Video game review: Fifa 15, by EA Sports
EA Sports
is the first game created solely with the PS4 and Xbox One systems in mind. Slipping the disc into your console, the first thing you'll notice is just how incredible it looks.
Players' faces have been realistically modelled on their real-life counterparts, and from the pain of an injury to the exultation of the win, all of it's there on screen in brilliant HD graphics.
Alongside that are all the little details: the club-focused chants, the fan reaction close-ups, the camera moving slightly when the ball hits the back of the net. Even the grass is damaged as the match progresses.
But unless you're a die-hard football fan, none of that's really going to keep your interest. The gameplay is what's important and, during the past seven years or so, EA has had a strong track record of keeping football simulation alive, culminating in last year's peak-performance release.
Sadly, the developers are well aware of that and haven't put much of a focus on the gaming side this time. "Emotional intelligence" is the biggest addition, a much-hyped selling point that adds an increased sense of realism by making players react more realistically to a given situation. Your wrongfully tackled striker, for example, might stop to give a piece of his mind to the referee - meaning your team is temporarily without a man.
But the AI hasn't been fully refined this first go-around, meaning it often alternates between incredibly clever and woefully foolish. There's also the "tactical defence", another heavily advertised aspect that instils a greater sense of purpose to the back line, although things can easily be switched back to the regular "legacy defence".
Passing has been updated ever so slightly, each move now a little quicker and more defined, and the once lumbering goalkeepers have been given a minor overhaul: they are now more focused.
There's no doubt is an improvement over , and it should be - gamers have to pony up HK$400 or so to buy this year's edition. It's not a ground-breaking update from EA though, although that won't stop most fans (this obsessive reviewer included) from picking it up anyway.
