FIFA 16 reminds me a little of a defending champion stacked with experience and soon-to-be-retired stalwarts. You know exactly what you’re going to get every week, and you can’t really expect anything new or innovate because, well, you don’t fix what isn’t broken. If you’re a fan of such a team, you embrace every moment because you never know when it’s all going to come crumbling down, or when a new, young and ambitious team is going to stream in and snatch victory from you. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? Fans of the FIFA franchise will like this year’s entry because, well, it plays its cards right. It goes through the motions, does what it does best and gets the job done.

 

It’s not exciting or groundbreaking, but at least you know what to expect. Yet FIFA 16 seems to know the sharks are circling, and so it ups the ante: this team will be spoken about for generations, and you better bring your A-Game to be part of the legacy. After bonding with EA’s newest football title like it was a brand-new puppy, I have to say I’m rather impressed with the game as a whole. I had a blast with my first match, even after two red cards and scrubbing the post nearly half a dozen times.

 

The one touch dribbling was really nice and allowed me to string together a multitude of moves to blow by the defender while the responsive and dynamic passing was a perfect compliment for transitioning the ball into the offensive zone. I wasn’t too fond of the shooting mechanics since I couldn’t help myself from letting the power-bar get too full before unload on the goaltender. Eventually I evened out and managed to hammer home a handful of nice goals from a few different sports on the field. Partly that’s because it plays my kind of football. First touches are often heavy, passes go astray and it takes a great deal of care to shepherd the ball up the field.

 

Long balls over the top are possible, as are lung-bursting runs that leave the defense in a heap, but FIFA 16 loves a good passing triangle. That can lead to some weird repetitive one-twos between players standing side by side, missing the person willing to become the third point of their nascent triangle by making a run up-field, but when everything comes together there’s a tension that I feel whenever I watch football but rarely feel in sports games. Career mode aficionados will be pleased to hear that there is a bit more meat there.

 

The general structure and approach is the same as ever, but now there are pre-season tournaments in which you can win prize money and try out your squad in a competitive setting, as well as weekly training sessions. These training sessions let you enhance the skills of five players through skill games, or you can simulate training in the interest of time. Another novel touch is that if you want to sign a player, but don't have enough for wages, the board will adjust your transfer budget automatically to make up the deficit.

 

Once a handicap for the FIFA franchise, largely due to the number of teams and players it encapsulates, presentation is extremely well done in FIFA 16. Starting last year with the full Premier League package, and continuing this year with the addition of the Bundesliga broadcast package and touches such as live substitutes and vanishing spray, FIFA now has some of the best presentation in sports gaming. Commentary in the game remains strong through the ageless Martin Tyler - though Alan Smith remains astoundingly boring - and new spotlights on individual story-lines and players before and during games beefs up the product further.

 

FIFA 16 is a marked improvement on it’s predecessor. However, from all of its minor-to-moderate improvements in the graphics and gameplay respectively, it is still succumbed to the overwhelming sense of staleness which has now plagued this popular series for years.