EA Sports has released a brief teaser for FIFA 16 ahead of a full reveal at its E3 press conference on 15 June. In it we see regular cover star Lionel Messi sauntering about, not playing much football, with a voice over that sounds like Brazilian football legend Pele intoning "the beautiful game... brings us together". FIFA 16 is the latest title in the long-running football franchise developed and published by Electronic Arts. Originally released on the Sega Mega Drive in 1994, it has since gone on to cover pretty much every format with its annual updates. If you read our review of FIFA 16 and followed my musings about it on Twitter, you’ll know I didn’t really like it. Compared to FIFA 15, where you could play a good game of football, it was disappointing in almost every single department.
The keepers were erratic at best, shooting was flat and defending was near enough possible to do well, unless you constantly switched players and moved them around. A huge contributor to this was the fact that the game was horribly skewed toward pace, meaning any quick player was essentially a beast in FIFA 15. This meant midfield play and the actual building up of moves (you know, actual football) was near enough impossible. Plus, the game just felt too loose, without any real weight whatsoever. I’m quickly pointing these things out because after getting hands-on with FIFA 16, I can say the majority of the issues have been addressed. I found that I could actually play good, passing football and the midfield wasn’t just a space on the pitch to run into with quick players.
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I love Football and I love Chelsea but admittedly I’ve grown tired of the FIFA franchise. Like clockwork, EA spews out a new instalment every year with barely enough substance to justify a different cover-star (there’s a joke in here somewhere.) and while some – including me – would argue that professional Football is constantly evolving, FIFA 15 felt more like a next-gen arcade game than an authentic experience. FIFA 16 is different. While the menu system and overall interface remains largely unchanged from FIFA 15, everything else from your first touch of the ball feels completely redesigned to deliver more realistic and strategic gameplay.
EA also confirmed that the FIFA 16 release date brings the game to Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. We expected this based on retailer listings, but the confirmation is great to know for gamers with older consoles. There is no word on a FIFA 16 demo or the early FIFA 16 release date for EA Access members, but it would not surprise us to hear nothing on these items until July or August. We expect to see a longer FIFA 16 gameplay trailer in the coming weeks at E3 2015. This is a good introduction to the game, but it does not focus on a plethora of new features that will change how you play the game. A countdown on the FIFA 16 site shows a reveal coming on June 15th. When working with annual sport games like FIFA, there are always three moments of judgment. The first is during short presentations like this, where we try and work out whether the game seems improved compared to the previous year.
The next comes with the review, here the game will get a score and it's decided whether it's worth buying or not. The last - and the most important - comes months after the game is out, and after the online portion has been played beyond recognition. At this point fans will conclusively say whether the game is a good or a bad entry in the series. Whether FIFA 16 will be a good year, a year fans will remember in the same way they remember FIFA 10 (for example), it's too soon to tell. Therefore our conclusion is this: the improvements this year are focused on gameplay, FUT Draft has the potential to become a classic among fans, and the inclusion of women's football feels well implemented. FIFA 16 seems like a big step in the right direction.
The FIFA 16 release date arrives September 22nd in the U.S. and a few days later on September 25th in the UK, Ireland and other countries. This short delay is common when for FIFA 16 games even though soccer commands more attention in other countries. We may see disc and digital sales officially start at 12:01 AM Eastern no matter the location, which could allow gamers on the west coast to start playing at 9:01PM on Monday September 21st.
