How EA ruined Ultimate Team

"Team of the Year" cards, just another
Ultimate Team cash spinner.

I'm playing the Best of the best tournament, 5 star teams only, and I've battled into the final with a team that I've nurtured from the very beginning and slowly assembled as I've taken my team through strength to strength. It's a slow but extremely rewarding experience. It's rags to riches stuff of the gaming world and once upon a time it was a hugely addictive feeling. Until now.                                                                            
I've beaten some good teams to reach this final, and my 82 rated side is ready. I hit the search button and get quickly get matched up with another finalist. "Established : April 12", it reads. He hits play without any hesitation, and I'm virtually rubbing my hands at the anticipation of being matched up in the final against someone with less than 1 month's worth of experience on Ultimate Team. How could anybody with less just few weeks experience of Ultimate Team possibly be able to compete in a tournament which requires an ensemble of players equal to 5 stars? 
                                                   
As always, I glance toward the top right corner for the teams overall rating upon the pre-game loading screen. "86.....Fucking EIGHTY-SIX?!". I glance back over to the left side to inspect the team-sheet. TOTY (Team of the year) Sergio Aguero, TOTY Eden Hazard, IF (In Form) Hatem Ben Arfa. It doesn't get any more promising for my chances of victory, with a midfield reading to the tune of IF Xavi, Andreas Iniesta and Xabi Alonso. An IF Thiago Silva and Lucio make up a formidable centre half pairing.                                                                                                                          
The long and short of it as far as the actual game itself goes is, I lost. 4-1. The real issue though is how somebody so new to the game produces a squad with the rating of 86 so quickly, and can suddenly eclipse so many older players in terms of strength.                                                                
Back in 2009, FIFA released the concept of Ultimate Team. You begin with the most basic set of bronze players and work your way up to the top to produce the best team possible. It worked well back then for a number of reasons.                                                                                                          

Ultimate Team 2009 - The glory days

The most important thing to note, and probably the most significant in the context of this post, is that buying packs for real money wasn't an option back in the 2009 instalment of Ultimate Team. The example outlined above is a testament to the fact that, if you've got enough money to spend on the game, you can buy your way to success in a matter of hours. It completely crushes the purpose of what Ultimate Team stands for and has ruined the game for the more honest players who enjoy the concept of building a team from the bottom up, which is the exact foundations Ultimate Team were originally built upon. There was no choice back then, if you wanted a good team, you had to earn it through sheer determination. It's akin to real football, if you want to compete, you have to spend money, or your chances of success will be extremely limited.   
                                                       
The player development factor went a long way in UT 2009. Every player had a core rating, but every single player in the game could be trained to a rating of 99. I miss the days of terrorising defences with a forward line of Chris Eagles, Emile Heskey and Michael Kightly. The best thing about it was the fact that the squad you built was all through winning games, earning coins and developing your own players, so there was always a huge sense of satisfaction of winning tournaments and achieving trophies.                                                                                                                  
It's true that it made player values practically worthless, given the fact that a 99 Emile Heskey was as good as a 99 Lionel Messi (Admit it, you'd rather have Heskey anyway), but there were no shortcuts from buying packs with real money, and most revenue streams came from just simply winning games.                                                                                                                                          

"Man of the Match" cards. Yep, another
money spinner...

Ultimate team 2010 did shift away from the player development angle, implementing fixed ratings depending on the quality of players. It also sparked the beginning of the downfall of Ultimate Team too, as the option to allow people to spend real money on packs was introduced. Naturally, the charm of Ultimate Team was lost on some people, as you ran into players who had quite clearly spent real money to obtain the very best team possible, but every single player came in a single form (No IF or TOTY cards) and once you'd bought the best players, you'd essentially hit the end-game, due to the lack of extended options.                            
It was the 2011 instalment that kick-started the "special cards", with the addition of specific IF cards, depending on exceptional weekly performances from a selected clutch of players. Picking up from 11, and moving into 12, this is really where the problems all stem from. The constant re-release of weekly In Form cards, Super In Form cards, Team of the Year cards, and the recently introduced, Man of the Match cards have completely over-saturated the market and give people greater incentives to spend real money on the game in order to try and pull one. The exclusively limited Man of the Match cards can only be obtained for a specific amount of time, which means some serious money is thrown around during "happy hours", as everyone clambers for these special cards before the chance is gone and time expires.                                
The astronomical prices of these cards also make them impossible to get hold of unless you're one of those people willing to plug some serious money into the game, which creates a greater competitive imbalance and increases the divide in quality between players.                                                                                        
Sadly, there's no way EA will get rid of the option to buy packs with real money. Why would they? They'd be stupid to get rid of such a feature, but it completely goes against the spirit of what Ultimate Team was all about. Ultimate Team has just turned into a matter of whose willing to spend more money, and the days of success without spending a penny are long gone. I still get some enjoyment out of Ultimate Team every now and again, but it's incredibly demoralising to work hard on a team you're constantly trying to improve, only to get beaten by others who are too lazy to do the same thing.

