For the first time ever, a football game has included Women. Such is the popularity in the Women’s side of the game that EA decided to include some of the international teams into the game. You can pick from the teams that recently took part in the World Cup, and you can ogle Alex Morgan if you’d like. To be honest, the gameplay is almost exactly the same as the men’s side of things, so it’s just really different character models. A little disappointing considering the women’s game is largely different and quite a lot slower and at times more measured. At least the dodgy keepers make sense though. It’s still great that they feature in the game, but at this point it’s just a different ‘skin’. As previously mentioned, the biggest addition to the franchise is the addition of twelve women’s national teams that complement the already huge selection of men’s teams.
The addition of women’s football as an extremely welcomed option to the franchise as gamers finally have the choice to play as very talented footballers such as Alex Morgan and Becky Sauerbrunn who were never playable in prior titles. Bringing women’s football into the game was a great decision which cannot be commended enough. The identities of the individual players do pay off elsewhere on the pitch, however. Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is able to rocket up the pitch at lightning fast speeds courtesy of his considerably towering height and slim figure, yet his shorter and stockier winging companion in the form of Jakub Baszczykowski feels more weighted and dramatically more careful on the ball, far less erratic. The individuality of the vast majority of players shows that developers EA have studied almost every single player in reality and applied their traits to their pixel powered counterparts.
The latest release will include 12 national women's teams, which is perfect timing as the Women's World Cup finals is set to kick off next month in Canada - 11 of the included teams will feature at the tournament. The first 11 squad as well as select reserve players have been facially scanned by EA for accurate representation in the game. Representation doesn't stop at just accurate facial modelling, however, as US international Abby Wambach was also used for motion capture so movement will be distinctly different. Putting aside the longstanding misgivings about how Ultimate Team commodifies the magic of football, and how it sort of encourages kids to gamble, it’s great. Draft takes the pleasure of building a team–piecing together strong chemistry, the thrill of opening packs–and gives it to you without the need to pull your main team apart.
It costs 15,000 FIFA coins (or 300 microtransaction FIFA points) to enter, and of course Draft mode is, in the end, about making more money. But that’s OK if it’s something worth paying for, and Draft offers something more substantial than the chance to simply reveal a randomised selection of players. Building a new team is a complex puzzle that’s different with each Draft, and winning a few games delivers substantial rewards (my first four-game winning streak gave me a total return of around 60,000 coins, which is a fine start to the season). Players cost a lot more now. Even for a low-ranked player from the Barclays Premier League, with a rating of 70-75, you have to pay over 2,000 coins. Good players in the gold level easily cost about 10,000 coins. For instance, in the previous game, Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson could be bought for 2,000 coins; this time, you have to cough up at least 9,000 coins.
It might go higher, this is just the bidding price. Buying popular players like Wayne Rooney is more difficult, for he’s priced at 600,000 coins. You can also buy an entire squad for 30,000 coins or a gold pack with mixed pool of players for 20,000 coins. The long and the short of FIFA 16's online play comes down to the fact that while you may be there to play football, the random opposition that you'll be dealt – nine times out of ten – will be there to play FIFA. There are exploits to be found and they'll find them.
That's where EA need to take control. It shouldn't be possible to pull off a dozen fake shots, a rainbow flick and a few roulette moves and retain perfect control of the ball every single time, or for the matchmaking system to only take into account quit percentages, rather than there being some sort of reporting interface in the game's infrastructure that prevents idiots from being inflicted on innocent people more than a handful of times before they're relegated to the drunk tank.
