Despite FIFA being one of the most popular video game franchises in the world, the team at EA Sports continues to innovate. It would be easy to sit back and churn out the same experience every year albeit with subtle tweaks, but the developers appear to respond well to feedback while at the same time paying close attention to how professionals play the sport. With this in mind, the tagline for FIFA 16 is Play Beautiful, and based on what we've seen in this gorgeous game, those words are a perfect fit.

 

There are lots of new features and modes that are extremely fun to play and fans of “FIFA” are going to love them. The AI is smarter and your teammates will automatically cover gaps and stop players trying to score a goal better. There are new tackling fundamentals which include standing, sliding and fake tackles. The Goalkeepers have also been enhanced and are much smarter. They make fewer mistakes and make scoring a goal really challenging. Players can also do more precise passes and shots.

 

Play against the Team of the Week (TOTW) will also give coins. If you win against a TOTW active party, which will make coins coins 160-1000 (depending on the difficulty level you choose). It operated with the players is also a good way to earn coins in Ultimate Team. The easiest way is to buy a player card and sell it at a higher price. Note that EA is taking a tax of 5% of each sales transaction, so that once an item is sold in the transfer market, five percent of which goes to EA.

 

That means that to qualify for a transaction, your profit should exceed 5%, otherwise you will lose coins. There are a lot of reasons to play FIFA 16 Ultimate Team for a long time. The squad customization is deep and it will take a long time to create the perfect team that can defeat anyone. There are also a number of cups and single player campaigns to play. There are also multi-player matches to be had so you can compete to be a top player worldwide. Granted, there aren't any achievements (at least I'm assuming there aren't since it isn't showing up in my Game Center).

 

Using virtual buttons to pass, tackle and shoot and a movable virtual thumbstick, play ultimately feels a little loose, and though it's possible to piece together free-flowing moves that open up your rival's defence, successful moves usually feel the result of the game giving you a helping hand to achieve your vision rather than you somehow cracking a stubborn opposition. Pass it around long enough and you'll often find your rival's defence parts in the middle to let you through, or simply doesn't tackle as you make a run.

 

Even veterans will have to undergo a process of adaptation to all the new mechanics, which will not necessarily be easy, but a casual player might easily feel overwhelmed with so many choices and moves at their disposal. In an effort to facilitate this process, EA Sports has released a new help system that suggests during the game which buttons to press in a specific situation. It's not particularly useful or effective, unlike the Skill Games, which continue to be fun and provide good training.

 

The age-old trick of lobbed through-balls are also a lot less effective now, with intelligent defenders who are quick to intercept or trackback to stay goal-side with attackers. You can still use through balls effectively, but it has reduced the number of all-too-easy one-on-one’s with goalies. Thankfully this has either been removed, or dialled right back in FIFA 16. Yes, linesmen will still make calls that only a robot could make (knowing when a player is offside by an eyelash) - but at least we’re not taunted by their stupid smug grin every time.