FIFA 15 Demo Gameplay Impressions

Feature Article

Submitted on: 09/11/2014 by

The FIFA 15 demo launched this week with OS'ers giving plenty of feedback about what they observed. With several playable teams and the ability to really see much of what the gameplay is bringing this year, customers are going to be able to approach their buying decision of FIFA with a quite informed opinion.

We got a chance to play a few games of the demo ourselves, and here are our thoughts on this year's FIFA based on the demo...

Glenn Wigmore: I have logged many hours with the Xbox One version of FIFA 14, and I'm certainly an admirer of how the FIFA dev team approached that transition to the next generation of hardware. By focusing on resolution, animations and framerate, as well as getting most of the modes and features over, it helped keep things familiar while demonstrating the power of the new console.

From my time with the demo, FIFA 15 pushes everything further, and the additions end up being meaningful. I'm really enjoying the emotion that all aspects of the game possess, from the crowd to the individual players to the on-pitch action. The concept of telling an "in-game story" via reactions from players and replay packages works well, and it's neat to see players react when a teammate misses a chance after through pass or when a goalie and another player cross paths.

The man-to-man battles, including possession slide tackles, feel a lot better, and there's much more control on the pitch when moving at low speeds, as the dribbling animations and touch on the ball feels improved. Goalies still have a few odd behaviours, but the new animations and goal possibilities are apparent right away, as goalie Joe Hart sailed through the air with new animations and let in some deflection and other non-FIFA type goals. The AI on default settings seems unable to stop speedy runners, which is a worrisome sign. Hopefully harder difficulties provide different results.

Visually, the crowd, kits, player faces and pitch all show improvement, and the audio package continues to be impressive. I'm certainly looking forward to the full release.

Chris Sanner: There's definitely a lot of good in the demo. The player emotions are great to see and the visuals are noticeably better. The presentation package is still tight, and the crowds sound better than ever.

Players have more weight this year on the pitch, which means you can't do a lot of the cheaper things you were able to do last year, although running past defenders still seems a viable option on the lower difficulty levels. The additional control afforded to you on the pitch, especially when you are moving at slower and faster speeds is much welcome.

The tactics feature is nice, although admittedly my first few games haven't really given me enough to go on what they are offering. Goalkeepers are said to be improved, but I really didn't notice much on the demo difficulty level that'd indicate that is the case just yet. The man-to-man battles really do shine, as matchups are much more dynamic and unpredictable. I saw some real flops out there on the pitch.

Overall, FIFA 15 is looking like a winner on the pitch. If the modes follow suit, and if you are a fan of football at all, you will have a hard time saying no to this game when it launches later this month.

FIFA 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 81 BL8001 @ 09/15/14 12:11 AM

Nice work tv25man

# 82 RonMexico1992 @ 09/15/14 12:52 AM

Love it. put Goniras sliders in and the game plays great on Legendary.

In 3 demo matches i seen goals, red cards by cpu, penalty, and fabolous attacking play by CPU. PSG had one of the best give n go plays i have ever seen on the video game, looked so real. Ibra smashed it home but the passing was beautiful.

Legendary difficulty is the only way to play if you want challenge and good play by the CPU, imo

# 83 RonMexico1992 @ 09/15/14 12:53 AM

& yea manual allows for the creative football mind to do cheeky things that you can only do on manual.

# 84 iaxy @ 09/15/14 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tv25man


	Make the switch. I made the move on Fifa 11, and haven't looked back. The entire game opens up for you and every inch of the pitch can be used and you can choose where YOU WANT to play the ball, instead of where the CPU thinks you want to play the ball. I've got some highlights I took from FIFA 11 showing what manual can do for you ... check them out, I'll post explanations with them. This is a wonderful chip, but using the lob pass (LB + Y) instead of the regular chip shot. The keeper has no chance. We may have to create a Spanish phrase saying "You've just been Bergkamp'd" Here's a long-distance goal. There is only one place this ball can go where the keeper has no chance at a save. Line it up, smash it top corner. Check out these tidy little passes. To the naked eye, this isn't really a huge highlight, but there is no way I could complete two of those passes on assisted or even semi. The pass out to the right wing, I was able to play the ball into a safe spot, away from the defender. On assisted, that would go right to my winger's feet, and he'd probably be tackled. The pass that created the goal, you can see a giant gap in the front four. There was no one there, but my player was closest to the spot, and I played the ball into an open space and my man did his part, hitting the back of the net. The great thing about manual, is that it is just that ... manual. The ball goes where you aim. Watch Lampard square his shoulders to his target and crush this long range bomb. None of these highlights are super-flashy with 9 or 10 skill moves, but they do show the little things manual allows you to do that simply can't happen on assisted or semi-assisted. Once you play a perfect pass into space or rip home one from deep, you'll be hooked on manual, guaranteed.

