might be up and then they start to pull it back and start to feel tense and start getting sweaty. But yeah, I've like, I've really enjoyed that. I mean, I've played some competitive games in the past, like Street Fighter.

James (12:48.978)
And yeah, it's that sort of similar feeling and also like shooting games and stuff well in the past, like Counter -Strike and that, but it's just, I don't know. I just really enjoy it. Yeah. One for you, one for you, yeah.

John (12:56.778)
Formula One footage me.

GPM (13:02.754)
It's interesting, it's actually refreshing to hear that, James, because, you know, a lot of people put pressure on themselves to qualify for weekend league. And, you know, if they don't qualify, it ruins, it can ruin the game for them, you know. But the fact is that you nearly qualified, but actually you're saying it with a smile on your face and you've got a really refreshing attitude to it of, well, I really, really enjoyed that, actually, that experience. And, you know, once you get your points up, you can go again.

James (13:12.658)
Right.

James (13:18.226)
Okay.

James (13:26.386)
Yeah.

GPM (13:32.322)
You know, I have to say to get three wins as someone who's really new to the game, especially at this stage of the game, is a really good result as well.

James (13:39.378)
Thanks. Yeah, I felt pretty good about it to be honest when I lost the first two I thought because sometimes I play rivals and then I this is one of my complaints about the game is the matchmaking doesn't seem great or is maybe because it doesn't know how to match me up against somebody being so new. I don't know.

John (13:56.202)
You also had a bit of unlucky last one and a half week with matchmaking being broken, I think.

GPM (14:01.666)
Mm -hmm.

James (14:01.874)
Yeah, like I was finding myself like sometimes I play a game and I'd score a goal within like 10 minutes and then I'd feel like I was in control of the game and sometimes people just quit after the first goal, which I don't really understand that but then yeah, but then okay, but then I've played other games where I've just been

John (14:21.674)
So refreshing to hear that from someone else.

GPM (14:23.106)
You will eventually understand.

James (14:30.866)
I've felt like I've just been like completely thrown in the deep end and I'm completely overwhelmed and I don't have a clue what I'm doing or how to play against that level of play. Or it might not even be the level of play, but the tactics, I don't know. But it's like, I've had games where it feels like whoever on my team I get the ball to, they're just immediately surrounded by three people. And when I try to make a pass, it's like they're...

player, they're defenders in front of the person I'm trying to pass to all the time. Like they're always intercepting. And when, when it's the other way around and I'm defending, it's like, they're just pinging the ball around us. They want like a no problem. and I'm like, what am I doing wrong? What are they doing? Right? I don't know. But

GPM (15:15.778)
It's, John's got, for people who are listening, John's got a slightly red face and I won't get him to get any more hate messages talking about high pressure, but it's a problem in the game, James. It's a tactic in the game which doesn't involve a lot of skill and it's overpowered. And John, we could overtake your podcast. I won't say any more about it because John and I will end up having a discussion for the next 40 minutes on it. But there is a tactic in the game which you're coming up against.

James (15:26.29)
Right. Okay.

James (15:32.498)
So.

James (15:39.762)
Hahaha.

James (15:44.53)
Right. Well that happens not all the time, but fairly frequently. It's frustrating to play against. Yeah. Although I think maybe it's because I'm new at the game and I don't see it as a cheese tactic as it may be seen as. I don't know, but I kind of, I see it in like, if they score a goal straight away, I don't quit. And if they score a second goal, I still don't quit. And if I'm down three or four at halftime, then I'll be like, okay, I'll just leave the game. Cause I can't.

figure it out, but I'll I set myself small goals. So, you know, if that happens and they score two goals, like within a half, I'll think if I could just get one, that's a win for me. I'm happy with that. And that's what I'll play to do in the second half of a game that I feel like I'm struggling in rather than just being like, this guy's going to beat me. I'll just quit. I'll think, well, let me at least try and do something and kind of, I don't know.

save myself from being completely embarrassed.

GPM (16:46.69)
It's interesting, it sounds like you've had some coaching, the lonely words there because that mental aspect, I've heard that many a time from a good friend.

James (16:54.931)
Yeah, well, John's, yeah, so to be fair, I've had. We had like a little one on one session, me and John playing the game and then. I recorded a game for him to do one of his like proper coaching sessions, which I would highly recommend, not just because I'm a friend of John, because I thought that was. Very well put together. Good.

criticism without being harsh. Like it was constructive criticism and it gave me some really good tips, which I then immediately tried to put into my game. The main one that's been working for me is I would like I'd pass the ball and I would immediately be hitting like pass the ball again to like just pinball the ball around the pitch to try and like break through defense or something or just to try and stay away from the pressure that they're trying to apply.

