FIFA's Ultimate Team (FUT) has a bad reputation when it comes to the games more traditional, offline players. Scour our forum hours, or even minutes after EA Canada releases a "stability patch" for FUT, and you will see comments along the lines of "FUT is all EA cares about," "Career Mode is once again getting the short-end-of-the-stick", etc. While it's hard to argue against that logic, there's no denying the popularity of FUT and for good reason. Ultimate Team can be addictive fun alternative to battling the CPU's sometimes stagnant offline AI. It's with this in mind that we'll take a look at three reasons for offline players to take the plunge into the card mode.


Plethora of Mini-Modes

With so many ways to play FIFA 16's Ultimate Team, there's truly never a dull moment. Whether it's Online Seasons vs. randoms or vs. friends, the challenge of matching wits and skill versus another human player can never be understated. While offline has been improved, the AI, both off and on the pitch, can become stagnant and repetitive. While the same can sometimes hold true online, the ability to adapt and defeat another human player generates a quite different set of emotions, often more satisfying than beating the CPU. If randoms aren't your thing there is a good sized OS FUT community in which you can get the best of both worlds, a sim based challenge with all the positives of building your own squad. If fantasy sports is your beverage of choice, there is even a new FIFA Ultimate Draft this year to quench your thirst. With a variety of ways to play FUT, one can find themselves truly immersed in the game inside of the game.

 

Team Chemistry

Team chemistry is a concept easy to understand but hard to replicate when it comes to video games. Few companies have succeeded in implementing this concept. FIFA's Ultimate Team, while not perfect by any means, does a better job at this than Career Mode for the obvious reason, chemistry is not included in Career Mode. I know, thanks Captain Obvious, but in a sport where chemistry is vital to success the omission from Career Mode is really shocking when you consider the simplistic nature by which FUT incorporates it. Country-mates, players from the same league and even the same club team will see a boost in team chemistry. It's simple yet logical. You employ players who are used to playing with each other and the understanding they have between them is stronger and improves over time as they get more games together. The plug-and-play nature of Career Mode could use an injection of realism in this area with FUT providing the chemical formula.


Presentation

FIFA's overall presentation package is fairly strong, especially if you're playing an English Premier League or German Bundesliga match. While FIFA excels in this regard, the commentary can become a bit predictable. Fortunately, when it comes to FUT, the commentary is a bit more dynamic as the announcers are familiar with your team and will talk about relevant statistics and even the history of your club, an area in which Career Mode struggles to replicate. Nothing is more frustrating than when your squad overachieves in Career Mode by winning a major trophy and there's no mention of it the next year. FUT does a good job at making each match an unique experience when it comes to both commentary and statistical overlays.


Primarily an offline gamer in the past, I have slowly migrated towards Ultimate Team to satisfy my head-to-head thirst. While I still have a lot of affection for Career Mode, the well thought-out nature of Ultimate Team and the efforts by EA Canada to combat cheaters have transformed my mindset about this mode proving that there are people out there than can enjoy both worlds.

How has your FIFA Ultimate Team experience been thus far?