After all how can you possibly review a game that you don’t truly know you like, love or hate until you have played it for at least a couple of months? Last year’s FIFA was a ‘like’ on my scale. A quality iteration of the world’s biggest sports game no doubt, but it didn’t do enough to keep me playing all the way through the year like previous FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games have.
Earlier versions of FIFA offered extremely different experiences when playing online, as opposed to playing against AI in single-player, where the action was often predictable and possible to exploit. FIFA 16 offers a very different single-player experience this time around thanks to a greatly improved AI across the board. You’ll instantly notice how much sharper the computer is at knocking the ball around, with one-touch passes quickly cutting through your midfield. It’s as if you’re playing against a human player at times.
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There’s still a little bit of fine control lacking for simple things like dribbling toward the touch-line with any kind of momentum, but in general, your players will do what you expect them to do. Free kicks and corners stand out as the only areas where you don’t intuitively grasp the controls. “We think fans are going to be equally as excited with all the new ways as they have been with the gameplay in FIFA 16,” he said. "From hands-on gameplay events across the world, we've heard resoundingly positive feedback on the balanced and exciting experience we are building in FIFA 16."
For the first time in the series, you can play with 12 Women's National Soccer Teams. For instance, the initial two objectives I yielded on Ultimate Team were down to me accepting my player (I’m censuring you, Phil Jagielka) would basically hoover up the ball that was coming towards him and I’d have the capacity to dispatch a quick counter-assault. That isn’t to say the general level of AI has diminished. A long way from it. Over every single other region of the diversion the PC has ended up more astute and will make moves to remove your assaults by holding their position or shutting down space in a significantly more sensible way.
FUT Draft is in interesting new concept which allows players to build their own club from a selection of players, giving them the option of which direction to steer the team. My main issue with this and FIFA Ultimate Team in general is that there is a heightened emphasis on chemistry which can actually lead you to making decisions where your highest rated players are riding the bench. There is a ton of different options that you can choose from and it really gives you a realistic feel of what it’s like to be a real “FIFA” player.
The graphics for “FIFA 16” will blow you away. The players look life-like and they all have unique actions and facial expressions which are awesome. The stadiums - all fifty of them - are incredible. Nine new stadiums have been added. There are some new weather conditions in “FIFA 16.” The weather conditions include sunny, snow, rain, overcast, hazy, foggy, partly cloudy, random rain and snow flurries. The sound effects also really add to the game play. You can hear the crowd cheer and boo. I was very impressed by the sound of the ball hitting the goalpost when you miss a shot.
All of this makes FIFA 16 feel evolutionary, and it'll be interesting to see where EA Sports goes from here. For now, this is the best football game we've played in years, and you'll likely enjoy it well into fall 2016 when FIFA 17 arrives.
