What’s different in FIFA 16?

by DannyUK

The FIFA football games have been around for more than two decades now and have seen some massive changes. Most improvements are taken forward, year by year, with each new title. There are always some features that get left behind though.

As a long-term player of the game, I thought I’d document a few features that I can remember from old versions of FIFA that are no longer available in the new versions.

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The “dive” function

I hated this feature, yet still used to use it when I played the game.  FIFA 2001 gave us the option to hit a button on the controller and make your player throw himself to the floor in a manner befitting a toddler having a tantrum in a supermarket.  I got far more yellow and red cards for diving than I ever managed to score from the free kicks or penalties that occasionally resulted from the dive. –

This feature was fairly swiftly removed from the game, probably because it upset someone at FIFA or (more likely) fans hated the fact that their opponent could cheat to win. –

Part-simming

There are many things in the newer FIFA games that are great.  There are also some older features that are missing.  The ability to part-sim games and to choose to join in at any time was brilliant.

If you’ve ever played a two-legged match, won the first one 3-0 and then chosen to sim the second match only to lose 4-0, you’d appreciate this feature.

In that scenario, you’d choose to simulate the game, the minutes would tick by fairly rapidly and you’d be informed of the main action points in the game such as cards and goals.  If you found yourself on the end of a tonking you could choose to join the game and start playing it from whatever minute it was at.

It gave you far more control over individual games without necessarily having to play each game worrying if the computer would lose 1-0 to a team that you would confidently wipe the floor with in a normal game.

A diagonal pitch

One for the older fans.  These days we are accustomed to the game being played left to right.  A few years back, camera angles such as “Be the Pro” were introduced which allowed you to have a variety of different perspectives as you played the game.  The play used to be diagonal as opposed from left to right.

When FIFA first came out, the pitch was based diagonally.

A replay before unpausing the game

After unpausing, the game would replay the last couple of seconds so you could get back into the swing of the match.

The hack button

Way back at the start of the century. FIFA introduced a “hack” button.  Simply put, you’d press the button and your player would launch a studs-high tackle at the nearest player.

Great fun to do, especially when playing against a friend, but it would almost always result in a red card as the opposition player rolled around in agony.

The opposition keeper kicking the ball at your head

The earliest “cheat” tactic that I can remember.  You’d simply stand in front of the keeper as he got ready to kick the ball out, only for him to boot it directly at you.

The ball would bounce off of you, leaving you to pounce on it and slam it home.  There were no attributes such as sprint speed or acceleration for each player back then, so you’d have the advantage of sprinting as fast as you could without any kind of a build up, putting you at an immediate advantage over the often-slower keeper.

Indoor football

There was also an option at one stage to play indoors.  From FIFA 97 you could choose to play with far fewer than 11 players on each side, and without throw-ins or corners with the indoor football mode.  You could pass the ball off of the surrounding wall like it was a five-a-side game at the local leisure centre.

No real player names

While it may seem strange nowadays that there were no real player names in the first couple of games, that was indeed the case until FIFA 96 came around.  That was the first FIFA game to include real player names thanks to the FIFPro License being obtained.

No ability to edit players

Another first in FIFA96 was the ability to edit your players, as well as (shock horror) transfer them between teams!

No female players

This was one of the bigger announcements for FIFA 16 - The introduction of women players.  EA have even produced a nifty little YouTube video about it (below).  What they don’t shout too loudly about is that you can’t play any of the women players in any career mode, only in certain tournaments, which is a shame.

Incorrect offsides

Another long-lost feature I wouldn’t mind seeing return.  Watching your friends get frustrated for wrongly being ruled offside when the ball was passed backwards was almost as much fun as it was hacking them down on purpose.  Unfortunately, Fifa 98 Road to World Cup fixed this and no matter how many times you replay that dodgy-looking goal in recent years, the computer won’t ever call you offside incorrectly.

FIFA16 promises to be bigger and better than ever, but I’ll still miss some of the quirks above.

You can pre-order:

FIFA 16 for XBox One

FIFA 16 for PS4

FIFA 16 for XBox 360

FIFA 16 for PS3

FIFA 16 for PC

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