The activity levels of your FIFA 16 defense have been magnified ten-fold as your CPU teammates play passing lanes, cover gaps and track back on defense. Although the individual ratings don’t show it, it feels as if player awareness has received a huge boost. Breaking up attacks never felt so rewarding even if it means that you have to put in the tackle yourself as for some reason Tactical Defending still lacks a “Teammate Pressure” button. One area in which FIFA 15 nailed was fouls and so far my experience with FIFA 16 has produced mixed results as some matches will see aggressive pressure applied by the CPU (especially in the Barclays Premier League) resulting in a lot of fouls while others will produce maybe 2 fouls all match (Default World Class - 10 min halves). A deeper dive into the tactics, instructions and mentalities of players and teams might lead to the root of this issue. But as of right now fouls by the CPU are a bit on the low side. I am happy to say that handballs, broken in FIFA 15, work now.
For the first time ever female players are now available in the game and this is a really interesting move from EA. With the recent Women’s World Cup interest in the women’s game has never been high and this seems the right time for them to introduce this. When you’re playing with female teams it’s worth remembering that their points system is entirely different. So even though Carli Lloyd is 91 don’t expect her to play like Andres Iniesta in his peak. If you approach it as a totally new game mode you’ll have a lot of fun, it’s refreshing playing with a huge batch of players that no-one has used before. People making comparisons to the men’s game are wasting their time, just like in real life both have advantages and disadvantages on each other, it’s best just to treat them separately. With that in mind the women’s teams get a big thumbs up, a solid addition from EA and you can tell they’ve really worked hard to make it as authentic as possible.
The catch, and the reason some FIFA 16 players may be disappointed, is that there is a price of admission to the mode. Because the mode gives out player packs regardless of how far you make it, EA Sports has decided that players need to pay 15k coins/300 FIFA Points just to enter the mode. You get a free entry on your first go, but after that, you have to pay. This price is fair when it comes to the game's economy - you at least recover the entry fee in player packs if you make it through a match or two - but this also means that friends hanging out on a weekend can't just fire up the mode and see how well they do. Perhaps a no-rewards option could have been offered, where players could simply play through FUT Draft offline and see what kind of teams they can build. For all intents and purposes, each cycle with FUT Draft costs the equivalent of $2.67, and that’ll only get you one match with the drafted team should you lose the first before having to start all over again.
On the pitch there is very little to complain about. On easier difficulties attacking down the wings and cutting back inside seems a bit too easy, and there is still the odd questionable physics interaction between players, but other than that there is very little wrong. That doesn’t mean it’s quite perfect; there have been a few things such as strange own goals and misplaced passes directly to my striker within the last five minutes of a close game that made it almost feel like the game was giving me as much of a chance a possible to score. But overall it is incredibly satisfying to play and even more so to score a goal. The key difference between the two is that FUT Draft is pay-to-play. There is an entry fee of 15,000 “Coins” or 300 “FIFA Points”. Coins are earned through playing FIFA naturally, but that’s still an opportunity cost to participate, while the “points” are purchased through the marketplace.
The pace is slower, and the players are less physical, which is reflected in their animations and interactions, and this makes the matches more tactical and also more influenced by mistakes and by random interactions. Passing and movement are more important, and playing the tournament built around women's team offers a welcome change of pace. The crowd chants and reactions in FIFA 16, especially in the Premier League, are the standouts, making it a real joy to play the big matches in an atmosphere that all but forces gamers to put in a great performance.
