EA's mantra this year is 'Feel The Game', which is a marketer's way of saying they've captured the emotional and dramatic side of the sport, along with all the kicking and running. This is tantamount to cutscenes showing players dropping to their knees at a missed chance, shouting at each other when mistakes are made, pushing opponents after a bad tackle, but it does breathe life into a series that has always felt a little robotic.
Goalkeepers are getting some long-needed attention this time round. Saves look and feel more natural - often the big man will parry a thunderous strike off to the side of goal rather than knocking it right back into the path of the opposition’s striker. Keepers also react and position themselves better overall, but that’s not to say they are brick walls. The trick to scoring in Fifa 15, as in real football, is to catch the goalie off-balance - or guide it through their legs ( a new feature for this edition.)
In fairness, glitches like this in a game that bravely attempts to accurately simulate the extraordinarily complicated physical and behavioral variables of a sport are to be expected, and it’s to FIFA’s credit that they’re relatively infrequent. And in the main, goalkeepers are - as they should be - hard to beat, yet still fallible. It’s thrilling to break an opponent’s back line, only for your rasping, top-corner drive to be thwarted by a fingertip save, bringing howls of anguish from the noisy crowd.
Penetrating that defensive barrier can be quite a challenge at times, not least because opponents seem more ready than ever to put their bodies on the line. Blocked shots are a common occurrence, and even nippy forwards and wingers like Sturridge, Robben and Navas will struggle to accelerate clear of the last man, as lumbering defenders suddenly find a superhuman burst of speed to catch up with players they shouldn’t be able to get near. I get some joy by running into the channels and cutting inside, or back onto your other foot, particularly with flair players: long, mazy dribbles are now easier than ever, and players with low centres of gravity will skip over the outstretched boots of their markers, retaining the ball even as their shirts are being tugged.
If there's a sense of 'if it ain't broke' about the structure and game modes, then it's more than made up for by the presentation. On one level, FIFA 15 pushes the Sky Sports-inspired look and feel about as far as it can go, with superb cutaways and replays, titles, close-ups and the rest that leave it closely resembling real TV coverage. The commentary from Martin Tyler and Adam Smith is astonishingly good, particularly in the premiership, though you wonder how well the references to Manchester United's troubles or world cup performances will date over the coming months.
On another level, the visuals are consistently impressive. Anyone who describes the players as absolutely lifelike should probably steer clear of Madame Tussauds, lest they think they're getting blanked by the real Tom Cruise, but they're certainly closer than they've ever been before. Hair now looks more realistic, the kit seems to hang from the body rather than form an integral part, and the various stadiums are magnificently detailed - at least in the Premier League.
There can be a divide between 'FIFA the core game' and 'FIFA the wider experience'. What looks like football doesn't always feel like football, and crafting a playable product from the world's most beloved sport is more complex than making sure Neymar's nose hairs are accurate. This year FIFA 15 pulls off a difficult trick. Not only is the game closer to a TV-style broadcast than ever, but the experience is better than FIFA's been in years.
