The most recent installment of the world’s most popular soccer video game franchise, FIFA ’15 by EA Sports, was made available Tuesday to those who downloaded the demo version.
With eight teams available to use in the basic kick off mode, being Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Boca Juniors, FC Barcelona, Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, and Chelsea, players can enjoy three-minute halves with some of their favorite players, like Lionel Messi or Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
In addition, fans can get a taste of the wildly popular Ultimate Team mode. In this mode for the full game, players try to build their ideal team with players from around the world, gaining currency through playing matches, winning tournaments, and playing the market.
However, for this preliminary version, players can select from five predetermined teams, either of one homogeneous league, in this case the Barclays Premier League, or a hybrid consisting of the likes of La Liga and Ligue 1.
While this edition is helpful in teasing the appetites of EA’s massive fan base for this particular game, the real game itself will have many more options from which to choose.
For example, in “Career Mode,” one can choose between creating his own player and reaching the top of the soccer ladder, or becoming a manager and taking over a club, which would encompass playing games, signing transfers, and developing a youth academy.
Additionally, in “seasons” mode, players start at the lowest level possible, in this case the tenth division, and work their way up through 10 game seasons to become the winner of division one, choosing whichever team they want with which to play.
While these auxiliary modes are just as fun, if not more, the real bread and butter for this franchise is Ultimate team, with many gamers buying their copies almost exclusively to partake in this particular function of the franchise.
Gameplay wise, many lament the over competitive nature of Ultimate team, with players seeming to abuse the mechanics of the game to earn their precious coins.
However, especially in modes against the AI, fans can choose exactly what level of difficulty they want to meet, and even mostly in seasons the win-at-all-costs mentality is not as prevalent.
Looking forward, only time will tell how this edition of FIFA will compare to earlier years, with a large chunk of gamers complaining that the 2014 game was one of the worst in recent memory.
On the other hand, as a new year approaches, perhaps FIFA ’15 will claim its place as the best sports game of the year.