Beyond the first day of coverage where I talked a lot about scoring chances, most of the rest of what's been talked about in one way or another touched on the role physicality plays in FIFA 15. It's something that leads to gameplay moments that are funny, terrible, amazing, perfect, awkward and everything in between.

For better or worse, physicality is what defines FIFA 15. Whether that's the intention or not, I'm not sure, but it's what I experience more than anything else when playing the game.

So after the jump, I'll let the GIFs do most of the talking as I show off a couple more ways physicality plays in to the FIFA 15 experience.

Spikes Up!



It's so beautiful!

This is just perfect timing mixed with hilarious physics, and it shows that slide tackles can lead to hilarious moments in the game. However, slide tackles overall actually feel relatively balanced. Ball carriers can be surprised by the amount of distance a slide tackle can cover, but a slide tackle still has the obvious risk of leaving your defender completely out of position. Perhaps red cards could be shown a little more often, and slide tackles from behind still work more than they should, but overall this is a part of the game where animation and gameplay outcomes come together far better than most of the other player-on-player interactions.



To me, this is about as perfect as it gets from a results and animation standpoint. The defender comes in at the right angle, times the challenge right, wins the challenge, and both players look natural as they tumble to the ground.

(As a quick aside before moving on, it also feels like the slide tackles that occur in closer proximity to the ball carrier lead to more nice looking moments that mirror the GIF above.)

Ram 'Em!



I've touched on this subject a bit when discussing the jostling mechanic, but I do believe the best way to play defense in this year's game is simply ram into people from behind. A lot of the time I feel helpless trying to contain and stay in front of a speedy attacking player, so instead I try to counter that by having another player (usually a midfielder) fly up from behind and make the tackle.

In a perfect world, you don't get away with just ramming into people, but it's hard to blame users for going to this a lot when it's not called a foul and does lead to a lot of the best defensive results. With a more restrictive or punitive stamina system in place, it maybe would force users to pick and choose when to hold turbo for long stretches, but for now this method is very effective.

Shields Up!



I think the GIF above is a great example of the shield mechanic working like it should. When you press and hold L2 (on PS4) or LT (on Xbox One), you should be able to ward off defenders, especially the bigger and more physical players. In this state, you're not going anywhere, and it should be the best way to hold on to the ball in the game.

That being said, a lot of the time defenders are still able to get away with ramming into the backs of players shielding the ball. But again, this just fits in with the narrative of physicality in this year's game. And, if anything, I give the development team credit for being consistent across the board -- minus in the penalty area where suddenly refs call all the grabs.
 

Well, this brings us to the end of my self-proclaimed FIFA marathon here on Operation Sports. I hope you guys have enjoyed the articles, and I'm sure I'll be writing about FIFA more in the future.

In the meantime, I'll leave by asking one final question: If there was one part of FIFA's gameplay you could change heading into next year, what would it be?

...Okay fineeeee, and here's one final GIF that just has to be shared with the world:



Follow Chase Becotte on Twitter, ya know, if you're into that sort of thing.