FIFA 14 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions (PC)

[CarryTheWeight]

The FIFA 14 demo has been released for PC users, via EA's Origin service.

Demo teams are FC Barcelona, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Borussia Dortmund, New York Red Bulls, CA Boca Juniors, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.

Download it, play a few games and post your impressions.

We will have a separate topic for PS3 and 360 users when it becomes available.

[stagnant]

Spurs in the demo... I now need this things to be available on XBOX at the strike of midnight.

Can you tell me what their starting 11 looks like? Is Lamela and Erkickson on the team?

[CarryTheWeight]

Only played one game (0-0 friendly between Barca and Milan) so I don't have any really in-depth comments to make, but I'll make a few general observations:



-Can set difficulty/style/controller configurations after the FIFA splash screen like on first boot in previous years (Beginner-Experienced-Advanced settings, which will determine difficulty and level of assists)

-Playable modes in demo are kick off (play now/exhibition/friendly) and a demo version of Ultimate Team (which I didn't try). EDIT: Practice Arena is also available in the "play" menu.

-Other game modes are selectable, BUT display a menu screen describing the mode and its improvements.

-3 Minute half length for friendlies, which is unchangeable.

-Only match options that are editable are weather, difficulty, game speed, gameplay sliders and level of controller assists/controller configuration. Will check again later if anything else comes to mind.

-All (kick off/friendly) demo games are played at Camp Nou. Again, haven't tried FUT.

In-Game:

-Only going by one game here and I don't want to upset/disappoint many so I'll say it as generally as I can: if you loved the past few years of FIFA football, you'll love this year's game as well. Same may apply to if you disliked it. Default game speed, like last year, is still quite fast. Will play a match on slower settings to see how that compares (as that's the speed I played 13 on).

-Only played on the intermediate difficulty level with assists off and didn't notice any dramatic differences in AI. There have been some new animations added and a few things are a bit less wonky in the physics end, but nothing too dramatic.

-Presentation is among the best of any EA title. A new member of the commentary team introduces the game and the commentators. The studio host also introduces the halftime highlights. Martin/Alan have a few new in-depth lines to start the match. My match had a few longer asides about Neymar joining Barcelona and the Camp Nou stadium, as well as Barca's struggles during the Champions League and their "more than a club" philosophy "breaking down" with Messi out of the lineup. It was really informative to hear them talk at length about this and it reminded me of how NBA 2K handles its "storyline" commentary.

-Some of the "living worlds" stuff I saw in FIFA 14 next-gen Gamescom videos made it into the PC version, including cameras that follow the ball and walking stewards/officials. The "other game" had these small environmental details aplenty in previous iterations, but I don't recall FIFA having the same last year. Managers have been removed from the sidelines for some reason.

-Face models are both accurate and excellent for Milan and Barca, as expected (two of the most prestigious teams in the world and the starting 11 also received facial scans from what I recall).

-Small detail, but replays at halftime and full-time now feature information in the lower third:


Once again, my observations/impressions are all very general at this point. Let it be known that I also plan on purchasing next-gen FIFA and "that other game" instead of the current-gen/PC version. Thankfully, this version is definitely on par with the new current-gen versions of 14 and isn't a re-skin like Vita's infamous "Legacy Version".

Will reply with more observations the next time I'm able to play another quick demo game.

[CarryTheWeight]

Quote: Originally Posted by stagnant

Can you tell me what their starting 11 looks like? Is Lamela and Erkickson on the team?

Unfortunately, it looks like neither made it in. Rosters in the demo are pre-Deadline Day, as Bale and Dempsey are still in the first 11:

[Yeats]

Downloaded and played it. Some noticeable and nice changes to the player movement: additional animations and players have more momentum. Core game and gameplay is still very much like FIFA 13, which was like FIFA 12: fast with very little CPU buildup. Not enough for me this year to justify a purchase at this point, looking for something different this time round I guess.

[rckabillyRaider]

played one quick game using Boca vs NY on world class, slow, default sliders. First of all, my PC ran it very smooth so that's good. Feels ALOT like last year's game. Difficulty might be a tad amped up. The only noticeable difference to me is the momentum of the players. Once you make a turn, it takes a second to regather yourself. Will try some more games/teams

[Matt10]

The fact that it still feels like FIFA 13 is not necessarily a bad thing; it's a matter of how the defense works for me. I hope it's not an end to end action type of set up in every match.

[rckabillyRaider]

Yeah, the defense does feel tighter. I've lost the possession battle in every game and have barely got any shots off. Adjusting the sliders also makes the game play better. So Basically same as last year with some small improvements. I like it.