FIFA still does the emotion of the sport better than any other game, and some new presentation elements this year make it even better. Crowds are fantastic and represent their unique personalities, a new authentic presentation package has been added for the German Bundesliga, there are new types of weather and new player celebrations, and even the vanishing spray makes an appearance, which, for whatever reason, is delightful to see. FIFA remains an exhilarating game to play whether the moments are of joy, relief, or torment. Twelve women’s national teams make their debut in "FIFA 16." They’re represented well and have been treated respectfully, though they feel somewhat tacked on rather than being completely embraced within the game. There’s a tournament mode to be played between them, and they can be played against each other offline and online, but that’s it. None of the players will appear in Ultimate Team, there’s no option to play through a career as a female, and the 12 teams represent only half of the Women’s World Cup field.
The greater prizes should help the FUT Draft have a bit more longevity than Draft Champions, which started strong and was quickly forgotten once everyone earned enough wins to get the two elite players (I sure wasn't going to play 20 or 30 times for Adrian Peterson). It's also aided by the inherent strengths of FIFA Ultimate Team, particularly the much larger pool of players and the depth afforded by team chemistry, which encourages you to look beyond basic stats and think about how the team comes together. In general, FIFA Ultimate Team remains the strongest Ultimate Team mode among sports games, benefiting from a superb interface, a massive pool of players, and smart features like player loans, which let you try out elite players before investing in them.
The jewel in FIFA’s crown though are its modes with Ultimate Team and Career Mode making positives strides forward this year. Whether you love or hate Ultimate Team, you certainly can’t argue with its pulling power and FUT Draft is yet another enticing morsel for those looking for a quick FUT fix, as opposed to months of trading and squad building. It’s also worth noting that EA haven’t been developing FUT Draft for years on end. This mode was designed and built in the 12 months post FIFA 15, so to get it to this level of polish so fast, is again well worthy of praise. It has been almost a week since EA dropped their FIFA 16 closed beta, meaning a handful of lucky gamers will already be honed and ready to fire upon the full game’s release. But if you haven’t managed to get your hands on a code, don’t panic. We’ve got everything you need to know right here.
At this moment in time, the only available mode is online seasons, meaning that every game we’ve played so far has been over an internet connection, which doesn’t always paint the most accurate picture of a game. However, there’s still more than enough to take away from our opening matches. Quality of gameplay and small visual niggles aside, as a package, FIFA 16 is fantastic. All the modes from last year are present (both online and off), with new additions to career mode and Ultimate Team (FUT) bulking things up. I’m still not a huge fan of the mode (think it’s extremely unbalanced), but if you dig FUT then you’ll get right on with what’s on offer in FIFA 16. The introduction of the draft mode to FUT means you can quickly get into the mode, get some top players and go online to earn some prizes.
It’s essentially a way to get new people into FUT mode proper by giving them a taste and eventually getting them hooked. I didn’t bite, but I did enjoy the immediacy of it and the fact that it’s actually (ironically) more balanced the proper mode.
Crossing has been tweaked, but on the default setting it seems to go to the opposition keeper 75% of the time - switch that to manual in the options and the problem is fixed. Interceptions and blocks have been upgraded, meaning players are now more ‘intelligent’ and able to get in the way more often. This leads to situations - especially against the AI - where very few of your passes over a couple of metres in distance will get to their intended target. Hopefully this will see further balancing tweaks with updates, because right now it’s an off-putting and deeply frustrating element of FIFA 16’s single-player modes.
