Like PES, FIFA has been undergoing a shift in visual quality in the past two years. The Ignite Engine debuted in FIFA 14 two years ago and since then, it’s been used in every major current gen sports title from EA. It’s not all about better character animation, which has improved “ten-fold” over the previous generation or more realistic stadium members or even the improved physics to limbs and clothing. Ignite has also been pegged to feature better artificial intelligence calculations and allow its players to behave more akin to real-life athletes. Such a change in visual direction was to be expected and Ignite also lends itself to physical based rendering for added realism.

FIFA 16 on both the Xbox One and PS4 runs at 1920×1080 resolution and 60 frames per second. V-Sync is employed to ensure a steady frame rate during gameplay but this drops to 30 FPS in cinematic scenes like close-ups and replays, both manual and general. Oddly enough, frame rate spikes have been noticed during camera changes but it’s near instantaneous and you won’t even notice it.

MSAA 2x is employed for both versions of the game and does a great job of smoothening out any jaggies. The result is most apparent in objects with intense curves in their complex geometry – as a result, stadiums are of the highest image quality throughout. The PC version goes a step further with MSAA 4x which results in even better looking curves.

EA Sports made a pretty big deal about improved crowd graphics in FIFA 16 and despite how dumb some of the animations look, it’s managed to fulfill that promise. Models are now fully 3D and LOD relies on a less aggressive model to ensure clarity of details when the camera pans in and out. While the actual reactions don’t appeal to us, it’s hard to deny that FIFA 16 has the best crowd reactions till date in any football title.

Head to head comparison between PS4, Xbox One and PC versions. Select 1080p and 60fps option for best possible video quality.

When observing shadows throughout the gameplay, many of them appeared smooth but we noticed some dithering every now and then. This was noticed only on the console versions, primarily during cinematic cut scenes, replays and celebrations. The PC version doesn’t have this issue, thankfully. It should also be noted that Xbox One fans receive motion blur right out of the box along with all the other platform versions. Last year’s FIFA 15 saw motion blur patched in later and it’s a small sign of progress that helps maintain visual parity among the various platforms.

Even with dithering issues and 30 FPS frame rates, the replays are still one of the highlights in FIFA 16. The cinematic filter combined with the best goals, tackles and close calls really lend that extra polish to the presentation whether you’re a football fan or not.

That being said, all three versions suffer from inconsistent texture filtering. Trilinear filtering appears to have been used, which results in loss of details the further one looks into the distance. This is most noticeable with grass strands and goal bars looking blurry and losing detail when viewed from afar. Also, strangely enough, all three versions also feature weird player animations during gameplay and post gameplay sequences. Some good examples are the goal keeper quickly getting up to save from another shooting attempt or when a player slides again (resulting in an instant second step). Both animations look pretty jerky and remind us that Ignite’s skeletal animation system still requires a lot of work.

Player faces and models also look a bit off at times. The on-field emotions come across as incomplete as well and while one could point to the complexity of the system at play, PES 16 does a much more graceful job. We’ll look into just how deeply the two differ in this regard in the future.

At least the settings and environmental effects are well implemented. As with past installments, FIFA 16 features day/night settings along with rain and snow effects. This time around, they’re dynamic and you’ll even notice the playing field suffering from natural wear and tear like skid marks, foot prints, etc. Even players’ hands, legs and clothes tend to get dirty as a match proceeds. We even noticed water squeezing out from the bottoms of shoes or in impressive streaks as the ball moves through the field. The wet weather doesn’t really affect the appearances of players though, and function more as subtle graphical touches.

Oddly enough, FIFA 16 on the PC doesn’t sport a range of graphical options to tinker with. You can adjust the resolution, with choices up to 3840×2160, low or high rendering quality, MSAA 2x or 4x, locked 30/60 FPS or limitless FPS and the ability to disable the Windows Aero theme in case of micro-stuttering. We’re not sure if this is better or worse than PES 16’s three graphical presets though FIFA 16 looks way better on PC.

Testing the performance on an Intel Core i7-5960X with 16 GB of RAM, we benchmarked on two different GPUs at 1920×1080 resolution.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 – Average: 240 FPS, Minimum: 218 FPS

Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 – Average: 160 FPS, Minimum: 122 FPS

We then tested these at 4K resolution.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 – Average: 133 FPS, Minimum: 106 FPS

Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 – Average: 63 FPS, Minimum: 42 FPS

In short, PC players can look forward to strong performance all throughout and even those with mid-range GPUs will have a good time. Oddly enough, we noticed a bit of screen tearing at times in the PC version. While it doesn’t occur often, there’s no denying its existence. One would hope this has already been patched.

Overall, all three versions are incredibly similar to each other. The PC version features better anti-aliasing and shadow quality with no dithering despite minimal screen tearing but otherwise, the PS4 and Xbox One versions perform very well. Unfortunately, it seems we’ll have to wait until FIFA 17 for better character animations and physics.

Note: Bill Smith carried out the performance analysis.

New information regarding the FIFA 15 Ultimate Team has popped up online by way of an EA featurette trailer from the official EA Sports FIFA YouTube channel. The new features that are included in the game include the ability to make concept squads, friendly seasons, loan players and more.

Any concept squads made in the game can be shared and commented on amongst you and your friends. The friendly seasons allows one vs one bragging rights games by competing against eachother in Seasons mode. Win the season and hold the title! Loan players is exactly what you expect, a mode where you can use players on loan. But this is EA and we all know how they like to squeeze your money out of your wallet. Pre-order the game and you can get Messi on loan. So there’s that.

The FIFA 15 Ultimate Team, or FUT as the developers like to call it, sports some new features that players should enjoy playing around with when the game drops on 23rd of September in North America, the 25th of September in Europe and the 26th September UK.