And John kind of pointed out that if you're not facing the direction you're trying to pass, that pass is going to be less accurate. And, you know, they might be able to read it or, you know, give you instead, give yourself basically some time to think about what you're doing. So I've been trying to do that. And like in the past, I would just, even when I'm not getting pressured, I'd be just like trying to ping the ball around and now it's like, well, there's a space there. I don't need to pass the ball. I can move into it. And then when they start to move towards me, then I pass the ball, because if they're moving towards me, they're probably freeing up someone.

someone somewhere else. So I've started to see that aspect of the game now, which I first two weeks, I couldn't really see.

John (18:30.442)
Let's open another pack instead of trying to open a passing lane.

James (18:33.106)
Yeah, yeah. And then I come out of the game and it's like packs up of packs do the SBCs.

GPM (18:36.598)
I'm sorry.

John (18:40.042)
I remember one weekend he sent me a message, I see why people throw controllers at the screen though.

James (18:45.01)
Yeah, yeah, it was that pressure thing where it's like I just, especially because at the start of the game, I'm thinking like, surely I'm going to get match made, like matched up against people in the really low divisions or who are new to the game like me. And I was finding myself like, yeah, I'll just jump online and play an online game. And then I just get absolutely destroyed.

Which is frustrating, but I'm not frustrated at them. It's more frustration at myself because I don't know what to do. And really I just need to go and put some time into figuring out what I'm supposed to do rather than just jumping into playing online against somebody who's probably been playing, you know, FIFA games for four years or more. Knows the ins and outs of the sport and the game. And I'm like, kick a ball.

GPM (19:32.322)
Yeah.

GPM (19:40.578)
And then, has your style of play developed over the weeks? You're saying about the passing, I take that, but the type of goals you're scoring, are they the similar type of goals in most matches or you find yourself playing different ways of scoring goals?

James (19:58.45)
I'm starting to find some new ways to score goals. I initially I was relying very heavily on just trying to get a fast break and then just scoring off that when I could. Now I've played in the last even in like the last week, I've started being able to score a few like quite feel good goals from like crosses and stuff, which I wasn't really trying to do before.

Shout out to Artium for his latest video because I copied his formation and I've been using that and it's amazing.

GPM (20:35.106)
That's probably it. That's probably it.

John (20:38.058)
Have you been trying to watch football, like on the pitch football now?

James (20:43.762)
Not yet, but I might watch some of the Euros. But I don't have any way of watching, you know, I watching any games on TV or anything. I don't have any other sports packages. So, no, I'd be very lucky if I get away with that. One thing we haven't covered is my partner. She's not very happy.

GPM (20:57.89)
Mm -hmm.

John (20:58.474)
yet.

GPM (21:07.874)
You

no, she's a FIFA, why don't I wish it?

James (21:12.914)
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. She's like, no, you're not. Why are you playing football games? You're supposed to be my nerd.

GPM (21:18.838)
You know.

James (21:22.354)
I'm supposed to like football is what she's saying. Yeah, we went to Tesco the other day and I joked because they had all like the England t -shirts, not like the proper kits, but like just a white t -shirt with a badge on it. I was like, I'll have to get one of those England t -shirts now because I like football now, do I? She just walked away.

GPM (21:39.298)
Ha ha ha.

John (21:43.978)
This is wait until next year you're full into the start of FIFA or the start of the FC season and you're going home early or you're going to play the first couple of weeks.

James (21:54.066)
Yeah. Yeah. Taking, taking, taking the three days off early access or whatever it is.

John (22:01.418)
or opening packs during dinner. Like, no, just one more pack. So it begins, so it begins, it seems.

James (22:04.786)
I do that already.

GPM (22:06.882)
Yeah.

James (22:09.682)
I'll finish, you know, like pick up my phone. Yeah, I'm just on SBCs.

GPM (22:15.106)
But that's, sorry, the game you're talking about, that's the puzzle element, isn't it? The SBCs, isn't it? To be fair to EA, they're pretty good that way when it comes to the SBCs and getting you thrown in that way.

John (22:16.554)
It's a

James (22:22.61)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

James (22:31.89)
Yeah, to be fair at the moment, I tend to do the easy ones. So like, I mean, it would probably go out of date very quickly talking about it now, but like that 81 player pick I think is. That one's easy. It's just like six, what is it? Like six gold players and then two rare gold players. And then your picks are often like, or not often, but you occasionally get like somebody 85 or higher pick them.

GPM (22:50.69)
Yeah.

James (22:59.826)
throw them in the exchange, get more gold to players, carry on the grind.

John (23:04.97)
pick another icon and show it to me at 2 .30 in the morning.

James (23:06.93)
yeah, then pack a 1 .5 million player or whatever it was and tell John.

GPM (23:12.354)
That's unbelievable. And that John can't complain. John's on the gold list. I think he's got you on the gold list as well, James, in the way it's out.

