The AI in FIFA 16 seems to be a lot more conservative all around, and you’ll find that computer controlled defenders will now identify gaps and mark a little bit tighter than before. They’ll try and shut down channels and there is less space to exploit down the wings (a technique that was far too easy to convert from in FIFA 15). In the previous couple of FIFA games, you could pull off a perfectly timed slide tackle but then still fail to retrieve the ball because it’s taken you so long to pick yourself up again. Even if your opponent was facing the wrong way, they could still turn and latch on while you’re trying to find your feet.
In terms of game play, the passing is a marked improvement of FIFA 15’s attempt. Passing now requires more thought. It also requires more patience. Gone are the days of blindly pressing X until your heart’s content (unless you have always played manually). Not only is it a lot slower in terms of pace, but you need to also put more consideration into the power of the pass and whether or not your intended receiver is being closely marked. However, this can become frustrating due to some passes going astray or sometimes even in the completely wrong direction that you had originally intended! For regular players of FIFA 15, this is the biggest adjustment that they will have to make.
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Leaving the mechanical tinkering to one side, two of the more mentioned additions to the mostly ignored Career mode are that of pre-season tournaments and player training regiments. While the former is little more than an aside, the latter is actually a nice little inclusion that gifts you more reign over how your squad is developing on a weekly basis. With five available slots, (one or more per player) you can assign developmental tasks to your fledglings and watch them receive a ranking for their work and a small boost of stats in the process. Unfortunately, that's the long and short of improvements leveled towards the mode that can now be considered the series' black sheep of neglect - a crying shame given its immense potential as an engaging base to become a manager, deal with situational variation and the day-to-day running of your club, all the while attempting to stake your claim as one of the best in the business.
Or you could whip out your wallet and pay to get some quality players to speed up this process and then challenge the rest of the world. Personally it’s not my favorite part of the game but it is hugely popular and therefore is obviously back and probably better than ever. There is also the new inclusion of the female teams in FIFA 16 but I’ve covered that already in another post. Being based in South Africa makes the online experience different than it would be in many other countries. Our Internet is still not up to first world standards and even the lucky ones with fibre connections aren’t saved from poor online experiences with our country being so far from Europe that we are often still subjected to bad lag online.
Speaking of the radar, this feature has been present in football games since back in the 90s and for good reason: it let's you plan your attacks by seeing where your players and the opponents are at any given moment. EA felt you don't need that anymore, and did away with it. The developers also did away with camera controls, another essential feature that's been around since forever, and also half-time lengths, with all matches lasting four minutes. You can't even pick a difficulty setting like in older games of the franchise, you just have to deal with what the game picks for you (usually tournaments have teams of ascending difficulty). I've played too many matches where I wasn't challenged in the slightest. In other words, if you've been accustomed to playing FIFA in a certain way in terms of difficulty, half time duration, and camera/zoom angle, well, sorry, you can't; you'll have to deal with EA's one-size-fits-all game.
Immersive as they come, skill games are the perfect little side-feature for when games just get too much to handle. When first introduced, I was impressed with the detail that went into this feature, just because they felt fresh off the Sunday league pitch. This season they have stepped up the shooting trials in particular, which was the one skill game that needed improving from FIFA 15. If you use Dele Alli for any of these, I have done, you’re sure to smash them!
