The widely popular FIFA 16 Ultimate Team returns with the inclusion of a new pay-to-play (15k EA Coins or 200 FIFA Points =~$2.67) “Ultimate Team Draft.” This new mode within FUT sees you build your squad from a five player positional draw. Start out by selecting your desired formation before selecting a captain. From there you’ll fill out your squad as you would in the regular FUT mode, taking into account team chemistry as you set your lineup. Once your squad and manager are set, you take to the competition, whether it be single player vs the CPU or online against human opponents. Rewards are then doled out based upon your success. EA continues to set the bar with the success of Ultimate Team but the verdict is still out on whether or not this pay-to-play mode will be successful.
Transfer budgets in FIFA 16 are more realistic this time around, though this is more for those smaller clubs than it is for the big boys. The highest transfer budget for any club belongs to four clubs in the world: ￡72m for Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester City. Going into the Premier League, however, and all clubs will crack the ￡10m mark for their season budget. This is a far cry from last season where lowest club, such as Burnley, only had a couple of million to play with and still felt like a challenge even being in the highest division. Dropping down a division doesn't mean playing with a tiny budget anymore, as clubs in the second tier of most leagues will find a few million at their disposal. The absolute best part of this is that it is no longer going to cost a player close to ￡10m to buy just one top notch scout. I managed to purchase a 5-star scout that was under the ￡3m mark, which means that it will be easier to run those third and fourth division teams and bring in youth to build up clubs.
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Shooting in FIFA 16 hasn’t undergone any significant changes as far as I can tell. Body position, timing, and player attributes all play their part. If I had to pick any area of concern with shooting, I’d say that manual shooting lacks some oomph. However, this can be remedied offline with sliders. A few years ago one of the major complaints with FIFA was goal variety. Too often it seemed like you would see the same goals over and over again; the dreaded 2-on-1 tap-in or even worse, the angle finesse shot into the upper right/left-hand corner. Much to my delight, the goal variety FIFA 16 offers is as dynamic as ever. Volleys, chips, tap-ins, headers, own-goals, scrambles in the box, long-range blasts and perfectly curled shots all grace my console’s saved highlights. One area of concern that could use an upgrade is shooting from range by the CPU, specifically, frequency. Only certain players (mostly notable players with shooting traits) seem audacious enough to attempt efforts from outside the box.
Getting to 100 FIFA 16 Chemistry is tough, and there will be times you have to ignore amazing players in order to take the one that better fits the squad, but it's worth it because the football you play on the pitch will be better thanks to a lack of random wayward passes and poor positioning. Also, as you might expect, the better you perform in FUT Draft, the better the reward, so try your best to accumulate the full set of five wins. FUT Draft will focus on team building skills, challenging you to pick the best fit for each position from a five-player draw. Fans will then need to draft a squad and challenge opponents in a series of up to four matches to win big rewards for their club. Better progress, meanwhile, will mean better rewards.
The world’s best don’t stand out, and every player feels the same on and off the ball. This sounds like a positive when offering a challenge, but when it’s nothing but lateral passes between two central midfielders it can get tedious. That said, the chances are you’ll hit a stray pass on more than one occasion, while the pass direction controls seem more sensitive. But some of the changes to prevent abuse of the skills and power of top players also mean that they are still easily the most fun to play with. The slowing down of touches and movement are applied equally and are so least debilitating with faster, more powerful players. Particularly in the bottom leagues, players can feel so lumbering - especially after the speed frenzy of Fifa 15 - that they become frustrating.