James (23:19.89)
Hahaha.

John (23:20.906)
His team beats my team after the team of the season now. So it's two weeks old account is beating my team. So.

James (23:28.626)
I've been, to be fair, I've been lucky since the... What is it? I don't even know what these like weekly things are called. But the current one with like the Euro players or whatever and all that, like the really cool backgrounds. I've done quite well with those in the last like few days. Last week. What was it last week? It wasn't... I can't remember. It wasn't Serie A. I got a couple of those. It was the one in between.

John (23:36.01)
promotions.

GPM (23:39.522)
Yeah.

John (23:51.338)
Festival of food or something, right?

we got ultimate thoughts I guess.

GPM (23:58.274)
Mm -hmm.

James (23:58.866)
Yeah, that was it. I didn't get anything. I got absolutely nothing from that.

John (24:02.026)
And you were pretty angry about frustrated about that as well.

James (24:06.13)
Yeah, I was. I was like, I was grinding and I was getting nothing.

John (24:09.866)
He's spoiled already, Chris. Suddenly messages like, I'm not packing anything. I was like, yeah, mate, but it's team of the season. It's ultimate team of the season. Nobody packs anything this week. And if you pack one, you're probably good.

James (24:19.698)
Why you say that? Look at the PacPools channel on your Discord. People were getting stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

GPM (24:25.954)
You need to mute that channel. You need to mute that mate. I mean I suppose I was going to ask you there, if you're not a football fan, what strip are you using? And there's a reason.

James (24:36.37)
I, this is going to be hard to tell you. I wonder if I can see it because I'm logged in on my web browser to the thing. My club, I'm using the Ferrantina kit. Fire and Tina. I don't know how you pronounce it. Italian. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. It's gorgeous. I use the alternate kit and their, their home kit, the white one, because I just love that pattern down the side. And then I got the badge as well to match.

GPM (24:43.234)
Yeah.

GPM (24:49.89)
All right. Friantina, Friantina. Yeah, purple one.

John (24:50.986)
See you on dinner.

GPM (25:01.186)
Nice.

James (25:04.21)
I don't know the team. I just like the kit. I got, I got, I got one of their kits early on. I think it was their alternate kit. It's like purple and then it's got like pink and like pale of purple flowers at the side of it. I was like, that's really cool. So I started using it. But I was like my like alternate kit on my other one. I can't remember if I was using it for my home or away, but the opposite of that. I just, I didn't have anything I liked. So then I went on the

GPM (25:05.218)
Thanks.

John (25:07.434)
could also play it hard.

GPM (25:18.946)
nice.

James (25:33.266)
transfer market and bought the other kits. I've got the matching set and then bought the badge as well. I don't support the team, I just like their kit.

GPM (25:36.802)
I'm going to go to bed.

John (25:45.098)
Well, we've all been there. It's so fun to see those things popping back up from when we started playing this game decades ago, Chris.

GPM (25:53.89)
Yeah, I mean, we played, you played the console, didn't you? Or you sometimes got a friend to come round. There was no internet at that time, other than when we were just starting out at that point. It's actually really refreshing to hear someone talk. I mean, we come on the show whenever we're on and we do have a bit of a monobit, but it's really refreshing to hear someone actually really enjoying the game and maybe taking things that we take for granted, you know, as well.

John (26:19.53)
Well, talk about taking things for granted. I tried to explain some things when James started playing, right? Try to explain chemistry to someone that never touched this game before.

James (26:31.13)
Yeah, I didn't have a clue. And then, well, then I saw the number and I was like, so obviously the higher the number, the better, but I didn't read, I didn't register the little pips on your squad. Like next to the players, like they've got the three pips that they can get. I wasn't even looking at that. I was just looking at the number. So I couldn't, yeah. So I couldn't see the like, I might've had like four or five players that had like really good chemistry, but then I had like.

John (26:35.626)
It's like, what's chemistry? Well.

GPM (26:49.314)
Mm -hmm.

John (26:52.202)
At total number, yeah.

GPM (26:53.57)
Yeah.

James (26:59.858)
three that had like zero. I just wasn't paying attention to that. But yeah, it's just.

John (27:05.962)
How good does EA do a job on putting you in the game for the first time to explain everything that's going on?

James (27:13.074)
it has got some pretty good tutorials to be fair. Pretty much every menu you go in, it pops up with like a little three stage help screen to say like, this is what you're looking at and what have you. So I felt like some of it was easy to pick up some of it. Not so much to be fair is probably skipping those tutorials after a while. In fact, I think I went and turned them off because I was starting to get a little bit frustrated by everything you go into. You got one. I was like,

Come on, I just want to go play game mad. I want to open another pack. I feel like it does a pretty good job. Like I said, the only thing I feel like as somebody completely knew that it could do better is the matchmaking, but that could have been broken for a while as you were just mentioning there was something about like high division players or high ranking players getting matched up against lower.

skill level players, so maybe that was what was happening to me.

