The PC version of FIFA 16 has removed match lobbies. That means there’s no longer any way to play some casual, unranked matches against random people, and no head-to-head way to try out some new teams without just diving into a ranked game. The ability to save and share replays also seems to have vanished on PC (or it’s hidden somewhere so obscure I can’t find it.) On its own, player emotion would need to be a lot more demonstrative to be counted as an improvement worth mentioning. But combined with the raucous crowd atmosphere (which got a huge boost in last year's FIFA 14) and a better broadcast package to showcase it all, FIFA 16 is better than any other sports video game at communicating the feeling of everyone in the moment, where its peers offer only pure crowd volume and expository dialogue from the commentators.
It doesn’t go towards maintaining other online features, that’s for sure. To put things in perspective, I’ll use John Terry, Chelsea FC’s defender, to showcase how inaccurate concentrating on defenders agility can be. Kinect voice control returns but much like last year, it's only useful for voicing quick commands such as "Swap Wings". Trying to use Kinect to make substitutions is still cumbersome and it is still quicker to use the controller and go through the menu. That being said, it remains fun to tell the referee what you thought of his latest decision or berate your players, the latter of which is meant to have an emotional impact on the players but it is difficult to tell.
For balance, it’s important to state that EA’s hand has been forced somewhat by the growing number of prevalent Fifa-playing Youtubers who use their videos to promote sites offering to exchange Fifa 16 currency for real money, at a fraction of the in-game cost. It’s the workaround being used by these YouTube stars that the company is trying to eliminate. Now consider that hundreds of such transactions are occurring on a daily basis, and it’s easy to understand why the company has a real problem on its hands, and was forced to take some action to block the scenario once and for all. Pretty well it has to be said. There are certain issues, most of them falling on the shoulders of the goalkeepers who can, at times, be as hapless as ever. But it plays a decent, fast paced game. And when we say “fast” we mean it. Pace is the king in this year’s FIFA. If you have a speedy winger or striker then it’s far easier to get through the defensive backline than it is to pass it around. It can turn it into a counter attacking tour de force at times, almost too much of one, but you can’t say games don’t become action packed.
So what do you do to keep things fresh with a franchise that consistently receives high praise from critics and has sold over a 100 million copies? For starters, you don’t mess around with that winning formula and the changes you do make don’t necessarily revamp the core experience. That’s the case yet again with this year’s installment of EA Sports best selling FIFA franchise. There are some improvements with the games presentation, the visuals have received a fresh splashes of paint, the player controls have been tweaked, the ball physics have been modified and there have been some gameplay adjustments. Yet when the referee takes that one long blow on the whistle to signal the kick-off, FIFA 16 shapes into a brilliant but all too familiar soccer game.
If you're on the
FIFA 16 Xbox One, you can use the Kinect to shout a variety of commands, making substitutions and adjusting tactics on the fly. With improved voice recognition, this works better than you might think, but I'd still recommend using the D pad and other ways to switch things up, because there is something desperately lonely about telling your console "hard five minutes" or "route one now boys" in the bitter watches of the night. EA’s FIFA video game franchise started way back in 1993, since then we’ve received an annual release. The series has cemented itself as the most liked and played football simulator, although Pro Evolution has at times, posed as a great alternative.
On the plus side however, the best improvement to the way Fifa 16 plays concerns close controlled dribbling. In the PC edition of Fifa 16 (at least on PC,) players could take ages to get the ball under control, turn and dash through the defence. Now, even League Two journeymen can have a decent attempt at being quick, skillful players. Of course, fifa favourite Messi can twist, waltz and retain possession basically at will.
