Fifa 16 review… Play Beautiful boring and slow
Hi to all you FIFA fans out there… well FIFA 16… it sucks really doesn’t it. I have been playing FIFA for over a decade now and I’m finally done with it. I would still argue that this is the best football game out there with the licensing and gameplay still better then anything PES has to offer right now. However on to EA’s disgusting, shameless money grabbing ways.
Usually I would introduce a premise of the game… but its football and if you are reading this then I assume you have an interest in football so I do’t really need to give a background intro but if you do… Foot kicks ball to another foot, sometimes people use their faces and 2 people between some sticks can use their hands to also deflect the ball. Pretty low level IQ need… if Wayne Rooney can understand it you can… anyone can,,, I even Bet Kim Kardashian gets its… actually probably not… but I digress onto FIFA 16!
PROS
FUT Draft
FIFA 16 introduced basically 1 new feature “fut drafts” which is a good idea that means people are given a choice of some of the best players in the game in a certain position and are given random players to build a squad with, this deserves a tick, however you know most people will eventually want to progress in divisions and the novelty will soon ware off especially considering you have to pay a pretty hefty sum of 15,000 coins (about 30 games worth of coins not including player upkeep) or REAL MONEY which is far more then the the actual prize winnings which take 4 games to get there.
Online
The co-op works well and FUT can be a very rewarding experience I would argue the strength of FIFA lies entirely in FIFA ultimate team (FUT) and co-op/ seasons online as the buying and selling of players, raising coins and climbing divisions is still addictive as anything I have played in a video game and its good to see your teams go from a group lowly players to your weekend favourites household names . But of course this is ruined by MICRO F***ING TRANSACTIONS in the form of S***TY QUALITY PACKS…
But the competition between 2 players in FIFA is an intense feeling, playing 1 vs 1 game in season when you need points is a thrilling feeling and EA have certainly got that drama and momentum swings and crazy moments which are fantastic even if you lose and want to destroy everything with your fists after you concede a 90 minutes goal despite the fact you tackled the guy three times and the ball just fell to him every damn time.
Buying and selling cards
The collection of and trading of cards reminds of me stickers and swapping stickers in the school yard to fill out the stickers, FUT takes this to a whole new level in a world wide web way and being able to use these players you buy and then being able to sell them on for profit to make new teams is a fascinating and a particularly appealing part of playing FUT for me. This remains a real strength of the game.
if you want to play online you have to get this game as it is a yearly fixture… its the same with Call Of Duty in order to get games, you need the newest I’m afraid.
Arena/ some of the skill games
Some of these are pretty good, the arena is fun just to play about although I wish there was more of a free arena where you can put more players in a free situation rather then just the 1 vs 1 (I know there used to be this but I haven’t found this option in recent years let me know if they are and I’m missing them). I like the advanced shooting game a lot particularly. However again I’m going to have to nit-pick, there are only 10 drills for each advanced segment meaning you get the same 10 drills over and over again negating any sort of challenge. There needs to be a more dynamic system in place.
Women
Finally. But woefully limited right now, not even clubs.
Honestly how can you not love her?
CONS
So what makes FIFA 16 run as Smoothly and morally clean as Sepp Blatter’s FIFA Leadership?
Gameplay is too slow and laborious
So yeah Fifa 16 is as slow as my gran after 3 joints of hardcore weed. The superfast feel of FIFA 15 has been thrown away for a “realistic feel” So every player has a first touch as graceful as a 2 tonne bull in a china shop during an earthquake. This grinds down play to a boring halt waiting for players to turn and deliver the ball feels like an age whilst the defenders pouch like cats nipping the ball away too many frustrating times. Why did EA nerf skills so much, because footballers don’t really do them in real life… ITS A GAME EA skills are fun we don’t want a simulator we want a fun game.
