Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

FIFA 15 is a sports simulation football game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. The FIFA series started over twenty years ago when FIFA International Soccer was released in December 1993 for retro platforms such as the 3DO, SNES, Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy, Amiga and many more platforms with each iteration  ever since progressing into new realms of realism, graphical quality and atmosphere, while spanning multiple generations of consoles. The ultimate question upon the release of FIFA 15 must be how substantially it can build upon the previous game as FIFA 15 is only the second new-gen release within the FIFA series.

The game starts out with a high intensity match between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield as the first taste of the action, which effectively is in some ways a tutorial to get the player acquainted with the tempo and changes that have been made to the new game. A good touch to this match is that the commentators acknowledge the main Premiership title contenders from the previous season were Liverpool and Manchester City, hence a rivalry is built headed into the match and then increased even more so by pitting it as a match in which the winning team wins the title to provide that added spice and story to the action.

The kick off game mode allows players to pick any two teams from any league throughout the world and have them battle for the win, while the career mode allows you to experience the highs of promotion through the leagues and the lows of relegation; while customisable tournaments that allow players to choose a country and a tournament or cup competition from within any of them, such as England having the F.A. Cup, Capital One Cup, Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, Barclays Premier League as well as the Football League Championship, 1 and 2.

Ultimate Team remains the most popular game mode with over twelve million players worldwide and now includes new features such as concept squads providing the ability to strategically shape future squads from the players throughout the player catalogue based upon your transfer targets, while friendly seasons provides a one on one format of seasons where competitors are able to challenge friends along with the introductions of loan players that will be contracted for a certain amount of games and new physical attributes that encompasses strength, stamina and jumping abilities.

Skill mini-games improve the knowledge of how to perfect particular techniques across a range of fourteen key elements to a footballer’s performance, such as learning the basics of dribbling, shooting and defending; ground passing; shooting; dribbling; lob passing; crossing; defending; goalkeeping; free kicks and penalties across four levels including: bronze, silver, gold and a skill challenge in which players have to earn a set amount of points within a time limit and avoiding points being deducted by leaving the parameter of the challenge in order to unlock the following level by succeeding in the previous level, while completing the bronze, silver and gold levels followed by the skill challenge will rise you to the legendary level for that particular technique.

There are half-time and full-time statistics including all of the important match facts, such as the amount of goals; the total amount of shots; the amount of shots on target; possession percentage; tackles; fouls; yellow and red cards; injuries; off sides; corners; shot and pass accuracy percentage with every statistic supplemented with diagrams to show where everything occurred on the pitch. However, the post-match analysis increases to an entirely new level of detail with a supreme amount of coverage for each player including a performance rating for the match and a heat map of his movement and positioning on the pitch, alongside individual statistics from shooting, passing and movement categories during attacking play and tackling, positioning and ball retention categories while defending for the ten outfield players, alongside goalkeeping, passing, positioning and ball retention categories for the goalkeeper. This is an excellent design choice as the statistics allow fans to analyse the performance of your players to view who is performing at their peek and who are underperforming, which will effectively inspire the players you choose in your starting eleven and the substitutes bench in your team selection sheet for the next match.

The Match Day Live feature allows players to choose their favourite team or any team they want to read about for that matter from all of the available leagues and teams throughout world football and see their latest news, recent form, league positioning and upcoming fixtures as well as the ability to play their team’s next fixture.

Highlights of the Week profiles the best matches of the week and challenges to either recreate or re-write the stories and score lines in whichever way players prefer to do so from teams and leagues around the world, while also offering statistical analysis of the in and out of form teams and players, therefore allowing to see what their previous score was and what their current score is, which are collectively great features as they could potentially help you to make up your mind in which team you choose and certain players you choose within your squad and starting eleven.

FIFA 15 features all of the official licenses for the 2014-2015 season, which comprises of leagues from across world football including familiar leagues and the unexpected such as the Primera Division in Argentina, Liga Postobon in Colombia, Superliga in Denmark, Premier League, Championship, Football League 1 and Football League 2 in England, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 in France, Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 in Germany, Serie A and Serie B in Italy, K League in Korea Republic, Allsvenskan in Sweden, Raiffeisen SL in Switzerland, Super Lig in Turkey and Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States of America.

