Rebuilt for next-gen using the new Ignite Engine, FIFA 14 doesn’t look drastically different from current-gen. Put a controller in your hands, however, and the changes are surprisingly significant. Let’s get the graphics out the way first: it is nicer-looking, with improved likenesses, cloth and grass textures. But often you’re too far away from the action to truly notice how much better it looks. What is more apparent is the smoother gameplay. Improvements to the frame-rate mean camera pans and quick transitions in play are handled much better. The only issue I noticed was in Be A Pro, where the game often stuttered when using the Pro camera angle.
"Come quick!" the PES fan shouts, as if peering from his bedroom window and seeing fresh snow. "It's back!" It happens every year - this hoped for resurgence. Later, brash words are rescinded and shoelaces gazed at. PES 2014 earned a deserved four stars in our recent review, but against what a hopeful community tells you, this is not the year PES beats Fifa. That's the curious thing about their great rivalry. PES continually improves and Fifa doesn't - at least to the naked eye. Yet, Fifa is, still, better.
After a decade of juggling between the two, I've settled on this analogy: PES is chess, Fifa is draughts. Both have their virtues, but draughts works better as a video game, more immediate, easier on beginners, and generally more fun. Fifa 14’s new Pure Shot mechanic fits all three criteria in one. Essentially, efforts on goal have a greater tendency to dip, bend and rise, giving them ferocious unpredictability. It's difficult not to feel a flutter in your gut as the ball falls to your long distance specialist on the edge of the box.
In terms of features FIFA 14 sees a maturation of the same line-up as FIFA 13. There hasn’t been an influx of new game modes, so all the old guard are here: Ultimate Team is back, as is Career mode, multiplayer and the standard quick play. Love it or hate it, Ultimate Team is more or less the same. EA says the mode has been a hit, but we found it hard to connect emotionally with your randomly assembled team. For the uninitiated, the aim of Ultimate Team is to pick your team based on chemistry, creating a playing unit based on more than raw ability and stats.
Most substantial is Ultimate Team, which, EA is keen to tell us, hosts 3.5m matches daily. No huge improvements here, but it does streamline the previously arduous organization of online single matches and seasons, and the ability to change kit numbers and set-piece takers in addition is community wish fulfillment. New chemistry styles are welcome, too. There are a variety of them; you can, for instance, apply a defensive chemistry style to a defender in order to boost their performance. It's contributes fresh complexity towards chasing the rainbow of your dream team.
Matches have a much greater flow and sense of control thanks to the increased number of animations, and switching the play is faster thanks to the ability to drill a flat pass. Players now open up their body shape automatically on their approach to strike a ball, changing its flight and removing the chance for defenders to intercept. FIFA strives to mimic the off-pitch strategy and on-pitch tactics of real football, and in the 12 months spent with each annual iteration, its fans become accustomed to the weight of its physics and the subtleties of its animations. As one of those fans, I've learned the possible arcs of an aerial through ball, and the movements of teammates off the ball. When you're so carefully attuned to the small details that make up a game, even a sequel that changes very little still manages to change everything.
Its best FIFA 14 offers truly exciting final-third action, with considered changes of direction combining effectively with the new ability to hold off challengers and pivot on the ball to make picking passes and angles to break down defenses unusually satisfying. Commendably, the system seems as robust on the break - fast passes, weighted through balls - as it does during sustained pressure, with players moving the ball around a packed penalty area.