Passing
Who the hell complained about the passing last year?! It was fine?! my complaints were about crap goalkeeper AI and overpowered sprint dribbling. Typical EA: don’t fix the servers that make Per Mertesacker look like Usain Blot but instead make the pitch have “memory” goalkeepers are rubbish – lets change passing. The powerbar charging up last year and releasing when you were happy made a lot of sense … I can’t tell you how many times this year I wanted to pass it back to a player about 5 metres away from the ball and I’ve ballooned it towards the international space station behind my own goalkeepers head for an opposition corner or throw it.
So many things need fixing
1.Why are goalkeepers so useless especially at the near post… you know, the post they cover in games.
2.Why are the shooting animations so much worse this year?
3.Why is career mode still wholly under appreciated by EA… oh yeah you can’t use real money in it…
4. Why are there games where my goalkeeper is like a cat as high on steroids as a Russian athlete, stopping things like a cross between a spiderman and Mrs Incredible and other games where I might as well have a broken toilet as a goalkeeper… why a broken toilet you ask? Because they are both full of… well you know. Like this goalkeeper who kept out a header from inches like a robot Jesus.
5. The game is again through ball heavy and fails to reward good play as much as sprinting.
6. Why is your game so one sided sometimes? I play a player who is a level above or below the weaker play gets given the gift of the holy grail and the weaker players play as though they have been made into 11 mini- jesus’s whilst mine have turned into 11 Oscar Pistorius’ without a gun or his legs on.
7. The Servers…. In fact when I went to record this the game crashed during matchmaking…. twice.
8. Ibarbo can barely get into Watford’s team, yet on FIFA he is a god smiting down mere mortals like Alexis Sanchez, Hazard and Co and rendering my defences as useful as a split condom.
There are many other bits and pieces stupid A.I here and there crap referee decisions, ridiculous luck that seems to swing around like a tennis ball at Wimbledon and all that kind of stuff.
It’s like Gambling addiction
Seriously EA, your micro transaction pay to win bollocks giving rich players all the best stuff and rewarding people who have already payed £40 for a game to keep on paying throughout the year… It’s a swindle, the likelihood of you getting Ronaldo and Messi is next to nothing and in my opinion creating a gambling addiction… It is exactly like a gambling addiction, you get hooked on the game and in a bid to keep winning you will pay more and more you always spend more and more especially with those special packs they release as they dangle the promise of eventually getting that rare card in-front of you like a sadistic devil fisherman who’s mum doesn’t love him so he hates the world.
There just aren’t enough changes from previous editions
On a serious note, I have gone back to Fifa 14 and looked at the gameplay. Fifa 14 was the largest step up a Fifa has ever done which was taking the game to next gen. After looking at the gameplay there is no real difference, that means you have paid about £80 in the last 2 years for polish. A lot of games do that as a patch for free. The fact that we keep buying FIFA is telling that we want football games and we will take the best one out there. FIFA 14 I played over 1,000 games Last year half that and this year My record stands at 18-2-8. I haven’t played the game in a month since recording the gameplay for the blog. FIFA is becoming very stale and something needs to freshen up the series.
In conclusion
Its the best Footie game around, it is a decent playaround. I have played FUT to the death the last 2 years, it’s November and I have played just 30 games of Fifa this year. That should tell you everything you need to know.
But people will continue to buy it year in year out, including myself and even getting the 40 free packs edition. Instead of going and working hard on development for many years like most other AAA titles and then they relase something new. FIFA and COD just pump ou tthe say stuff year in year out. It’s our (and PES’ for being rubbish) fault. Nothing can stop people from picking up the new model every year… I would know I continue to buy them and give them another £40 every year… some people spend thousands and thousands for a game that really lasts 9-12 months… madness.
That and every year FIFA has game breakers, like Sepp Blatter. Last year it was the goalkeepers. The goalkeepers before were fine, now they are very poor. This year the passing does my head in. Neither needed changing and yet they did.
4/10 Rating- I think this FIFA is dull, boring and lacks anything new or interesting to keep my interest, but as I’ve sad a hundred times before, its the best football video game. Despite that I think I will be trading this in tomorrow and continuing with FIFA 15, which is faster more fun and not really that different.
ThatHonestGamingGuy 