John (28:14.57)
Yeah, I messaged some players last week when I was playing Elite. I messaged one of the opponents, which division are in, he said that I'm in Div 7. Yeah, that doesn't sound well. It's fixed now, by the way.

GPM (28:23.522)
Nah, it's a joke, yeah man. No, that's a joke.

James (28:26.194)
Yeah. Yeah, to be fair, like the games I've played last night that weren't the champion games and a couple of games I played today, they felt pretty good. I didn't feel like I was going matched up against somebody absolutely like crazy skilled compared to me. What I do find is quite a mixed bag at the moment, actually, to be fair, and I quite like it because sometimes you see players that

They're just like doing all the like skill moves stuff, like flicking the ball around and that thing where they like kick it forward and then flick it back again. Like they're pretending to pass and keeping the ball to themselves and then like doing a little spin moves and stuff like that. But then they don't do anything with it. They're just like, they're just moving up the pitch, doing these moves for no reason. And then I'm like, okay, well, I'm just going to move towards you. Hold, what is it? R1, I think to bring in like a, some extra pressure. I'm just going to take the ball off you now.

GPM (29:11.042)
No.

James (29:23.986)
while you spin off without the ball over there. I know. See what happens.

GPM (29:28.386)
Aye, it's like they're moonwalking. It's like they're dancing. They're not actually playing football. You know, I just want my players to stand still when they do that.

James (29:31.474)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

John (29:39.498)
No, no, no, that's not true. You too slight tackle them.

GPM (29:43.49)
No and again, two foot them if I can get a chance. I think it was the first Crete tournament that I realised that you can overskill because there was a few times when we did the first Crete tournament there was a guy skilling with our centre backs and I was thinking, just wasting time. You know, there is a time and place for skilling, 100 % and I take my hat off to the guys who can skill and do it properly but I do find a lot of skillers can't defend, I must admit.

James (29:45.266)
I never.

James (30:07.986)
Yeah, I've never touched them yet myself. I'm kind of getting used to how to defend people that are trying to be a bit flashy and seem to be able to kind of, you know, dummy one way, go the other way and like move their play around quite quickly with the ball. That was one of the tips actually from John when we were first playing, like he was telling me, like on defense, your objective doesn't necessarily need to be to take the ball away from somebody.

just stop them from being able to do what they want to do, which is either score a goal or pass it to somebody who can score a goal. So now I don't, I don't go like before every player, like I was in control of, they'd be sprinting straight at the person with the ball and then I'd be hitting the like tackle button, not the slide tackle button to try and take the ball away. And now I'm like, positioning myself back, trying to cut off a pass or try to at least block an attempt of a shot. And then if you know,

All that really is then going to leave them to do is pass and then eventually, hopefully, to make a bad pass.

John (31:13.674)
Which is cool if people actually like new players apparently learn to listen better to a new coach Chris Which is pretty cool to see as well. You see the development James makes off like Two chats in three weeks. It's been pretty awesome to see him. I was to be

GPM (31:21.378)
Yeah, I think so.

GPM (31:32.03)
Yeah, you don't have the bad habits that, you know, like the likes of myself have, do you know what I mean? Who thinks he knows better than everybody else?

James (31:37.778)
Yeah, I can believe that because I've played other games like my biggest comparison for this would be playing a game like Street Fighter online because that's the same sort of thing you can get into the habit of doing something then you build the muscle memory to the point where it becomes very difficult to undo it and I think the only time I've noticed that so far in

playing FC and I'm trying to undo it now is I have this habit of when I pass the ball to somebody, I hit the sprint bone as I'm turning to kind of hit the ball forward and then get a run going. And I that's at the moment that seems to be like the main way I'm losing control of the ball is from a pass trying to then like sprint straight off it and somebody just takes the ball away from me. So.

But yeah, it's not like properly, it feels like it's sort of a muscle memory thing, but obviously I've not been playing the game long enough for it to be kind of completely built in yet. So yeah, trying to fix that.

John (32:42.442)
We'll find out how you were able to fix it in the coming weeks, slash months, James, because we'll be continuing this newbie Chronicle series of podcasts in between now and there. We got some questions sent in from our dear fans, our patrons though. So let's go through them if you don't mind. And Chris, feel free to ask any as well. But I'll start with Adam, who basically wrote a big write up with questions for you.

James (32:46.738)
Yeah.

James (32:53.65)
Okay, cool.

John (33:12.298)
The first one he said is it difficult to improve your gameplay and get through the divisions and for example qualify for a weekend league. He sort of spoke about that for a bit but...

