The most wonderful time of the year is here. Soccer (née football) seasons in countries all over the world have already begun, and the sport’s two digital representations are approaching: FIFA 16 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016. Konami unveiled its demo for the latter title to the world this past weekend, while many FIFA 15 players, myself included, were invited by Electronic Arts to take part in a two-week session of the FIFA 16 beta, which ended this past weekend. Every match also followed the exact same pattern. First, two defenders would play a game of ping-pong between each other in their defensive end for minutes at a time until deciding to include the goalkeeper. The next step was to play the ball out to a fullback who then lobbed it to the midfielder/winger with ridiculous pinpoint accuracy at the other end of the field.
Step three sees that offensive player ROCKETZOOM past everyone to the final third for a cross to the box and a chance at goal. Every. Single. Time. Starting off with the gameplay, I immediately found a major difference in terms of the pacing. The pace of the game has been reduced and it no longer feels like an arcade football game unlike its last two installments. Speed has been nerfed and it’s for the good actually, the game feels more realistic and strategic at times. Passing has become difficult that its previous versions as veteran gamers have cited that as the most noticeable change. It requires more precision and effort to direct the passes to the intended recipient which means the player has to work harder to pull out successful passes consistently. If dribbling feels less dynamic on the FIFA 16 demo, with less individuality and less tangible control over the ball, on the other hand despite a smaller diversity of passing animations, its short passing game poses more challenges and offers more rewards.
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On a manual setting, passes can easily go astray, so that the game demands and appreciates focus and rhythm. And though its teams struggle to press as collective units, FIFA still offers a more compact midfield experience, which accurately reflects the real nature of most football matches - even if this sometimes leads to FIFA feeling a little bogged down. Long passes on FIFA are decidedly second best when comparing the two titles, and still need plenty of work: the ball is either chipped up relatively short, or blasted long in which case a bounce usually sends it beyond the confines of the pitch. But crossing works, varying depending on the skill and momentum of the crosser. And over the last few editions of the game FIFA has increasingly made it possible to cross the ball from a direct free-kick.
In a deal reminiscent of football transfer deadline day, EA Sports has today confirmed that it has secured the rights to include 16 Brazilian domestic teams in its upcoming FIFA 16. With Konami holding the exclusive rights to the Brazilian Serie A league itself and all 20 clubs involved for Pro Evolution Soccer 2016, the selection of teams included in FIFA 16 will be available for selection via the ‘Rest of the World’ - option. EA went to great lengths to ensure the introduction of female players was more than simply rendering female faces onto the bodies of the men. Everything from running motion, facial animations and hair movement have been designed specifically for the mode. The shouts of female voices can even be heard during the game. Beyond aesthetics, the movement of the players is different to the men's game.
While the PC version looked decent, getting it running was an exercise in frustration. Every time we tried booting it up, we were met with errors, and EA's support forums were anything but helpful. We tried everything from reinstalling the requisite. Net Framework files to verifying the installation. What finally worked was disabling Origin - the game's client - in the options, after which it started up without a hitch.
That's an odd fix, but considering that the option is there within the client itself, it's possible that EA expects players to do this; though how most people are supposed to divine this is hard to see. This was the case both on Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 64-bit operating systems.
