FIFA 14 Announced

EA officially announced the inevitable return of the FIFA series for another year. Due out later this year, FIFA 14 will come to Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. EA promise announcements of other platforms to come, so expect a version of it to hit PS4 and the like.

In a demo for IGN, EA Sports showed off the new features that will be brought to the franchise in this installment.  In order to allow players to dribble more effectively and freely, momentum is being introduced to movement, making for a more realistic experience whereby you have to plan out your runs, but can take any run you would be capable of in real life. Of course, it also means the ball won’t reliably roll in front of you so if the player is bad at dribbling in his stats, it will show more than ever.

AI in defensive scenarios is becoming more complex to hopefully handle tricky opponents more effectively without always needing direct control. Also in the lab are the ball physics, with more realistic modelling affording unpredictability to shooting, where the set-up to the shot will more accurately affect the resulting strike.

Also important, but much less essential, is a UI update for the career mode, creating a cleaner, more streamlined atmosphere from which to make your management decisions.

All in all, EA Sports are still striving to make this the quintessential football simulation, and hopefully these changes will take them a few steps closer.