Despite having started out with plenty of competition, EA’s FIFA series has become the definitive soccer simulator in the market today. With their annual releases, the series sees consistent improvements and changes, as EA incrementally carves out the perfect balance between realism and player enjoyment.
While the series is well over 20 years old, there are still a whole range of features that fans are still hoping to be implemented in one of the upcoming games. Let’s take a look the most anticipated features yet to be added to the FIFA series.
Enhanced Player Personality and Emotion
FIFA became the best soccer game out there due to its official FIFA licensing, allowing the team at EA to use the official player names and likenesses. However, something yet to be implemented is unique player personalities. Sure, we have a taste of this with certain players displaying their iconic celebrations and in-game stats. But we’re yet to see player personality really effect how the AI controls them on and off the field.
For example, players known for hot tempers, leadership skills and more could inject new interest into matched allowing players to seem emotionally engaged and thus start to under/over perform.
This would add a new level of variance to matches and could become a important part of the synergy system already in FUT. Speaking of which, if you are looking to get ahead in FUT you can buy FIFA coins here!
Interactive Managerial Decisions
Tactics are fundamental to any sport, and soccer is no different. However, the tactical interactivity of FIFA has always been relatively limited allowing players to use primarily pre-set formations, a few options regarding offensive/defensive balance. Because of this, it is hard to make large managerial changes mid-game, but this can be exactly what happens on real-world pitches; thus, it could be a great addition to see players handed more managerial options and thus adding to the variety of gameplay styles.
Expanded Career Mode
Career mode has been a huge part of the franchise for years now, but many fans still want more from it. Hotly anticipated additions to the career mode include adding more off-pitch options such as contract negotiations, media interactions, balancing club finances and even dealing with players’ personal lives. Together, such features would provide a more holistic view of the world of football—giving a wider view of what it means to be a footballer.
That said, of course not all players are interested in adding such features—after all, many players just want to play football. Because of this, it’s fair to assume that such features would be presented as optional if they were ever implemented.
Player Retirement and Legacy
Speaking of career mode, player retirement has always been just an inconvenience in FIFA. By this I mean both the career mode retirement of players and the real-world retirement. After all, if your favourite player retires from football, it’s unlikely that they’ll be included in the next FIFA game… that is unless they are a true legend like Messi.
Adding more features for retirement could enhance the overall FIFA experience, allowing retired players to take on career mode activities like coaching, refereeing or more. This would bring FIFA’s experience closer to that of real-world soccer, where retired players continue to be key parts of football culture.
Online Team Building Challenges
Playing FIFA co-op has always been one of its biggest draws for many players, but the options available to train and interact co-operatively has always been limited causing single-player mode to always dominate the top levels of play. The addition of online team-building challenges could help to refine players’ understanding of how to effectively play with others. Such a mode could include various challenges, solidifying players’ understanding of everything from team chemistry to positioning and communication.
It’s not hard to imagine a whole new game mode emerging that focuses solely on online co-op play, either against AI or against other co-op teams.
Dynamic and Adaptive AI
Whether you’re playing against other players or the computer, AI is a huge part of FIFA. This can’t be understated. It’s what keeps your players in formation, what controls your goalkeeper, and what makes those clutch formation changes to finally break the opponents line of defence. That said, FIFA’s AI is very predictable for long-term players. Because of this, many have discussed the potential of introducing further adaptive AI features.
Such adaptive AI could learn your play style and adapt to it. Acting more like real-world tactics changes. This could add new levels of difficulty to the game, keeping it fresh and encouraging more creative play.
FIFA is a series that is going to be around for a long time, as such we can expect many more changes in the series’ upcoming releases. These are some of the most anticipated features, but this list is by no means exhaustive. What are some features you have been hoping to see in FIFA?