Games

17 changes we need in FIFA 17

With Pro Evolution Soccer in the ascendancy, here are some changes to put FIFA back on top.

Written by Pete Dreyer

8 min readPublished on 19.12.2015 · 9:00 UTC

For the first time in a long time, Pro Evo has been a legitimate alternative for footy fans this year. The new ‘Enhanced Collision System’, improved ball physics and updated AI are just a few of the changes that make the latest Pro Evo a worthy purchase. FIFA has the names, of course – and Ultimate Team, aka the nectar of the gods.

Which game is better, you ask? That’s still very much down to personal preference. But one thing’s for sure – FIFA is no longer the undisputed champion of footy games. And with all to play for next year, we reckon FIFA 17 needs to come back with a bang to re-establish itself as football king. With that in mind, here are 17 upgrades and fixes that would push FIFA back to the top of the table.

1. Spruce up the commentary

Don’t get us wrong – we’ve come an incredibly long way since the days of Motson’s awful 90s FIFA commentary, but it feels as though we haven’t had a real commentary update since Andy Gray’s infamous exit after FIFA 11, and the whole thing could use a hefty update. By all means, keep Martin Tyler and Alan Smith, but please, stop reminding us of Smith’s aerial prowess every time we head the ball. Stop telling us about Carlos Tevez’s “bulldog-like approach”. Not every lob is “audacious”. At the very least, the commentary could be freshened up, and at most, some new blood in the commentary box would be fantastic.

2. Re-train the refs

Football is a contact sport, and though you could argue that the game is becoming less and less physical, the referees in FIFA 16 are still overzealous in blowing up fouls. Refereeing has always been a tricky point, but FIFA 16 seems particularly bad, with refs giving free kicks for even the most gentle shoulder-to-shoulder contact. Meanwhile, cards seem to be given almost at random. Horrendous slide tackles will receive verbal warnings, whilst an innocent trip will be an instant yellow. And we’ve seen numerous last man challenges receive no card at all. Definitely needs a tweak.

3. Fix player physics

EA’s Ignite engine has done a lot of good things for the franchise, but the side effect appears to be some absolutely insane player physics. The idea is that instead of tackles and bumps triggering generic animations, players should bounce off each other interactively. Sometimes this works, sometimes, as in the video above, it really doesn’t. Now, don’t get us wrong, there’s something hilarious about players continually falling over each other, and we’ve definitely counted our lucky stars when one of these glitches has won us a last minute penalty. But if FIFA wants to up its game, this really needs fixing. And speaking of last minute penalties…

4. Fix player speed

Speed is always an issue in FIFA: always has been, always will be. It remains the most effective stat in the game – just look at FIFA Ultimate Team, where the fastest players are always in demand, even if their other stats are average at best. Improvement have been made in the last few years – lower league players are no longer slow as molasses, and the game feels more balanced, but we’re still regularly seeing centre backs with average pace stats managing to catch pacey wingers. It has to stop.

5. Easier to get players out on loan

FIFA Career Mode die-hards will know the pain of trying to get all your youngsters loaned out during every single window – it takes a great deal of saving and reloading. There seems to be no reason why, except the random nature of how transfer offers come in and often, you’ll be left with lots of quality young talent wasting away in the reserves. So, why not let us build links with lower league ‘feeder’ clubs, and offer players on loan? They get a quality player, we get our youngster some playing time. Everybody wins.

6. More realistic transfers

This year’s Career Mode was a nice update from previous versions, but there’s still plenty more that could be done. Let’s start with the transfer system, which is still waiting to be dragged into the modern world. Buyout clauses, add-ons and agents fees are all commonplace these days, but they’re still areas that FIFA completely blanks on. The transfer system could really be expanded, we reckon.

7. More academy control

Half the fun of Career Mode is in finding young prospects from all over the world and developing them into the next generation of talent. We can’t help but feel that there’s plenty more we could be doing to be part of that, other than just selecting players for the academy. Give us the option to play academy matches, employ staff and tailor players’ development from a young age.