DLC #47 - Bioshock 2 - Minerva's Den

Visit Minerva's Den, and uncover a few
more secrets...

The Bioshock 2 DLC bows out with a story driven expansion in the name of Minerva's Den, which see's you track down "The Thinker", the mastermind behind Raptures system links, and stop Reed Wahl's plans of self control.

Out of the 8 trophies on offer, you can obtain 4 hidden trophies for simply completing the story, which takes no more than 3-4 hours. None of the trophies are tied to any specific difficulty either, despite making you choose a difficulty level at the beginning, so you can cruise through at whatever pace you wish.

You also need to find and destroy all 10 vaccuum bots, which requires exploration of every corner of Minerva's Den, but is still incredibly easy if you make sure to check every possible part of the map. Failing that, you can still use a guide, but you really shouldn't need to.

Aside the 4 story-related trophies, there is a further 1 hidden trophy for achieving a score of 9999 in the Spitfire mini game within Minerva's Den. It can be accessed from a specific terminal and throws up the only really challenging trophy within the DLC. Expect a bit of practise to achieve 9999 points in 1 game.

You can nab everything in 1 playthrough, just as long as you keep track of every trophy that isn't story related, since that obviously makes them missable, but providing you scoop everything up at once, the experience is an easy one and shouldn't take longer than 6 hours or so.

Call of Duty Elite : DLC Impressions #4

The fourth injection of Call of Duty Elite introduces 2 new maps, named Sanctuary and Foundation.                                                                                                                                                
Sanctuary is set in the mountains of Greece, and includes a host of tight corners and enclosures which promote alot of close quarters action. The map itself is quite sizeable, but when you break it down into various zones, there is alot of enclosed spaces which make for alot of localised frenetic fights, which means it isn't as open as it might seem at first.

There's not really much that sets Sanctuary apart from any other map.
Average.

There aren't really any focal points to speak of either. There is a long wooden bridge, book-ended by a huge staircase which can produce more open firefights in objective based modes such as HQ and Domination, but this map is more about the smaller sub-areas, such as the main church and graveyard, than any sort of major areas of focus. There is a good mixture of indoor and outdoor areas though.                                                                                                                                                        
The map offers many covering spots as a result of its confined surroundings, so there are naturally many areas for players to pitch up and camp, so there is likely to be danger around every corner.                                                                                                                                                 
It's quite a forgettable map, in all honesty, the setting is quite gloomy and dull and there is a general lack of colour and vibrancy in the surroundings. No parts of the map really offer any sort of core gameplay dynamics in the same way that the crash site in Black Box does, for example, so it is somewhat underwhelming all round.

Recommended Perks

Sleight of Hand is essential because of the highly expected volumes of close quarters fights and general lack of room in most parts of the map, so the benefit of having the jump on enemies will prove crucial.

Blast Shield is a must for practically the same reasons, and the confined areas will mean alot of grenade and explosive damage is dealt out, and Stalker will allow you to prepare for anybody who may be closely around the many twists and turns in the map, but SitRep could also be just as vital for any dangerous explosives and enemy devices planted around the tighter areas.

The second map is Foundation, a desolate and disused factory in South Korea. It somewhat saves the package with multiple vantage points and it's capability to suit all types of fighting ranges. The central area produces an excellent focal point as a towering concrete building with spiralling staircases and overviews of the whole map from both sides.

Foundation suits all types of play and brings it's own map dynamics.

Most players will naturally be drawn to the towering central piece of the map, and the gloomy settings make it hard to spot enemies, both above and below. There are also a vast amount of concrete pillars, shacks and various bits of machinery on the lower floor in order to exploit as cover for those attracted to the higher areas in the middle.

The map is quite small, but made very open by it's numerous vantage points, and every type of game possible will thrive on this map. Close quarter combat is better suited to ground level, but pockets of baron areas keep things somewhat open, and the longer range game will benefit from the raised surroundings and numerous staircases and platforms.

It's an interesting map to play on because of the fact it suits every possible playstyle, meaning tactics play a larger role than they would on most other maps. It is easy to get drawn to the centre of the map, which could leave the outskirts of the map somewhat isolated at times, but the mixture of playstyles and approaches to the map make it dynamic and fun to play on.

Recommended Perks

Due to the diversity and approach play and dark/dull setting on the maps, recon could give you additional assistance of picking out enemy locations, both above and below.

Overkill will allow you to easily adjust to multiple styles of play and use the strengths of the map to your advantage and Marksman will give you the benefit of being able to pick out enemies, which naturally works well with Recon.

