Next you’ll be presented with five formations to choose from. The selection of formations will be different each time you enter FUT Draft mode, so if your 'favorite' formation isn’t available, you’ll need to choose a similar variant, or try something totally new. The first player to pick is your captain, which will be from a selection of five players as we mentioned. From our experience of FUT Draft, there are normally some very, very, very good players on offer for the Captain spot. You’ll be spoilt for choice. Now it’s entirely up to you which position you choose to fill next. Select a position in the formation and you’ll be presented with five players to choose from who will fit that role. Keep picking until your first eleven, substitutes and reserves are chosen. You can auto-complete the process if you wish.
But let’s expand on the above. FIFA 16 will feature 12 Women’s National Teams for the first time in franchise history, including the squads from Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United States of America and more. The teams can be used in several game modes including Kick Off, an Offline Tournament, as well as Online Friendly Matches. EA says that the female players will control and feel differently, including new animations, cutscenes, and physical play. One specific visual disappointment was with the crowds. EA has said that it hopes to capture the ambiance of a number of historic clubs with crowd involvement, but if the models look the way they do at release from when I saw them, people will have trouble buying in.
The new consoles can project more unique faces, but it’s irrelevant when they’re all captured doing the same jaggy movements throughout the match. This isn’t a terrible-looking game by any means, but it’s not helping squash the old rhetoric that says sports games are just yearly $60 roster upgrades. Of all the new features, this is perhaps one that has the most resonance with hardcore fans of the series. When it came to passing you had two options, a simple ground pass or a through ball. The pass with purpose option is something of a combination of the two. Pressing the R2/RT button while passing will initiate a quicker, more accurate ground pass, allowing for quick counter attacks or defensive clearances without the fear of losing possession.
The women’s ratings were what I’d expected to see as well, with players having ratings ranging anywhere from 92 to 75, just like the vast majority of the men’s selection of top players. I didn’t get to see how our Matilda’s were rated, given their exclusion from the demo, but I’d safely assume we could expect to see some low to mid 80’s scattered throughout the team. It seems as though the women’s teams will only be available in kick off/exhibition for this year’s iteration too, and while that will be disappointing for some, it makes sense given the fact that next year will hopefully see the possible integration of women’s clubs and new modes. This is the first time in a football game we’ll be seeing women’s teams included, and that’s a huge and vastly positive step in the right direction.
We didn’t see a lot on the strategies front in FIFA 16 yet, with a great part of the footage concentrating on what happens on the pitch. FIFA tended to keep things straightforward, while giving you a chance to rapidly make vital changes like the notorious “Park the Bus” tactic. My hope is to see more options to save custom formations though. Defenders’ efforts always seemed a bit lethargic, but for the 2016 release we’re in for a treat! A new suite of 25 feature changes to defensive movements will create a new experience for the FIFA aficionados. The new defensive AI will offer the players better awareness, enabling them to defend as a unit while also introducing new tackling fundamentals.
So fans of both franchise will get their games right about at the same time in September 2015. News from both camps is out officially and they have started the market campaigns already. We take a look at both games with the initial new feature news is out and see if PES 2016 has what it takes to get the better of highly popular EA Sports FIFA 16. FIFA Ultimate Team has become one of the most popular game modes available to fans of the series. In an effort to build on Ultimate Team's popularity, and to draw new fans to FUT, EA Sports has created FUT Draft to debut on the soon-to-be-released FIFA 16 on September 22.
