FIFA 16 delivers a range of modes, from Career to Seasons to Skill Games, Match Day Live, Pro Clubs and Ultimate Team. For gamers who want to focus on a real-world team to create a long-term narrative, Career is the best choice, now enhanced with a range of pre-season tournaments that offer new opportunities for team tweaking. I appreciate the new options opened up by the training schedule, which gives FIFA 16 gamers an option to pick five players in order to try and improve their skills and their performance, but EA Sports has not delivered any fundamental new feature for the mode.

 

When all of the gameplay elements are added up, the overall product feels superior to last year's, but even if these are recognized, probably the best thing I can say is that this game will be dominated by possession players. The gameplay has been slowed down, and it's for the better. Pacey players will still have an advantage on the flanks, but it is nowhere near the speed-fest that last year's title was. This will bode well for those who enjoy playing online, especially in Ultimate Team where pace is absolutely abused. The defense is much smarter at handling pacey players, so learning how to unlock defenses with smart passing will be well rewarded for those patient enough to work at getting that last crucial pass into the box. The game just feels better with it slowed down ever so slightly, and I'm happy that it's the trend for this IP.

 

Apart from these tweaks, Career Mode remains largely untouched. Transfer logic and frequency is still sub par as teams don’t make enough transfers and when they do. they still hoard players at certain positions. In my test Chelsea Career Mode I saw Manchester City bring in PSG’s Edison Cavani and Tottenham’s Harry Kane. While City does have a propensity to buy strikers in real life, they will also sell off or loan out those surplus to requirements. The CPU is aggressive at offering you transfers and will often test your fortitude. Despite some lowball offers I have seen Real Madrid come in very high for Eden Hazard as well as Valencia for Cesc Fabregas. Unfortunately, there still is no transfer log and really and visibility into other leagues apart from the League Table. When you’re buying a player you have no idea what kind of form they’re in or what their statistics look like. Loaning out players is a little easier this year and players do improve when out on loan if they’re getting playing time. I actually had to recall a defender from loan as I was hit with an injury crisis at centerback.

 

Everything in the FIFA 16 mode, from team formations and the manager through to each and every position on the field and subs bench, presents you with five options to choose from. As the roster unfolds, players have to balance what they've already chosen against what could come up next in a bid to unlock the best overall chemistry. From there, the team is taken online or against the computer in a series of games. After four matches, win or lose, players gain rewards for entering. The better you perform, the more premium packs and currency you'll get, but even poor performances will net players something to help cover their entry fee. Players buy into Draft mode by spending in-game coins, FIFA 16 points or a new currency named draft tokens, which are provided through new packs.

 

This is obviously a slight simplification; microtransactions in gaming are a fact of modern life, and understandable in free-to-play titles and for small developers. But the approach FIFA 16 takes seems particularly egregious after you’ve dropped ￡40+. It’s also in how it’s dealt with: the home screen quite literally plays video adverts for Ultimate Team. A separate banner advertises the ‘Team Of The Week’. Meanwhile, every year the other features of the game -- in particular Career mode, which has some wildly overdue and lackluster changes (a slight repackaging of existing skill games called ‘training’; pre-season tournaments) -- are increasingly slighted.