 

Alongside the domestic league teams; there are also 47 international teams, such as Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland, United States of America, Wales and many more besides, while there are also ten rest of the world teams that include exhibition teams such as Adidas All-Star, Classic XI and MLS All Stars, while also comprising of seven teams that are not in licensed leagues, such as FC Shakhtar from the Ukranian Premier League; Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates from the South African Premier Division; Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and PAOK from Superleague Greece; and Rangers from the Scottish Championship.

The seven teams that are not in a particular licensed league shows an effort to push for as many officially licensed teams as possible and may be of interest to some but even if you are not interested in any of those seven teams, then the rest of the world category is still worth a look as players are bound to get a kick out of playing as the Classic XI with such classic talent from yesteryear including Eric Cantona, Leonardo and Zico. The only unfortunate omission is the Brazilian domestic leagues that despite being in previous FIFA games, such as FIFA 14 have not made it into FIFA 15 due to changes in how Brazilian players are licensed, although the entire Brazilian international team and Brazilian players who currently play for teams outside of Brazilian leagues including Barcelona’s Neymar, Chelsea’s Oscar and Paris Saint Germain’s David Luiz remain in the game. All of the league and international teams from around the world have their own official kits with three kits including the home, away and alternate kits per team, but there are also usually two classic kits on top of that per team, such as Everton’s older kit from when they were sponsored by NEC in 1986.

All of the stadiums from the twenty Premier League teams have been rendered to a point of extreme accuracy as they look, feel and sound exactly as they would during a real life game of football even pushing the boundaries of the representation of the animated LEDs, advertising boards and so much more besides as the stadiums look like their real life counterparts, although there are many more stadiums collectively totally to a stunning total of 72 stadiums from across the world. Another area of extreme realism is the introduction of goal line technology making FIFA 15 the world’s first football game to debut the system, which has been replicated perfectly to add another layer of atmosphere during the brief wait and action replay of if the ball actually crossed the line, if it had bounced out from the underside of the crossbar, rebounded off the post or if it was cleared off the goal line.

The development team have visited every stadium of the Premier League with the best in 3D scanning technology to make sure the Premier League’s top stars, such as Jesus Navas and Sergio Aguero of Manchester City; Bryan Oviedo, Romelu Lukaku, Samuel Eto’o, Steven Naismith and Tim Howard of Everton; Eden Hazard and Oscar of Chelsea; and Emmanuel Adebayor of Tottenham are rendered to an extremely high level of detail and accuracy, while player movements are better than ever with a particular emphasis on goalkeeper animations as Everton’s Tim Howard has produced full performance motion capture. There are over 200 new player models scanned into FIFA 15, although it is not just the Premier League that has received this treatment as world class footballers, such as Patrice Evra and Paul Pogba of Juventus; James Rodriguez from Real Madrid; and Clint Dempsey from Seattle Sounders FC have also been scanned, amongst many more, which shows a supreme level of effort to strive for the best visual quality imaginable to date.

There are plenty of camera angles when playing the game and also for when watching instant replays with eight camera angles including: default, dynamic, end to end, pro, broadcast, television broadcast,  and co-op, while there are customisable camera settings as every camera angle can have its height and zoom adjusted across a twenty point slider with ten being in the centre, zero being closer and twenty being as far back as possible, alongside the height and zoom is also the ability to adjust the camera swing across a twenty point slider, although the camera swing is only available for the pro camera angle. There are ten instant replay camera angles including: tele is the perspective that you may expect to see the most on a television broadcast of a football match, orbit with a camera that is capable of zooming and rotating around the player who has possession of the ball, pro which follows the impact and pace of the player as the camera tilts from side-to-side; follow wide, follow, follow wide (inv) and follow (inv) all provide camera angles that follow the flow of the action around the immediate vicinity of the ball; broadcast views the action from a side-on perspective from high up in the stadium as the camera swivels to follow the path of the ball, sideline high sees the game from above the touchline were players can see the fourth official, managers providing instructions and players warming up with spots of rain on the camera to provide that added authenticity, while sideline low is a closer and zoomed version of sideline high, alongside the abilities to adjust every camera angle to follow the movements of a particular player, setting a keyframe, rewinding, fast-forwarding and adjusting the speed to run at a normal speed or a slower speed.

