FIFA and I have a real love hate relationship built on a foundation of respect. I like Soccer games, I think they’re fun and a great two player experience. On the other hand I hate when I think I’m doing well in a game, like FIFA, and the difficulty takes a rocket ship to the highest level and continues on while I’m sitting in my chair with my mouth open wondering what happened. This has been how FIFA and have got along for the years that I’ve been playing FIFA games. Each year they look better and have newer moves, but all that means is I’m going to get destroyed by a great looking graphic of a real person.
The FIFA 16 Demo starts off by putting you right into a friendly match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, which isn’t fair because they make you play as Real Madrid and my favorite team is FC Barcelona. Oh FIFA, you’ve done it again. You’ve started me on a great pathway with an amazing looking intro and commentary, then kicked me in the junk and tossed me a control. I always wonder how these games improve on graphics each year, it’s like they have a graphics machine that they crank up a notch each year. I also have to give a shot out to the crowd creator, I have never seen such a diverse bunch of spectators in a game. I’d also like to point out that the outfits are the realistic looking things in the game, they do great with the wind and motion that they would do when a person is moving.
The game does a little bit to help you out with the controls as tip assistant tells you what buttons to push for certain actions and a pointer shows you where the ball will go when you pass it. The one thing I really need to work on, is me pressing “A”. I am forever pressing “A” to pass the ball, then I press it again for no reason and my player kicks to the other team or out of bounds. If I take my button fumble away, I’d say that these controls mix the old with a new flare, so the gamers following FIFA each year won’t have to learn a new button layout.
The game was pretty forgiving when it came to game play, until I scored a goal. I always see the difficulty move up if you score the first goal in a FIFA game, like the artificial intelligence is actually getting mad. This seems to be the same thing in every FIFA game I’ve played and I don’t know if it’s programmed to do that or it’s just me.
As I mentioned above, the graphics looks beautiful and they seem to have really improved on their motion capturing skills. Every mannerism is shown and even the celebrations are unique. The game comes out later this year, but I’m not sure if I should buy it again and get burned or if this is the year I’ll flourish.