It is said that FIFA 16 will blunt pacy players

Playing as the women’s teams in Cheap FIFA 16 Coins was perhaps the highlight of the preview session. The slower, more methodical pace of the women’s game (which was very well represented) suited my play style a lot better. The most frustrating part was their inability to volley anything with any real pace, as well as being unable to shoot from more than 25 yards with any chance of scoring. But the most important thing to note here is that it isn’t just a small addition, the women’s game feels totally different and offers a brilliant change if the faster male game gets stale. Adding in the women was certainly no easy task as they do look substantially different to the male players, but by adding them in the overall quality of all the player models, men included, have gone up.

And whilst we’re still stuck with the same old duo of Martin Tyler and Alan Smith for commentators, they now pick up on fan chants and the atmosphere of matches. All of these minor improvements help to keep FIFA 16 fresh. Gameplay has also been improved. Offensive play is more fluid than it was last year, as dribbling has been improved with realistic player agility and balance. The First Touch Control system has been removed and ball physics are now more realistic, so no longer shall the ball go flying off in cartoonish fashion when coming into contact with a player. Goalkeepers have also been given special treatment, with improved reactions, a greater number of save animations and better AI.

Dodgy keepers and defensive woes aside, it’s a good job that the pro players like it, because very soon they’ll be playing FIFA 16 for many hours every day. Something Dave Bytheway is looking forward to. “Being a pro when a new FIFA game comes out is always exciting. Every year, EA try to add in new things to the game that will hopefully improve it. As a pro, we usually find out flaws in gameplay that perhaps a casual player wouldn’t even notice. Additional atmospheric additions include ten player goal celebrations, bench reactions and ball boy animations, which helps keep the flow of the game moving from throw-ins.

But enough about UI, it’s just a means to an end. That end being the FIFA 16 game played on the pitch. The whole match presentation has had an upgrade, with everyone’s favorite Jeff Stelling giving an introduction to the match before handing over to the commentary team. Unfortunately the commentators themselves haven’t had much of an update other than reacting to some of the new crowd behaviors. The crowds within the stadiums are a lot more realistic and relate more to the stadiums which they are in. No matter who you support you can’t deny the fantastic atmosphere when the whole of Anfield is signing You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Support on offense remains hit or miss. Sometimes wingers and even slow strikers make shifty runs at goal which make your life in midfield so much easier. Other times they can’t decide whether to stay back, be a decoy or get behind. Mix this indecision with an errant pass or through ball and the lineman’s flag flies without fail. FIFA 16’s new teammate orders help remedy their behavior to a degree but, at least for center forwards and strikers, the target man’s settings the only consistent one since your guy won’t budge.

FIFA 16 is out for multiple platforms, but per usual, the experiences between the previous-gen consoles and the new ones aren’t the same. Find out what’s different between the two. If I had to put money on it, I’d say that FIFA 16 will blunt pacy players and then tell us it’s an improvement. But nothing is being improved if there’s no clear end point in sight. That, perhaps, is FIFA’s defining contradiction. EA can quite fairly claim to have again delivered the best football game ever made. But every year the developers seem to have less of an idea what that means.

We’ve also received many comments from Phones Review readers. One reader wrote, “Whenever I claim my rewards on the game it says ‘the objectives are currently unavailable Please try again later’ And I had an 83+ rated BPL team ALL GONE. I mean what the hell EA this game. FIX NOW OR ITS A CRAP GAME. Oh my god.” Another reader commented, “When I open the app, it shows me the message ‘we are sorry but there has been a problem connecting with EA Servers’. I press retry and it comes back again and after trying 2-3 times it connects and opens up and instead of showing my facebook profile picture and name, it just shows ‘Facebook User’. When I play a match and return to the main screen the app crashes and when I open the app again it just gives me starting packs to choose from as if I am starting from beginning. Someone please help me because I have spent so many hours in trying to create an amazing team with golden players and I don’t want to lose them because of some stupid server error.”