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FIFA 14 review

On October 1, 2013 by Ash Meehan

It is that time of the year again, with the new football season now underway in numerous countries the latest EA Sports FIFA game, FIFA 14 is now out.

FIFA games have being known for being as an authentic football experience because the series has so many licensed players, clubs and leagues. Well this year is no exception in fact the roster for FIFA 14 is even larger than last years with 33 licensed leagues, over 600 clubs and more than 16,000 players. The majority of the new additions are from South America with the Chilean and Argentinean leagues, and 19 clubs from Brazil. So if you are looking for a game with plenty of real world players you have come to the right place.

FIFA 14 isn’t just about new players and leagues. EA Sports have added new and modified features into the game. The new and modified features plan to increase the realism factor of the game with better teammate intelligence, and changes to shooting, ball physics, movement, dribbling and tackling.

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When it comes to playing a match a few of the features do stand out with teammate intelligence, ball physics, movement and shooting all being easily noticeable changes. For the most part these changes do help the game, but I did find that some changes made the game to easy. While playing the game in mainly semi-pro and one game in professional I noticed that I could easily play a lobbed through ball up the pitch and score. On many occasions as playing as Manchester United I would play the ball over the defence and to an on running striker where I could easily slot the ball in the corner or do a chip over a helpless goalkeeper. In a way this does a good job of showing off the teammate intelligence, because to be able to perform the lobbed passes a teammate has to be looking and running for it, and I think without this new teammate intelligence feature the idea of lobbing the ball up to the striker might not be as effective.

I do have to note that some of the new features while improving the feel of the game range from noticeable to barely noticeable. For example the 2nd chance tackles which help with defensive tackles, is incredibly noticeable especially if you have played previous FIFA games. The 2nd chance tackles extends the tackle zones and allows your player to recover from missed tackles quicker so that he can go for another go quicker. On the barely noticeable scale we have dribbling and skills. I know some people might not like me saying this, but I don’t like dribbling or using skills in FIFA games, well apart from FIFA Street. In FIFA 14 I never found a need to try and use skill to get past a player unless you count knocking the ball in front of you to make space for a cross or to lose a defender. It is nice that they improved it with varied choices etc. but personally I don’t see a need for it.

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Away from the pitch we have a large array of game modes. Modes include: skill games, practice, pro player, tournament, head to head, EA Sports Arena, seasons, ultimate team, online friendly, pro clubs and career. As you can see there are a large number of modes. Honestly I feel there are too many modes, for football fans there might be a good number as they get to play as one player in pro player mode, run a club in career mode or create their own team in ultimate team mode. On a final note with regards to modes there is nearly no change from FIFA 13. The only major change is the ‘Global Scouting Network’ in career mode. This scouting network allows you scout player easier and in a more effective way.

Now I wish to talk about graphics, bugs and the look of the game. With regards to graphics there hasn’t being any noticeable changes. Player’s facial details look similar to last years, but I could be wrong I personally haven’t done a side by side comparison. The crowd at matches still look as flat as ever with them still resembling cardboard cut out, but they do look better than the ones in FIFA 13. With regards to bugs, I have run into one or two issues. Issues include: invisible players, unforced own goals and at times the stands flashing and all the fans disappearing for a second. The invisible player bug was rather annoying, but it fixed itself during a replay and the unforced own goal was a weird but as it seemed the AI just stopped working as the opponents goalkeeper decided to stop moving and let the back pass from a defender role into the net.

Conclusion

FIFA 14 is a good game for football fans with a large variety of modes, new features and new players. But from a non fan perspective there are too many modes and the new features don’t offer any major change in gameplay when compared to FIFA 13.

Score: 75%

*This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360*

FIFA 14 Information

Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: EA Sports
Genre: Sports
Rating: 3+
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions coming soon)
Release date: out now
Website: http://www.easports.com/fifa

Author: Ash Meehan

Hi, I’m the creator of SG Gaming Info. When I’m not working on my writing or creating content for this site’s YouTube channel, I like to relax and enjoy character driven story games.


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