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How FIFA 19's new features bring the biggest gameplay advancement in years
We catch up with EA to discuss the new features that’ll make FIFA 19 the most exciting instalment in years.
Every year the new FIFA hits the shelves and touts a list of brand new features that are sure to make it the best one yet. Some years this list of features is made up of a few marquee additions, while in other years it can be as long as your arm, with tons of smaller tweaks. But FIFA 19 has a substantial list of massive new features, and once you start to figure out how they all work together, it really does feel like a very different game.
There’s a new 50/50 system, that makes battling for the ball against another, or multiple, opponents feel more realistic. No longer do you just get shoved off the ball if someone comes at you with some pace, you can fight back, within the laws of the game of course, to keep possession if you're strong enough.
Then there’s the active touch system, that gives you more control when you receive the ball, and when you move with it. This system also creates new possibilities like flicking the ball up at differing heights so your move is less predictable.
The Champions League is back in FIFA, after securing the license from long term rivals PES, and that will feature across almost every game mode. Online seasons in Ultimate Team have been replaced by FUT Rivals, new kick off mode options allow for new game types such as survival where you lose a player every time you score, and of course there are countless other smaller changes that further tweak the game.
But on the gameplay side of things there are a couple of big changes that could have a massive impact on both regular players and the best in the world. Arguably the most important of which is a big addition to a system that has remained relatively unchanged for years: shooting.
“It's a new way to score goals, a new way to have more control in your finishing,” says Shaun Pejic, associate gameplay producer on FIFA 19. “This is a risk versus reward mechanic so if you press shoot and then press shoot again just before a player contacts the ball you ideally should get a perfect contact for the shot, which then will give you more power, more curve and more accuracy on the shots. But if you mis-time it then you get the opposite effect. But it can be quite fun and rewarding if you do time it correctly.”
Return to the Champion’s League in FIFA 19
© EA
Fortunately this new shooting mechanic is entirely optional, and you can keep doing it as you have been for the last few years if you want. It really does take a lot of getting used to, and you have to train yourself to press the shoot button twice, and every time the timing on that second press is different. In the early stages you will probably mess it up more times than you master it, but when you do hit it just right, that ball will fly through the air.
“People were asking for more skill in the game, and before it was just press shoot, try to calculate the power, aim, that's it,” says Sam Rivera, the lead gameplay producer on FIFA 19. “But we really wanted something else that would allow those professional players to get better at the game and this system does [allow that] because we don't really need to use it. It's mainly if you want to be good at the game then you need to first make the decision should I use the new feature or not? If you decide to use it then you need to execute the shot in a good way. If you do everything right then you will have more chance to score. So that was the intention.”
While the new shooting system is arguably the biggest on the pitch change, a new system of dynamic tactics makes changing your strategy even easier than it was before. Actually going in and making important changes to your team set up, outside of basic formation and line-up, is something few FIFA players do, but dynamic tactics will allow them to customise all aspects of the game, and change them on the fly.
“This is a complete rewrite of the tactics that gives you more control, more options on the menu,” says Pejic. “So you have all these new offensive tactics, defensive tactics, you can play with all sliders to adjust your team with. Each thing you kind of play with before the game makes a difference in game play, it really makes a difference in that what you change really shows in the game play mechanics. For me it creates that mini chess game between two players. So if you're playing one way I then need to kind of counter how you play, so it creates lots of good interaction between players.”
As well as being able to change a lot of tactical settings for your team, you can also edit the game plan options such as ultra attacking and ultra defensive. For years these have been fairly basic modifiers to your team's way of playing to suit the situation. Hitting the d-pad to select ultra attacking when you are 2-1 down with five minutes left to go is something almost every FIFA player does, but probably didn’t give much thought to. Now these game plans can be heavily edited, and still selected in in the same way on the pitch.
“For example the attacking game plan, you can adjust the formations, the tactics, the player roles, instructions just for that one game plan,” says Pejic. “You can do that for five of them. When you get to game play, all you need to do is press the d-pad left and right to select any of these five and then all those changes apply straightaway without having to pause the game and then spend 30 seconds trying to adjust it. So it happens on the pitch without any delay which is a really cool way to play the game.”
These two key features, along with all of the others that are arriving in FIFA 19 really do make it feel like a bigger step up than previous years. If you can make use of the new shooting system then you'll see a lot more impressive moments, which FIFA has always managed to create well, and the deeper tactical options give you even more control over how your team plays.
Smaller changes are noticeable and having more control over the ball with the active touch system means way less infuriating moments where the AI decides to take a terrible touch for a ball that is slowly rolling towards them with no defenders in sight. Of course you will still end up screaming at the AI or referee for messing up your fluid attacking move, but it really does seem like this year’s FIFA could be something special.
FIFA 19 is hitting PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC on September 28.
