FIFA 16 (PS4)

You may notice two very unfavourable and very honest reviews for FIFA 14 and FIFA 15 in my reviews. Based on the gameplay from those two, I was growing slightly disillusioned with the FIFA series. It got to the point where my expectations for FIFA 16 were very low and I expected yet another squad update with poor gameplay and a multitude of bugs and poor AI.Luckily, EA seem to have got their stuff together and finally gave us another great edition of the game. I have played this since it came in the post and can't really stop, the gameplay is so satisfying and addicting.Gameplay is now VERY realistic, and I think the easiest way to sum it up is that you can no longer just play a long through ball every time, even if your player is not facing the way he is kicking and should realistically have no idea where his teammate upfront is. In FIFA 15 you could do this with the lowest rated player, and as the defenders were made to be complete morons scoring was very easy, and defending near on impossible. This is simply not possible in FIFA 16, for two reasons. Firstly, you really have to position yourself correctly, aim the pass and get the power right to get a good through ball in, and secondly, defenders now seem to have MUCH improved AI, in that they follow the players they are marking and no longer make silly mistakes.People who enjoyed the extremely unrealistic and somewhat simplistic gameplay of FIFA 15 (and 14 to an extent) probably won't enjoy this - at least initially - because you genuinely have to concentrate and play well not just to score goals but to string passes together. I always hated how you could in essence just hold two buttons in FIFA 15 and with a number of first-touch passes get from your own goal to the opposition goal with defenders unable to get anywhere near you. I just did not find such gameplay fun in the slightest.Anyhow let us not mention the two previous installments any more, they don't deserve any more space than necessary. Let's focus on FIFA 16.I think I summed up gameplay above in a nice way. I usually only play career mode and online seasons, without touching FUT, so I won't be reviewing that. I would like to add that goalkeepers finally seem to have a very good AI - I am yet to see any bizarre behaviour, which can only be a good thing. Gameplay now feels a lot slower, but that is not to say you can't utilise a quick winger to wreak havoc on the counter attack. The game rewards people who think, pick out good passes and use their whole team to play. Running through with one player and kicking it in the net like it is Sunday league seems to be over, thankfully.Career mode runs very smoothly now as opposed to previously, there is a nice addition of pre-season tournaments that can win you some extra transfer cash, you can also train 5 players each week using different exercises, which you can either play through yourself or simulate. It's a nice addition but it's done well in that it only offers a tiny bit of improvement at a time, rather than making your player into a world-class star in an instant. Another addition is that in friendly games you can use an unlimited number of subs (however it's not roll-on roll-off which is a bit strange), but I can't help but ask why what seems like such an obvious thing was not included in any of the previous installments...?Otherwise so far it seems that career mode runs in pretty much the same way, I am not a fan of the global transfer market and scouting business at all but I can see why it would appeal to some people. One thing I am yet to check out is whether there is any change regarding changing jobs - I have now grown used to being rejected by two star teams despite winning a title, cup and champions league/cup treble in one of the top 5 leagues. I wonder if this has changed in 16?Soundtrack is great, very pleasant to navigate the menus listening to it.So far no trouble with EA servers or lags either, which I expected with everyone going on at the same time near release date, but EA have done well in this respect.Overall unlike the previous 2 installments I definitely feel like I've got my money's worth with this game. I would recommend it to any fan of the series, and even if very realistic gameplay may not (for whatever reason) seem appealing, I would suggest at least giving it a try as mastering it can be very satisfying.

Not a click batey headline I promise! It's certainly my favourite fifa game, besides this have owned fifa 16(ps3), fifa 15(ps3), fifa 18(ps4) and fifa 17(ps3, ps4 and xbox 360). A lot of people say fifa games are the same, but this simply isn't true, not only does one fifa differ from another, but they differ between platforms too, which is very important with regards to this game.First off the gameplay is my favourite out of all the fifas listed above, I really didn't like how the gameplay felt in fifa 15, didn't like the camera in fifa 17(ps4) and overall it just feels the best in this game. I do prefer the cornering system in fifa 17 tbh, but apart from that this game does it best. Also in this game you can have a bright white ring round your selected player, which really helps as a visually impared person, but in fifa 17(ps4) it's strangely missing. I say strangely as in fifa 17(xbox 360 and ps3) it's there, unless you activate it in a different way? But I'm not sure why you would.Training is in this game, personally I don't think it's necessary, but pretty sure I'm in the minority here. But important to note as it isn't in fifa 16 for ps3, and presumably all other platforms apart from the xbox 1? But similarly what's in this game but not it's counterparts on other platforms is the ability to loan players out for 2 year contracts, which is a nice touch. Also also an absolute god send, the ability to auto replace a player for a just one match if they're injured/suspended etc. This feature is a necessity basicly, as in fia 16(ps3) I found if I autod changing a player it changed my whole team around including those who weren't injured or what not which is really enfuriating, and to add salt in the wound this update to auto switching players along with being able to loan players out for two years is missing from fia 17 for ps3 and xbox 360 too.This game is also great as it lacks the transfer update found in fia 18 where transfers happen in real time so to speak. You might think that's a bad thing, but trust me it's not. Sure career mode is pretty much the same, apart from the few things listed above(though not sure which ones, if any were in fia 15 for ps4 obvs) but it's a football game...seriously. Fia 18 made things too complicated and convoluted. Football is the most popular and widely watched sport, similarly these are mainstream games, they don't need to be complicated, and realistically there's only so much that can be changed, without just changing things for the sake of it.So in summary this really is the perfect fifa game. Sure the players may not be up to date, but it has nice features like training, whilst still not feeling complicated just so it can claim actually it's not just the same game as last year. And as a personal note this was also the last fifa game York city were in:'( so worth buying just for that xd.

Good game enjoyable to play