Each year, just as surely as you can expect an exciting match between Bar?a and Real in El Clásico, you can count on EA Sports to put out a new version of their hugely popular soccer franchise FIFA. This year’s most interesting new feature has to be the introduction of several women’s national teams. But they’ve certainly made some changes off the field as well. Keep reading our review of FIFA 16 to find out everything you need to know about the latest installment, as well as some important game day analysis.
EA’s FIFA series has been in production since 1993, and despite a period in the mid-2000’s in which it faltered somewhat in popularity and quality, it has dominated sales figures in the UK in the last few years. FIFA 15 sold 2.66 million copies in the UK in 2014, beating out all other games titles by some margin - an impressive feat considering the game wasn’t even released until September of that year. Women’s soccer is fast gaining in popularity. 70000 people packed out Wembley Stadium to watch Great Britain vs Brazil in the 2012 Olympics, with another four million watching at home.
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While players will look to dazzle you with rabonas and rainbow flicks, the most effective skill move isn't even a skill move. Every year in FIFA the one trick that works every time is the three-point turn. Because the player models in EA's offering are so big and bulky, taking three separate 90-degree turns is the best way to shake off a pesky defender and create space going forward. These crosses have a much higher success rate than the high deliveries into crowded space, as the goalkeeper will more often than not come out and punch these clear. Hitting crosses that give your forwards a running attack at the ball are more likely to end with a shot at goal.
Of course, the first thing you’ll see as you boot up each game are the menus, and FIFA 16 has a much smoother and cleaner looking user interface compared to PES 16. The menus are more clearly presented in EA’s game with simple to navigate tabs, while PES 16 feels a bit more jumbled, and while it looks good the UI just isn’t as friendly. The real difference though is noticeable in the team management screen, with the squad formation screen much better organised in FIFA 16 than PES 16. In FIFA you can clearly differentiate between who is on the sub bench, and who is in the reserves, but PES makes that difficult to figure out, and you have to double check selections just to make sure you haven’t left your star striker on the bench.
So, let’s talk about gameplay. If you’ve played FIFA games in recent years, there’s not a lot here that’s going to surprise you, to be honest. Things have been gently honed and refined, but there’s no massive shifts that are going to have you cursing your controller as you have to unlearn years of muscle memory. But, let’s face it, the reason many of you are buying this, if you’re buying it, isn’t because you want or expect it to be massively different to last year’s, it’s simply because you want the latest leagues and associated ‘real world’ stuff to place yourself at the heart of your favourite player, team or league. Sure, you could fiddle around with Pro Evolution Soccer and add them all in yourself, but its inarguable that FIFA has the edge in this respect, by handing it all to you straight out of the box.
FIFA 16 is a natural extension of what was a phenomenal game in 15. It is a shame that what many may consider the big new feature, women's football is not as fleshed out as it could be, but they have laid a platform to build on. FUT Draft is a smart addition that will allow those short of time to participate in the unique game mode, and the other core modes make a return. Sometimes it's hard to recommend buying a sports game year in year out, but with FIFA, EA always seems to do enough to make that yearly purchase justified. Pro Evolution Soccer has had a strong year this year and is catching up so FIFA 17 will be one to watch. For the moment, though, 16 is worth your dollars.