Differing amounts of XP are offered for playing on certain game modes and difficulty levels, such as 500XP being for a Match Day Challenge in Highlights of the Week on beginner, which progresses a further 100XP for each step up in difficulty between amateur, semi-pro, professional, world class and legendary with legendary offering 1,000XP, although XP is only offered once for a Match Day Challenge, so players really have to choose carefully if they want the highest amount of XP. As XP is earned and progressively level up; players will also earn coins from winning matches with the three gameplay elements working in harmony for unlocking brand new content in the EA Sports Football Catalogue as players have to attain a certain level from having earned enough XP, while there is also the requirement of coins to purchase items from the extensive list of over 250 items available for purchase, such as various bundles of historic kits from classic eras of football; new boots and footballs of varying designs, colours and sponsorships; new goal scoring celebrations; loan players for FIFA Ultimate Team; extra perks in online seasons; and career boosts.

FIFA 15 supports the share feature that allows players to upload a video clip or screen shot to Facebook or Twitter and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or Ustream as they are experiencing the game with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of their choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores the most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so players still have the chance to decide if they would like to share something amazing a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that has only improved with the further customisation provided by the Share Factory app that allows commentary, music, themes, stickers, effects, text, picture-in-picture video between the game footage and the reaction from the PlayStation Camera and much more besides, which will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation in the future.

FIFA 15 supports the remote play feature that allows play between almost any PS4 game on PlayStation Vita via a Wi-Fi internet connection by pairing up the PS4 and Vita via configuring the settings on the PS4 to enable the Vita to connect to it, then entering the code provided from the settings menu on the Vita’s PS4 Link application with the initial setup taking around only two minutes. FIFA 15’s performance during remote play is excellent as it plays identically to the PS4 version with the exception of a couple of changes to the controls of pace control and sprinting as L2 and R2 are mapped to the left and right of the rear touch pad along with the DualShock 4’s touch pad being replicated on the Vita’s touch screen in the function of skipping onto the following song, while the graphics, audio, presentation and general performance are all just as good as the PS4 version. It must be said that EA Sports did not have to go to the lengths of making FIFA 15 remote play when considered there is a Vita native version of FIFA 15, but they must be commended for doing such a great job on the remote play functionality.

The attacking component of the default classic control scheme consists of pressing O to shoot, volley or header; pressing X to pass or header; pressing triangle to perform a through ball; pressing square to lob pass, cross or header; pressing L1 to cycle through the players to control; pressing R1 to activate the finesse shot modifier; pressing L2 to control the pace; pressing R2 to sprint; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to manoeuvre your player; pressing left, right, up or down on the d-pad to cycle through tactics and mentality; pressing the share button takes players to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu, while the defensive component of the default classic control scheme consists of holding triangle to rush the goalkeeper; pressing square to perform a sliding tackle; pressing O to tackle, push or pull when chasing an opponent; pressing X to contain; pressing L1 to cycle through the players to control; pressing R1 to perform a teammate contain; pressing L2 to jockey; pressing R2 to sprint; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to manoeuvre your player; and pressing left, right, up or down on the d-pad to cycle through tactics and mentality. There are also two alternative control schemes including alternate and two buttons, while all three control schemes are completely customisable, which is a positive design choice as it allows players to find the control scheme that is most comfortable for them.

