While next-gen editions of FIFA 14 brought with them upgrades to the quality of crowd animations, the changes lacked diversity and individuality; any given team’s fans simply a copy-and-pasted edition of the next, with only their shirts altered to match club colours. After only a handful of matches, the effect was one of visual monotony.
Some FIFA 15's broader, more noticeable changes are more cosmetic, but they make a world of difference in focusing the experience. Take the game's menus as a good example of positive movement for the series. Clicking the right stick in FIFA 15 pulls up an EA Sports Football Club widget now, which includes a social feed with your friends' updates within FIFA, and easy access to the game's catalog of unlockable items like balls, uniforms and career mode boosts. Additionally, FIFA 15 features a dedicated "Match Day" hub with real world news and score updates for players' favorite teams populated from around the web. The news updates could use larger text – they can be tough to read – but both UI changes are a vast improvement over past games, and they further transform FIFA into a soccer portal, not just a video game that compliments the sport.
Complaining about Ultimate Team isn't a complaint about the monetization itself, as much as it is a complaint about the way the structure of the game makes me feel as a player. The game makes it quite possible to play for free, as you can buy every card pack with in-game currency, and there are regular rewards for daily play, and opportunities galore to get free packs. I'm not mad about that. I just don't like the ever-presence of it. It's the only thing I can do. It's impossible to sit back and enjoy a match because players are regulated by contracts, which tick down after each match. When they run out, you either have to sub in another player or use a contract card to replenish their contract count. So the game becomes a race to build a strong team while your current team's resources are depleting, and you have to balance earning your resources from matches on improvements with maintenance.
And really, that's the entirety of FIFA 15: Ultimate Team. When I actually play the game, I find a remarkably enjoyable soccer sim. And the Ultimate Team parts, upon reflection, aren't that horrible. But would I rather just play a standard soccer game, with seasons and matches, than this? Yes. But what other choice for soccer do I have? I hope that 2016 brings back the modes that were removed from this one. Also, I understand that online connectivity is necessary to this game with the transfer market in particular, but connecting to the servers always caused multiple error dialogues on launch without fail.
With the new interface comes some new functionality. The instructions tab offers the ability to set various options on individual players which dictate how they play. You can tell players how to act when their team is in possession and out of it, so you can instruct a midfielder to stay back when his team attacks, or to go forward. Some of the options are a little more advanced, including the ability to tell players whether to head into the box or wait on the edge of the area when a cross is coming in. It's pretty exciting stuff, and it's easy to think of more instructions which could be added in future. Unfortunately, some of these instructions don't seem to really get followed on the pitch, which makes them feel a bit redundant.
Then we head into what the game has on offer and no other football game comes close. The standard career mode is still my bread and butter and you can pick from hundreds of teams across a multitude of leagues to try and conquer the world. Personally, the constant harassment by the board and players is something I’d like to mute; I’m not here to make my players feel good about themselves and give them chances. I’m here to win and pretend I’m idolised by my adoring fans. Dealing with admin is something I have to do in real life, why would I want to do it in a game?
The one bug that we founds was the commentators over zealously saying a player was in a match based on his performance in the previous one when he was named to the bench. The case in point was during Career Mode as Arsenal FC. Theo Walcott had been given a starting spot in the previous match (a domestic cup outing). He scored two goals and was Man of the Match. However, he started on the bench for the subsequent BPL outing. Tyler and Smith yapped on about him being in the starting lineup.