James (33:21.586)
Yeah, I haven't qualified for the weekend league yet, but I've only tried it once. So yeah, I'm quite, I'm quite positive on that result. Actually, you're like getting a three. I was very close. I feel like I could do it. Improving play. I definitely feel like, like there are, there are things in the game now that I didn't know a week or two ago and I now incorporate into my game, like pretty much every game I play.

One of them is just like doing the long cross pitch pass like when you're, you know, when you're balls with your defenders, like your left back and right back or whatever, like swinging it around across to the other side. If you're feeling like overwhelmed on one side. I never knew how to do that for the first two weeks playing the game, but I came across people that were doing it. I was like, that seems like a really good way to get away from pressure. How do I do that? And then I think I asked John, like, how are people doing this? He told me what to do.

And now I use it pretty much every game. Mainly just like on that back line though, I don't use it further up the pitch that often. But I do feel like I'm improving, like my defense I feel like is improving.

James (34:38.93)
maybe moving through pressure I'm not very good at yet but as far as kind of playing divisions I got up to division six before the season kind of reset like a few days ago like five six days ago whatever it was now and I'm back in division seven and I'm kind of getting I'm like right at the end I'm two wins away from getting back into division six.

John (35:07.786)
Any targets for the new season? For yourself?

James (35:10.802)
just to get back into division six, which I think I can easily do now because I've got all the way up to that last kind of flag pip in division seven. So I'm only two away from it. Maybe from there I'll see how it goes and then maybe try and get to division five. I don't really know what a realistic goal is. I don't know how the difficulty ramps up as you go the divisions either. So like hitting division six, I don't... Yeah.

John (35:35.178)
You'll find out for yourself.

James (35:37.874)
I think division six, I don't know if that's really a milestone or not. It feels like one to me as a new player. but yeah, I'm not setting my sights too far ahead. I'm kind of just playing the game and focusing on it each time I play it rather than kind of setting log -turb objectives at the moment.

GPM (35:51.97)
Yeah.

GPM (35:56.258)
Which I think is a thing that experienced FC players do to themselves. You know you put pressure on yourself to reach a certain level at weekend league or you know a certain division or a performance in the Cups and actually

John (36:15.242)
or make a semi -final in a Greek Cup.

GPM (36:18.434)
There's loads of stuff like that and I think what you're doing though James is you're enjoying the game for the game itself. So even if you're getting a defeat, you're actually looking at the positives of it. Actually, you know, I played quite well there. I was getting beat 3 -0 but I pulled it back to 3 -1. And I think that's something I learned and that maybe as more experienced players should maybe take on board that actually, do you know what? Getting nine wins or 11 wins in Weekend League or 14 or whatever the number is that you're attaining, actually the whole point is...

James (36:34.258)
Yeah.

GPM (36:47.778)
The game's meant to be having fun spending your leisure time, isn't it?

James (36:52.403)
Yeah, I mean, I suppose for somebody more experienced, I suppose if you're you know, if you've once done the weekend league and got like, what is it? There's like you qualify, you play 10 games and you have to win four to qualify and then you play, is it like 20 games or something? 20 games, right? So I suppose if somebody's done that before and they've won like their best result is 15, 15 wins. I don't know if that's actually a good

GPM (37:05.634)
Yeah.

20.

James (37:20.722)
Result or not? I don't have a clue. But like say somebody does that, like I can imagine every time you then do a weekend league, you'd be like, I need to at least match my best. So I can understand that it would sort of applying pressure on yourself like that because I've had, you know, people do that in all aspects of life, don't they? Not just playing FIFA. So,

GPM (37:21.538)
I circuit yourself.

GPM (37:35.425)
Yeah.

GPM (37:41.89)
No, they do, they do, James, but what I'm saying is it's refreshing to hear you going, do you know what, I got three wins and I was really delighted with that, you know, because actually you enjoyed yourself.

James (37:46.354)
Yeah.

James (37:51.794)
Yeah, I think, I think, I think you've got to appreciate the position. Like, not, this is not just about FIFA really. I'll go, you've got to appreciate the position you're in at any given time and what your goal is. And if you know, like look at things more kind of small scale than, you know, like this is what I want to achieve in a month and of playing this game. It's like, well, what can I achieve today in these like three games I'm going to play?

and then break that down as well. That's how I've been playing it. Like I don't think like I'm going to play five games today and I want to win four of them. I think I'm going to play a game now. Let's see if I can win. And if I go down, like I said before, if I go down two or three game goals by halftime, I think we'll...

Let's try carry on for the second half and see if I at least score a goal and then, you know, do that each time I play a game rather than focusing on a bigger goal.

John (38:46.954)
Oops.

I'm gonna clip this and make sure we go back to this same question half a year from now.

