Reviewing FIFA games is usually something of a thankless task but this year it has been a lot easier. After all how can you possibly review a game that you don’t truly know you like, love or hate until you have played it for at least a couple of months? Two more additions to FIFA 16 take the crown this year, though, and the first of those is training in Manager Mode. Too often you’ll find yourself simulating between matches, or even straight to transfer windows, which are unfortunately unchanged, simply to buy more players, or sell the duds. To be fair to EA, it’s very similar in Football Manager, and the addition of training builds a two-part challenge into every week. Firstly, do you train your players, or just got to the match? It’s time consuming, and you will play the same training drills over time.

 

However, the second challenge is who to train - your first team, or your youth team. Do you invest that time now in your first team, or build for the future? Hopefully the developers will begin to add more leagues and official licenses as the years go on. And then, of course, there's FIFA Ultimate Team - the jewel in EA's crown and a massive money-spinner to boot. FIFA Ultimate Team's big new addition is Draft mode, which is a much more focused, scaled-down version of the team-building game mode, and a great way to try out some of the game's elite players. So, we adore football manager games, and I’ve desired personification football games (or soccer for some of you) like FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer given a days of International Superstar Soccer on a Nintendo 64.

 

Add to this my adore for CCGs, and we can know given we had high hopes for FIFA 16 Ultimate Team [Free] given it looked like it total all 3 genres in one glossy package. The final FIFA we played on mobile before FIFA 16 UT was FIFA 14, that was a final one to have several other modes (like Quick Match and Season) in further to a Ultimate Team mode. While we had dabbled a bit in a Ultimate Team mode in FIFA 14, we didn’t unequivocally worry many given we simply wanted to play football though messing with menus too much. Still, we indeed installed FIFA 16 UT anticipating we would find an engaging CCG (which is what a Ultimate Team unequivocally is) on tip of what has simply been a best football diversion on iOS.

 

EA Sports continues its well-supported trend of avoiding annual gameplay overhauls in the FIFA series. Instead the game is once again tweaked for a more immersive soccer simulation experience. The level system remains the same as the past few years in EA Sports FIFA 16. If you’re a seasoned player then skip Beginner, Amateur and Semi-Pro and move straight into the challenges of Professional mode. The difficulty is about the same as last year. World Class and Legendary are available for the die hards but are certainly not for your casual gamer or the feeble hearted (unless you like stress of a relegation battle).

 

It’s also important to mention that only the Ultimate Team version of the game is included, so those looking to play out a premiership rivalry will be disappointed Combining football with a card collecting game, Ultimate Team allows you to build a team with the hand that you are dealt with each card representing a player, enhancement or item. Again this an Ultimate Team version of FIFA but the overall experience is certainly more polished than FIFA 16, which is probably expected as it’s been through more development cycles, and perhaps in 6 months the new version will have been optimized to the same level as 15.

 

It may feel unfair, and at times downright unjust, but that's what makes the sport the most beloved throughout the world; that level of fervor and unpredictability. Until now, EA Sports Canada's attempts at replicating The Beautiful Game have ranged between incredibly competent realizations all the way down to inconsequential in the face of Pro Evolution Soccer's past dominance. It's been an up and down ride, but make no mistake, this year's iteration brings with it one of the most pronounced gameplay upheavals in recent memory.