EA Sports FIFA 16 is set to release on 22nd/24th September 2015 and it is going to be more beautiful than any of its last edition or other football games you have played. The game's punchline "Play Beautiful" is well deserving to be put up which is what we are going to see today. Fifa 16 provides you 25 skilled defense mechanisms to completely own the game while you defend. The game features the new UNIT DEFENSE in which you can control or order other players to change positions while you play with specific player. Players will anticipate better this time while they attack,defend or midfield. A special get together with media from around the world, we gathered at the Grand Hyatt Singapore on the 16th of July in conjunction of the Barclays Asia Trophy competition for a FIFA 16 presentation and hands-on on EA Sport’s massive soccer franchise to find out what the developers have been up to constantly improving and making additions to this year’s franchise. We catch up with producer Matt Prior.
One of the biggest new features in FIFA 16 is, of course, the inclusion of twelve women’s national teams in the game. It wasn’t particularly clear how the individual players would be rated and compared to their male counterparts and how they’d play a part in the game overall (i.e the inclusion of the players in Ultimate Team and so on), but what was evident from the get-go is that there’s a certain feel that pertains itself to the women’s game in comparison the men’s. The momentum of play while I played as Germany and faced the United States felt slower than that of the game I played with the men’s clubs, but that wasn’t necessarily a problem. In fact, I enjoyed the fact that there’s a differentiating factor between the women’s game and the men’s, as it crafts a different tone to both styles of play. The emphasis on build up play and momentum was paramount within the women’s game, and your chance of scoring from afar was fairly limited.
It was all about creating those moments to play the perfect pass or to take the extra touch to give yourself time to take the shot, and that was really quite exciting and fascinating to experience for the first time. EA has also been working on gaining more licenses which will allow for greater diversity when it comes to in game signage and video boards. Along with those minor licensing details they are trying once again to acquire the UEFA license from Konami and take a major selling point for Pro Evolution Soccer. More licenses will add more to the game in little details such as leagues, in game advertisements, and tournaments.
One last little touch of realism was seen in the form of delayed off-side decisions, often after a goal scoring moment takes place. Just like in the real sport, frantic goal-mouth scrambles that lead to a goal can be ruled off-side moments after the referee notices the linesman flag. The same now happens in FIFA 15, with players even allowed to briefly celebrate their goal before being called back for the infringement. Frustrating, yes - but it’s one of the realities of the sport. The game is already looking impressive, and the game I managed to play for around five-minutes was apparently only around 50-percent complete. It looks like FIFA 16 is set to evolve the football franchise to new heights yet again when it releases later in the year.
When an improvement is something vague like this it’s often hard to tell if you can feel the change or if it’s just you unknowingly accepting the PR talk. In fact, while playing Fifa 16, you can feel that your team is more of a team. They work harder, move more and generally aren’t a nuisance like they can be. Defenders are much sharper, if you’ve tracked a player and left a gap, the closest AI team-mate will step up and cover for you. Midfielders are now wiser and read the game more, intercepting passes or slowing down counter attacks; and forwards are incredibly dynamic, making off-ball runs into space and demanding the ball. Everything adds to the on pitch experience and make the team feel more unified.
We also had a chance to observe a couple of women’s team matches, and the differences were notable. From the movement of the players to their animations and behaviors, these were indeed brand new squads, and not just re-skins of the men’s teams. Although given the relative limitations of where the women’s teams can be used, time will tell if this new addition to FIFA will be a popular one, or quickly forgotten after the novelty has passed.