The touch pad implementation is minimal as it cycles through the soundtrack with each tap of the touch pad, although a better implementation would have been an alternative control scheme with a subtle swipe across the touch pad from left to right to control the direction and pace of your player with an upward swipe to take a shot or in the appropriate direction of a player you wish to pass to, while the light bar represents each player in local multiplayer, whereas a better implementation of this would have been the light bar to represent the colour of the kit for the team you are controlling, alongside the DualShock 4 controller vibrating when a ball hits the post.

The graphics are realistic to the real world of football with player likenesses and facial expressions portraying happiness from scoring a goal, great build up play or defending and anger from conceding a goal or a player taking a shot on and missing the target, rather than passing which is therefore all relevant to what is happening around each player in the match reaching new heights of realism, while players have smooth animations, individual blades of grass can be seen on the pitch and pitch deformation occurs with foot prints and grass kicked up, while weather effects result in water splashing up as players run and kick the ball on a rain soaked pitch or visible breath in cold conditions.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, game mode menus, online menus, online leaderboards, Match Day Live menus, EA Sports Football Club Catalogue menus, customisation menus and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left and right analogue sticks, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the touch pad, which is the only missing component in an otherwise very easy to navigate professional layout. The television styling of the presentation is incredibly slick with overlays that clearly accurately represent Sky Sports T.V. broadcasts as there is footage from outside the stadium, followed by flags and supporters inside the ground, introduction of commentators, detailed analysis of how both teams and their respective tactics shape up from the official team sheets and live match stats, which collectively provides a real stage for the action that is about to take place on the field followed up with half-time and full-time highlights from multiple camera angles.

The audio consists of ambience, commentary, sound effects and music with a big match atmosphere from the sound created by the crowd and the announcer which goes into such detail as to actually have supporters of both clubs having their own songs and chants, while the announcer will randomly ask a person in the crowd or a member of staff to report to a designated area of the stadium or even advising fans of the best route home from a match if a particular road is closed and safety announcements for where a person should report to in the stadium if he or she is lost and cannot find their family member or friend. The pre-match, half-time and post-match comments of Jeff Stelling followed by the commentary of Martin Tyler and Alan Smith from the Sky Sports Football team is excellent and has improved over previous FIFA games with references to the title race from the previous season and discussions regarding the form of player’s and various events that transpired during the 2014 World Cup and the further element of latest score updates from another big match from Alan McInally is a positive step up in the accuracy of the commentary too. However, there are occasions were the commentary slips ever so slightly in a couple of areas as Alan Smith comments that the goal scorer “Put his boot through it” as though to suggest that the player has hit it as hard as possible, although this is not the case as the player has placed his shot with a side footed finish showing skill and accuracy, while there are also occasions where a striker will be through on goal but the commentators will not break from what they have started discussing to acknowledge the opportunity. The sound effects build upon the ambience as the shouting of players communicating with each other can be heard as you would hear it from time to time when watching a television broadcast along with the referee’s whistle, when the ball has been passed or struck for a shot and the net rippling when the ball hits the back or the side of the netting, while there is music from the EA Sports Trax range providing a soundtrack to the action from various up and coming acts. Unfortunately, there is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation, which would have made for an even further enhanced atmospheric ambience with such varied possibilities including commentary, instructions from your team’s manager, communication between players, crowd reaction and announcements.

There is excellent voice recognition implementation that allows players to command a substitution by saying the area of the pitch you want a player to be substituted such as speaking “Sub Midfielder”, saying the number of the substitution in that position such as “Sub 1”, followed by a quick glance at the overlay to see which player is of your preference to bring onto the pitch and speaking the number of that substitution such as “Sub 2”, which will make the substitution. This is a hugely positive design choice as it allows players to make a substitution, change formation, tactics or mentality and even changing the camera angle with minimum distraction from playing the match they are involved in, therefore making it feel like more of a player and manager simultaneously, while increasing the immersion of the game without having to pause to navigate the menus which also makes the experience far slicker. Players can even perform actions and manoeuvres during the Be A Pro game mode, such as calling for a pass to feet by saying “Pass the ball”, calling for or suggesting a through ball by speaking “Through ball”, suggesting a shot by saying “Shoot” or telling your goalkeeper to charge out of his goal for the ball by speaking “Keeper charge”, amongst others, which is ambitious as it results in the voice recognition system actually becoming an alternative control scheme for core gameplay elements.