James (38:53.458)
it's going to change. I knew it will. I knew it will. When I'm on my fifth controller.

GPM (38:53.474)
He's sitting there jaded like I hate this game. Only I got... No, it's good.

John (38:58.89)
But I do appreciate, I do appreciate those points of view though. Do you find it hard to keep up with all the content, SPCs, objectives coming out every day, James?

James (39:09.938)
A little bit, yeah, the SBCs actually I struggle with. I rely very heavily on people mentioning it in the discord. I like the packs, like every now and then it feels random. There'll be a pack that's 10 gold and 30 gold coins. Why is that? When do they appear? I don't know. I just see somebody mention it and I'm like, okay, I'll go buy those. Okay. But yeah, the SBCs change.

GPM (39:28.418)
this.

I guess. No.

John (39:33.034)
We don't know either.

James (39:39.058)
fairly regularly. The problem I do have with those is that I like, I try to be really efficient and then I start like looking at what's the most efficient way to do these. It's like at the moment, the current one, the 81 plus player pick, that's a good one, I think, because you've got a high chance of getting a player back that you can throw into the exchange, which generates more players to then throw back into and it just becomes an infinite loop.

Sometimes that finding that loop isn't either always there or it's difficult to find in the SPCs and they change a bit. And then looking at the player ones as well, like you pointed out the Soloth, is that how he pronounced his name? That striker to me a couple of weeks ago, he was very easy one to get, so I got him.

John (40:22.73)
Mm -hmm.

James (40:31.826)
But then sometimes I look at them and I just kind of end up scratching my head like, can I actually achieve that if I start it? Because there'll be like seven or eight steps to it. And I'm looking ahead thinking, I don't know if I can actually do that. Yeah, I don't know. Because I don't have a load of cards or anything. Sorry, my club really. And yeah, some of them are also I find a little bit more difficult than others, partly because I don't follow the sport, I think. So like the current...

John (40:38.826)
Yeah.

James (41:01.714)
What is it? There's like the current daily one, the current daily challenge. It's got like lots of requirements, like you can't have more than three players from the, no, you can't have three, more than three players from the same league, a minimum of four players from the same country and all these other requirements. Yeah. Well, that's cause I'd keep doing it, but I find it hard to do because, I don't, I don't know if the league's in football. Yeah.

John (41:16.394)
You know them better than me already.

GPM (41:28.002)
I mean I think that's a fair comment. I mean the only advice I would give you James is once you start playing the game is to realize what type of players you like in certain positions. So if you like

John (41:42.182)
or check out foodandreview .com of course.

James (41:45.682)
Hahaha.

GPM (41:45.698)
100%, but you know, I've just from a non -coaching point of view is finding a player that you like because when you go into Discord, which is a wonderful place to be, you know, and it is free to join, check us out at discord .com forward slash footenreview. It's absolutely free. I don't know why nobody else is, why you wouldn't want to join. But what I'd say is find the player that suits your style of play because you go into Discord and somebody go, this player is amazing. He's absolutely brilliant. He's scoring wonderful goals. Or you see it online as well where,

reviews and then you find out that he's a 6 foot 5 striker and you like a small nippy one because that suits your way of playing. So I wouldn't have any formal about not doing SBCs because eventually you'll find the players that suit your style of playing.

John (42:28.842)
But this is the state of the game where you want to try them on.

James (42:29.01)
Yes, -

To be fair, yeah, and I am doing so like my team has changed quite significantly just in the last like three weeks, four weeks I've been playing. So when I first started the game, I might be a cardinal sin, I don't know, but I did end up buying a couple of the packs to give me a jumpstart. So I got the game for half price. So I put the remaining money for the cost of the game into a couple of packs. In hindsight, I wouldn't do that now.

GPM (42:31.794)
hello, sir.

James (43:00.306)
And if anyone's watching this as a new player, don't do it because you get so many cards anyway. Like I was, I had, I had a team ignoring those two packs within like a week or two. But I, because, because it feels like the game's throwing a lot at you and I don't know, let you say this, but because it's like crazy part of the end of the game or whatever. My team is like changing a lot. And I do like that because you're.

know you're swapping a player and it's like the chemistry's dropped a bit what who maybe i can tweak someone else around here now to to fix that and like you know i might have i don't know like a 92 rated centre back or like i might have like four of them to pick from and i'm like well i've got these two in because i do like these two but actually if i swap this one around with this one who i've got in my reserves that might get my chemistry back up so i like i like that aspect of the game and that's what i keep doing but i'm trying i'm trying out

trying out the players that I get. Like I don't just pack someone and think, well, I'm never going to use them. I think, well, I'll give them a go in a game or two and see what they're like. But I'm starting to figure out, I mean, there's probably like play styles that everyone knows is good in certain positions. And I've kind of feel like I've been figuring that out for myself. So like, I can't remember the names of them. There's the one that's like the little raccoon head when you're defending.