Good work there. One can definitely see the advantages when playing with manual.

I have tried manual myself many times. I keep trying it every year and tried it again with the demo.

The problem I have is that I play on Broadcast camera which changes the perspective considerably. I have no problem when the action is around the half line, but when you are playing deep in your half and deep in the opposition half, the camera / controller match is more awkward.

As a result, manual passes are much more difficult to execute in those areas and on many occasions I have given the ball away in my area, when all I wanted to do was pass to the next defender. In the end it became such a frustration that I had to go back to semi for passing. I keep going between manual and assisted for the through ball. You are right in that an assisted through ball will often go to a near player (when in fact I intended it to go to a far player).

So yes, you are right, but Manual doesn't work for me as it's too unpredictable on Broadcast camera and too risky where risk should not be a factor.

# 85 BL8001 @ 09/15/14 07:54 AM

Iaxy, same here. Some cameras it's almost impossible for me to play manual.

I wish fifa had the madden on the fly camera change feature. We could set it up broadcast then quick flip it to end to end or dynamic or whatever when you are attacking or defending.

Even better would be to give us a quick camera menu where we could choose the two or three we wanted to flip back and forth between.

Does the "back" button do anything in fifa? It could be assigned to that.

# 86 CFD @ 09/15/14 08:49 AM

Overall I'm very impressed by the demo. The game plays wonderfully and looks fantastic and I like the new team management menus a lot.

Few items that stand out though:

1. CPU speed is still way out of whack, just like it is every year. When playing on Pro with default sliders EVERY CPU player is faster than EVERY user player, at all times. It's just illogical. After enough frustrating matches I knocked AI speed and acceleration each down to 40 (from 50) and the difference was definitely noticeable. I might push them back up to 45.

2. CPU goalies still make superhuman saves

3. If the CPU crosses a ball into the box they are going to win the header 75% of the time

4. Like every year, user injuries are WAY too frequent. I've had a player get injured in every match I've played. I already know I'm going to have to turn the injury frequency and severity sliders almost all the way down to avoid half my team getting injured during my MM.

Honestly I don't know how some of you guys are playing this game on World Class or Legendary...in '14 I thought that Pro was a pretty good difficulty, but Pro is noticeably more challenging in this demo.

# 87 Iadf @ 09/15/14 09:06 AM

I think this game is great, player movement could feel a little more fluid but other than that it's great.

# 88 Yeah...THAT Guy @ 09/15/14 09:24 AM

This is a question I've been trying to figure out for awhile now regarding free kicks.

When you're doing the tutorials and stuff, the camera angle doesn't change as you run up to kick the ball, so it's easy to know how to use the analog stick to add spin to the ball.

But when you do them in game, you're aiming with a straight on camera angle, and then it changes to the sideline angle as your player is running up to the ball. Do I have to push the analog stick relative to the side camera angle to add the spin that I want (for example, if my team is going towards the left, would I hold the analog stick DOWN in order to add a left spin?), or do I pretend the camera angle never changed and simply continue holding the analog stick to the left to get it to spin to the left?

# 89 OneDrop @ 09/15/14 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yeah...THAT Guy


	This is a question I've been trying to figure out for awhile now regarding free kicks. When you're doing the tutorials and stuff, the camera angle doesn't change as you run up to kick the ball, so it's easy to know how to use the analog stick to add spin to the ball. But when you do them in game, you're aiming with a straight on camera angle, and then it changes to the sideline angle as your player is running up to the ball. Do I have to push the analog stick relative to the side camera angle to add the spin that I want (for example, if my team is going towards the left, would I hold the analog stick DOWN in order to add a left spin?), or do I pretend the camera angle never changed and simply continue holding the analog stick to the left to get it to spin to the left?

