FIFA 16 will see a new game type to help players improve their skills. The FIFA Trainer will put you in a match situation and provide visual hints and advice on what to do in any given situation. Players will be given two options that should help improve their understanding of how to better compete in actual matches, not just in the isolated Skill Games settings. The women’s national teams in FIFA 16 are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China PR, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and USA. I love Shuttleworth Virtanan, I really do, but when was the last time you ever met a Spanish person with a name like that? Some nations seem to be unaffected while others seem completely screwed. The scouted names were fine when the game came out and an update broke them, so I’ve got a lot of hope that this can be fixed. Only physically strong players seem to grow physical stats from an early age. All other types have to wait years until they grow – if they even do grow at all. So is it great if you’ve found a physically strong player? Nope, because they usually get promoted with about 50 sprint speed.

 

Nowhere is this more obvious than with goalkeepers, whose new animations make them instantly more lifelike in terms of both look and behavior. Their movements are more diverse, allowing skilful players to perform a range of spectacular gymnastics in an effort to keep the ball out of the goal. More importantly, their movements hint at a keeper's basic thought processes, which does a great deal to humanise keepers and shake that feeling of playing against a pre-programmed machine. This is all about a player’s heroic contribution during a very important match such as a league derby, winning promotion to a higher division, or saving their club from relegation to a lower division. In this edition, however, everything just feels more weighted and thought-out; the possibility of mislaying a pass or losing the ball after only one or two touches is glaringly apparent.

 

The experience takes a little while to get used to but it’s all the better for it because it makes you think. It makes you wary of paths to potential interceptions and mindful of how all the players are responding to the specific actions at hand. Rutter confirmed artificial intelligence received a strong focus for improvement, which will hopefully decrease the amount of silly goalkeeper mistakes that plagued FIFA 16. This year, defenders will now receive drastically improved defensive agility, which allows them to more easily track skill players. This sounds like a direct response to last year’s complaints of overpowered acceleration players, whom could easily run past most defenders without challenge. In addition to this, formations will have a more efficient time closing down the pitch while on defense, and will have a better transition into counter-attacking positions.

 

Amongst the available teams are Brazil, England, France and the USA. Unfortunately for those looking to face of the women’s and men’s World Cup winners off against one another are going to be disappointed. The women’s teams will be kept segregated from the men’s teams, so there will be no men versus women matches available to gamers in FIFA 16. EA Sport’s mammoth FIFA franchise is a yearly juggernaut that practically owns the digital soccer scene and its Ultimate Team mode has made it hard to beat. It’s often remarked how history likes to repeat itself however, and with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer on the rise again, EA’s leading football title looks to be almost lagging behind its closest rival.

 

With the latest Pro Evolution Soccer 15, Konami is making huge strides with its sim, offering top notch gameplay and sizzling graphics, meaning the Japanese dev has a football title out that can truly compete with EA’s – just like over a decade ago when PES4 left FIFA Football 2005 in the dust. When you obliterate a team for 90 minutes and do everything but score – only for the opposition to go down the other end in the final moments and score a header from a corner, it just goes to show how important set pieces are. Is Tiki-Taka dead? Perhaps not, but it has certainly evolved. But keeping the ball is still as important as ever in the real life game – as well as in FIFA 16 – and you just have to pick the right moments to go in for the kill.