The more than things modify, the more than they stay the same. This review is going to be a little different. I figured I'd do information technology via bullet-points, since that'southward the language sports games tend to speak these days.

What's New

  • FIFA's crown gem has long been the fact information technology holds the rights to the English language Premier League, the world's biggest and most pop annual football license. But FIFA xv is the outset yr EA has really doubled down on that property, and it's fantastic. All 20 Premier League teams have their own stadiums in the game, there are custom match intros and more expansive commentary. It'due south taken years but, so long as you're playing an EPL game, FIFA 15 tin finally encounter the matchday presentation of American sports games.

What's Inverse

  • Goalkeepers have had a significant upgrade, and it makes a big difference. Not necessarily when information technology comes to their behaviour - though I accept seen a few more than instances of "sweeper keeping" than usual - but their structure. In terms of your shots finding the back of the net, goalkeepers used to be a giant hitbox. You either got it by them or y'all didn't. This year their stance and movement really makes a divergence. I've scored a lot of goals where the ball has dipped under the keeper'southward butt, or deflected off an extended shin, and also I've seen some terrific saves exist fabricated with shoulders and knees. It really helps make shooting and scoring (or not scoring) a lot more realistic.
  • A large complaint I've had with FIFA over the years has been its fright of counter-attacking football game. Through-balls rarely found open space, and fifty-fifty when they did, defenders could easily run downwards attackers. Not this year. EA accept done a complete 180, with through-balls cutting easily into wide open pastures and attackers able to bolt through onto goal once they've got the ball. Some people will mutter this throws out balance, but as someone who enjoys this style of football - and let's not forget, a lot of teams score a lot of goals like this - I honey it.
  • Ball move has been drastically inverse, and while it doesn't grab headlines or dominate dorsum-of-box marketing, it's the biggest alteration (and improvement) to this twelvemonth's game. Both shots and crosses take a lot more fluidity and variety in their delivery, meaning you don't just run into assurance come in forth the same handful of anticipated trajectories. Crossing in particular feels a lot punchier than it used to, and long passes along the deck don't experience like they're stuck in the mud.

What Needs to Change

  • The way the game has opened up attacking football is welcome, but only in terms of passing. There'south a weird tendency with AI-controlled players to take the brawl and run, regardless of who they are of where they are on the pitch, which at times can get ridiculous. Steve Sidwell is not Lionel Messi, but FIFA 15 thinks he is.
  • EA's roster of licensed international teams is a joke. While it boasts loads of teams from all over the globe, few are using their actual logos and kits, which makes international tournaments/games look strangely depression-rent for a series that otherwise prides itself on its licensing and presentation.
  • I get what EA was trying to do with the global scouting network in career mode. Make it a more organic process, finish people simply poaching the best players on the planet at the click of a thumbstick. But what they've got here is too slow and too cumbersome. I can empathize having to scout unknown xviii twelvemonth-old kids from the Bundesliga, but do I actually demand to assign a scout to tell me how Jack Wilshere plays?
  • We know, Ultimate Team is now the cornerstone of not just the game, but EA'southward business organization surrounding the game. So it'southward peak priority. But I wish elements like Exist A Pro and Manager mode were given a similar level of attention. They oasis't seen any real changes in years, and while series similar NBA2K forge unique sports game experiences - turning them into a commercialised RPG - FIFA lags well behind for those who game generally on their own.

What Doesn't Need to Change

If you don't play FIFA, know that FIFA's loading screens give you all these little mini-games to play while the code crunches in the background. I wish every game did this. Information technology really helps kill the time, and when you jump from FIFA to a game like Madden, it just crushes yous that you have to sit down and watch a static screen instead of trying a few passes.

FIFA has the best menu arrangement in video games. Seriously. I don't know how long they spent designing information technology, or how much coin, but it's clear, uncomplicated, intuitive and fast.

Look, I like FIFA. I've liked information technology for a long time, and even when the game has an off year, I've stuck by it and enjoyed my time with information technology. This yr is no unlike. The EPL presentation is fantastic, and the changes to attacking and shooting actually open the game up.

Simply...I'chiliad starting to get a little restless. After Pro Evo's technical strides terminal twelvemonth (its 2022 game looks and animates better than EA's 2022 game), my willingness to sit down downwardly and devote dozens/hundreds of hours year-in, yr-out to FIFA is no longer guaranteed. This year, for instance, one time I'd tested out all the new stuff and explored the stuff that had changed, I had trivial involvement in playing for fun. It just all felt as well familiar, too similar to the FIFA I'd only stopped playing a couple of months ago.

EA will tell us that their "Ignition" engine was a massive alter, merely long-time FIFA fans will know better. The animation has gotten a little smoother, the shirt textures a little more detailed, but deep down, in how the players movement on the pitch and how everything feels through your controller, the bones of this series haven't seen a full overhaul since FIFA 07. And it's all starting to feel a bit stale.

Hopefully, with the transition between console generations a piddling less painful by next year, we'll be able to play something fresher when FIFA 16 comes around. That or nosotros could all accept a much closer expect at Pro Evo when it'due south out afterwards in the year, since last year'due south overhaul promised so much...