Player Chemistry Styles Added To FIFA 14 Ultimate Team

EA Sports has revealed new additions to its popular Ultimate Team element, including new individual player chemistry styles.

The final list of styles is yet to be confirmed, but every player can be assigned an individual trait, which will make them more clinical in front of goal, more powerful driving forward or stronger in defence.

This gives the player an extra element to work with and will contribute to their overall team chemistry.

Expect around 20-25 styles with the likes of “Finisher”, “Anchor”, “Marksmen”, “Power”, and “Engine” making their way into the final product (Note: These are subject to change before final release). Applying “Engine” to a player such as Gareth Bale would improve his stamina and strength, whilst plopping “Anchor” on someone such as Scott Parker would improve his defensive and positioning stats.

Chemistry styles will be available as consumables (similar to purchasing contracts or training cards in previous FUT), which will be obtainable via packs or from the transfer market and can be changed any time to allow for experimentation. Expect “sniper” (an enhanced finishing and heading style) to be more expensive and rare than a trait based on passing, for example.

EA Sports FUT producer Marcel Kuhn hopes that this will bring an end to the pace-abusing players that plague current iterations of the popular franchise.

Styles work in two ways: as well as improving someone like Van Persie’s finishing, which is already great, you could instead give him an “Speed” style that would improve his pace, because we all know that RVP is as slow as a donkey. The addition of chemistry styles will make this game even deeper.

Other improvements

New improvements to the transfer search system mean that you won’t feel like you are filling out a tax return form every time you want to search for Mario Balotelli. Finally – and thankfully – players will be able to search by player name (hurrah!).

EA has taken this one step further and allowed direct replacement player searching. So if you want a new right midfielder, you can opt to see players that fit straight into your squad chemistry with a comparison widget allowing you to pick the best replacement.

Another annoyance, which has pestered FUT players for years, is the lack of squad fine-tuning. Finally you can select squad numbers, kick takers and club captain without the game making that decision for you.

Manager chemistry will also no be taken into account based on nationality and league affiliation, which will give a boost to team chemistry.

Player loyalty is another new element. Players earned through packs will automatically have loyalty to your club, however those bought through the transfer market will have to earn it through game time, expected to be around 10 games. Loyalty will boost attributes and looks to be a replacement to the now defunct morale system.

FIFA 14 will be released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in Europe on September 27^th. PS4 and Xbox One versions will appear later in the year.