GPM (44:22.89)
Yeah.

James (44:24.85)
Look, that's like good for stealing the ball. That feels like a really good one to have on like your, your center backs and maybe even on your midfield and the one for intercepting, like the little fishing hook intercepting. That was a really good one to have as well. partly because it helps for me with my defending cause that felt like a weak point at the start of playing, but yeah, finding these and kind of learning the game and then.

John (44:36.234)
You

James (44:50.354)
kind of developing your team around that and thinking like, yeah, I want this on this player or this position or whatever. It's just, it's a lot of fun, especially because the games, especially now because the games throwing it all at you.

GPM (44:58.21)
No, definitely.

Yeah, of course, yeah.

John (45:03.242)
about throwing it all at you. Time for some rapid questions James. All right, do you find it hard? Finally, is FIFA playing this game in age mean the game is in the most exciting thing ever for you? We can only imagine what it would have been like if the game was like this when I started playing foot at a mask.

James (45:06.546)
Go for it.

James (45:22.162)
in its current state right now. Yeah, it's amazing. It's brilliant. I love it because you're getting so much like loot effectively through getting so many players all the time. Yeah, it's great.

John (45:23.498)
Yeah.

GPM (45:23.682)
Yeah, but they could have folksy.

John (45:33.226)
He also asked, are you having fun?

James (45:36.017)
Yeah, most of the time. There's times when I'm not. But I'm having more fun than not fun at the moment. Like I said, this games are frustrating, but I try to learn from it instead.

John (45:38.73)
Ha ha ha.

GPM (45:43.33)
games that frustrating but I try to learn from it instead.

John (45:48.49)
John asks, what's the biggest learning so far from FC24? And without guidance from John in the discord, how do you think you would have fared?

James (45:56.274)
I think we covered the biggest tips and that was like, you know, John helping me with the passing and how to defend better. I think if I didn't know that, I probably would have stopped playing the game already because I would have just, I just got too frustrated by it. But now like with that help that you've given me, I can see some improvement and improvement kind of drives your motivation to keep playing how it does for me.

John (46:23.658)
Awesome. Homer asks, welcome to the community. Has anything disappointed you since you've came back to gaming in this, whether that would be the gamer base, the game itself, or maybe the PlayStation or Microsoft hardware? You're playing on PC, right? Just to make... Yeah.

James (46:39.058)
Yeah, I play on PC. I got good hardware, so I'm not disappointed by that. I think that the matchmaking is one of the things I'm a little bit disappointed by, but like I say, I don't know if that's because it was broken a couple of weeks ago or a week ago or whatever, or if it's just because it doesn't know how to match me or it's because it's so late in the life of the game that everyone else is obviously either very good or just got a lot of experience and I don't.

GPM (46:51.33)
that we don't have a large history because it doesn't never happen.

James (47:08.178)
And the other thing I want to comment on is, is the fouls and some of the animations, like, I don't think you listen with the commentary still on, do you John? You don't have the game sound on really. The commentator would be like, say something like, I know, I know brilliant tackle there to get control of the ball again. And the, the animation, like the two players collide and it looks like a WWE wrestling move has literally just played out on the pitch.

John (47:18.602)
I don't have any sound on the tape.

GPM (47:33.834)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

James (47:35.538)
And that's a good tackle. He's literally picked me up and thrown me on the floor.

Yeah, that aspect of the game kind of throws some humor in, I suppose. I suspect it's not intentional, but it just feels really weird.

John (47:50.45)
Yeah. Gal asks, do you know what scoring your first goal felt like?

James (47:59.154)
No, I've forgotten already. I can't remember my first girl. Yeah, I mean, I'm just a machine. No, no, I've had had, I have had some, I've had girls that have been like really feel good girls. I mean, my first girl wouldn't have even been online. Like the first thing I did, John's advice, just do some squad battles. And that's what I did. And I played on like, I think the semi pro difficulty, even against like,

John (48:01.706)
Okay.

GPM (48:02.274)
There's not many, John.

Ha ha ha.

James (48:30.162)
low rated teams with no chemistry. Now I just play everything on professional, but again, I don't know if that's really a good indicator of skill or not, because I feel like the AI is quite easy to figure out. You score one goal and they just start pressing them. Once you've scored one, you can score quite a few. But yeah, I've had maybe not my first goal, but I have had goals that I've like really enjoyed. Like I scored one earlier on today. I got an amazing cross to Savio who just headed it in.

against playing online. It was a brilliant goal. I loved it. But apparently he's rude to watch the replays, so I don't watch the replays even when I want to. should I? OK.

