When you're a few weeks into the new football season, you can expect a few certain things to pop up every year.
Aside from Sky Sports pundits complaining about the amount of foreign players/managers in the Premier League, and Arsenal fans being very upset with their slow start to the season, those of us who dedicate a chunk of our free-time to playing FIFA year after year can expect to be flooded with information about the new game.
The big reveal, the unveiling of a new cover star, and buzzwords promising that this is the year football is as close to being perfectly replicated on the virtual pitch as we have ever seen, the increasingly extravagant marketing push is not targeted at those of us who know for a fact that we'll be buying the new game and playing it until the season ends next summer.
As one of those people, someone who has played every FIFA since 98 Road To The World Cup, and has played in the FIFA Interactive World Cup at a time when players weren't walking away with cheques for $200,000 like they are today, the clean and crisp gameplay videos that roll out from the big games conventions don't make much of an impression. It's impossible to know what to expect to get from the new game until you actually get your hands on it.
Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to travel to London for a FIFA 18 capture event where I would be able to play the game, and talk to some of the people that are directly responsible for the changes that occur in the gameplay from year to year.
Sam Rivera is the lead Gameplay Producer for FIFA at EA Sports, meaning he is someone who is heavily influential in the core gameplay of FIFA 18. He and his team are the ones who play, watch, and listen to what is being said about the game and combine those learnings with their own judgement of what does and doesn't work, before deciding what must be improved or changed for the next title.
By the time I sit down with Sam, I've played about 30 minutes of FIFA 18 and I'm already impressed. I've been to these type of events before, and I usually come away saying how difficult it is to feel a difference from the previous release, but this year it is noticeable. Particularly against the CPU, something I found tedious in previous years and as such made Career Mode a frustrating and frankly boring experience. My first games against the CPU on FIFA 18 were challenging, varied, and, most importantly, fun.
I inform Sam of this and a big smile comes across his face. He knows that people have frustrations with FIFA every year, but his team strive to do their best to iron them out by the time the next game goes live, so he is delighted to hear the positive feedback. In the back of my mind I'm conscious that I've only played for 30 minutes, and I'm hoping my opinion doesn't change when I put another hour or two of playing in.
But for now I want to know how someone tasked with making a game that comes out every 12 months feel fresh and new goes about making it happen.
After the new game comes out, how soon do you turn your attentions to the next one? I know it seems like a bit of a strange question considering FIFA 18 isn't even out yet, but how long do you have to just enjoy the latest title until work needs to be started on its successor?
It's a very good question and there are two components, the first one is - there is a team working in technology already, so some of the technologies take many years to develop, so the new features you will see in the next years are already being worked on. Now, how those technologies will become new features, and the areas that we need to improve or show more focus, they are identified even before the game goes live. We play the game, we know what could be improved and we have an idea, but then later when the games goes out, producers, we go home we play FIFA, we play online, different modes, we talk to the fans, we listen to the fans. So the full design of features for the next game begins at the end of this year, that's when we go in detail with the decision of what features, but we need to understand FIFA 18 to know what FIFA 19 should be. But, there's a team of engineers working for a long time, so all those things happen and then by around December we know what we're going to try to achieve.
You mentioned it there, feedback from the fans, I think that FIFA 17 was a game where we saw that implemented most with the addition of FUT Champions, which was a huge jump for Ultimate Team and something the community didn't know they badly wanted. What can the fans expect for FIFA 18 in terms of building on that big leap?
You can expect another big jump, and the focus this year is gameplay. You will see how gameplay - a lot of people have been telling us it's not just me saying this - this is the biggest leap we've ever had in gameplay in the history of FIFA. If you compare FIFA 17 to FIFA 18, 18 Is just so much better. And I don't want to say 17 is a bad game, not at all, but 18 we focused on so many important fundamental things, plus frustrations that the people had, and now it becomes a much better game.
Straight away what comes to mind when you mention fan feedback and frustrations, the main thing that causes me to rage when playing FIFA, and I know this is a big thing for everyone, is when you press a command and there is a moment of hesitation, or a player won't react to a ball they could easily reach in front of goal or whatever, so was that something that was raise, and are you confident that you have managed to improve significantly?
Yes, that was a main focus, absolutely.
One of the new features is called Real Player Motion Technology, this is a fundamental change because in the past, we use to play animations for every step the player was taking, now, it's every frame. So, for the human eye, if you change animation every frame it looks like one fluid motion, you don't see those ugly transitions between animations, and that allows us to have a more fluid and responsive game because every single frame you can try to change your plan and the player is going to try to react to it.
So you feel like you are more in control of the situation, so as soon as you have a thought in your mind you can execute it with your controller right away. So that's very cool, it creates a very fun experience.
What other areas for improvement were raised when you researched what the fans wanted to see in terms of improvements, and how have they been implemented?
The new engine with Real Player Motion Technology has allowed us to really change the gameplay. The fluidity, the fact that you can do what you have in mind and get a response right away, it's just more fun. I have been talking to some of the best players in the world because they are here right now playing, and they have given us a lot of good feedback because of that new engine and just the balance of he game as well.
Dribbling was another thing that needed to be addressed, and now we feel like it is much more responsive as well. It's explosive, you really see the player try to stretch and get to the ball as fast as possible, and that will give you the sense that it's really reacting to your imput as it happens, it's a lot more fun basically.
The defending as well, it's more rewarding now. At the beginning, it may be a bit difficult to tackle but believe me once you learn it, and it doesn't take too long, it's much more realistic, it's not about sprinting in to make a tackle. It's about timing and reading the game.
