Last year, it felt that FIFA’s dominance was wavering. Like a post-Fergie Man Utd, the impervious crown has shifted. Not in commercial triumph, of course. In that both United and FIFA are almost unassailable, but in finesse and excellence. In a year in which FIFA 15 felt stagnant, critics and aficionados shifted back towards Konami’s rejuvenated Pro Evolution Soccer. While EA’s money-men might not have blinked, this subtle but significant shift would have hurt the developers. They had made FIFA the undisputed champion, they want that feeling back again.
FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) is one of the most popular features in EA’s soccer game. The mode lets players build teams using card packs containing randomized personnel and upgrades. Up to this point, the traditional FUT experience has consisted of starting with a mediocre roster and bolstering it with new packs as you play. This year’s release introduces the FUT Draft, which gives you the chance to draft a team of soccer all-stars for a series of special matches. You’ll begin by choosing a captain from a group of million-dollar maestros. And for the rest of the positions in your lineup, you’ll have a pretty stellar set of options to choose from.
Defensive AI, too, has undergone a major overhaul, with your teammates now seriously proactive when it comes to stepping in on your behalf. Take your finger off the controls and you'll often find a covering defender will nip in and deal with threats in a way that seems almost too forgiving of the lazy (or distracted) player. Of course, this affects your attempts to attack, too, as even the most limited human opposition seems to get a big AI helping hand. This more aggressive approach to defence combined with the new, more difficult passing leads to some very scrappy games. Unlike PES, or even last year's FIFA, fashioning a chance feels like a real accomplishment - let alone scoring - and progressing your way through an online season is far more about nervily holding on to 1-0 wins than it is taking part in high-octane, high-scoring thrillers.
Career Mode in FIFA 16 does not feel very tactical, when you compare the depth of tactics Football Manager has, FIFA is quite laughable. Most tactics as said before feel gimmicky, but formations have a weird trigger which has been in FIFA for years. I have noticed that, you will need to rock out two formations at least. Playing the same formation becomes stale for the team, players will suddenly start performing badly, not making runs, and teammates don’t seem interested. Whilst if you play a new formation that works for your players, it sets off this weird trigger where everyone suddenly becomes interested and everyone is moving around into space.
Varying between different formations keeps your team fresh. Not in a sense of say football manager where your scout will recommend a formation to counter the style or formation of the opposing team, but more of a gimmicky way of not being able to rock out the same formation every match. That is a bit disappointing, not a huge issue but something I hope to see change or at least be tweaked in the future. It sometimes makes playing FIFA more frustrating, but as a result it’s more rewarding when things click and you pull off a neat passing move to scythe through an opposition’s back four.
If the thought of patient build-up play puts you off, then PES 2016 might be the game for you - and that’s not a compromise; it’s a genuine contender for the first time in years. For hardcore FIFA fans, though, there’s enough in 16 to keep you occupied. And by the time you’ve finally mastered it, it’ll be time to do it all over again.
