FIFA 15 Hands-On - Improving The Best Football Game
As a huge football fan and admittedly, frequent FIFA 14 player, I simply couldn’t wait to get my hands on FIFA 15. Until FIFA 13, I found that neither EA Sports‘ game nor the competitor (Konami’s PES) satisfied my idea of virtual football anymore; I used to say that football games were in a limbo of sorts, and that perhaps only a mix of the best features of both could produce a truly compelling title.
That all changed with FIFA 14 on next-gen. This version finally grabbed me with its animations, IA and fidelity improvements, and if you asked me, I wouldn’t really know where to improve it. Luckily, EA Sports is a lot more experienced in developing games, and our FIFA 15 hands-on proves that they are on the right track to making their game even better.
For instance, goalkeepers have been overhauled and will now shove the ball away far more than in the past, where they used to grab it most of the time. This doesn’t mean that they’re overpowered though, as there are new ways to score as well - for example, between their legs.
From the looks of it, shooting has been changed as well, and it is difficult to say if for better or worse - it’s just very different from last year’s edition, and thus scoring proved to be quite hard, although those few goals that we managed to do were very nice.
Another reworked system is that of dribbling, and it seems now far easier to do it while controlling a skilled player. For me this definitely a positive change, as FIFA14 rarely allowed for proper dribbling.
Similarly, free kicks (which I always found impossible to manage last year) seem to be extremely easy to pull off - while playing, out of six or seven free kicks from a dangerous position, at least five either became goals or just hit the goal post; this will probably need some tweaking before release.
The general pace seems to be a little faster, and I’m not completely sure I like that. Still, it’s clear that impacts between players have been improved even further, and that extends into injuries as well - my poor Llorente had the worst of a struggle with a defender and, even without the referee calling a foul, had to be substituted immediately. The formation UI is now far more stylish and intuitive, but that’s the least of it; now it’s actually possible to give individual instructions to each player, so that no tactical plan is exactly the same as your opponent’s.
Graphics shows perhaps the biggest improvement. One of the oldest complaints with the FIFA series is that players don’t have the right proportions, but the developers have been gradually fixing this and FIFA15 makes another leap, with bulky players looking very different from nimble ones. Moreover, the pitch now gets progressively dirtier during the match, and there is a lot more banter between players, with EA Sports trying to mimic the real thing.
As with every sports game, a handful of matches can’t be nearly enough to lay down complete judgement. Still, based on our Gamescom 2014 FIFA 15 hands-on, the King will stay on the throne for at least one year longer and that’s why we gave FIFA15 our Best Sports game award for Gamescom 2014. Finally, if you didn’t know this already you’ll be happy to read that FIFA15 will be using the Ignite Engine (the one used on next generation hardware) on PC as well. Release is close, with US/EU/UK slated for 23/25/26 September respectively.