FIFA 16 beta impressions

[Icemaster20007]

Friend of mine finished the beta and gave a TON of news. I asked some questions as well. Here you go.

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Holy **** is the difference drastic. I'm not kidding, what so ever. After going back to FIFA 15 I can't even play it. They play very differently. Improvements\Additions Manager Mode gets a very very nice update. A very large amount of new facial scans and customs, as well as accurate body styles. The addition of training. Allowing you the get multiple players to their potential, in a few seasons time. Example: Memphis Depay started at 79, after three seasons (at the beginning of the third) 91 Overall, Ronaldo to 96, Lacazette 94, Varane 91, Shaw 87, Bellerin 86, Reus 92, Bale 94, Marco Van Ginkle 87, Odeengard 84, Hachim Mastour 84, Hazard 91, Neymar 91, Pogba 89, Gotze 92, Sergio Ramos 90. Rooney 89, David De Gea 90 (Goalies are painful) Specifically Depay's complete overhaul as a player. Finished with him having 98 finishing, 99 curve, 99 Attack Positioning, 99 Shot Power, 99 FK Acc. You cannot train for pace and acceleration. Many drills encompass multiple attributes. For example "Chance Creation" puts you (playing as your selected player to train) and your two best forwards try to score in as many ways possible. Getting a higher grade in the training increases your gains. Some players receive bonuses for being exciting prospects or having potential. So building a youth squad early on and developing them is very essential, and very rewarding. Drills go from Easy to Hard, and deal with passing, set pieces, attacking\shooting, dribbling courses, defending scenarios, penalties and GK drills. Your limited to 5 training sessions a week, but you can train a single player those 5 times to really boost them and create an overall player, like I did with Marco Van Ginkle (absolute powerhouse all around CM, definite buy if you know what your doing.) Gameplay An absolute plethora of new animations, going from sliding challenges and standing challenges (no longer one or two animations, all are contextual.) Many new player emotion animations, a redone collision system that can create some spectacular collisions. No longer are players falling clunky and awkward, players reacted accordingly. Shots are now miles more controllable. Good touches produce absolutely sensational contact on the ball resulting in increased power in the shot. You can actually do absolute rockets to the upper 90, or outside the foot curlers (non finesse). Players add spin and curve contextually now, and they have really set up players so you can actually tell that they are world class. Add flick and fancy passes, as well as players acting as they would. For example, Ronaldo doing a back heel aerial through ball on top of the box (without holding the left trigger, which is the new button for flair). Goalies are also more reactive to long shots, and are positioned better. The AI is much more organized in the backline, and much more controlling in the midfield. The AI now has multi dimensional attacking intelligence. They will use the wings when exploitable, they'll make back passes to control tempo, they will run to the corner flags or play more reserved to waste time. Players feel more physical, and players who are stronger actually feel stronger. Wayne Rooney can play as a hold up striker now. Players all do more passive skills, such as megging and swim moves, as well as many more depending on the player. Neymar is especially crafty. (I didn't get to play with Messi, since I played with Manchester United). Off the ball juking did feel a little awkward, and at times I completely ignored it. I feel the new catalogue of skills and more passive moves make it irrelevant in Career Mode, it obviously has its uses in Online play. It's actually much harder to score, because the AI isn't logically flawed. As a player who is very, very good at manager mode, there were a few delightful changes on top of those listed. PRE SEASON TOURNAMENTS, yes, its great. The Board now actually responds to spending. Spend big one season, expect to have little to no budget at the start of the next. Fund Requests are also more difficult to secure, which is nice actually. But, it is still very easy to lure world class players from their teams. Although I know Manager Mode and all the players like the back of my hand, Big Teams still do very little to hold onto their players. Players still suffer from having contracts run out, which is highly unrealistic. Chelsea isn't going to let Hazard go on a free fee, especially when he doesn't declare he wants to leave and he is their best player overall wise. I was hoping they would make negotiations feel...like actual negotiations. But its still very easy. I am still able to make blockbuster signings and incredibly lucrative deals\player swaps. I built a perfect season sim team in one season (meaning I can sim every game and win the treble and be undefeated). I even did a go with AC Milan, a team with significantly less financial power, and less player flexibility in terms of being able to make lucrative swaps. Player Values were made more reliable and predictable. Training even effects their market value, have a bad training and they can go down, as little as 1 or 2 percent, or as big as 45 percent (per Bastian Schweinsteiger) I put atlas 35 hours into the Beta and was absolutely pleased. Although many players that should have their faces still don't (Im looking at you Depay), they really did step up their game and really increased their catalogue, I'd say atleast by 3 times. Also, Messi has his Tattoos. Jozey and Yedlin have their faces. Any questions you have about the gameplay or changes ask freely, but trust me, its well worth buying. It makes FIFA 15 look like crap.

