We are used to expecting a series of from EA Sports every year titles and big names for the gameplay news of the next episode of FIFA, innovations that often seem beautiful and revolutionary on paper but which are then reduced most of the time to small differences that do not impact that much on the overall experience. Which then is an absolutely understandable thing: FIFA is an annual series and usually offers the greatest upheavals in playability (while EA's effort to insert new modes, such as the story of The Journey is always constant and commendable) at the beginning of a console generation, when the new physics and graphics engines and greater computing power allow things that were initially impossible.
At the "secret" presentation for the press of FIFA 19 (ah, to escape the field of doubts immediately, all the material of the event still featured Cristiano Ronaldo in the Real Madrid shirt, although obviously things will change soon, ed), we put hands on the game for the second time in about a month (after our E3 trial) and we can tell you that, especially in the field of animations, this time marketing words have found real feedback and promise to shake the foundation of FIFA far more than we expected. In Milan we played an advanced demo of the best-selling football title for almost two hours and we can tell you that the elements for an unmissable chapter are all there.
You call them if you want, animations
We were talking about these innovations with important names: in this case it is theActive Touch (Active Touch) and 50/50 Battles (The disputed balls in practice). Behind these two systems lies the real ace in the hole of FIFA 19: the brand new animations, able to bring the EA title closer than ever to a faithful simulation of real football. At least from this point of view, as we will see later.
First, Active Touch offers more varied and responsive animations when players have to react to the position of the ball around them. It often happens that an uncomfortable rebound or a deflection puts the ball at the disposal of a player in a strange position, where perhaps a touch of the heel or the outside of the foot is the right solution to stop or move the ball: in FIFA previously, as in all video games, it was difficult to get out of the - albeit vast - arsenal of preconfigured animations, with the only solution for the development teams to glue the ball to the feet of the athletes and then start the aforementioned animations. In FIFA 19, players will react much more realistically, creating new situations depending on the movement of the ball.
With the same basic idea comes the mechanics of 50/50 Battles, which translates from English into those balls halfway between two players, those many situations in which it is not clear who will win and often a lucky rebound or the greater stubbornness of one of the protagonists make the difference. Historically in FIFA it was understood quite well in every situation who would have won, perhaps between a head-on collision between a defender and an attacker, with the late one "forced" by the code to "adapt" and propose a containment animation, giving up the ball . Now everything has changed: in FIFA 19 a level of unpredictability, calculated on the statistics of the players (imagine how winning a complex situation is easier for a Matuidi than a Pirlo, for example), is applied to these situations, greatly increasing the realism. During our test there were so many situations in which we exclaimed “See? I would have taken that ball safely last year ”. The result is truly alienating but incredibly satisfying after a few minutes. FIFA has changed for the better.
Rhythm result
It was also an opportunity to put another of the novelties of FIFA 19 under pressure, also definitely impacting the actual gameplay loop, at least when activated (the developers told us how it was actually deactivated): the Timed Finishing. In practice, from this year every time you shoot towards the goal, you can make a second “tap” on the shot button in conjunction with the exact moment in which the player will touch the ball. A colored indicator (most visible in Trainer mode) will turn red or green, depending on the timing of the second touch. The choice of whether or not to use this feature will be important, especially in front of goal: in fact the system lives on a clear risk / reward dynamic. If we hit well, the opportunities to score will increase a lot, while a wrong pressure could make us shoot for the stars even an easy tap-in. It will be up to you to choose the most complex situations to risk something and look for an anthology goal, while only the most daring could decide to try their luck in relatively simple occasions.
Finally, EA Sports also promises to refine the defense, starting with a limited but useful addition such as that of indicating with a small transparent icon which is the next player who will be selected by pressing the appropriate button or one adjusted to the movements and controls of the goalkeepers during the game: it will now be possible to engrave on-the-go on the positioning of the goalkeeper between the posts, perhaps to place him where one is convinced the next threat may arrive. Furthermore, the entire part dedicated to tactics has been retouched: now it is possible to assign more tactics to the d-pad than the preset ones and in general it will be possible to intervene on many more elements in the pre-match, setting pressure, team length and many other elements.
Perhaps excessive show but ... fun
Together with other small additions such as body feints during the stop and a new system that makes it easier to get around the goalkeepers with an attacker launched towards the net (too complex in the past!), The FIFA 19 package has convinced us a lot, but , as the games went on, only one element made us turn up our noses, something that in fact could not be understood from a single meeting but to be deduced only after a more in-depth test.
As we wrote before, this episode thanks to the new animations in particular has placed the accent on the realism of the behavior of the players on the pitch: very well, but when Toprak (Borussia Dortmund defender who even as football fans we did not know very well) stood up during a corner kick and scored a reverse kick goal that CR7 raised, we raised an eyebrow. Because it wasn't an isolated opportunity: even in a few games, by only decent FIFA players, we scored some really crazy goals, on the fly or falling off the ground with unlikely crosses from the heel and so on, alternating with pitches such as being able to lift the ball from the ground at any time by pressing the right analog. We are talking about a video game and we are talking about the strongest players in the world, perhaps engaged in a Champions League match, but it is strange to see Lukaku framing a volley at the corner with the ball coming clearly from behind or watching a Sterling one-man-show with its crossroads shot twice in one game.
It was all a LOT of fun, we assure you, but it's just weird to see a development team revolutionize their player movement system to pursue realism (the pace of the games is more staid and the steps more difficult to complete) and then , after half an hour of practice, watching three men and a leg plays that I miss in Italy-Morocco. Let's hope it's just an impression or that we have secretly become very strong at FIFA within a summer.
Want to pass the time for FIFA 19 with some good music? For you we have the top 20 of the best FIFA songs: find it here.
► FIFA 19 is a Sport-type game developed and published by Electronic Arts for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 28/09/2018
FIFA 19 is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 80%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the FIFA 19 Review
