A crop of changes pack the pitch densely with surprises. FIFA 16 has implemented a “Living Pitch” into the game, creating a more realistic field than past iterations. As the match goes on and players slide and quickly change direction, the marks left on the grass don’t fade away as they do in games past. If you lay down a mark, it stays for the full 90 minutes. On a rainy day, if a chunk of grass flies up from a slide tackle, the debris remains. The groundbreaking flourish adds an element of realism that truly couldn't have been done on past generations.

 

The EA approach to the Vita has been very simple; take last year’s title and slap new kits and squad rosters in and the job is done. Very simple, and very lazy but this time it is slightly different because it’s not exactly the same game as they have crazily removed the online multiplayer element of the game. Now I do not know who made this baffling decision, but FIFA 16 is infinitely more fun when playing with others and only being able to play alone somewhat removes the point in the long run. There are other modes of course, but you can only play so many career modes or play custom tournaments before you get bored - you expect a little more for your money, and rightly so.

 

Not that FIFA hasn’t always been about money. EA has never made FIFA from a sense of duty or sporting spiritualism. But now it has devised a machine capable of monetising the adulation of role-models with a precision that overshadows how the game imitates and celebrates the sport itself. FIFA 16 Ultimate Team is brilliantly designed and compelling, but it’s also the Premier League-ification of FIFA - it represents a different joy, a different compulsion. It’s not an attempt to simulate football and all its pleasures - at least, not football the Platonic notion of figures on a field exploring shape and movement with a ball. It is football the industry, the marketing machinery. It is an uncanny representation of the capitalist framework that has constructed itself around the sport, a framework that turns skilled young men into commodities and trades them accordingly.

 

Let’s not mince words here; the smoothness of menu systems in deep sports games like FIFA really matters. When you’re in career mode as a manager or dealing with your FIFA 16 Ultimate Team, having a nice, fluid and simple menu makes a world of difference when it comes to managing your team. The last generation of consoles was particularly bad about stuttering in menus, and FIFA 16 (on the PlayStation 4, at least) feels brilliant here. It sounds minor, but it’s not. UI fluidity is important.

 

Goalkeepers are getting some long-needed attention this time round. Saves look and feel more natural - often the big man will parry a thunderous strike off to the side of goal rather than knocking it right back into the path of the opposition’s striker. Keepers also react and position themselves better overall, but that’s not to say they are brick walls. The trick to scoring in FIFA 16, as in real football, is to catch the goalie off-balance - or guide it through their legs ( a new feature for this edition.)

 

The FIFA series has long reveled in its own pomp and circumstance. Awash in league licenses and Ultimate Team micro-transaction money, its self-belief was arguably greater than its on-the-pitch accomplishments. That being said, EA Canada deserves recognition for continually working on the series, adding to an ever-growing and vital list of game modes and chipping away at its gameplay to-do list. FIFA 16 is the big pay-off you've been waiting for. It isn't perfect, but it's a quality title that finally aligns many of EA's ambitions with firm results. Make no mistake - this is a golazo.

 

FIFA 16 is certainly the best looking FIFA to date, and that has a great deal to do with the new cutscenes and player animations. Although the idea of filling short periods of downtime with cutscenes sounds completely daft in theory, in practice you feel more like you’re interacting with a real game of football rather than just a stiff representation of one. FIFA 16 also automatically defaults to slow-motion gameplay footage when you press pause, and post-match highlights have snippets of commentary spliced into them, which (again) makes you feel as if you’re collaborating with a real game of football.