We’ve seen Konami innovating – for better or worse – with a free-to-play version of its own flagship football series. That isn’t what’s happened here (on next-gen consoles, at least) – FIFA 22 is definitely a step forward, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity to showcase the power of next generation consoles and do something truly breathtaking. The common complaint from gamers is that EA charges you for what is essentially the same game every single year.
#Top speed games pro#
Rae shouts his lines with an enthusiasm and volume reminiscent of the original ISS Pro – I had to mute him.
#Top speed games series#
The commentary – once the crowning jewel of the series – is now really quite difficult to listen to, with the iconic duo of Clive Tyldesley and Alan Smith again overlooked in favour of Derek Rae and Stewart Robson, the latter of which I must admit I had never actually heard of (he is a former Arsenal and West Ham midfielder, and BT Sport’s Italian football co-commentator). For the casual player like me, it’s partly a matter of adjusting, like driving a new car – in a few weeks I’ll be so deep into the new and improved career mode (playing as Amit Katwala, a promising young winger for Bournemouth) that I’ll have completely forgotten about whatever gripes I had at the start.Įxcept one, that is. The incisive through ball isn’t quite the offensive weapon that it once was (for now). Players seem very slow off the mark – unless you’re using explosive sprint, of course – and that means games can quite quickly get bogged down in midfield. Having said that, my initial impressions are that the game feels a little pedestrian. Someone who installs FIFA 22 for the first time next summer will get an entirely different experience to someone playing it today. It is, however, slightly pointless reviewing how a FIFA game feels because there will be dozens of tweaks to various settings from the developers over the course of the next year. That all adds up to a game that looks authentic, but the enjoyment of a sports simulation game comes more from feel than anything else.
#Top speed games zip#
There’s a long overdue refresh of the goalkeeping system, and changes to ball physics which mean that cross-field passes will zip rather than float from wing to wing. (Just don’t look at the crowd, who were presumably motion-captured during some sort of zombie invasion).Ī machine learning algorithm has been used to smooth transitions – players will adjust their stride to react to a bouncing ball, and recover from collisions more quickly, for fewer slapstick moments where your central defenders trip over each other to leave a striker clear through on goal. The result is thousands of new animations that add authenticity to proceedings – players fiddle with their armbands, and call instructions to each other they slide in for tackles with a ferocity that can only come in a match situation. For the first time ever, developers put motion capture suits on 22 players and recorded them during an entire match on a real pitch, instead of doing this with individual players in a studio. One of the big additions this year has been what EA is calling ‘Hypermotion’. Now, if not for the floating icons above the player’s heads, I genuinely think I’d have a hard time telling the difference from a distance.
It’s not just the cutscenes and close-ups either – I remember being slightly incredulous as a teenager when older relatives (with, to be honest, quite severe visual impairments) would walk into the room as I was playing and not be able to tell if it was a video game or a real one. The graphics are, of course, outrageous – particularly for the biggest players: Ronaldo and his ilk have leapt out of the uncanny valley like they’re challenging for a header at a corner.
That’s not to say it’s a bad game – not at all. FIFA 22 is the first entry in the series that's coming to next-gen consoles at launch, but it feels like a mere burst into space, instead of the headlong sprint into the open grass beyond that it could have been.
It could also be a metaphor for the game itself. It provides a burst of straight-line speed that the best players can use in one-on-one situations – lure the opponent in by slowing to walking pace, and then surge away from them, virtual thigh muscles burning with digital effort, sweaty index finger jammed against plastic button.īut the effect only lasts a couple of seconds – it’s just enough to get you in front, but you can’t use it to open up a bigger gap, or accelerate to top speed.
There’s a new feature in FIFA 22, the latest iteration in EA’s long-running football series, called ‘Explosive Sprint’.
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