Pretend it never changed. You hold the analog stick to apply spin whilst you fill up the powerbar.

# 90 Yeah...THAT Guy @ 09/15/14 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneDrop


	Pretend it never changed. You add spin as you power up your free kick.

Thanks!

10char

# 91 Und Lahm @ 09/15/14 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CFD


	Honestly I don't know how some of you guys are playing this game on World Class or Legendary...in '14 I thought that Pro was a pretty good difficulty, but Pro is noticeably more challenging in this demo.

Generally not without tweaking the Speed/Accel sliders.

I played Pool at home with Chelsea, on WC with default sliders, and even Allen and Henderson where doing these amazing 360 sprint turns all game long. Also, Skrtel and Agger where ping pong passing like no ones business!

Pro is definitely the most balanced difficult.

# 92 Qb @ 09/15/14 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BL8001


	I wish fifa had the madden on the fly camera change feature. We could set it up broadcast then quick flip it to end to end or dynamic or whatever when you are attacking or defending.

Guess what, my curmudgeonly friend... You can change cameras on the fly with voice commands. The first thing I do when the demo kicks off is say "tele broadcast" and voila, no pause needed. Haven't had the chance to try something like end to end or pro cam during 1v1 with the keeper, but I'd like to see if it's worth doing.

If you don't own a proper headset, now's the time. I have the Sony Wireless Gold and love it. Mentality, substitutions, and formations, all without pausing. And I assume it will only get better once we can customize team sheets and the like. 4-3-3 in attack and 4-5-1 in defense? No problem. Want to break quickly after a turnover, but slow it down and keep the ball after your opponent recovers? You got it, all just a few words away.

# 93 clipperfan811 @ 09/15/14 10:18 AM

Hey QB didn't know that about the camera thing, very cool! Do voice commands work with the PC version?

# 94 BL8001 @ 09/15/14 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qb


	Guess what, my curmudgeonly friend... You can change cameras on the fly with voice commands. The first thing I do when the demo kicks off is say "tele broadcast" and voila, no pause needed. Haven't had the chance to try something like end to end or pro cam during 1v1 with the keeper, but I'd like to see if it's worth doing. If you don't own a proper headset, now's the time. I have the Sony Wireless Gold and love it. Mentality, substitutions, and formations, all without pausing. And I assume it will only get better once we can customize team sheets and the like. 4-3-3 in attack and 4-5-1 in defense? No problem. Want to break quickly after a turnover, but slow it down and keep the ball after your opponent recovers? You got it, all just a few words away.

Oh my! Tremendous!

Thanks for the info QB. So can you try changing it during the match? I mean I know you said you did it at kickoff, just wondering if you can flip through them during gameplay.

This functionality is worth a headset.

I have a TurtleBeach off my 360 that works with the Xbox one chat adapter but its a PITA to hook up and it's cords all over the place. Might just buy the Microsoft xbox one headset when I go pick up FIFA next Tuesday.

# 95 FrodoFightsMillwall @ 09/15/14 10:27 AM

Damn you FIFA, I really want you to be good...but that demo is terribly disappointing. I just get the impression that no one involved in the development process gives two poops about the actual sport.

Issues:

1) EVERYONE dribbles like Ronaldo. I get that some fans want total control or whatever, but EVERY SINGLE PLAYER is not super skilled and agile with the ball at their feet. Players are WAY too quick, shifty, and the control is just too tight with the ball. It's stupid.

2) How in the world is no one on here complaining about the ridiculous player models? No one who watches soccer would consider these player models acceptable. Most of the players that we watch on TV are lean, but very few could be described as "muscular". On FIFA, Stevie G looks like Patrick Willis, and Rickie Lambert looks like The Incredible Hulk. Not one person associated with this game (intern, developer, producer, whatever...) said "Hmmm...these dudes all look like NFL players. Maybe we should scale the muscles back a bit". It's stupid.

3) Somebody earlier praised the feel of the physics and "momentum" in this game. Are you kidding me? EVERYONE stops and starts on a dime, and the game moves waaaayy too fast, even on "slow". Sorta ties in with my first point, but that stuff is important.