The trophy list includes forty-six trophies with thirty-six bronze, six silver, three gold and one platinum trophy. The easiest trophies have to be the Supporter bronze trophy for playing a fixture in the Match Day Live game mode although you are not required to win in order to earn the trophy; the I’m Better bronze trophy for beating a friends’ Skill Game score at any of the four levels; and the Check Me Out, Thoughts? and Here’s What I Think Of This bronze trophies for sharing, commenting and rating an EA Sports Football Club Activity respectively, amongst others. The hardest trophies are the Going All Out silver trophy for scoring a goal beyond the 80th minute using the All Out Attack mentality against artificial intelligence set to legendary difficulty level and the On The Rise gold trophy for earning a promotion in Seasons. It is estimated that depending upon skill, a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips and some friends to play with or against in online multiplayer matches to help boost particular trophies that it would take between fifteen to twenty-five hours to platinum the trophy list

There are six difficulty levels including: beginner, amateur, semi-pro, professional, world class and legendary with three game speeds consisting of slow, normal and fast. The beginner difficulty will ease you into the game with a much easier difficulty allowing you to make it one sided for your team, such as a 9-0 victory for Everton against Manchester United at Old Trafford, whilst players can expect to get thumped 6-0 in the atmospheric London derby of Chelsea vs. Arsenal when playing on the legendary difficulty level. This is purely due to the much increased level of awareness of the artificial intelligence that sees opponents become far more comfortable on the ball in all areas of the pitch, while being defensively far more accurate at cutting out passes and crosses; resulting in the toughest of tests that will take some practice before standing a chance at overcoming! Regardless of which difficulty level chosen, the surrounding players will always react angrily if a pass is misplaced or act greedily by shooting when another player is in a much better position to shoot or when a poor defensive clearance is made that keeps the team under pressure, which is all part of the new emotional intelligence features.

There is an extensive local and online competitive and co-operative multiplayer across pretty much every game mode with competitive being up to four friends on separate teams in a tournament or two friends going up against each other in a derby match for the pride of their favourite clubs and co-operative seeing up to four friends teaming up to take on the might of the legendary A.I. in a match or a tournament or perhaps even two vs. two, while the online multiplayer is for anyone from two to twenty-two players in anything from one on one competitive to eleven a side in a true competitive meets co-operative experience. Potential improvements for the future of FIFA’s multiplayer would hopefully revolve around functionality between multiple consoles, such as cross-save to transfer progress and cross-play competitive and co-operative multiplayer between PS4, PS3 and Vita. There are online leaderboards focusing on each of the four levels across fourteen Skill Games in friends and global rankings with each leaderboard containing each player’s ranking, nationality, name (PSN ID) and the amount of points scored within each skill.

The replayability of FIFA stems from many areas as football fans will be attracted by the extensive replication of player models and stadiums in the Premier League and across world football, while the local and online competitive and co-operative multiplayer will naturally be a huge draw as will the scale of unlockable content contained within the EA Sports Catalogue which will provide new content all the way through to reaching level 125, alongside the plethora of game modes, teams, tactics, formations, leagues, competitions, customisation, the challenge of mastering all six difficulty levels and much more in between that will keep the hardcore and even the most casual of football fans coming back for more on a regular basis.

Overall, FIFA 15 presents the most realistic and lifelike football game to date with such extensive detail from player likenesses to all of the top flight stadiums, while certainly implementing enough new features, content and general improvements to warrant the purchase, regardless of whether players already own the previous year’s PS4 release.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: FIFA 15
• Developer: EA Sports
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• System: PS4
• Format: Retail/PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1-4 (Local Co-Op and Competitive)/2-22 (Online Co-Op and Competitive)/Online Leaderboards
• Hard Drive Space Required: 18GB (Version 1.03)