What I am hoping and expecting to see on FIFA 17
With PES closing the gap between the two by creating much more convincing gameplay making a stale sluggish FIFA seem even less authentic, it gives EA even more reason to try to push the boundaries of FIFA.
Prologue
There was once upon a time when FIFA was the pincicle of football games, it really felt like a masterpiece, it was the closest thing you’ve seen in a video game to emulate the real game. FIFA 13 being the last game to achieve that. Since then, the series hasn’t really gone forward. Firstly they changed the gameplay to be more sluggish in FIFA 14, and added more animations. This however didn’t lead to a more realistic experience in my opinion and just a more frustrating and boring experience. The animation didn’t feel fluid enough making the dribbling and general gameplay feel sluggish.
Since then, FIFA has merely just refined upon the core gameplay. It has improved since FIFA 14, but not massively and FIFA 16 feels pretty similar to FIFA 14. The game’s formula whether that’s the core gameplay, or the modes has not changed that much at all since FIFA 14. More content has been added such as a huge selection of stadiums with there now being every premier league stadium and a few new features to Ultimate (cashcow) team and Career Mode. However I don’t feel like it was drastically a leap forward considering it’s been 3 years since FIFA 14.
Prologue
There was once upon a time when FIFA was the pincicle of football games, it really felt like a masterpiece, it was the closest thing you’ve seen in a video game to emulate the real game. FIFA 13 being the last game to achieve that. Since then, the series hasn’t really gone forward. Firstly they changed the gameplay to be more sluggish in FIFA 14, and added more animations. This however didn’t lead to a more realistic experience in my opinion and just a more frustrating and boring experience. The animation didn’t feel fluid enough making the dribbling and general gameplay feel sluggish.
Since then, FIFA has merely just refined upon the core gameplay. It has improved since FIFA 14, but not massively and FIFA 16 feels pretty similar to FIFA 14. The game’s formula whether that’s the core gameplay, or the modes has not changed that much at all since FIFA 14. More content has been added such as a huge selection of stadiums with there now being every premier league stadium and a few new features to Ultimate (cashcow) team and Career Mode. However I don’t feel like it was drastically a leap forward considering it’s been 3 years since FIFA 14.
Theory
The gameplay is starting to feel dated, but the graphics are also starting to look very dated. The lighting is very weak, the textures on the stadiums look low res and the players look plasticey and cartooney. I don’t feel like the leap from last gen to this gen felt like it was that big in terms of FIFA. I don’t feel like FIFA is getting the most of this generations consoles and the evidence even lies within how much the disk uses. 50GB is the disk storage capacity and yet FIFA only uses half of that despite how much content is packed into the game.
I have a theory on what I believe is going on at the EA FIFA studios. I believe that there is a truly next gen huge overhaul in the works but it wasn’t ready. Ambitious games usually take a long time to develop. Just look at the Grand Theft Auto games for example. Unfortunately for the developers, sports/football games have a strict deadline to be met every year for the next season of football. I believe it has been in the works for several years but was never ready. So from FIFA 14 to 16, small changes and improvements were made, quick improvements that didn’t take too long to develop whilst the big monster in the lab was being developed. This monster being FIFA 17, I hope.
I think it is coming, if not FIFA 17, it will definitely be FIFA 18. However I think signs point towards it being FIFA 17 and with PES starting to put up a fight against FIFA now, and being a relevant contender in the market again, this gives EA a serious reason to push for this huge overhaul.
EA own the frostbite engine, which graphically is arguably the most advanced engine out there in the industry. This is the engine used in Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront and other several EA games. It would make great sense for the FIFA team to adopt the graphics engine of frostbite into FIFA. Of course something like this wouldn’t be done over night and takes time, hence why I believe it has been in the works for some time. FIFA 17 would be a great time to finally unveil this.
What I believe would come with this is dynamic lighting and weather, as it seems like FIFA 16 was already set up for it with the huge variety of weather conditions and kick off times, but was never truly dynamic. This makes me believe that the lighting in the old engine may have not been capable. Frostbite would enable this.
The gameplay is starting to feel dated, but the graphics are also starting to look very dated. The lighting is very weak, the textures on the stadiums look low res and the players look plasticey and cartooney. I don’t feel like the leap from last gen to this gen felt like it was that big in terms of FIFA. I don’t feel like FIFA is getting the most of this generations consoles and the evidence even lies within how much the disk uses. 50GB is the disk storage capacity and yet FIFA only uses half of that despite how much content is packed into the game.
