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Ronaldo is confirmed as the FIFA 18 Cover star
© EA Sports
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18 changes we need in FIFA 18
FIFA 17 is fresh in our disc drives, but we’re already thinking about what could be in 18.
Shkruar nga Adam Cook
9 min readPublished on
FIFA 17 is an excellent game of football, there’s no denying that. But there’s always room for improvement. With the superb PES 2017 breathing down its neck competing for the “best footy game” award among fans, there’s no time to for EA to rest.
While Ultimate Team remains the king of all sports game modes, there’s plenty for EA Sports to be getting on with before its next annual iteration of the soccer sim franchise, so here’s 18 ways the next instalment of the world’s biggest game can improve, including some areas that have needed attention for years, and some that are nice new problems to have, thanks to the brilliance of this latest game. Let’s kick off.
1. Better crowds
It may not seem a big deal, but when you’re striving for an authentic atmosphere, seeing fans in the crowd all doing the same thing really breaks you out of it. FIFA is now using Frostbite (DICE’s engine, that of Battlefield and Mirror’s Edge), meaning it’s capable of some incredible graphical feats. In the next game we would love to see some attention to detail here, but more than ever, we want them to stop looking so blurry and low resolution.
Reus taking a corner
Reus taking a corner© EA Sports
2. More attention to women’s football
In FIFA 16 it was excellent to see Women’s football come into the series. That said, in FIFA 17 there’s nothing of note here that appears to have changed. Almost hidden away, to play Women’s football you just have to go to kick off and go to the Women’s international teams to select them. No clubs, no nothing, really. A missed opportunity, especially given the huge popularity of women’s club soccer in the US.
3. Penalty improvements
This year, the penalty system has been completely revamped. At first it appears to be, quite frankly, awful, but there’s definitely something here. We’re finding it quite tough to truly find the corner of the goal every time, especially in multiplayer where you (obviously) hide the direction indicator. Giving you control over positioning is a great idea, and does help you find top bins, but this system is one that feels like it needs a bit more development, still.
Manchester United’s Old Trafford in FIFA 17
Manchester United’s Old Trafford in FIFA 17© EA Sports
4. Fix the commentary
We’re not sure what’s happened here, because FIFA is known for top notch commentary work from Alan Smith and Martin Tyler, but when playing our manager mode as Man City, we had Alan Smith comment on “getting Pep Guardiola” not once, but twice in the same match. This is more than likely a simple scripting issue that can be patched, but it really shouldn’t be happening when you’re the new manager of a club.
5. Player ID
Obviously FIFA has a lot more players in the game, so this is harder to do, but one area that PES truly does edge FIFA out is the player ID. There, playing as Agüero feels like you’re playing as Agüero. All the players you’d expect to feel different, do. In FIFA, this is true also, but to a lesser extent. Over the years efforts have been made to make lower league players feel different to the superstars, but there’s still more that could be done here.
6. Fix the graphical glitches
Hopefully these are just teething problems related to being the first FIFA game on Frostbite, but we’ve seen numerous occasions where a referee pulls a yellow card out of thin air. It’s entirely possible David Blaine is the referee for Dortmund v Arsenal, but it’s also pretty unlikely. Player hands also frequently look strange and disappear as they touch their heads, too.
7. The physics need tweaking
We hate to make excuses, though again there needs to be the caveat of “new engine”, here, but we’ve had many moments where we were in possession of the ball and gave away a foul. How, you ask? Well, when the ball gets away from you slightly and you slide to make the last ditch pass, the physics engine sees that as a foul. Now, this is probably realistic, but it’s important that we remember FIFA is a game and needs to be fun. There’s a lot of weird physical collisions here that need looking into.
8. Create your own pro for The Journey
Alex Hunter’s career from child to superstar is a genuinely brilliant new feature for the series, but despite the enjoyable story mode, there could be even more immersion if we could be ourselves in The Journey. Much of this new mode borrows from Be a Pro, so it doesn’t seem a stretch to think it’s possible to do this. The only issue would be the voice acting, but then surely EA has the big bucks to get different actors to play different types of person? See Mass Effect, another EA game, for details on this.
