It's In The Game
It’s
In The Game
Let’s be honest. If you’re anything like me, you spend more time being frustrated while playing FIFA than you do being happy while playing
FIFA. And yet, we still spend hours upon hours playing it. Why? Because it
never gets old.
Going strong since 1993, the FIFA video game franchise
is preparing for the release of the new FIFA
16 next week. Although its predecessor, FIFA
15, received relatively low reviews, EA Sports hopes to silence these
critics with a plethora of new features this time around. Here are some notable
ones:
Ultimate
Team:
·
FUT Draft:
o
A brand new mode in which you draft a
squad of Ultimate Team players from multiple rounds of randomly generated
players, play a four-game tournament, and hopefully win some serious coins.
o
You start this mode by paying the entrance
fee of 15,000 coins. If you lose before the championship, you will still get
back most of what you initially invested – the only caveat is that you won’t
directly receive coins, but you will receive consumables and other items that
should match 15,000 coins in value.
o
Choose from one of five random formations
to start off; this formation cannot change for the length of the tournament.
o
Through multiple rounds, you pick from a
selection of five random players for one position. Eventually, you’ll have your
full 23-man squad, hopefully with some good chemistry!
o
Substitutes and reserves can be manually
selected (I recommend this), but can also be auto-completed.
·
Price ranges still exist, but they will be much wider than in FIFA 15.
·
There are some new FUT Legends for Xbox
users, including George Best, Ryan Giggs, Deco, Gennaro Gattuso, Javier
Zanetta, and Alessandro Nesta. Legends will now also have yellow (moderate)
chemistry links with every squad players.
Career
Mode:
·
Pre-season Tournaments:
o
A chance to get young players some action
and work on perfecting your ideal starting XI.
o
You can make more substitutes in these
games than in a normal league/cup match.
·
Mid-week Training:
o
There are over 30 drills to choose from.
o
Five players can be trained per week.
Apparently this training does not negatively affect stamina or energy, and also
will never injure one of your players.
o
You can perform the drills yourself or
simulate them.
·
General:
o
There are now two-year loans, and
short-term loans last six months.
o
Free agents can be signed outside of the
transfer window (finally!).
o
Managers have improved job security, and
likely won’t get fired for finishing one or two spaces below their league objectives.
o
The Global Transfer Network has been
improved, and scouts are better at valuating players.
o
Improved fixture congestion – You won’t
accidentally get scheduled to play two games in 24 hours (happened to me dozens
of times in 15).
Presentation
& Misc.:
·
For the first time ever, women’s national
teams will be included in the game. There will be 12 women’s teams: Germany,
USA, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, China, Italy,
and Mexico.
o
In case you didn’t know, Alex Morgan will
be sharing the front cover of FIFA 16
with Lionel Messi in the United States.
·
Smarter defending, especially by teammates
that you are not controlling.
·
No-touch dribbling – The ability to get by
a defender by just letting the ball roll through. This type of dribbling will
also allow you to accelerate quickly and blow by the opposition if used
correctly.
·
900+ new club chants are anticipated to be
in this new installment.
·
450 total headscans, including updated
ones for the most famous players around the world. (Apparently this.isn'tgood enough for Gregory van der Wiel, though)
·
Players can run over and celebrate with
the cameraman or bench after a goal.
·
More specific commentary with updates
regarding stat tracking, transfers, and player debuts.
·
Rain intensity can change as a match
progresses.
·
Some notable new stadiums: Borussia-Park
(Monchengladbach), CenturyLink Field (Seattle Sounders), and the Stade
Velodrome (Marseille).
·
Also included this year is Fratton Park
(Portsmouth). One of the creators of Ultimate Team passed away this year, and
Portsmouth was his favorite club.
Having played the demo myself a few times, FIFA 16 is shaping up to be a legitimate
improvement over last year’s installment. The defending is indeed more useful,
and the game plays a little slower, both of which should mean that chip through
balls aren’t going to be the bane of my existence for the next 12 months. EA
Sports will never please everyone, but the ridiculous amount of tweaks they
made for this year’s version of their most popular game definitely shows their
commitment to listening to (most) fan feedback.
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