FIFA 16: We are in the game

FIFA 16 will see those interception improvements come to midfield as well, and it will affect both attack and defence. You will be able to fine tune your team’s interception mentality (i.e. how aggressive it is) in Player Instructions. And why do goalkeepers spend their first few years growing in physical stats but not GK stats? Are they spending too much time in the gym and not enough on the training ground or playing youth matches? I’m no coder, but to my simple brain I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to fix this. Do you really want fast players? OK, scout wingers and pray for a full back with massive potential. Scout any other cheap fifa 16 account position or player type and you’re pretty much screwed. Another problem – you can’t find strikers by searching attackers! You have to search physically strong, which often gets you slow forwards with great tackling, or search technically gifted and get slow forwards with 40 stamina.

Team management menus have been reworked so you can make these kinds of changes more quickly and easily, with big, bold icons being the design order of the day. It’s much easier to assign different instructions to individual players, which gives you more flexibility when it comes to specifying which attacking players you want to drop back, or whether you want your striker to run in behind the defense. The introduction of women’s teams has meant male player models have also improved. Long hair was never previously animated during matches in FIFA account. Now there are more styles in the game, meaning Ibra can finally let his hair down. If it’s in the game, it’s in the game, as EA says. (Apart from spitting, swearing, abusing the ref, and diving.) This year sees the introduction of the referee’s trusty vanishing spray to mark distances for free kicks. You even get a little mini-cutscene of the ref marching the wall back before drawing the line in front of their boots, which we’ll all no doubt watch once, say “ah, that’s cool”, then never watch again. Crossing has been given a massive overhaul so that players can now whip crosses in with curve rather than float aimless deliveries where it’s a 50/50 whether or not your player is strong enough to outmuscle the defence.

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Graphically, the iterative improvements are what we’ve come to expect from a franchise that’s released a new edition every single year since 1994. Players look that little bit sharper, react to their environment a little more realistically, and the general animation during matches has once again been improved upon. It doesn’t look much different to that of its predecessor, of course, but it’s still at least a noticeable upgrade in line with what we’ve come to expect. During our time at EA’s bulging E3 exposé we also got to try our hand at the much-touted inclusion of women’s teams into the scheme of things. Our experience with that particular aspect of game – a match between the U.S. and Germany no less – was wholly positive, although it didn’t feel as though it deviated that significantly from the gameplay found in a match involving that of their male counterparts.

For the moment that doesn’t really matter, though, we’re just glad that women’s teams have finally made it into the game. It took long enough. This is bound to be disappointing news for Nintendo, and handheld gaming, fans. Wii U owners may be the ones most hard-hit by the FIFA 16 release schedule, as it looks likely that the console will also miss out on a port of racing simulator Project Cars. So far, EA Sports has yet to comment on why buy  FIFA 16 coins online has not been developed for Nintendo consoles or the PS Vita, but the issue may come down to a lack of room for commercial success on the machines. Hopefully, PS Vita and Nintendo fans will have some clarification soon.

The FIFA group itself certainly needs some positive news at the moment, as the world soccer organization is in the middle of a huge scandal that has seen several high-profile members arrested for conspiracy and corruption. Indeed, there have even been calls for the much-maligned FIFA President Sepp Blatter to stand down, amid accusations of misconduct in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Perhaps EA Sports’ addition of women’s soccer to the roster will be the breath of fresh air that the organization – and the FIFA game series – needs.