This weekend, I will be doing a three-part mini series, celebrating and analysing the release of the most successful and popular football game series of all time. I am, of course, speaking of the immortal FIFA series. A franchise that has generated upwards of £3.7 billion since its inception in 1993, the game has made its way into the hearts (and homes) of football fans and gamers across the country. Last year's edition of the game has seen over 4.5 billion goals scored, at a staggering average of 13.3 million per day. The hotly anticipated release of their '14' version, which hit the shelves last Friday, sold over 2.5 million copies on the day of release. Having got my copy on the day, I have decided to see whether FIFA 14 can be considered to have achieved its primary objective: to be realistic.
This first post of the series will focus predominantly on reviewing the game itself. I will examine what makes FIFA 14 arguably the most realistic football game of all time, and assess just how realistic I really think the game is. By looking at the progression of the gameplay (and the graphics) over the past few years, we will get some indication of whether they are moving in the right direction for realism. I will also be giving my opinion on whether it is possible to make FIFA too realistic, where it being true to life actually works to its detriment.
Over the last few years, FIFA fans have seen a dramatic overhaul of the vast majority of gameplay and graphics involved in the game. Since the transfer of the game from the PS2 to PS3 platforms, we have seen a plethora of advances made. With the introduction of HD, the look, feel and sound of the game is far more realistic than that to which I had been accustomed in my younger years. I will examine the beneficial changes and the pitfalls in more detail later, but now I will briefly run through the major changes made to the game in the last three editions. FIFA 11, the first game I played in HD, saw the gameplay develop significantly from the previous year, and began to concentrate more on the touch and moment of players, with close control generally speaking the way that games were won and lost. The defending, whilst improved on previous editions, remained sluggish and primitive, with diving into challenges the only real way of reclaiming possession. It meant that teams could easily be cut open with passing and touch alone, and as a result many more goals than normal were scored. In terms of realism, the movement and passing between players became more realistic, but the instantaneous control and difficulty defending means that the series still had some way to go.
FIFA 12 saw major alterations to the methods of defending, with interesting (and often infuriating) lessons to be re-learnt about how to best play the game. The touch remained perfect, and therefore unrealistic, but it therefore became far more difficult to rack up the huge scores that happened the previous year. The addition of 'second man marking', where a player can send a computer player to challenge the man on the ball, also helped prevent this. However, FIFA 12, unlike any FIFA I had previously experienced, was overly reliant on the speed of the individual. A simple long ball for a quick player to run onto was sufficient to score the majority of goals. This prevented the need for any real possession football, and in my mind, ruined the realism of the game. It also had the knock-on effect of nullifying the difference between gold, silver and bronze players, as any quick player could get in behind the defence and finish. It meant that a player like Omar Cummings, from the MLS, was much easier to play with than Wayne Rooney or Didier Drogba, adding to lack of realism.
FIFA 13 saw fewer major overhauls than its predecessor, but there were still a few changes that were made to find that elusive realism that the EA Sports team so crave. Touch was the main focus for last year's offering, with this aimed to create an element of difference between the various levels of player. To an extent, this worked, as gold players did control the ball more quickly than their silver and bronze counterparts. However, there was no real differentiation between the different types of gold, silver and bronze player. For example, in reality, David Silva will have a considerably better first touch than the likes of Peter Crouch, but this was not really addressed on the game. The speed remained an issue, as players with high speed kept an unfair advantage over all other types of player. This is proven by the sheer amount of online Ultimate Team players that select only the fastest players in their teams. This plagued the FIFA games, denying them that realism that they desired.
So how have FIFA rectified these errors? And are there any areas that could be improved upon? Certainly, the touch issue has been rectified. There is a marked difference between those more creative players and those that are more defensive. There is also a clear difference between the three different classes of player, meaning that it has now become much harder to player with bronze and silver players than it is to play with those top quality individuals. Speed has also been lessened as an essential attribute, as the strength of players has now been taken into effect. Stronger players can now prevent those quicker players from exploiting the space quite as easily, making the balance of the game more realistic. However, it still does appear that speedy players have retained a small advantage, meaning that whilst this is a step in the right direction, there is still some way to go.
Despite the positives, this newest FIFA installment has thrown up a few new problems, which calls into question the realism debate. All of these have been discovered whilst playing the game, some of which will be quick fixes with future patches, and some will take far more work. The first of these is the fact that on occasions, if a player is not passed the ball directly to his feet, he just stops dead, allowing the opposition to come and steal the ball unchallenged. Whilst this is only a minor change, it remains a fault with the game, and one could argue that it denies the EA Sports team the 'realistic' tag. A second problem that I have unearthed is that the new shooting system, whilst perhaps making shooting within the box more realistic, does this to the detriment of long-range shots. Gone are the days where you knew exactly where to shoot from and curling it beautifully into the top corner, and this is undoubtedly a good thing, as it removes the element of predictability. However, I think that FIFA have perhaps gone a stage too far in this process, meaning that long shots are now much harder to score, and for the lower leagues, they are next to impossible. If we look at action from the Football League, we often see individual moments of brilliance or the odd 30 yard screamer. In FIFA 14, these have become even more difficult to do, meaning that the vast majority of goals (or mine at least) are scored within the confines of the 18-yard area. Not particularly realistic.
So has FIFA 14 become the most realistic football game in history? I would say yes. There are issues that need to be solved, but I think that absolute realism is an impossible goal that they will be forever chasing. We therefore have to applaud how close they come on a yearly basis, as some of the graphics and gameplay are superb. However, the final thing I will say on the matter of realism in this post is, is it really a good thing for FIFA to be truly realistic? If we look at fixtures that take place across the world, there are an awful lot of appalling games of football, with the ball marooned in the centre of the pitch, scrappy and sloppy passing and tackling, wayward shots and overhit crosses. Would it really be enjoyable for a significant portion of game time to be spent playing matches like that? Yet this is apparently the goal that EA are chasing. I would argue that ensuring the game is enjoyable comes above and beyond the realism. If you want enjoyable realism, continue to add detail to the stadiums, pitches and fans, so that the atmosphere matches that of a football stadium. The makers have done a remarkable job with FIFA as a series. I simply worry about where they will go with it from here. If it is towards true realism, I fear that there will be a step backwards from previous editions of the game.
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