FIFA 16's gameplay is going to be a bit divisive, then, so it's a good job that its buoyed by a number of positive design choices and additional content off the pitch. As always, the title's presentation is stellar, and menus are slick, easy to use, and engaging. Together with real world news updates, customize main menu panels ensure that every time you boot the game up, you're presented with stuff that gets you into the right footballing mindset almost immediately.

 

It's an impressive achievement, and something that FIFA gets absolutely right every single year. Hence FIFA 16. An excellent, if imperfect, football game light on sweeping changes (bar the most welcome introduction of women’s teams) but heavy on refinement. It has the misfortune of coming up against PES 2016, arguably the best on-pitch representation of the sport ever made, but FIFA gets a hell of a lot right. And it's that which will provide the edge-of-the-sofa tension and smashed controllers across the globe for another 12 months.

 

FIFA 16 burst onto the scene with a hail of publicity aided by high-profile tweets from a number of the game's top stars. And boy, it's good to have it back. The star players do genuinely look like their real-life counterparts now and are, frankly, a work of art. What a luxury to have two tremendous games spurring each other on. The more useful control is the "driven pass," which involves a standard pass command modified with the right bumper button.

 

The pass is faster and sharper to beat the defense but the recipient has a harder time taking control of the ball, particularly if he or she is lower-rated in the ball handling department, or if the passer has a low passing skill. Off the pitch, the most high profile new feature of FIFA 16 is the addition of women's teams. FIFA 16 features 12 national women’s squads, with full face-scanning and licenses. They play differently, too, lending towards a faster, more skillful game - intricate passing and curled shots - which makes their unfortunately limited implementation (they’re only available in Kick Off or tournaments, not career or Ultimate Team) one of the game’s best new features.

 

In terms of options the career mode is much improved by the introduction of new player training challenges. You don’t have to control these yourself if you don’t want to, but the drills are perfectly entertaining and offer a welcome break from the more predictable aspects of the mode. FIFA Trainer is much less enjoyable though, a bewildering mass of stats and options that sends you quickly running back to the main modes for a proper game.

 

It's not just in the looks department that FIFA leads the pack. Ultimate Team has, for the last few years, been my favorite way to play football games, and returns offering the same potent mix of competitive play and collectible-card squad-building. I was particularly excited this year when I heard about Draft Mode. Those that play Hearthstone will be familiar with the concept; you're given a random deck of players with which to assemble a team, and your understanding of the Chemistry system, the pros and cons of different formations, and even real-life football knowledge is all put the test as you take on other scratch teams.

 

Win them all and you’ll earn gold and premium gold packs for your regular FUT squad. It might take a while to amass the 15,000 FIFA coins for the entry fee, though you can spend real money on FIFA Points to pay your way in. Micro transactions are rarely welcome in full-price retail games, though the cost of FIFA Points is reasonable, and the value of the reward is equivalent to what many would happily have spent on new FUT packs.