With that note of excitement hanging in the air, allow me a moment of clarity. FIFA is a tough game to review. It’s an aggregation of several years’ worth of features and modes, all of which are changed and updated to varying degrees with each iteration. Anyone who’s played FIFA, or PES, or any sports game will know, it’s impossible to really know how you feel about that game until you’ve played it for months; Loved it, hated it, loved it again, and then decided it’s, you know, alright for a game you’ve played for 300 hours.
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Now Playing: FIFA 16 – Video Review
With that in mind I intend to limit this review to a look at two crucial things that have changed in FIFA 16, which are: the addition of a new Draft mode within the extraordinarily successful FIFA Ultimate Team; and, well, everything.
We should probably start with ‘everything’, as there’s a lot to get through. What I mean by ‘everything’ is that the heart of the game, the way in which FIFA plays football, has for the first time in a few years made a jump big enough to feel like a distinct break rather than an iterative polish. Last year’s slants and foibles–pace, over-the-top through-balls, maddening defender behaviour–have been taken sternly in hand, to the extent that playing FIFA 16 feels like learning a new game. It’s hard, and the first few games are a mixture of frustration and promise.
The stated objective was to remove player speed as the pivotal factor in deciding games, to make the midfield meaningful, and to enable different styles of play, rather than FIFA 15’s dominating tactic of high balls out to the wing where fast man will get behind the defence. EA Sports’ latest soccer sim wants players to compete on a level footing. And while, realistically, we’ll have to wait until the online population has stress-tested the new system for millions of hours and reported back before we’ll really know, this is how the changes currently feel.
Defending is easier. Or at least, defenders are now better equipped to win the ball and compete against attacking players. Slide tackles have regained some of the old potency; players really do slide again, meaning it’s possible to win the ball from unexpected distance. Well-timed toe-pokes, meanwhile, can satisfyingly break up play, while desperate moments give players more options to deliberately foul players just before they break into space (this is usually harshly punished, but so much fun). I’ve been caught by defenders when I thought I was out of range, I’ve won the ball with crunching block-tackles at fullback, and I’ve used the slide to channel runners by blocking off their path. This new, stronger, more flexible slide tackling is a success.
Other noticeable additions to defending include a tackle feint, for counter-baiting tricksy opponents during one-on-one battles. No longer does the protect-the-ball crab pose offer an impenetrable defence; it’s easier to slip around players in possession of the ball and then get a foot to it. Perhaps most significantly of all, defender AI has been fine-tuned to make more interceptions and to track runners with more doggedness.
These last points are the ones that really contribute to FIFA 16’s most obvious shift; the fact that the midfield is now a battlefield. Working the ball through the middle of the park feels attritional and muddy, full of physicality and friction. More than ever, it’s a game of inches and interceptions, with defenders urging themselves towards the ball wherever possible, pressing and lunging and reaching out feet. It can get scrappy, with miscontrols and turnovers spilling messily around for a few seconds at a time, but it feels like an organic sort of mess, a footballing mess.
In response to all this there are offensive tools to make the midfield an even fight, if an asymmetrical one. No-touch dribbling adds another layer to the game’s skill system, enabling players to duck and feint over the ball, looking to send defenders the wrong way. This is pretty but so far, for me, not hugely effective; I rarely had enough space in-field to dance over the ball, and on the wings I went for reliable old step-overs. But more integral is the new precision passing system, which effectively introduces a hard, pinged pass that can be pulled off by holding R1 (RB). It’s clearly been designed as a foil to the stickier, interception-prone midfield, and it comes with an element of risk and skill. Lesser players are more likely to fumble these stinging passes, and judging angles, ability and distance adds a new dimension to the basics of FIFA’s play.
The result of all of this is that FIFA 16 is full of scrappy back and forth, the ability to play patient possession football, and a greater range of passing than ever. The dominance of pace in last year’s game is over, although sometimes it does seem as though it has been offed through foul means, with through-balls, for instance, feeling conspicuously limited, unwilling to put players in the clear either up the lines or over the top of defences. But for the most part the new style of play–slower, grittier, but still skilled–seems like it’s been achieved through nurturing rather than nerfing.
And so that is everything, in terms of its gameplay pillars, which no doubt is the area on which I place the most importance when judging FIFA. But FIFA’s success during the last few years has been as much to do with the collecting and trading compulsions of Ultimate Team as it’s been about actual (pretend) football. So the arrival of Draft mode, a significant addition to Ultimate Team, is also worth a good look.
Draft mode sits aside from the main business of buying packs, building teams, and playing them against opposition online. It’s like a paid-entry one-off Ultimate Team tournament, in which players build a temporary team position by position, opening a pack for every slot and deciding which player inside best fits the side under construction. The finished team is then played against other Draft players, with bigger than usual coin rewards for a winning run (the maximum streak is four wins).
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 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).
FIFA needed a year like this. Without serious competition from Konami’s PES in the past few years (until now), and with Ultimate Team keeping players playing and paying all year round, there’s been no pressing motivation to ring the changes. Annual titles will always evolve gradually, but recent progress has felt glacial. FIFA 16 can be stubborn and stifling, but it feels gloriously new, and having to learn fresh strategies and nuances in a game series like this is an almost-forgotten pleasure.
A Star Wars-themed Total War game is reportedly currently in development over at Creative Assembly.