GPM (49:06.978)
No, watch the replays, man. Celebrate and watch the replays. No, no, celebrate and watch the replays. Trust me on that. Do it, man. Just watch the replays. That's what I do. I watch all the replays, man. You know what it does? And John, to be fair to John, he's right. People who don't watch the replays, it's a fairly strong message to the player you're playing against. But what I do sometimes is if I feel I'm under pressure,

John (49:08.65)
Don't voice three please.

John (49:14.858)
That's bad advice when you play it, yeah, Chris?

James (49:14.962)
Okay.

GPM (49:34.146)
and I score a goal, I watch the replays, because it allows you that 10 seconds to just catch your breath. Do you know what I mean?

James (49:38.802)
Yeah, I do that half time sometimes. I don't keep mashing the button to skip through. I'll take a minute, half time just to kind of recompose, I suppose, especially if it's one of those games where, like I've said, I'm down 2 -0 and I'm thinking I just want to try and score a goal. I'll take a minute, which I think that's good advice.

John (50:00.394)
He also asked if you tried skill moves yet, but the definite answer on that was no. Al Burger asked some questions, we answered most of it already, is why did you start playing FC? That's because of Creed. What other games did you play? The Witcher mostly you said, and Street Fighter competitive, of course Formula One racing games along with that. And what is your favorite part of FC24? And what is your worst? It has to be like one sentence.

James (50:04.114)
Nope.

James (50:11.218)
Yep.

James (50:18.642)
Yeah.

James (50:28.146)
It's just one word online. It's my favorite bit, my least favorite bit. My favorite because it's competitive and it's fun most of the time. Least favorite because sometimes you just get absolutely destroyed by somebody and you don't know how or why. And it's just a bit frustrating, but everyone gets that, don't they? So.

GPM (50:50.53)
Definitely. Yeah.

John (50:50.666)
It does happen, yeah. It's good to have you on the journey, James. Thanks for being so honest, open and transparent about your experiences so far.

James (50:53.17)
Yeah.

James (51:00.658)
Yeah, it's just forever and beyond. It's been fun this year.

GPM (51:02.306)
Yeah, it's been good. I mean, the things you've said as well about enjoying the game, it probably needs a bit of a change of mindset from myself putting too much pressure on myself weekend league and I think you're right. Let's just enjoy it at the moment. You know, it's a good time of the season and I think it's very refreshing to hear your attitude on the game, mate.

James (51:23.282)
Cool. Well, yeah, hopefully people take something away from that. Yeah, I'm glad.

John (51:28.586)
Awesome. Chris, this was episode 614. Episode 615 is actually recorded a day after we record this, where you start talking about the Make Your Mark promo and heroes. So looking forward to that. So it's going to be a high content week from us. Talking about content changes we do, changing things around, but also not only making this series extra. In the new season, we are introducing the food coaching gameplay corner.

GPM (51:41.89)
Yes.

John (51:57.77)
exclusive show which will be doing some training well training episodes in the coming weeks just to test out the waters there the shows will look different in the coming week the show will sound different in the coming weeks we have a new host coming on board welcome Archom to the team so since today he's officially part of team Food and Review so in the next weeks we'll be testing a lot of things in the show if you're listening to this of course just let us know

give us five star review and say you love us, but also leave us a little bit of feedback if you think things work or don't work because we are always listening to the community and we are always trying to get that 1 % extra in on each and every episode we do. So I hope you appreciate that because we appreciate your feedback you've been given so far. So hopefully you like that. Over the summer we'll be still doing once a week content, normally recorded on Friday.

released on a Saturday, but during the coming weeks we'll be doing some extras here and there and announcing the definite changes we'll be making for the new season already. Anything to add there Chris?

GPM (53:08.386)
No, it's going to be absolutely exciting. I mean, to be fair, James mentioned Art already in the show. Art being on with yourself and the other coaches is going to be absolutely amazing. It's going to be a must listen.

John (53:21.482)
Definitely looking forward to that with Nathan and Archon. It's either going to be R3 or a combination of us three hosting that show. And it's going to be a bi -weekly exclusive show. Not sure we will put that on the public channels, but if you go, of course, to patreon .com for such fun and review, you can definitely find it there. We might release it a month later or something. We'll see about that when the season starts. James, good to have you on board, my friend. See you on the next episode.

we do this we talk about Johnny. Awesome Chris you as well good luck tomorrow on tomorrow's recording thank you for covering for me over the past couple of weeks and thank you for covering again for me tomorrow but there's so much going on behind the scenes we need to take care of that in this season as well that leaves us with one thing left to do and of course James has experienced his life but has not ever been a part of it but it is time for us to drop it.

James (53:51.89)
Yeah, sure. Yeah.

GPM (54:18.274)
Drop it.

John (54:19.882)
Eh?

F you. F you.

F -U -T -T -N -U -F -U -T.