FIFA 13 has already sold some 15 million copies and to capitalize on their golden franchise, EA recently announced some new features and upgrades coming to FIFA 14. As glorious as FIFA 13 might have been, but it was just an upgrade of sorts in most areas from the 2012 ‘revolutionary’ version. What FIFA does best is they market their small points as big points, and big points as ‘too cool to be true’ points. Now PES might have certain features since past 4-5 years, but what they miss is the marketing punch, they don’t have a word for every freakin upgrade in their dictionary.
FIFA 14 will obviously not fail to impress us and will surpass the franchise’s previous selling records too. As EA says, FIFA 14 will transform the gameplay and will take the player to a more realistic level. Let us see what this new game will bring to us:
- Pure Shot, Real Ball Physics:
Both these features go hand-in-hand and have been developed to bring the gamer more closer to experiencing what the real player feels and does while trying to score goals. Pure Shot is actually nothing new, it is just further enhancement of the previous developments. The ball will travel based on the players position, balance, angle and approach at the time of shooting, hence a stupidly off-balanced shot has a maximum probability of not going into the net, unlike the previous versions. And at the same time a well timed and balanced shot will feel closer to real life, and the experience would be more rewarding. Real Ball Physics is simply final trajectory of the ball based on how you shoot it. A player can hit curling, dipping, rising and knuckle shots accompanied with turbulence effects, based on force and finesse.
- Protect the Ball:
Fancy a Drogba or a Fellaini? Have total dominance before receiving the ball and muscle out your opponent in the midfield or the box. Also, while having possession of the ball, learn to block your opponent and counter various defensive measures. This is one feature we could just watch on the TV. Lets hope EA doesn’t spoil this with their funny collision engine.
- Teammate Intelligence:
Who doesn’t want a poacher in their team and no one defending likes free spaces on the field. To solve this issue EA has further enhanced their Teammate Intelligence. Attackers will be more receptive to getting into a free space to receive a ball and at the same time the defender will be more proactive towards minding that gap. Better positioning and smarter marking in the defense will lay better emphasis on more intelligent and strategic attacking from the opposition.
- Sprint Dribble Turns and Variable Dribble Touches:
Two words ‘Messi-Ronaldo’ come to our mind when it comes to this section. Sprint Dribble Turns lets a player beat defenders and move in any direction while preserving their momentum. This will strongly depend on player ability and strengths, like we said ‘Messi-Ronaldo’. Based on the same aspects each player will have their own first touch and Variable Dribble Touches.
- 2nd Chance Tackles:
Now an attacker won’t run away from a defender everytime you miss a tackle, defenders based on the type of tackle will recover much quicker and have a second chance at the attacker. FIFA 12 and 13 had some bad missed tackle recovery time, it felt like player developed temporary hamstring. Nice feature to add.
- Curling Lofted Through Balls:
Curl the ball past your opponents for accurate passes. Kind of skeptical about this feature as curling the ball around the player will require one additional button use at least.
- Skill Games:
New mini-games section and a whole section to learn the trade from. Skill games have been a decent part of FIFA since the last few editions and are fun and teaching mostly.
- Revamped Career Mode:
The best thing for a solo non-online player is the Career Mode. Obviously everyone plays Career Mode, who doesn’t want to trade the best players into their teams and toy around with the value of the players. The new Career Mode with its all new Global Scouting Network lets your scouts pick talent according to your needs and the new Career Hub lets you manage and develop them into the player you want with all the information in one place.
So overall FIFA 14 will bring many new features to this massive franchise and it again sell in tens of millions. Improving interface and user experience is very important for any upcoming edition and FIFA 14 promises to do just that. We are as eager as you are to test all these new features out and the release is only 4 months away. Get ready for an all new FIFA for an all new season.
FIFA 14 will most probably come to XBOX 360 and the new XBOX, PS3 and PS4, PC etc and a mellowed down version for mobile gaming on tablets and phones.