I have a theory on what I believe is going on at the EA FIFA studios. I believe that there is a truly next gen huge overhaul in the works but it wasn’t ready. Ambitious games usually take a long time to develop. Just look at the Grand Theft Auto games for example. Unfortunately for the developers, sports/football games have a strict deadline to be met every year for the next season of football. I believe it has been in the works for several years but was never ready. So from FIFA 14 to 16, small changes and improvements were made, quick improvements that didn’t take too long to develop whilst the big monster in the lab was being developed. This monster being FIFA 17, I hope.
I think it is coming, if not FIFA 17, it will definitely be FIFA 18. However I think signs point towards it being FIFA 17 and with PES starting to put up a fight against FIFA now, and being a relevant contender in the market again, this gives EA a serious reason to push for this huge overhaul.
EA own the frostbite engine, which graphically is arguably the most advanced engine out there in the industry. This is the engine used in Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront and other several EA games. It would make great sense for the FIFA team to adopt the graphics engine of frostbite into FIFA. Of course something like this wouldn’t be done over night and takes time, hence why I believe it has been in the works for some time. FIFA 17 would be a great time to finally unveil this.
What I believe would come with this is dynamic lighting and weather, as it seems like FIFA 16 was already set up for it with the huge variety of weather conditions and kick off times, but was never truly dynamic. This makes me believe that the lighting in the old engine may have not been capable. Frostbite would enable this.
Gameplay
The gameplay needs a huge overhaul. PES I believe has better player ID now, the animations of players seem so much more authentic and fluid on PES. The player likeness and even the way the AI plays with that player seems so much more lifelike. EA have captured every single animation of players, and every single facial feature, and yet somehow PES looks and feels better and is more authentic. Is it because the captures EA have done are too advanced for the current FIFA engine? Is it because the game engine simply cannot handle the amount of animations taking place and requires the player to finish animation making the gameplay more sluggish? Do EA know this meaning they are developing a more advanced gameplay engine (which takes years) and the beast is ready to be unveiled this year with FIFA 17?
Lets hope so. There is no denying that the gameplay has not changed much at all since FIFA 14, and the gameplay is quite mediocre. Players feel generic, gameplay is sluggish, keepers are over powered, shots feel repetitive. The game has the licences and a huge amount of content, but the gameplay is solid but pretty average, and another year of this will hurt the franchise and I for one won’t be playing it if the gameplay is not significantly changed. I hope that EA recognise this and want better.
Pace is still a huge factor in FIFA, no matter how much they try to “balance” the game, pacey players still give you an easier advantage to beat players and score over strong slower players. This is because of the way you can beat players and how the whole gameplay just plays out in general. Seeing a different football game have a different style of gameplay shines light on the matter. In PES sprinting past a player has to be done in a timely manner. You can’t just hold down the sprint button and run past everyone like you can in FIFA. It takes more skill to beat players from pace. If your player is physically weak he will also lose the ball a lot easier despite how fast he is, meaning if the defender reads what you will do he can shrug you easily off the ball before you can run past him. Just like real football. It feels like all player attributes have equal importance in PES because of how the gameplay plays. However in FIFA, no matter what they do, pace still feels like it has the importance and toning it down to balance it, just makes the game more sluggish. I get a feeling that the gameplay engine needs a revamp rather than tweaks to actually fix this problem.
The keepers need to be massively toned down, and the shots need to have more venom in them, and I would like to see a larger shot variety and a different feel to shooting and dribbling with different players, because you don’t feel it that much with players in FIFA 16. I really hope that the AI is massively overhauled but I don’t recall many EA games these days having very advanced AI and most of their games are focused around Online, despite there being different developer teams on different franchises, it seems like none of them care about AI too much, maybe because EA have enforced this?
The gameplay needs a huge overhaul. PES I believe has better player ID now, the animations of players seem so much more authentic and fluid on PES. The player likeness and even the way the AI plays with that player seems so much more lifelike. EA have captured every single animation of players, and every single facial feature, and yet somehow PES looks and feels better and is more authentic. Is it because the captures EA have done are too advanced for the current FIFA engine? Is it because the game engine simply cannot handle the amount of animations taking place and requires the player to finish animation making the gameplay more sluggish? Do EA know this meaning they are developing a more advanced gameplay engine (which takes years) and the beast is ready to be unveiled this year with FIFA 17?
Lets hope so. There is no denying that the gameplay has not changed much at all since FIFA 14, and the gameplay is quite mediocre. Players feel generic, gameplay is sluggish, keepers are over powered, shots feel repetitive. The game has the licences and a huge amount of content, but the gameplay is solid but pretty average, and another year of this will hurt the franchise and I for one won’t be playing it if the gameplay is not significantly changed. I hope that EA recognise this and want better.
