Experience immersive soccer gameplay with enhanced realism, women's teams, and the engaging FIFA Ultimate Team Draft mode
Experience immersive soccer gameplay with enhanced realism, women's teams, and the engaging FIFA Ultimate Team Draft mode
Vote (232 votes)
Program license Full
Developer Electronic Arts
Version (FIFA 2016)
Works under Windows
Vote
(232 votes)
Developer
Electronic Arts
Works under
Windows
Program license
Full
Version
(FIFA 2016)
Pros
- The first in the franchise to come with female players.
- Like the various games before it, FIFA 2016 adds new players, stadiums, crowd chants and more. All of these make FIFA 2016 the unparallelled leader in soccer authenticity.
- Graphics, crowds and more remain first-rate and the best of any available soccer series.
Cons
- The game again fails to add a new "killer innovation" that makes it seem like FIFA 2016 is just FIFA 2015 with a new coat of paint.
- Gameplay features like player selection are all too easy to mismanage, often making players make bad decisions.
FIFA 2016 is the latest version of the world-class soccer franchise.
Like the games before it, FIFA 2016 comes with a variety of improvements over the previous year's version. This includes new and updates players, teams, stadiums, and over 900 new crowd chants. It also added a slew of new weather features and the use of vanishing spray during free kicks.
From a gameplay perspective, there are a good amount of innovations. Dribbling is improved with the addition of a no-touch dribbling system. However, critics noted that a variety of gameplay features, like crosses and player selection, felt off. The ball sometimes feels too slow, and defensive players can often feel overpowered, even when compared to forwards who they should never be able to keep up with.
What is unparalleled in FIFA 2016 is the atmosphere. The wide array of stadiums feel real. The details, like crowd chants, colors, and emotions, feel top-notch and are absolutely unmatched by any other game.
FIFA 2016 also had a first for the series: It became the first in the franchise to allow players to play with female players, giving players the ability to play with one of twelve Women's National Teams. Citing the need to stick to their legendary authenticity, the game engaged in extensive motion capture with female stars like Alex Morgan. For the moment, the series stuck to only allowing you to play with the national teams, but critics and fans alike praised the inclusion of Women's teams as an excellent and necessary start.
It was also noted that playing the Women's teams feels real. The tempo is slower, more like a women's game, and the players unquestionably play differently than their male counterparts. Again, FIFA is known for its authenticity and playing with the Women's teams delivers.
FIFA 2016 also comes with a new way to play: The FIFA Ultimate Team Draft, in which players can select the best soccer players from around the world and assemble them into a new squad. The players you gain access to depends on the formation you select to use. What is most interesting here is it is about more than just player skill: You have to select players whose "chemistry" will align. This mode then makes you play four games of increasing difficulty, and the prizes you win in this game can carry over into other game modes.
If there was any criticism of FIFA 2016, it is that, once again, there aren't a ton of new innovations in gameplay when compared to the previous years. This leaves users feeling like they are just playing a slightly improved version of FIFA 2015.
FIFA 2016 was released on all major platforms, including the current generation video game consoles, computer, iOS, and Android. You can still download the game today.
Pros
- The first in the franchise to come with female players.
- Like the various games before it, FIFA 2016 adds new players, stadiums, crowd chants and more. All of these make FIFA 2016 the unparallelled leader in soccer authenticity.
- Graphics, crowds and more remain first-rate and the best of any available soccer series.
Cons
- The game again fails to add a new "killer innovation" that makes it seem like FIFA 2016 is just FIFA 2015 with a new coat of paint.
- Gameplay features like player selection are all too easy to mismanage, often making players make bad decisions.
Set for launch on September 24th, FIFA 16 is the 23rd edition of the soccer sim that has been wowing gamers since 1993.
With official kits and players from almost all of the world's main leagues, it leads the way in terms of being realistic (although some Pro Evolution enthusiasts may dispute that) and promises hours of enjoyment thanks to an array of gaming modes.
Game play changes
FIFA players typically look towards the launch of a new game with combination of both anticipation and trepidation as EA Sports tends to shake things up with a number of gameplay changes and features. And this year is no different.
Thankfully, most of FIFA 16's alterations are for the better.
One of the biggest bugbears of FIFA 15 was that it was too easy to either win by a large margin or lose by one. Quite simply, certain players had the ability to ghost past defenders and if you were playing with Real Madrid you'd probably be banging the goals in, but if you came up against Barcelona's forward trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar, then keeping a clean sheet would be near impossible.