Last year the biggest change from FIFA 16 to FIFA 17 for me was the shielding and the low drive shot, both of which saw those who incorporated them into their game leave those who didn't behind, is there something that has seen a big change for FIFA 18 that we should be looking out for?
Yes. Crossing.
Crossing is much more powerful this year, like default trajectories of crossing are more dangerous, more driven or curved, and we've changed the mechanics for the ground cross, the triple tap, and we added a very high looping cross.
In general crossing feels more skillful, more attribute driven, it can be very satisfying when you get it right.
Going back to the community, it's incredible to see how FIFA has carved out such a booming niche for itself on YouTube, and a lot of the big personalities are here today at this event, so it's clear that EA SPORTS are embracing the content creation that focuses around their game. I noticed a new aspect of Ultimate Team this year is the ability to watch the games of other players, was that a direct response to knowing that there are many players who want to analyse their own gameplay as well as that of others?
So 'Champions Channel' is what you are talking about and it is the ability to watch a replay of matches that happened during the Weekend League, which is, I think in my opinion is going to increase the skill level of a lot of people because you can see exactly what the best players in the world do in certain situations and learn from them. That's big if you want to improve your skills and it's something we know a lot of our fans want to be able to do.
So how deep am I going to be able to dive in here? Are we talking Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville on MNF or is it more of a standard gameplay video for you to watch?
You can expose the mechanics of the game. How exactly certain things work, you can focus on a certain play or sequence and see what was done. We have a trainer feature that tells you were exactly you were pointing when you requested a pass, and you see how much power you put and see why a certain pass went where it did. That's just one example, we're trying to expose the mechanics as much as we can so people can learn how the game works and basically understand the consistent behaviours that are in the game and then learn from it.
As someone who has an influence on how the game is played, how does it feel when you see actual footballers - Ireland's David Meyler being an example, he's here playing at the event today - playing and talking about the game on social media as part of their everyday life? That must be incredibly satisfying?
To be honest it's a very great feeling being a producer for FIFA, it's obviously a dream job for myself, being able to see the people experiencing some of your work - and not only that, experiencing by myself, I'm a very passionate FIFA player, I go home and - I play FIFA at work obviously, and then I go home and play FIFA, on the weekends, I play FIFA. I understand the game from the fans' side, and on top of that you have guys like professional football playing FIFA and putting it out there, it's very rewarding.
How much FIFA do you get to play at work?
I play a lot. Obviously there are days where I'll play more and days when I'll need to focus on other aspects of the design, but for every feature we build or for every bug we fix we need to play the game, we need to test, we need to make sure that the feature is ready to be a part of the game.
Maybe sometimes it's not as much as I want, but by the end of the production cycle we have to play a lot because that's when we do the final balancing tweaks such as defence vs offence, shooting vs goalkeeper, shielding vs tackling, all stuff like that.
So we get to play a lot.
I made a promise to someone that I would ask you this question, as it is his single biggest pet-peeve in FIFA. When I am playing local multiplayer, such as a FUT Draft with three friends on the same couch, the player indicator for the third controller is green, which makes it a nightmare to see with the pitch also being green. Are you guys aware that this is an issue?
[Laughs] That's very good feedback. I'll take a note.
That's for sure something that we can look at.
***
Sam and I shake hands, I feel like he has appreciated talking to someone who actually knows the game as opposed to members of the media that need to be reminded which button shoot is before they play, and I get a sense that he is someone who really loves the game of football.
The way his eyes light up when talking about the new mechaincs giving players more choice when shooting, dribbling or crossing, it's also absolutely obvious that he cares deeply about how the game is enjoyed. When I raised my issues, as petty and insignificant as they were, he encouraged me to share them and listened. I cringe when I think about the amount of abuse he must take from nameless, faceless teenagers on the internet when they concede a late goal, but because he is a football fan first and foremost, Sam assures me that he understands where that rage, or passion as he calls it in a very generous manner, comes from.
I return to my designated station to play more FIFA 18. As enjoyable as that chat with Sam was, what he has said about the new game and how these new features are going to change the experience, I've heard it all before. Every year big, bold promises are made, and some years we see a huge jump in quality, while others are looked back on as a dip in quality for the series.
This year, after putting in a few more hours both vs CPU and human opponents, it feels like what was promised was deliered upon. FIFA 18 is not a revolution in football gaming. If you couldn't stand FIFA 17, you're likely not going to be blown away, but if you played last year's version more than a couple of times you'll notice the changes almost instantly.
The whole game is sharper and smoother. Yes, there will still be moments where you want to smash your controller off a wall, those aren't going everywhere, and tackles that leave you with your arms outstretched saying 'REF!' like it's an actual real person that can hear you, but I have not felt as instantly impressed by a FIFA game for a long time. And it's not just the new 'Cruyff turn' mechanic that is my favourite skill move addition since the Berbaspin.
Having played more of the demo since it's release, I think this is set to be a comfortably better game than last year. I'll give it another few weeks before my final review, as I can't stand when big gaming sites publish their review before the game has even been released to the general public, meaning that they haven't properly played it, but it's hard to see it not being positive at this point. And I have absolutely no problem with calling a FIFA title bad if it was bad.
More than anything, with a focus on gameplay rather than new features, I'm already looking forward to what the series offers in the future. Oh, and if you notice that the green player indicator is gone in FIFA 19 when you sit down for some co-op with your friends, you'll know who to thank.