8. Manage your reserves too

Whilst we’re at it, we wouldn’t mind the option of having control of our reserve team as well. That could be anything from simply picking a squad, getting them some much-needed playing time and seeing who’s performing well enough for a place on your first-team bench, to actually playing and managing the games properly. There’s no harm in having the choice, is there?

9. Authentic Manager mode

Ever since FIFA split Career Mode into the player and manager sides, we’ve been dying for a more authentic manager experience. Aside from the occasional press conference, there’s very little else to create an immersive world that makes you feel like the manager of a football club. Give us more options to really role-play the idea of being a manager, complete with Keegan-esque outbursts, butting heads with the transfer committee, and in-depth player management.

10. Real managers

Every year we get a new set of player likenesses, but why not get the licences to have managers in the game as well? This is supposed to be a management simulation after all. We want to feel like we’re facing off against Jose in the cup final, from his pre-match barbs to shaking hands on the touchline and pacing up and down in the opposite technical area. Manager likenesses in the game would be fantastic, and the ability to build genuine friendships and rivalries? Even better.

11. Scenario Mode

Jump into a new Career Mode, and naturally you’ll start at the beginning of the season. That’s fine for the most part, but we’d quite like a scenario mode too, that let us take on some real-world challenges and see if we can outperform the current manager. For example, a scenario that let us take on the job at Aston Villa and try to keep them in the top flight, or perhaps another where we’d replace Claudio Ranieri at Leicester City, and battle to stay top of the league. Football in the real-world is driven by these brilliant, fluid stories and scenarios, there’s no reason why FIFA can’t adopt more of that too.

12. Shirtless celebration

Every year we think we’re going to get this and it always fails to show up, but FIFA 17 is the year, we can feel it. When we score a last minute winner and tear towards the lone corner of our away fans, there’s only one appropriate celebration – the immortal shirt-in-the-crowd celebration. Give us a yellow card, we don’t care.

13. More CPU AI variety

For those of us who play against the CPU, a pattern emerges pretty quickly. They’ll play fairly neutral for 70 minutes, at which point they’ll get very aggressive if they’re behind or very defensive if ahead. That’s fine and all, but it’s not exactly varied, and it doesn’t make any allowance for different teams playing differently. We know that FIFA’s AI is capable of mixing things up tactically, so why not have different teams and managers taking different approaches?

14. Updated celebrations

It’s a very cosmetic change, but FIFA’s celebrations are still not really an accurate depiction of real life, even if they are fun. Most celebrations involve a couple of players interacting and little else – with the exception of the excellent corner flag celebration – but we want to see players piling in with pats on the butt, fist pumps and hair ruffles. Is it a last minute winner? Let’s see players celebrate with the crowd! There’s plenty more that can be done here.

15. Custom skill maker

We get a few new tricks every year from EA, but we don’t think a custom skill creator is beyond the realms of possibility. Give us a catalogue of ‘parts’ – step overs, feints, rolls and that sort of thing – and let us chain them together to create something exciting and/or completely ridiculous. You could even name it after yourself, and share it with others to use on their own created pros.

16. Women’s league licences and career mode

The twelve women’s teams included in FIFA 16 were a very welcome addition, but with the women’s game really hitting the mainstream now, we’d love to see EA shell out on some official licenses for women’s leagues. And dare we say, that would open up the possibility of a women’s Career Mode as well, where you could either take on a professional playing career or lead your club and country to glory from the touchline.

17. Improved crowd animations

Work has been done on the flat, lifeless crowds in FIFA games, but if your eye ever drifts into the stands in the game, you’ll still see a fairly low-resolution mess. We’re sure that enough grunt could be pushed out of the Xbox One and PS4 to bring us some proper home and away support, and surely EA could come up with more than a couple of crowd animations so they don’t all look like they’re moving in unison?

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