That's all great news, but my only concern is it seems like training is a bit too OP from what you've told me.

Players who are 18 shouldn't suddenly reach their max potential in just 3 seasons. In fact, Strikers usually hit their prime around 25 years of age, so it should take many years to hit that max. Idk, it just seems easily abused.

But I plan on playing as Portsmouth (they even have the stadium due to a death at EA :c), and they have one or two great youths I can bring up.


Questions though

Was there commentary in the game? They said they focused on specific story lines for players. Was that at all interesting or just a tack on last min? And is much of the commentary recycled? I assume it is. I plan on getting it for PC.

Oh and, how is the crowd? Louder? Better chants? Louder when you make a goal? Or same old same old?

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If you personally do every training perfectly, thats how you get results like that. Simulating training cuts your gains significantly, although sometimes you can sim and get B's and A's (its mostly C's and lower after testing it out). I also only did hard training exercises, and getting A's is actually very difficult in some set ups, even with amazing players. Commentary was updated and refreshing. They talk about players if they are fresh real world transfers, and do give small tid bits of info on some players, as well as personal commentary. They also talk about in game transfers, which was a nice addition. Such as Chelsea signing Benzema in game. Much louder and relevant, the celebrations for trophies have been re done some what, and the pre season trophy presentation is accurate (meaning players don't look like they won a league title or a european cup), and its kept minimal. Chants are about the same, but id say a little more frequent, but no player specific chants, atleast not in the Beta. Everton still boos whenever Rooney touches the ball though, which is always funny. OH and I forgot, new contextual celebrations. If you run towards the camera guy...well, i won't spoil anything. Its pretty awesome, and there are a few different ones. Rooney does the KO celebration has his default now, and the Man City Bicycle kick one (The tip toe arms spread one) as his RT held one. Also new hype celebrations, like extra time goals to win the game, which are pretty special. The crowd doesn't drown out during trophy celebrations now, and the players go to fan sections and do cup lifts and are visibly actually happy and excited. Presentation got a nice uplift

Continuing to ask questions. Will fill you in. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll ask!

[Fabric]

Could you ask if there are any new national sides or clubs/leagues in the game? I'm not sure if they'd include these in a beta, but with only a month left until release and still no info on added clubs/leagues, I'm worried that they haven't added any (outside of the women's national teams and the clubs that were promoted in the leagues already in FIFA 15)

[Ryury1112]

Hey could you please ask or does anybody know whether players still grow in career mode without training or is training the only way for them to grow?

[JayD]

I am really interested if there are more transfers in career mode?

[BL8001]

I know someone who played it too and they said no new teams other than promoted clubs and the women's national team.

Rest of the world club squads are down to like 6 teams now.

Also said crossing and heading was an extremely reliable way to score, even more so than normal shooting.

[TheAwesomeGem]

Do the team plays differently now? Are team styles based off actual team styles? Really don't feel like playing against Crystal Palace and them playing tiki taka 1 on 1 passes with atleast 90% pass accuracy. Also how about the dribbling differences between CPU controlled players? Thanks a lot. With those two things, I am ready to splash my money for this year in FIFA 16.

[Icemaster20007]

Taking a bit to reply. Said he didn't know if there were extra teams (though someone already said there isn't). I asked to expand on the crowd bit a little.

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Also, the crowds roars on counter attacks, as well as when they feel you need to more aggressive up front. Not sure if they do anything after good challenges

Asking about playstyles now though.

[JHedges2]

He probably didn't notice, but...winter gear bug fixed???