It's a mixed bag with this drop, Sanctuary is fairly bland and mundane but the package is redeemed by a solid offering with Foundation which provides a thrill and fun that Sanctuary seems to lack.

Platinum #40 - DiRT 3

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 7/10                                                                                        
As with the previous DiRT game, the Single Player trophies are mostly emphasised around the World Tour mode, with the vast majority of the trophies on this list all awarded for completing races and challenges throughout the main story.

The "From DiRT to Glory" trophy, awarded for achieving first place finishes in all DiRT Tour events, is the most difficult trophy in this list, and although there are nowhere near the same amount of events in the World tour in comparison to DiRT 2, it's still a lengthy journey that will definitely test your driving skills to the maximum, particularly into the latter stages of the game.

You can expect to beat the Tour mode in around 25-30 hours, though achieving a first place finish in every event, along with the Platinum medals in the Tour challenges, you can expect alot of replay value which will add anywhere between 5-10 hours onto the overall timescale. Some of these events will guarantee multiple attempts, especially the multi-tiered championship series in the latter stages of the game, and given the fact most of these are about 30 minutes in length, you'll want to beat them with as few retries as possible.

Most of the other trophies attached to the Single Player portion of this list will be unlocked along the way to winning every event, and there is a heavy slant of progression injected into the list.

The "Platinum Performance" trophy, awarded for achieving Platinum medals in all DC challenges, requires you to beat the top target time for all 26 DC challenges scattered throughout the World Tour, and although most of them can be beaten within a couple of attempts, there are a few that can be incredibly frustrating, and will require alot of practice to understand the best routes in order to beat the Platinum times.

The "Cool Running" trophy, awarded for beating the Bobsleigh in the Norway Speed Run DC challenge, is actually one of these challenges, and turns out to be one of the hardest individual trophies in the list. It will require complete perfection of the route and has absolutely no margin for error.

Sticking with the theme of Platinum medals, the "Teacher's Pet" trophy, awarded for achieving a Platinum medal in all of the Gymkhana Academy tutorials, is the exact same deal as the DC challenges, and again, even though most of the tutorials are easy enough to obtain a Platinum medal in, there are a couple where you'll need to practice heavily in order to achieve a high enough score to meet the Platinum criteria.

Away from the DiRT Tour mode, the "Battered Battersea" trophy, awarded for completing 100% of the Battersea compound missions, is centered around a free mode where you drive around a selection of open areas completing various challenges, and this trophy requires you to beat every single one of these challenges. They vary extremely, involving jumps, performing powerslides and also include collecting a bunch of hidden packages, and although there's only a few that are genuinely challenging, they add about 3-4 extra hours onto the overall list.
                                                                                                                      
There are also a small handful of Multiplayer trophies in this list, but there is arguably one that stands way above the rest, and ends up being the sole focus of this list, regarding the online game modes.
                                                        
The "Super Star" trophy, awarded for earning enough fans to achieve the Superstar title, which effectively requires you to reach Rank 35 online, and is one of the longest online grinds in any game available to date. It takes a fanbase of 250,000 to reach the title of Superstar, and you'll probably average around 500-700 fans per race, which means you'll mostly like be playing in excess of 250 races to hit Rank 35. It's also worth noting that this game has some horrible continuity between races, and lobby loading times are seriously long, which is definitely something that exasperates the grindy element of this trophy.

You'll probably spend around 30-40 hours trying to achieve this trophy, and it ends up working out to about half of the overall time of this list, which is a big ratio for an individual trophy across an entire list.

The only other trophy that's really worth mentioning is the "Honourable Driver" trophy, awarded for completing an online Multiplayer race with a 'Cautious' rating, requires you to race clean for a consistent length of time. Your rating will either rise or drop based on your conduct during races, and if you're constantly aggressive, your rating will plummet and make this trophy harder to achieve, so it's best to just be careful for 4/5 races in order to steadily boost your driver rating but the longer you go with a bad rating, the more races you'll need to complete cleanly in order to move yourself back up to 'Cautious' so you have to make sure it doesn't slip away from you too much.
                                                                                              
Along with the sizeable element of skill required, you're looking at around 60-80 hours to Platinum this game. It's a list packed with trophies that will require you to get the very most out of the game, and you'll need to beat practically everything on offer to achieve the Platinum trophy, which combines a genuine challenge along with a solid time commitment.

Notable Trophies -

From DiRT to Glory - Achieve first place finishes in all DiRT Tour events
Platinum Performance - Achieve Platinum medals in all of the DC Challenges
Cool Running - Beat the Bobsleigh in the Norway Speed Run DC Challenge
Teacher's Pet - Achieve a Platinum medal in all of the Gymkhana Academy tutorials
Super Star - Earn enough fans to achieve the Superstar title

Hardest Trophy -                                                                                                                                              

From DiRT to Glory
Achieve first place finishes in all DiRT Tour events