This year, however, sees a number of improvements designed to make things more competitive. To begin with, defences have beefed up, meaning players can get back and make tackles more effectively. It also easy to keep possession after regaining the ball, enabling you to quickly counter attack without passes in your own half falling at the feet of opposition players.
Goalkeeping AI (artificial intelligence) has been greatly boosted as well, giving them greater special awareness, while midfielders have more control of the direction of the ball and create chances more freely.
What about the strikers, we hear you ask. Well, single attacking strategies have gone out of the window and again you'll have to think about how you are going to create scoring opportunities two and sometimes three passes ahead. Players like Messi and Ronaldo still have the agility to get around defenders easily, but most other forwards have to rely on intricate build up play.
New methods for heading and shooting have been added, but these can be learnt using FIFA trainer.
New additions
One of the biggest additions to this season's game is the inclusion of 12 international female teams. Women's football is growing rapidly so it makes sense for EA to include this, with the added bonus of potentially enticing more female gamers to take up sim.
The women's teams tend to have very fast and agile players, but shooting power is somewhat reduced.
Another great addition is the ability to take part in pre-season tournaments like real clubs do in career mode. In past years, pre-season friendlies were made up of three games against largely uninspiring opposition, but this year you will be able to take your squad on mini tours of Asia, Europe and South America, adding to the development of your players and giving your transfer budget a modest shot in the arm.
Training is also included in career mode, allowing you to play practice matches between your players and test them out in new positions. This is also good for sharpening up your penalty and free kick skills.
Visually, little has changed from FIFA 15. However, last year's graphics were pretty much spot on so there wasn't much EA could do to make things any greater.
Pros
- Better defending
- Goalkeeper AI
- Inclusion of women's teams
- Training in career mode
- Pre-season tournaments
Cons
- No noticeable improvement in graphics
- Changes take time to get used to
Pros
- Improved NPC defense
- Eye-catching stadiums and crowds
- Changes to speed
- User-friendly career mode
- Improved draft mode
Cons
- Games are slower and fewer goals are scored
- Human players still outclass NPC defenders
- Referees can now give soft penalties for light contact
Football fans from around the world will be glad to hear that all of their favorite teams, players and stadiums have returned in EA Sports' FIFA 16.
When it comes to releasing yearly FIFA titles, many fans are hesitant to believe that the franchise is evolving and improving enough to warrant purchasing each new game. Luckily, that has all changed with FIFA 16, and this title feels like a completely new game. Some of the core mechanics in earlier FIFA games that frustrated so many fans have been thrown out or completely reworked. This has made countless new tactics viable without using overpowered mechanics.
FIFA 16: What Has Changed?
One of the biggest drawbacks of the last few FIFA titles was the focus on speed. Instead of battling it out midfield, the most effective strategy was to send the fastest players to the wings, lob a pass over the defenders, and then make a break for the goal. While speed is still a vital part of this game, the stats have been toned down. There are additional offensive and defensive moves as well, and this has made one-on-one battles between two footballers much more exciting.
The other major change comes down to the AI of the defenders. In many of the previous titles, NPC defenders could not keep up with a skilled opponent. During online matches, this often created extremely unbalanced gameplay that would result in dozens of goals that were nearly impossible to defend against. While the AI is not perfect, it has been improved by quite a bit. NPC defenders also have the ability to quickly shift their pivot foot and strafe in order to keep up with human opponents.
Ultimate Team
For many years, one of the biggest appeals of the FIFA franchise was the ability to collect and utilize cards in order to enjoy Ultimate Team matches. While these matches were quite fun, many gamers believed that collecting the cards through regular gameplay could become monotonous. EA has toned down the amount of time and energy it takes to collect cards and create teams. They have also refined the team chemistry aspect of the game that turned decent teams into world-class teams.
Other Features
Gamers who are not interested in playing an entire season can easily spend hours in this game enjoying friendlies, draft games, exhibition matches and co-op championships. Joining online games is as seamless as ever with ranked and unranked matches that can be found at all times of the day. For those who are still on the fence about FIFA 16, some of the other pros and cons include:
Pros
- Improved NPC defense
- Eye-catching stadiums and crowds
- Changes to speed
- User-friendly career mode
- Improved draft mode
Cons
- Games are slower and fewer goals are scored
- Human players still outclass NPC defenders
- Referees can now give soft penalties for light contact
