The FIFA series has often been a target for derision and in the gaming industry it’s often shown as an example of a game that doesn’t tangibly change or progress from year to year, in its mechanics, visuals or core offering. In fact, even as a regular player, its fair to admit that the game doesn’t progress in leaps and bounds from year to year but rather in increments, all the while retaining an incredibly solid set of central mechanics which are very rarely messed with. And for all the game’s gaffes, one thing FIFA has always understood is how football fans work: what they want to see, how they want it presented to them, and how they like to play. FIFA 16 is no different in this regard, it just adds a new sheen and an extra couple of mechanics to assist players in reaching these.

 

Unresponsive, sluggish and clunky is the general feel of fifa 16. Shots still take far too long to release where sometimes the player will actually take several touches taking over 3 seconds to shoot which is an extremely long time when you have a defender on your case. Passing is more responsive but it still takes too long to release, certain balls you play also just slowly trickle to the player and the player makes little attempt to chase it, in result making it easy for the defender to intercept it. FIFA 16 just doesn’t feel fluid or smooth. Then we go onto the dribbling and movement, something that has been an issue in my opinion since fifa 14. With pace being less important, dribbling and sharp turns feels more important, and yet the game struggles to give you that fluidity in movement.

 

Players in FIFA 16 are really slow at turning and it often gets you tackled. You can still struggle to turn a few players and burst on with the likes of Messi. Messi is known to be able to glide past players and dance around players so fast that no one can deal with him. You do not feel like that at all. Although dribbling with top players do feel more fluid, it still isn’t effective enough, Messi has drastically improved from previous fifa where he is no longer useless and can be effective, but he still doesn’t feel like him. If you want to see how much of an impact the Chemistry Style has on the card, flick the right stick and you’ll see between one and three arrows next to the affected attributes. But remember, the arrows must be green in order for said boost to have any effect, and the only way this happens is if the player has enough chemistry within the lineup.

 

If your FIFA strikers are relatively new to you, make sure you know whether they prefer attacking crosses, shooting from outside the box or taking players on, or you could end up playing out frustrating 0-0 draws, or worse, be on the end of an early defeat. By far the most obvious deviation from real-life soccer in FUT is how footballers and resources are acquired and transferred. There are two Ultimate Team currencies, Coins and FIFA Points. Coins are earned simply from playing matches and competing in tournaments and seasons. The formula that determines how many coins a player receives is complicated, but essentially, winning pays out more than losing, but not so much more that a losing streak will reduce your ability to field a decent team.

 

Finally, do those Manager Tasks (change club name, etc). Not only will they earn you a shiny Gold item Pack for completing them, you’ll learn about some of the more obscure consumables and items that will help boost individual player and team performance.