While domestic sides aren’t going to be represented in the 22-year-old game series (yet), in FIFA 16 you’ll be able to play as the women’s national teams from Germany, USA, France, Sweden, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, China, Italy and Mexico. Your chosen side will then be able to face off against another women’s international side. That’s across several game modes - a FIFA press release specifies Kick Off, an offline tournament and online friendly matches.

 

FIFA 16 remains as visually arresting as ever, and it goes all-out to indulge fans of the Barclays Premier League. Players for those sides look a lot more lifelike, after sitting for head scans in the off-season (more than 200 were added in). Any game played between two BPL sides also gets a specialized presentation, including the same graphics packages and music seen and heard on TV. English-language commentators Martin Tyler and Alan Smith also have a lot more to discuss when they are on their home turf. And in a big plus for a game that uses generic stadiums more than any other, all 20 of this year's BPL venues are in the game.

 

Perhaps the most stunning change comes by way of FIFA 16 which now sports Women’s National Teams that you can play as. Separate motion capture was done for female players and the actual in-game result is actually very well done. At some point afterwards, EA brought out football legend Pelé to speak at length about the game as well. It’s interesting how the addition of women in FIFA 16 has been seen as a negative thing to a portion of the gaming audience. In contrast, WWE fans usually feel the WWE 2K games don’t add enough female wrestlers to the roster each year…

 

This shows, that in sport like football, speed at times is meaningless, and concentrating on it is simply peculiar. However, before I can elaborate fully on FIFA 16, I will have to play it first, as what was said during EA’s press conference may not be an accurate representation of how the game really works. Maybe this only applies to players who are only capable of performing recoveries, or maybe it is just a trait like flair. No matter how it will be implemented it will surely benefit the game in way or the other.

 

In fact, it seems like EA have gone all out to make the game experience look and feel as much like its real life counterpart as they possibly can. TV segues, replays, team sheets, and multiple camera shots are all there. Commentators even refer to upcoming matches that players can 'see' on EA Sports. If you glimpsed the demo through a shop window, you'd struggle to tell at a glance if it was the video game or a real game. Even goal line technology is included this year. In the beginning, it might seem a little over the top, perhaps a little bloated even, but as you get into it, the experience feels all the more real because of it, and despite having your fingers dancing over a controller, you still feel like it's the real thing, almost like a very playable simulation.

 

EA has made a big splash with the announcement of adding female players to FIFA 16. What they didn’t mention was a version of the game for the PS Vita. When Pocket Gamer reached out to EA for clarification, they were informed that FIFA 16 would no be coming to the Vita. Not even in a “legacy” version. The FIFA series has had a rocky reputation on the Vita since the very first installment. The original FIFA for the Vita was panned by many for using the 2011 engine and tweaking the team rosters to make it a 2012 game. Little did we know at the time that it would be the best we’d ever get.

 

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, there was a petition three years ago to include women in the game but this is the first edition of the game that will have women’s teams. EA also stated in an email to the WSJ that they used motion capture to track Sydney Leroux, Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe from the U.S. Women’s National Team to make the female characters in the game look more natural when running and sprinting.