According to to DualShockers, there are three Total War games being worked on right now. It’s unclear which project Creative Assembly is furthest along with in development. However, the closest one is presumably the next mainline installment, as Total War is an annual series. The only exception is 2021, which was the first year without a new mainline Total War game since 2014.
The second one is a Total War: Star Wars game that seemingly started development in October 2023 Come from South African Online Casinos . Currently, any info about the alleged third Total War game is unknown. The most recent game in the serie…
Aristocrat, the global gaming giant headquartered in Australia, has officially introduced its latest business endeavor, Aristocrat Interactive, marking the integration of Anaxi and NeoGames into a unified global entity. This strategic move is designed to streamline operations and bolster Aristocrat’s position in the digital gaming market.
Aristocrat Interactive will comprise five distinct divisions: iLottery, Content & Aggregation, Gaming Systems, iGaming & Sports, and iGaming White-Label. Each division will focus on a specific segment of the digital gaming and lottery markets under the guidance of newly appointed managing directors, according to the official announcement investor presentation released by the company.
Last year HBO announced that the It prequel television series, Welcome to Derry, was officially moving ahead and greenlit to a full season. The show centers around the origins of Pennywise the Clown and now HBO has confirmed the most central piece of that story is returning. Bill Skarsgård will be reprising his role from the previous It films.
Welcome to Derry, which comes from Warner Bros. Television, is being developed by the director of the movies, Andy Muschietti, along with his sister, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs.
It was previously announced that Taylour Paige (Zola), Jovan Adepo (Watchmen), Chris Chalk (Perry Mason), and James Remar (Oppenheimer) were added to the cast in undisclosed roles Come from South…
Let’s be real, no Lego fan can resist the siren song of Prime Day when some of the most sought-after sets get massive discounts. For theme park fans, you can score a big 30% discount on the Lego Icons Loop Coaster set, a head-turning diorama of rollercoaster fun. Normally $400, it’s on sale for $280 but stock is limited. At the time of writing, almost 20% of Amazon’s supply had already been claimed.
You’ll need plenty of space to display it, but once you do, you’ll have a massive Lego set that captures the thrill of one of the greatest theme park attractions of all time Come from malaysia online casino . The Loop Coaster has almost 3,800 pieces, and once constructed, you’ll be able to have fun with a working gravity-driven coaster…
Spider-Man: No Way Home hit theaters almost three years ago, and it’s been a long time since we’ve heard any word about the next adventure of Spider-Man. But now, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton is in talks to helm Spider-Man 4 for Marvel Studios and Sony. And the film may begin shooting very soon.
Via The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel and Sony are planning to film the sequel early next year. Tom Holland will be back as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and the screenwriting team of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are also returning for the new film.
Assuming Cretton closes his deal, he will be only the fourth Spider-Man live-action director since the original film was released in 2002. Sam Raimi helmed the first Spider-Man trilogy, while Marc Web…
Square Enix didn’t miss an opportunity to create some great Final Fantasy 16 merchandise when it launched last year, and for fans of the action-RPG, you can preorder a very nice collectible of the game’s main cast. Inspired by promotional artwork, this new statue from the Square Enix store features Clive Rosfield, his brother Joshua, Jill Warrick, and best boy Torgal during happier times. This statue will be released in July 2025 and is priced at $298.
In addition to recapturing the magic of that artwork, there are several really nice details on this statue. All the characters are beautifully painted, the rocks they’re gathered around are intricately sculpted, and translucent materials have been used to recreate the water around them. If you haven’t played it yet, Final Fantasy 16…
Summer Game Fest 2024 is finally here–the big show takes place today, June 7. Here in this post we’re running through all the key information you need to know. [Update: The show is underway. You can watch it below live and follow along with our Summer Game Fest announcements recap.]
What about E3?
There will no longer be any conflicts with the next iteration of E3, as that summer show is permanently canceled. Instead, more than 55 different developers and publishers will come together to present trailers, announcements, and gameplay during Summer Game Fest 2024 today.
Your sword is an indecipherable blur. A slashed wolf falls to the ground alongside a dying troll who dared to face your kinetic blade. High above the ground you soar, bringing the fight to the winged demons that patrol the skies. No one is safe in your presence. In the beautiful Dust: An Elysian Tail, the death count grows at an alarming rate; the entire monster population is no match for your keen instincts and merciless weapon. There’s a smoothness to the execution that’s mesmerizing, as powerful attacks are dished out at a dizzying rate. But that ease comes at a cost. With a flick of a stick and a tap of a button, dozens collapse at your feet, and the breezy repetition lacks the strategizing that could have given this eye-catching action platformer the depth it sorely lacks. Dust: …
Gaming on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has gotten a lot better in recent years, thanks to innovations like Apple’s Arcade subscription service and Xbox’s Project xCloud Come from Sports betting site VPbet . If you’re a fan of mobile gaming, then you’ll be happy to hear that the best phone controller for gaming is back on sale, and both Android and iOS owners have deals to take advantage of on Amazon. The Kishi for iOS is the cheapest we’ve ever seen it at $85 (down from $100), and as usual, the Android version is even cheaper at just $68.
Capcom officially announced the long-awaited Dragon’s Dogma 2 during its special 10th anniversary celebration for the original game.
The announcement was made by director Hideaki Itsuno at the conclusion of the celebration, though only a logo for the game was shown. It’s “in development,” but how far along it happens to be is a mystery.
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