F I FA 18
We feel the need. The need for Gary Speed Format PS4 ETA 29 Sep Pub EA Dev EA
“ROBBEN AND HAZARD MOVE LIKE THEY DO IN REAL LIFE.”
Pace is everything in EA Sports’ latest football sim. Players explode into sprints, crosses drive devilishly into boxes by default, a new animation system powers quicker reactions, and you can set subs to come on automatically without tinkering in the menu. Put simply, you’ll spend less time fighting FIFA and more time enjoying it.
“The philosophy is responsiveness,” says FIFA 18 senior gameplay producer Sam Rivera. “It’s very important. Responsiveness means more fun, because you are in control of what’s happening. Something that happened very often in FIFA 17 was, the ball’s in the air, and you want to shoot, and he controls it with his chest and you’re like ‘No, he’s meant to head it!’” For FIFA 18, Motion Technology all but eliminates input lag. This new animation engine blends frames rather than steps, essentially meaning you can interrupt your action and trigger another one whenever, wherever. It’s a subtle improvement, one accomplishing Rivera’s aim: “Things that look messy or don’t look ‘football’ – we want to get rid of them.”
LIONEL KING
More immediately noticeable is unique player locomotion across six archetypes: short, medium, tall, slim, average, and stocky. Race Messi against Ronaldo, for instance, and the latter uses fewer, longer strides compared to the former’s rapid steps – picture a horse chasing a terrier. Animators hand-tweak the likes of Robben, Sterling, Hazard, and Yaya Toure, so they move like they do in real life. Their rapid transitions are key to dribbling. Ground friction has been increased, the no-touch mechanic stripped back into simple shoulder drops, and players made more explosive. We test its effectiveness with several mazey Hazard runs, and you really do feel like you have a greater imprint on games.
Hopefully the sense of choice extends to the returning story mode, The Journey 2, which all but assures divergent paths as fictional footballer Alex Hunter stands at a dramatic crossroads: should he try to win Premier League gold or transfer abroad? One early match as a soon-departing Chelsea man sees our own fans boo us throughout. Hey, we just want a £200,000-a-week raise. Who can’t relate to that?