4) For about the 100th year in a row, the CPU plays like dogpoop. No build up at all. Constant fast-break tactics. And the fukking dribbing...damnit the dribbling!!! Pass the ball around a bit! Stop dribbling all up and down the damn pitch with everyone. Dribbling in cirlcles, across the pitch, etc...it's insane. Not even GOOD dribblers dribble as much as your average League One defender in this stupid game. Ridiculous.

5) That ludicrous rising goal on certain shots...whose bright idea was that? I've seen this happen in real life very few times, and when it does, it's a few inches...hardly noticeable. In FIFA, the damn thing pops feet off the ground. Who on the production team sees that happen like that on a regular basis? The hell?

Why, EA? Why do you continue to do this to the sport? Who on the production team thinks that Notts County's midfielders should be dribbing as often or as well as Messi? Who thinks that David Silva looks right all muscled up? Who determines that Daniel Sturridge will only shoot if he can walk the ball within 5 feet of the damn goal?

I love the cosmetic stuff...getting the uniforms correct for all of those different leagues. Getting all of those players in the database. All good. But damnit, the gameplay, physics, and player models all took a step back this year, based on the demo. Every year, EA throws us some crap that no one really cares about (Ooh, look, the corner flag moves sometimes!), and continues to ignore gameplay. The CPU's style of play has sucked and hasn't changed in...forever. Damn you, FIFA15. And I was so excited...

# 96 iaxy @ 09/15/14 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qb


	Guess what, my curmudgeonly friend... You can change cameras on the fly with voice commands. The first thing I do when the demo kicks off is say "tele broadcast" and voila, no pause needed. Haven't had the chance to try something like end to end or pro cam during 1v1 with the keeper, but I'd like to see if it's worth doing. If you don't own a proper headset, now's the time. I have the Sony Wireless Gold and love it. Mentality, substitutions, and formations, all without pausing. And I assume it will only get better once we can customize team sheets and the like. 4-3-3 in attack and 4-5-1 in defense? No problem. Want to break quickly after a turnover, but slow it down and keep the ball after your opponent recovers? You got it, all just a few words away.

QB, can you expand on the voice controls? Where do you activate these and how do they work exactly? Can they work for other games like NHL?

# 97 BL8001 @ 09/15/14 11:05 AM

Found this in the fifa 14 manual

# 98 BL8001 @ 09/15/14 11:09 AM

FrodoFightsMillwall,

You aren't wrong. That's the sad part. I am having fun with the demo but everything you wrote is true.

Shooting should be fixed on the full game according to reports from people who have claimed to have played the full game.

The rest of it. No clue if any of it will be fixed.

# 99 Und Lahm @ 09/15/14 11:27 AM

How is everyone liking the new camera?
Or do you all revert backt Tele Broadcast.

I find the angle a bit too flat.

# 100 Qb @ 09/15/14 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BL8001


	Oh my! Tremendous! Thanks for the info QB. So can you try changing it during the match? I mean I know you said you did it at kickoff, just wondering if you can flip through them during gameplay.

Yes, you can do it during gameplay, check it out below. What I meant was since the change I make is relatively subtle, is switching from a side camera to end-to-end viable or is it totally disorienting as you're bearing down on the keeper?

Quote:

Originally Posted by iaxy


	QB, can you expand on the voice controls? Where do you activate these and how do they work exactly? Can they work for other games like NHL?

If you have a headset, kinect, or PS camera, the game will recognize verbal commands while you're playing. As you see in the video above, you can change the camera during gameplay; make tactical changes to your mentality, formation, tactics, etc; make substitutions; and even call for passes, shots, runs, etc from your teammates while playing Be A Pro.

I'm really excited for this. I love messing with all the in-game manager options, but pausing continuously is not an option if playing a friend, and it takes away from things even offline. Now most of it can be done without pausing or even d-pad gymnastics, and I expect it to be even more useful with saved customization in the full game.

Unfortunately, there's nothing like this in NHL yet. It would be HUGE... line changes & strategies are a real pain during play, especially with since the options all cycle. It's usually at least a few button presses to get what you want, not to mention diverting attention. Voice commands are a must for next year.

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