The Journey’s Alex Hunter with Wayne Rooney
The Journey’s Alex Hunter with Wayne Rooney© EA Sports
9. Celebrations
This is another legacy issue, and perhaps one that’s a matter of taste, but the celebrations often look utterly stupid. Why are you able to do any celebration with any player? In a game that’s built on authenticity, why can’t FIFA have player specific celebrations like PES does? Why can every player dab? It’s all just a little silly looking, especially the one where they just fall on the floor like a dead fish.
10. More work on the manager likenesses
It’s great to see the real managers on the touchlines, and EA knows it. Often during dead ball moments the game will cut to the managers, looking all, well, realistic. Only they don’t look too hot. Compared to the player likenesses, the managers need work. So, yeah, great work on including them EA, but here’s hoping next year they look even better.
11. Corner system improvements
The new corner method is another cracking inclusion in FIFA 17, and initially feels as though it gives you more precision. After a while, though, you start to wonder why you’re not scoring from many corners. It’s fine, we guess, but it could be so much more, and could afford so much more control to us, the players.
Manchester United’s manager, Jose Mourinho
Manchester United’s manager, Jose Mourinho© EA Sports
12. More modes
With The Journey EA have shown they’re not afraid to take risks and try something different. So what about adding in five a side football, or perhaps the option to create a brand new team that starts in the non-leagues. Wouldn’t it be cool to make up a team based on your mates and upgrade them, and lead them all the way to the very top?
13. More dialogue in The Journey
Having some huge football names pop up in the story mode is excellent. But why stop there? Why not have blistering rows with fans, or the manager himself. Why not get Liverpool’s Klopp to voice a few lines of encouragement, or even some that chastise us? What you’re hopefully getting from this is that we’re very excited to see what EA does with The Journey in future games.
14. Better refs
This is an issue that plagues every football game, really, because there’s an issue created by the fact you don’t want the game to be fully simulation, nor too arcade like. That means that silly things will annoy you about the refs, like fouls that just don’t seem like fouls, or are a result of the physics engine. Sometimes offsides will be wrong, too, which is actually good (it’s part of the sport!) but also, in a game, not good.
15. Career mode needs to become more
Once the flagship of a FIFA game, this year’s version of Career Mode is crying out for something to make it feel new again. Right now, it feels like last year’s Career Mode, which was fine, excellent in fact, but in turn, didn’t feel hugely innovative otherwise. The menus look the same, the way the seasons play out are the same: it needs work. The only new thing of note is the long term goals (“in the next few years we want a Champions League trophy”, etc) that change based on which club you manage, but if you pick a big team it feels very much of a muchness. It’s a step in the right direction, but not far enough. It’d be nice to think one day we can even play a career as a female player, but that seems further away than ever.
16. Transfer prices need looking into
We can appreciate that to get Gareth Bale, you’re going to have to spend around one hundred million, despite his value being below €93 million. But if that’s the case, why are our players rated at €11 million, and only getting offers of €11 million? There feels like a huge disparity between buying and selling right now, and it all feels a bit of a grind. The opening of each season usually heavily involves buying and selling, so it makes the opening of a manager mode a little drab.
James Rodriguez contemplating his Career Mode
James Rodriguez contemplating his Career Mode© EA Sports
17. Customisation for our manager in career mode
This all ties into how badly EA need to look at career mode, but the amount of preset avatars to choose from is woeful. Quite frankly, in a modern game, the fact we have so few haircuts to pick between, and we can’t sculpt our beard, or even our facial features just isn’t good enough. It’s a far cry from being able to use GameFace to take a picture of yourself and put it in the game.
18. Let us play as a real manager
With all of the career mode issues we’ve mentioned, and the commentary tweaks that need to happen, it got us thinking: now Mourinho is in the game, why can’t we have a career mode as him? Imagine hosting a press conference as Jose, or even Klopp, and talking to the press. Think about how Football Manager or even PES makes it more of a big deal that you’re the boss. It’d be fantastic to even go one further and let you have some kind of crossover between The Journey and Career Mode that lets you play as the manager, patrolling the sidelines with button prompts, almost making it like a Telltale Games mode.
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