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FIFA 21: what we want to see in this year’s game
Six ways EA can make this year’s FIFA even better than FIFA 20.
While certainly a worthwhile addition to anyone’s video game library, FIFA 20 didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. While it is still probably one of the best football games out there, there are spaces for improvement.
Volta Football is an adequate distraction, sure, but even the new 5-a-side mode can be improved upon. In fact, when you start thinking about what the future holds for the world’s biggest sports game, it’s hard not to let your mind run away with itself. With a couple of modifications here and there, FIFA 21 has the potential to be the best in the series.
Rather than fight these outlandish thoughts, it was only right to put them into words for your reading pleasure. While they might not all come to fruition, it would be lovely to see EA implement a handful of these suggestions. Without any further ado, here are six changes that should be implemented for FIFA 21.
1. An improved career mode
Throughout the last number of years, Ultimate Team’s prominence has grown, whilst career mode has been forced to take a back seat. Some long-term fans of the series still consider career mode the primary reason to come to FIFA every year, but there’s no doubt it needs some tweaking. With a pinch from previous titles in the series and a dollop of Football Manager, it could be considered master league, once again.
Mo money, mo problems
© EA
What people want is more control over their club. The option to choose your sponsor that will bolster transfer and salary budgets at the end of a good season would be marvellous; altering the price of match day tickets would be a great way to get fans through the door if attendance was dwindling; the inclusion of hirable and fireable backroom staff (physios or coaches) that would impact player conditioning and skill would be fantastic.
Small adjustments would greatly aid immersion: points deductions, transfer bans, dialogue interactions with the media that require you to explain why your well-paid underlings stole a taxi in Barcelona. Also, would title-winning celebrations that have a bit more pomp and circumstance be too much to ask for, please?
2. Women in FUT
There are legions of fans whose first and last port of call is FUT, so why not reward them by giving them a chance to pack Megan Rapinoe?! It's baffling that EA has opted to leave women out of Ultimate Team for as long as it has: you can play with retired players, fake players, dead players, absolutely putrid players. Why not add some of the top talent from the female game to FUT?
It would also go a long way in helping to diversify the game’s audience. Here's hoping FIFA 21 allows you to have a front two of Ada Hegerberg and Vivianne Miedema in your Ultimate Team. This is an open goal for EA.
3. VAR and contentious decisions
Love it or hate it, VAR would add something to FIFA 21
© EA
While many armchair managers spit out that detestable phrase at least 20 or so times during Super Sunday, the game isn’t in fact “gone.” The Premier League’s utilisation of the video assistant referee is what’s hampered this new technology in England’s top flight. Maybe FIFA 21 can do a better job with it; the ability to skip short on-the-field cutscenes means they’d do a quicker job, at least.
However, throwing in a few dodgy calls would add to the realism, too. Envision your elation as a whipped in corner connects with your striker’s swinging arm and goes into the back of your mate’s net. And it’s allowed. Well, if you’re going to introduce VAR, you might as well include its foibles.
FIFA is considered the world’s number one football sim, so it should aim to truly mimic The Beautiful Game. Players should look for fouls where there aren’t any; managers should dance like Pardew whenever their team scores; and the Black Eyed Peas should always, always, always play at the Champions League final.
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4. A Volta that’s more like FIFA Street
The original FIFA Street games were over-the-top, bizarre and absolutely fantastic. If Volta Football is to return in FIFA 21, then it needs to have combos, gamebreakers and essentially be more like FIFA Street. As it stands, it’s just regular FIFA, but smaller.
Keep the phone video goal celebrations, they're brilliant
© EA
The issue is that it doesn’t feel like a separate mode you have to check out. If it embraced the arcade-like style of its predecessor, then Volta would get a lot more love in the community. And including a story again is encouraged if it favoured weirdness over normality. You, will.i.am (just pay him overtime), Alex Jones off The One Show, Alan Titchmarsh and Zoe Saldana must join forces to defeat an invading group of US-based investment bankers that look to kill street football for reasons. We’re just spitballing here.
5. Customisable kits and stadiums
The lack of classic kits, while a minor annoyance, is understandable: there are licensing deals that would need to be struck if EA was planning on sticking a JVC logo on Aubameyang’s belly. A way around that is to allow for some customisation. Imagine being able to share your perfect recreation of Man United’s grey, mid-90s away kit with the millions of other FIFA players around the world by uploading to the cloud; Southampton fans would lap that right up.
Similarly, it would be wonderful if there was an option to create your own stadium. An editor wouldn’t have to be that extensive, either: pick the stands from a set of four or five, change the colour of the seats, and then name the ground. Job done. That small inclusion would mean the world to those that dream about hammering Crewe Alexandra at Port Vale’s imaginatively named Vale Park in the A500 derby.
6. Be a Referee mode
FIFA: Referee Edition
© EA, FIFA, Sony, Shutterstock
C’mon. You know you’d love it. The power to go rogue after 85 minutes and grant the losing side a penalty that never was. The sheer joy you’d get from bounding around the pitch, brandishing myriad red cards with the grace of a Mike Dean-shaped gazelle. You could start officiating Sunday League games around your shifts at the local petrol station, before building up your reputation enough so that you’re given the opportunity to ref a World Cup final. Make it happen, EA.