Pace is still a huge factor in FIFA, no matter how much they try to “balance” the game, pacey players still give you an easier advantage to beat players and score over strong slower players. This is because of the way you can beat players and how the whole gameplay just plays out in general. Seeing a different football game have a different style of gameplay shines light on the matter. In PES sprinting past a player has to be done in a timely manner. You can’t just hold down the sprint button and run past everyone like you can in FIFA. It takes more skill to beat players from pace. If your player is physically weak he will also lose the ball a lot easier despite how fast he is, meaning if the defender reads what you will do he can shrug you easily off the ball before you can run past him. Just like real football. It feels like all player attributes have equal importance in PES because of how the gameplay plays. However in FIFA, no matter what they do, pace still feels like it has the importance and toning it down to balance it, just makes the game more sluggish. I get a feeling that the gameplay engine needs a revamp rather than tweaks to actually fix this problem.
The keepers need to be massively toned down, and the shots need to have more venom in them, and I would like to see a larger shot variety and a different feel to shooting and dribbling with different players, because you don’t feel it that much with players in FIFA 16. I really hope that the AI is massively overhauled but I don’t recall many EA games these days having very advanced AI and most of their games are focused around Online, despite there being different developer teams on different franchises, it seems like none of them care about AI too much, maybe because EA have enforced this?
AI
Well I would like to say, despite the success of Ultimate team, Ai and offline play still is very important to FIFA. The AI is so generic and boring to play against in FIFA and always has been. They play the same way all the time, and every match feels the same. If you make great gameplay, but the AI is the same, it will still make career mode repetitive and make every game feel the same. If the AI plays the same way every game, you’re going to get similar games every time. It’s worse that the AI plays in a negative way too. Simply parking the bus, getting 5 to 6 men behind the ball in line, all being controlled at once (which a human can’t do) and don’t pose much of a threat going forward. In fact they don’t pose a threat tactically and only ever score because it feels like their stats have been buffed ie their players seem faster and stronger than you no matter what players you are against.
Ratings need to play a much stronger role in the player, and the AI should never break out of that rule regardless of difficulty setting. They should play dumber and smarter tactically based on difficulty level. When playing on a lower difficulty, shots should be less accurate and tackles should be badly timed like you see online playing against bad players. When playing on harder difficulty settings, they should play smarter, not feel artificially smarter and better like it does.
Only time will tell but I believe this is the year we may be seeing big changes to the FIFA franchise and an unveiling of a beast they have been developing for years. It needs it, because a once great franchise just isn’t that great anymore, and is becoming mediocre fast.
Edit - During the process of producing the video as I try to launch the article now at the same time as the video, EA went and reviled FIFA 17, reveling that they will infact be using the frostbite engine! A real shame that I didnt get this out sooner otherwise there would have been clear evidence of my prediction being correct. Regardless, I did write this article before they unvealed FIFA 17, I just didnt manage to publish it before they did.
Well I would like to say, despite the success of Ultimate team, Ai and offline play still is very important to FIFA. The AI is so generic and boring to play against in FIFA and always has been. They play the same way all the time, and every match feels the same. If you make great gameplay, but the AI is the same, it will still make career mode repetitive and make every game feel the same. If the AI plays the same way every game, you’re going to get similar games every time. It’s worse that the AI plays in a negative way too. Simply parking the bus, getting 5 to 6 men behind the ball in line, all being controlled at once (which a human can’t do) and don’t pose much of a threat going forward. In fact they don’t pose a threat tactically and only ever score because it feels like their stats have been buffed ie their players seem faster and stronger than you no matter what players you are against.
Ratings need to play a much stronger role in the player, and the AI should never break out of that rule regardless of difficulty setting. They should play dumber and smarter tactically based on difficulty level. When playing on a lower difficulty, shots should be less accurate and tackles should be badly timed like you see online playing against bad players. When playing on harder difficulty settings, they should play smarter, not feel artificially smarter and better like it does.
Only time will tell but I believe this is the year we may be seeing big changes to the FIFA franchise and an unveiling of a beast they have been developing for years. It needs it, because a once great franchise just isn’t that great anymore, and is becoming mediocre fast.
Edit - During the process of producing the video as I try to launch the article now at the same time as the video, EA went and reviled FIFA 17, reveling that they will infact be using the frostbite engine! A real shame that I didnt get this out sooner otherwise there would have been clear evidence of my prediction being correct. Regardless, I did write this article before they unvealed FIFA 17, I just didnt manage to publish it before they did.
Published by Madz - 7th June 2016