I had a lot of fun playing with the women's national teams, but it's limited to a one-off tourney. Regardless, developer EA Canada's creation of new player models pays off in how the players feel and move on the pitch, which helps it feel unique. FIFA 16 isn't going to blow you away with any single feature. Instead, it falls back on its strong gameplay to provide a fresh experience. “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”. “FIFA has aged rapidly this year thanks to Konami's offering. FIFA 16 does feel incrementally better than 15, but PES 2016 feels miles better than both.”
At the end of the day, while defending has its merits and passing play is nice to watch, football is all about the goals. Therefore, FIFA must be perfect when it comes to thrashing the ball into the net. Trickled finesse shots don’t feel as unstoppable on FIFA 16, and if you don’t put any power into a shot with a quick tap of B/O, it won’t cause any problems. But if you judge the power correctly you’ll be rewarded with a fluid, impressive finish. Shots can feel very powerful, and glancing blows against the post feel unpredictable. The ‘no touch dribbling’ feature will take some time to master, but there are certainly some benefits. It won’t change the way you play forever, though it will allow you to pull of some stunning moves with technically-gifted players.
Rounding out the top five is Messi's teammate Luis Suarez and FC Bayern Munich stars Manuel Neuer and Arjen Robben, who all have 90 overall ratings. With only a matter of days left before the game's release, there's still more to cover. 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. 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. Two new user controls help the game play truer, though one, the "no-touch dribbling" modifier, has a steeper learning curve and is best employed when controlling one of the game's top players. It's a means of creating additional space between the ball and its handler, allowing for feints and tricks to misdirect the defender. In my novice hands, the no-touch dribbling modifiers (there are two degrees, one with the left bumper, another with the left bumper and the right trigger) seemed almost gratuitous and less effective than sprinting, stopping and starting using the standard stick controls.
Other changes are rather more superficial. I’m sure the cameramen that patrol the sidelines are a new addition, or they’re certainly more prominent than I recall. This year, you can run towards them after scoring to prompt a new celebration. And there’s a bizarre new feature that sees Tyler pass over to a hopelessly wooden Alan McInally, who’ll report goals coming in from other matches. It’s unclear whether these goals are drawn from online games being played simultaneously, or are simply invented as part of the illusion that you’re taking part in a kind of interactive Sky Sports broadcast, but either way they’re an unnecessary distraction. And it’s a pity no one saw fit to take out Alan Smith’s immersion-shattering reminders of his ability to recognise exactly where the ball entered the net.
FUT Draft continues the tradition of FIFA Ultimate Team being EA's crown jewel. Players can pay with coins or FIFA Points to enter a lottery draft where you choose a formation and pick all-star players for every position, before taking part in up to five games in a knockout tournament. It is as addictive and brilliant as always, with price ranges feeling far less invasive than when they were first introduced, and thoughts already turning to the litany of excellent teams that can be produced.
