Football! Where the ball is round and not oval! Where scoring actually isn’t as confusing as a grade one maths test! And where the referees still can’t get any of the calls right! It’s September which means that both EA and Konami are pulling out their football simulators for the year, with PES already claiming some top honours in many critics books. FIFA 16, it seems, has a mountain to climb, but does the king manage to keep its crown on? It seems it depends who you talk to, with reviews contradicting key elements from one to the next. FIFA’s tagline this year of “Play Beautiful”is little bit of a misnomer. While you’re still capable of pulling-off the spectacular, the game has been injected with a dosage of realism and balance.
 
The speed and pace of the game has been slowed down allowing for more midfield battles and less end-to-end action. Players have a sense of weight allowing for more human-like reactions when it comes to player locomotion. Turns, acceleration bursts and movement in general is dependent upon a multitude of variables. Player stats, first-touch, quality of the pass received, and body position (of both the offense and defender) will determine what animation plays out and how successful you will be in gaining the advantage. If you thought FIFA 15 had countless animations, you will be in for a real treat with this year’s version as some of them are just breathtaking. With an increased level of physicality attributed mostly to the refinement of the Ignite Engine, players no longer act like rag-dolls when colliding. When coupled with a foul system that gets it right the majority of the time, the gameplay can be quite organic and unpredictable.
 
FIFA 16 is the best game in the series and it is a truly fantastic piece of engineering and design, it is everything that you would want from a football simulation game. The familiar sounds of Martin Tyler and Alan Smith greet you as the game pans into its now customary pre-game friendly and the instant you start the game you’re given a fantastic visual spectacle. The Bernabeu looks incredibly realistic, the pitch immaculate and the players life like. For yet another year EA have pushed the limits of the game engine and they have come up trumps. Slide tackles in the rain, the ball fizzing off the post, shadows both of players and stadia, every single animation has been carefully designed and as a result the end product is fantastic. The new stadiums in the game add even more depth to the realism EA claims FIFA 16 can replicate. The new Bundesliga match day coverage just adds to this and the authenticity is uncanny, particularly for games in the Premier League.
 
Much like practically every FIFA before it, FIFA 16 offers a fantastic soundtrack that tops every other EA Sports offering. Maybe it says something about the personality of soccer fans, but it’s always refreshing how stacked FIFA’s soundtrack is with indie rock and emerging artists. Standouts include Beck’s “Dreams,”Miami Horror’s “All it Ever Was,”RAC’s Back of the Car (who also just did the entire score for the excellent Master Spy) and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Can’t Keep Checking My Phone. The amazing thing about the soundtrack is how well the developers seem to have their pulse on the music world. Foals’ “Mountain at My Gates”is from an album that released three weeks ago, while Baio’s (of Vampire Weekend fame) “Sister of Pearl”is from his album “The Names”that just came out this past Friday. Having this great music in the background makes FIFA 16 all the more pleasurable.
 
The iOS app is available on the UK app store although this may not be the same for all regions. Hopefully though it will be up for download wherever you are. However, if you’re waiting for news on the FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Android app that does not appear to be available just yet on Google Play UK. Only the EA Sports FIFA 16 Companion management app is currently listed at the time of writing but we expect that to change soon. Have you been waiting for the release of the FIFA 16 Ultimate team app? Maybe you’ve already downloaded it, in which case why not let us know if everything went smoothly for you? Perhaps you’re impatiently waiting for the Android FIFA 16 Ultimate Team app to appear?