FIFA 16 is a far tougher affair than its predecessors, and requires skills to be relearned and a slower, more cerebral style of play employed. Gone are the days of belting up the pitch with a Walcott or Aubameyang and thumping the ball in the back of the net. Players blessed with speed and acceleration are still beneficial but by no means essential this time round. Instead, the focus has shifted to build-up play and more measured passing.
A nicely-balanced team of players with a strong physique and decent ball skills is now far more preferable than pace alone. And there’s of course still the option to spend real money to quicken your earning pace. This mode is definitely for those who love fantasy-type sports games and enjoying piecing random players together to see how they’d perform together. The modes through which FIFA 16 serves all of this do not differ greatly from previous editions. Playing as a manager or as a single professional is still largely the same experience.
Player fatigue still has little palpable effect from game to game (or much within a game, either). Ultimate Team brings in the ability to loan out (or be loaned) players they way they are in international club competition. In Career, these stories are tailored to your own team. Inquire about a transfer and the media will sniff out the story; score with Di María on his debut and you can read about him starting with a bang. FIFA's growing relationship with the real thing makes you feel more connected than ever, whether you carve through mountains of text or merely catch it in your periphery.
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A lot more could have been done with this mode, rather than just four relatively dull knockout games, too. How about a league, or a World Cup-style affair with groups and a knockout contest to finish? How about drafting a team of players with lower skill levels being tasked with taking them into the game's addictive career mode? All of those would be preferable to what's here. Career mode has changed. They’re not sweeping changes to the whole game, but they are substantial enough to be talked about and looked forward to.
Things like scout reports lasting a year, rather than 3 months in FIFA 15, free agent transfers from outside the window to bolster your squad when suffering from a lot of injuries, the ability to loan players for 2 years and more realistic transfers, prices and budgets mean that this game is going to be closer to what a real player and manager career would be like, and it’s a welcome change. And that's largely thanks to the vastly improved AI the new engine has brought with it. Players now actively try to win back the ball and mark other players when defending, and make forward runs or move into space for a pass when attacking.
You can now dribble round players at pace, but you’ll also screw up your touch if a pass is too heavy - and the game is all the better for it. There are also lots of improvements for when you don’t have the ball. While many of the new changes on the defensive side are incredibly minor on their own, when put together they make winning the ball back a lot easier. Quicker turning animations, better AI tracking of runners, and the ability to jump up out of a missed slide tackle with a single button press to keep momentum make defending the best it has been for years, and the most enjoyable, to boot.
Great decision business-wise (as UT is a cash-cow), but the lack of all those modes results in a pretty boring football game because you can only play random seasons (with random teams), random tournaments, or random multi player seasons. I grew up at a time where playing FIFA was often a social activity because there's nothing better than playing co-op tournaments with friends or even competing with them. However, in FIFA 16 UT you can only play with random people, which is really a shame.
