FIFA 14 demo review - It's not easy any more

Next up, we have precision movement. It is a new locomotion technology that helps recreate real life pitch movement. According to EA, they have been working on it for the past two years, and its core philosophy revolves around momentum and acceleration.

Acceleration is going to be one of the most fundamental elements behind a well worked goal. However, this is one of the main reasons why people have called the game sluggish. The fact is, the game no longer relies on a lot of pace.

To explain it further, let’s take an example set in FIFA 12 or 13. If you were, say, controlling a player who is as pacy as Gareth Bale, then you would be able to sprint all the way towards the opposition penalty box from yours and end up scoring a goal by continuously holding the sprint button. This is, sadly, the horrific truth.

That however made the game fun. With precision movement coming into play, you need to be careful when you sprint and when you don’t. The game heavily relies on a perfect balance between strength and pace. In FIFA 13′s Ultimate team for example, people usually bought players with pace. This would help an average team have a good chance against a really good team.

EA’s answer to this is a game that feels sluggish at the start, but becomes more than bearable at the end. The game is making a gradual transition from being fun to being a challenge. It’s the only way the game can aim towards realism rather than being just a ‘fun game’.

In EA’s own words about precision movement -

“The most immediate difference in FIFA 14 is how the pace of the game has changed. Precision Movement acts as the foundation and works in harmony with Teammate Intelligence and Protect the Ball, resulting in a more realistic and organic build-up throughout each play. “

Moving on to real ball physics. This is another area which has come under heavy criticism, as people have made many complaints about poor first touches.

However, the blame partly falls on precision movement as well. The system of receiving the ball has changed. If you are to make a nice touch, you can’t receive the ball while running right at it.

In FIFA 13, EA aimed to tackle it by introducing first touch control. Balls would now move far away from you if you were to hold the sprint button and receive it.

However, players could receive it, and then hold the sprint button to move away from that particular area. Real ball physics affects this and makes it harder.

You have to now use the complete dribbling feature, which was also introduced in FIFA 13 , to time your movement perfectly while receiving the ball.

It is much harder to receive the ball in the air now, especially when under pressure. For me, this provides a challenge, which at times can be frustrating, but is also the reason I would want to perfect my game.

Another part of real ball physics is it improves the trajectory of the ball and plays a vital part in improving pure shot. When unleashing a shot, you can clearly see the swerve and dip if you were to hit instant replay.

Apart from that, it has done a really good job on making defensive clearances, through balls, over the top lobs and crosses more realistic. I can definitely highlight the defensive clearances part through a personal experience.

In FIFA 13, when the defender you are playing as, is at the penalty box and is facing his own goalpost while being under huge pressure from the attackers, all you need to do is press the lob button and aim behind you.

This would trigger the lob animation, and the player would clear it. The fun part about it is that the clearance would go across the half way line and once again be elegant, as if the forward pressurizing you has suddenly stopped.

In FIFA 14, instead of showing a clear animation, the player stumbles when you attempt to clear it back when the ball is on the ground level.

If the ball is in mid air, he attempts an over-head kick, with the ball travelling a few meters and not halfway across the pitch in both cases. Moreover, it is much safer to clear it sideways than aim for the back, as you could risk having the ball nicked away from you.

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