The world can be strange and confusing, but there are still some things you can trust. Every autumn there is a chill in the air, the leaves begin to change color, and EA releases a new version of FIFA, the football simulation that conquers everything. FIFA 21 comes at a slightly odd moment for world football, which has been devoid of fans for more than six months in most countries. In fact, the crowd noise that some broadcasters use to mimic the presence of real fans actually comes from the video game – this is a way to make your simulation sound like the real thing.
FIFA 21 Review is here!
In other ways, though, the game feels more like real football than it has been in a while – especially at the highest level where Video Assistant Referees fundamentally change the way goals are scored and how defenders move on the pitch. None of this is reflected in FIFA 21, which is probably a good thing in balance. As usual, EA made some minor gameplay changes and packaged them as exciting new features. This year’s headlines are ‘nimble dribbling’, which allows players with skillful thumbs to press the right bumper and pull in fancy footwork of the kind that goes viral on social media. This is in addition to “dribbling face-up” and “dripe dribbling.” I am not entirely clear in what situations you should use different types of dribbling.
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Players will also have more control over their ball runs – by hitting the right stick, you can trigger a teammate to go exactly in the direction you envisioned before playing that killer pass. There’s even the option to lock your current player by pressing both sticks at the same time – ideal for quick release and progress with goals. The graphics on the pitch are as usual, but there are some nice new animations to bring the action closer to real-life – in a nice new report, I saw Kylian Mbappe controlling a ball on his hip. Point. The collision system has been adjusted to allow players to jump out of the skidding tackle so your own defenders will not perform improvised slapstick routines during goalmouth combat. As always, some routes to the destination seem particularly overpowering – for example,
What Awaits Users in FIFA 21?
Next year, things will be fixed and mixed up in response to players’ complaints – EA took the unusual step of setting up a Trello board so fans can see the status of certain issues within the game and their progress towards fixing them. A gripe and maybe that’s just anger at the change, Martin Tyler and Alan Smith’s review team – comfortable and reassuring like an old armchair – seems to have completely disappeared from the game. They were replaced by the grid pair of Derek Rae and Lee Dixon, who were on Champions League duty in FIFA 20 but are currently playing every match. I think they did a really good job for BT Sport and ITV in real life, but Rae may have had a lot of coffee on the morning of registration for this because he has an annoying habit of yelling everything and over pronouncing people’s names.
Tyler and Smith had built a huge library of comment clips over the years, so it felt varied and natural with very little repetition. This is not yet available for Rae and Dixon – so you hear the same audio tracks over and over again (with one exception- Rae seems to have around 17 different ways of saying ‘Bruno Fernandes’). The players among us reach to the top of Twitch, the players heading to the top of Twitch ARON GARST In terms of game modes, minor changes have been made in career mode (you can simulate matches and jump) to control whether it will be pear-shaped or not) and this is the small side that is definitely not tall for the world mode Volta Football. But EA uses most of its resource to the big coin collector, The loot box with a new co-op mode and the ability to build your own stadium has been transferred to heavy FIFA Ultimate Team. Overall, the game is… a little good.
If you’ve purchased the last few FIFAs, you’ll likely start buying this too – especially since you can get a free upgrade to the next-generation version if you enter PlayStation 5 or the new Xbox. If you’re just a casual gamer or haven’t played for a few years, it’s hard to recommend this version over the previous ones. There is a certain sense that the franchise is in a holding model when this console generation is over and that major new innovations will be recorded for the first release to come to new consoles. He still does a better job than anything else at capturing the joy of football, but it’s a bit like the aging Edinson Cavani joining Manchester United – definitely fun, but perhaps not the best use of funds. Amit Katwala is WIRED \ ‘s cultural editor.
