There’s not really an outright winner between FIFA 16 or PES 16, since they both offer a rather different experience. It’s clear that Konami is now back at in peak condition with PES 16, while FIFA 16 changes just enough from FIFA 15 to make it a good upgrade, as EA ride the wave of their recent successes. For me PES 16 is the football game that exudes fun, but FIFA 16 is the game that will hold attention longer simply due to offering more things to do. The new feature in FIFA 16 that’s garnered the most attention has got to be the fact that for the first time, women’s national teams have been included (12 in all). When it comes to sports, there’s no discussion worth having that isn’t passionately debated on both sides, and the heated exchange over the inclusion of women’s teams on EA Sports’ Facebook page and their official forum was no exception by far.

 

Some potential buyers even claimed they were going to be boycotting the game, which is their loss, because EA has really done a great job here. And if you don’t feel like playing this mode, you’re welcome to just ignore it, like most of us ignore the bloviating of corrupt FIFA officials. Anyway, women’s soccer has been gaining a lot of traction among viewers and fans, so it makes sense. The matches might not be as fast-paced or as physical as in men’s professional soccer, but they’re still a lot of fun to watch. The most recent FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, where rising star Alex Morgan led the US team to win the championship, was just this past summer. So this is the perfect time for EA Sports to do this.

 

In terms of the UI, FIFA 16 looks largely similar to FIFA 15 from the front-end, with the metro-style tiled interface still being used in the user interface. I personally am a big fan of this design as I find the menus easy to navigate, clean and modern. From a graphical perspective, FIFA 16 looks incredible. Year on year, EA Sports manage to make the game look better and better and this year is no exception. The (male) player models look excellent, the stadiums are brought to life with vivid, accurate representations of the pitches and stands and player animations are fantastic. One big thing I noticed is that textures glitch far less than they did in the past; something which is very difficult to get perfect from a development perspective.

 

PES 2016's Master League is as good as ever. It is an excellent single-player mode that has you thinking in terms of how your whole team can play better, rather than hunting down individual stars. Every month (in-game) you'll see a detailed breakdown of how you played, where you scored, when you scored, and much more. Cut-scenes punctuate key moments like new signings and trophy wins. The Team Spirit feature is another important element of the game, and makes a big impact on the experience. If you're looking to play solo, PES 2016 wins decisively. Passing is also an issue at times. A new addition is Pass with Purpose (using RB) which produces a much quicker, firing-to-feet pass, which has resulted in the normal pass becoming much slower and easier to intercept. You feel forced into using Pass with Purpose, yet few players have good enough control for it to be useful, so frustration ensues again.

 

I understand the overall goal of making a balanced game of football, yet as a result of these changes it often becomes more of a game of chance. compete-for-progressive-rewardsFurthermore, the Draft mode in FIFA 16 requires an entry fee. One FUT Draft Entry coin gets you a free entry, and you will begin the game with one. It is understood that more Draft Entries can be obtained in packs, but if you don’t have any you can buy your way in using 15,000 Coins (rewarded through completing matches/competitions in Ultimate Team) or 300 FIFA Points. To put it in perspective, 500 FIFA Points will cost you ￡3.99, and 15,000 Coins would get you a Jumbo Premium Gold pack in the store.

 

When they are available, these packs give you 24 Ultimate team items, with a guarantee that at least 20 are gold and 7 will be Rare. To get the maximum reward from the Draft mode you need to win 4 games without losing one. Fortunately for me on my first entry I managed this, and the reward was one of the above mentioned Jumbo Premium Gold packs, along with another regular premium gold pack (12 items; 10 gold, 3 rare). So had I paid 15,000 Coins to enter (which would take a little grind to accumulate) I really wouldn’t have made much of a profit from the venture. If you are a better FIFA player than I then you could increase the skill level that you play the Draft mode on, increasing the potential rewards, but then you are also probably not reading this review and have already been playing FIFA 16 since the beta…