FIFA 16 my thoughts..

[J4MES OX4D 9,778]

I dunno if anyone plays this but I picked up FIFA 16 recently after having a couple of years off the series and I cannot believe how fucked up EA Sports have made this once highly-improving franchise. On the old gen, PES struggled whilst FIFA thrived year after year until FIFA 12 when it was a finally a near-perfect representation of football in respects to the technology available and the FIFA games as a whole. FIFA 13 and 14 were merely tweaked in different directions - one being more arcadey and fast paced and the latter being more focused on tactical play throughout the 90. FIFA 16 seems to fuse both these old and unpopular elements and provides a dreadful representation of not just football but how the series has made absolutely no progress even with the new Ignite engine - if anything; it's gone backwards and EA have undone all their good work leading up to FIFA 13. Even the current gen FIFA 14 which was my last game in the series; was far more credible and quality.

 

Firstly, the AI on FIFA 16 is not just the worst I've seen in the series but probably the worst in any football game this millennium. The opposition just pass and pass and pass and pass and pass regardless of the score and it's near impossible to get the ball. The AI has no intelligence or regard to the situation - even if it's losing 1-0 with minutes to go; it will just defensively pass the ball around and waste time on your behalf! They can whip it round and all you can do is watch as your players try and chase whilst draining their energy. The only way to stop this is by fouling the opponents and getting a guaranteed yellow card in the progress from the terrible refs. It makes for some of the most torturous and mind-numbing gameplay. FIFA 14's AI was actually very smart so I'm stunned it's gone this way. This video sums it up perfect - this happens in practically every single game for most of the match when you don't have the ball:-

 

Next up; the passing - this is rage-inducing at the highest level as no matter how good you are, how good the player is or how accurate you can be; passing the ball even just a few yards is based on pure luck. So many passes go astray, to the opposition or don't reach the team mate when even holding the button down for more/max power. You can however do the driven pass (R1+A/X) in which your player slams the ball magically at the feet of others and they can control it with ease but it just looks and feels ridiculous. It's impossible at times just to retain possession or create an attack of any kind as you can lose the ball so easily or you inadvertently pass it backwards despite selecting a player that's ahead of you. 

 

The shooting feels more bland that what it did even a couple of years ago on the current gen FIFA. Back then you could really lamp the ball at goal and the ball itself would move at a realistic pace and find the areas where you were aiming it. The ball physics were fluid and realistic.  In this version; the ball seems to just float or glide and even if your player looks like he's absolutely belted the ball by putting his foot right through it; the end result is usually the ball just drifting to goal. It's exactly the same as FIFA 13's shooting and just as restricted in terms of aiming and animations. The general ball physics in this one are terrible to say the least on top all around the pitch and it leaves for a sour taste of what football really is. The mechanics of the Ignite engine allow for some farcical and nonsensical moments of physically impossible passes, tackles and shots which really distance this series of moving towards a proper simulation. The more animations and tweaks they make to Ignite; the more problems that are created with even more collisions of players and generally bizarre play. Your players also collide with their own more than ever now and if both your players go for the same ball; both lose possession and the opponents can easily swipe the ball. Even your own players will block your own shots and get in the way and there is absolutely no intelligence on display in respect to the AI on your team.

 

As the single player v the AI is out the window thanks to intolerable AI; the MP portion is good thanks to a wealth of features and the fact in your knowledge; no matter how good your real life opponent is at the game; he will fall victim to the persistent shit that plagues FIFA 16 and you both will be left with a seemingly RNG-based algorithm of pure garbage throughout the match. The game seems to punish good players to accommodate the bad ones by allowing so many issues where even someone who has 75% possession can still get beaten 1-0 because the other guy had a bit of rare good luck. It's even easier at times to score from 30 yards than it is to score from 3 and this is just one example of how the game can screw you through no fault of your own. 

 

The presentation has been beefed thankfully but it's still not a patch on games like NBA 2K and MLB The Show which stand head and shoulders above sports games like FIFA in presentation and authenticity. FIFA 16 feels more like FIFA 13 and I'm absolutely shocked that EA are going backwards whilst making no progress in taking the game forwards aside from a few features that are fare outweighed by persistent bullshit that make this the worst possible football 'simulation'. This is a bit of a messy rant but hopefully you'll get the gist

[Madjonny 386]

Can't speak much about the AI as I don't really play offline modes, probably because the AI is so boring and just plays keep ball...

Passing sure is infuriating! Play ultimate team, 100 chemistry, every player on full 10, and players like Xabi alonso, Pirlo etc are just as shite at simple passes than a 50 rated bronze player...

Playing every FIFA over the past few years this is certainly the least infuriating of recent times, 16 has more games where it feels even, 14 and 15 almost every game just felt like it had it in for you from the first whistle...

[phil bottle 9,567]

I've played the recent FIFA's but they're not a patch on (return of the king) PES. I don't care all that much about my team being North East London, it's pretty accurate* to be fair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*fuck south london**

 

**sorry dave

[ChaosGladiator 806]

Try Pro Clubs. Most annoying game mode ever due to AI. If you don't have anyone playing as "Any" the AI will easily give away 1-2 goals nearly every game to the oposition. Weirdly enough this doesn't happen to people my team has played against and we can't for the life of us figure out what they are doing differently.

 

Also I agree that the AI has become very... Chelsea-ish in terms of possession. What's more annoying is that once they actually attack they score even on lower difficulty. On my Arsenal career mode I got Petr Cech to 89 rated and he still let in easy goals if they were headers. Keepers can't deal with headers in this game for some reason.