In previous games, a deflection meant 'oh the ball has bounced down off a defender and away from goal'. In FIFA 15 they mean 'oh holy crap I don't know where that's going because it's based on actual ball/contact physics and isn't just a canned reaction'. It is, in a case of using a word I never expected to use to describe a football game, emergent.
On the pitch though, FIFA 15 simply blows PES 2015 away this year from a pure presentation standpoint. Commentary is still an area Konami leave largely untouched and while FIFA 15’s duo of Taylor & Smith still suffers from repetitiveness, it’s better than the woeful Beglin and Champion double act who read their lines irrespective of what’s happening on the pitch, sometimes even contradicting each other. Konami’s dotted line system for set plays looks slightly silly compared to the slick system FIFA 15 incorporates as well.
The nice thing about FIFA 15 is that if you've played the game over the last few years, odds are that you are able to pick up the new version and get right into it. This is especially true with the new version of the game.
The user interface is almost identical to last years with cards taking up very familiar places. Navigating the game is kind of like riding a bicycle or using any number of other cliches that are about remembering things and that's good because kick-off, Manager Mode, Ultimate Team, and online play are exactly where you expect them to be. That part of the game has barely changed with some alterations to the menu structure and graphical adjustments here and there.
The modes through which FIFA 15 serves all of this do not differ greatly from previous editions. Playing as a manager or as a single professional is still largely the same experience. Player fatigue still has little palpable effect from game to game. Ultimate Team brings in the ability to loan out players they way they are in international club competition. That's critical to enjoyment of this game, considering how much work usually goes into moving and securing the ball in the game's compressed time span. Even more work is necessary this year, as FIFA 15 has increased the number of ways you can be jostled off the ball, and faster defenders seem to hang with you every step of the way. Passing, trapping and dribbling on a sprint is more precarious, but it also makes a counter-attacking strategy more viable.
Slight changes to the visuals and overall presentation paired with slightly frustrating teammate AI yield roughly the same experience as FIFA 14. Of the new features, none are significantly impactful on the core gameplay experience. If you are a diehard FIFA fanatic, you will not be disappointed. And if you are new to the series, FIFA 15 is not a bad entry point. Maybe you will likely notice that thanks to an apparently strict yoga regimen, goaltenders are harder to beat. And despite your teammates having higher emotional intelligence than football intelligence, the game on the pitch is nearly identical to last year’s edition.
