Online Modes are always the high point of any FIFA game, and this year is no different. Now, you can loan the likes of Messi and Ronaldo in FUT, making your dream to play with one in your FUT Squad not a far-fetched one. The Tournament mode returns this year in 15. Career Mode is as it was in 14. FIFA 15 is a big step into the next generation, unlike 14. We sure can, “Feel the Game”!
You can dive into the menus and tweak almost every aspect of the game, from the speed to the amount of control you have in passing, even through to the AI tendencies of other players, and it is possible to strike a better balance. While customisation should never be sniffed at, do you really want to be responsible for creating the game that you've paid for? It's like going to those restaurants where you cook your own steak on a hot bit of stone. No, I'm paying you to do that mate.
FIFA requires that you steer eleven footballers in real-time around a pitch you can see less than a third of at any given moment. To make that possible, you’re reliant on the computer to take hold of whoever you’re not directly controlling. You’re reliant on the game to correctly infer your intent as you wrestle with umpteen buttons and twin analogue sticks. In the space between those two outcomes – intent and action – is where FIFA happens. Everything that’s good or bad about the game exists in that ambiguity. It’s why I love and hate FIFA 15 for all the same reasons I’ve loved and hated the last four iterations.
Even if attacking does feel better than ever this year, it doesn't really make up for how unenjoyable defending is. Despite making up 50% of gameplay, it feels like EA gives it around 10% of the attention, and it really shows. You're caught between babysitting teammates who are falling out of position almost constantly, and trying to use loose awkward controls to fend off dribblers. You never feel in control, always just a moment from disaster, much like in a plate-spinning act. It's not just the AI that needs changing, the whole system EA has provided us with which we defend feels unfit for purpose.
