I became connected to the sport and began really appreciating it thanks to video games." Through the old NHL games on the Mega Drive I got really into ice hockey having learned the rules through the game. "There's a similar thing here with me and ice hockey. "If you’re not a huge football fan then The Journey is a mode that you can connect with, and through connecting with it you could become a bigger fan of the sport itself and maybe even with a specific club," elaborates Prior. As evidence, a colourful Brazilian street and Cristiano Ronaldo are both pictured in The Journey's first batch of marketing materials.
Only this time, EA is promising a more diverse mix of professional players and famous footballing locations. AdvertisementĮnlarge / One day, all of this will be yours.įIFA 18's The Journey mode is a direct continuation of the tale of Alex Hunter. Adding an emotional story to an otherwise set of abstract rules is, in theory at least, an good way to bring in players. Its blend of authored plot and football was seen by Prior and his team as a way of engaging those with a only passing interest in the sport-the kind that like football enough to watch big games, but do not have a strong enough connection to follow a team day in, day out. The inclusion of The Journey in FIFA 17 was in itself an attempt to please a greater number of people. It's a matter of balancing that and making sure any player feedback we take on board is fully analysed and that we're changing things for the good of the whole game rather than just for the vocal few who are on Reddit and bitching about it."įor the many, not the few, then. There are always going to be some people that think the game is too slow and some that think it's too fast. "Pacing, for instance, is often a big one. Balancing the game for everyone is a challenge. "There are people that just play FUT, people that only play multiplayer, people that just play in leagues etc. "One of the challenges for us is that there is no stereotypical FIFA user," FIFA 18 producer Matt Prior tells me.
Does EA go for realism, as PES 17 did, or does it continue down a path of flashy goals and cheap thrills? However, as FIFA developers EA Canada know all too well, it's hard to please everyone when dealing with an audience the size of FIFA's.
FIFA 18 brings back The Journey, and promises to fix numerous mechanical flaws. Still, if FIFA 17 was the fresh start, this year is the consolidation.
FIFA 17 was surprisingly progressive game, but when compared to Konami's renewed Pro Evolution Soccer series, it came up short. The latter took the form of The Journey, a narrative-led mode telling the story of Alex Hunter, a kid trying to make it into the first eleven of a Premier League outfit. The move to the Frostbite engine-originally built for Dice's Battlefield first-person shooter series-offered greater visual flexibility, along with new kinds of gameplay. Last year's FIFA 17 was something of a new beginning for the long-running football franchise. Nintendo Switch’s dumb dock gets beaten by hyper-portable Nyko option.HDR and video games: Ars leaves E3 with more questions than answers.A remaster with no old code: Crash Bandicoot was rebuilt nearly from scratch.
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