For a good while now, people have been arguing over which of the many Football (sorry, soccer) games is the best. The debate, if you can call it that, ranges from all ends of the spectrum. Be it an argument of the finer nuances of ball control or the realistic portrayal of the stadium audience to the detail of the pitch itself and the physics that will influence how the ball when it’s in the air.

The obvious natural progression of this set of arguments and debates is to move onto the topic of overall graphical fidelity and given the power of the 8th generation home consoles, things have reached a new high point.

In the video above you can see a rather convenient side by side comparison of the Xbox One and PS4 builds of the game. While the PS4 goes for a slightly more realistic feel with its more muted colours, the Xbox One boasts a more saturated image that makes things feel more lively. Both builds of the game are very nice looking, make no mistake. It’s just down to personal choice which you prefer at the end of the day.

Source

It would appear that EA intend to make good on there promise of providing a more immersive football game by making players seem that little bit more realistic by mapping player emotions (how they actively emote on the pitch) to an artificial intelligence.

Speaking to mmgn.com about their upcoming footy title, Nick Cannon, the games producer has said,  “Yeah, it’s AI driven now. It wasn’t previously. It was more flavoured to tracking the emotions of the players and their reactions. So if someone makes a mistake, or a great play, you’ll see the reactions from players, really trying to put players into that moment.”

After releasing a teaser for the game last week, EA Sports unveiled the first gameplay trailer for FIFA 15 at its E3 media briefing along with showcasing the newest visual touches brought about with the Ignite Engine.

Perhaps more than FIFA 14, FIFA 15 features even more in-depth details than before including footprints in the grass, emotional team-mates, compelling weather effects and much more. The emphasis this time is having you “feel” the game as you engage in man-on-man battles with opponents. You’ll push, pull and outright shove your opponents out of the way in order to score goals.

This will be the first FIFA title to run only on the PS4, Xbox One and PC, fully phasing the older generation consoles out of the loop. Will that motivate users to pick up a more powerful console? Will FIFA 15 push for bigger changes in the franchise? We’ll find out when it releases later this year.

Update: Added Screenshots.

EA Sports UFC will be out on June 17th worldwide but clearly it’s the Indian release on June 20th that is worth watching out for. This is because along with the Bruce Lee character DLC you receive from pre-ordering the game from Game4u, you’ll receive exclusive MMA shorts.

How do you know they’re MMA shorts? Well, they’re black and shiny. That’s gotta be a start, right?

There are plenty of other good reasons to pick up EA Sports UFC since it will feature today’s top MMA stars including Jon Jones, Alexander Gustafsson and as mentioned above, the legendary Bruce Lee. Along with being the first game in the series developed on the EA Sports Ignite engine, it will also be the first title to feature female MMA fighters like Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate.

EA Sports UFC will be available in India for the PS4 at Rs. 3999. Stay tuned for more information on the game as we near its release.

EA Sports UFC will mark the franchise’s debut on the PS4 and Xbox One, running on the new Ignite Engine. It won’t be heading to Xbox 360 and PS3 at any point and according to assistant producer Jazz Brousseau in a chat with PlayStation Lifestyle, this was intentional.

“Yeah, certainly when we made that decision two years ago to only focus our efforts on next-gen it felt maybe we were making a gamble. In hindsight, I think we made the right choice. The reason is really simple: it’s just that we wanted to provide the best experience possible. We wanted to really showcase the power of the EA Sports Ignite engine, the power of next-gen. And we didn’t feel that we were going to be able to do that if we had to divide our attention to Gen 4 and Gen 3 (PS3 and Xbox 360).

“So, we made the call very early on to focus all of our efforts on PS4 and Xbox One; and really bring the fighters to life…really focus on the presentation and do things we weren’t able to do with current-gen (PS3 and Xbox 360).”

EA Sports UFC is currently slated to release on June 17th and will also be released on PC.

EA Sports UFC will be out on June 17th for Xbox One and PS4, according to a recently revealed retail display for the game. However, even more interestingly, the display showed legendary fighter Bruce Lee as a pre-order bonus.

It seems that Lee will actually be a playable character in the game, as EA has released new screenshots for the same

Art director Ian Lloyd stated that, “This does not just look like Bruce Lee. It is Bruce Lee. The way he carries himself, his fighting stance, his rippling physique, devastating speed, signature strikes and accompanying yells, whoops and shrieks.

“We have summoned this pinnacle of human strength, speed and spirit into our world and it has truly been an honor and a career highlight for us to do so.”

Regardless, business has undoubtedly picked up for EA Sports UFC. Will you be picking the game up when it releases this June? Let us know in the comments.

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FIFA 14 on next gen consoles will take advantage of EA’s next generation Ignite Engine, and has such features as the Human Intelligence framework for improved AI; True Player Motion to allow for more realistic movement of limbs and clothing according to the laws of physics; and the Living Worlds framework, which models audience members individually, thus giving each person a unique behaviour.

FIFA 14 will launch on November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe for the PlayStation 4 while the Xbox One version will launch on November 22nd across 13 territories worldwide. You can check out our review for the current-generation version of FIFA 14 here to learn more about the gameplay in more detail.

EA Sports has released a new video to showcase the different shots that FIFA 14’s new Real Ball Physics allows, and Robert Lewandowski is on hand to demonstrate along with…Isaac Newton? And green (or black) screen ninjas? What the hell?

Regardless, the video gives a pretty accurate description of the kinds of shots you can pull off in the game. There’s the Dipping Shot, which goes up and then down; the Rising Shot, which travels straight and up in a continuous motion; and the Knuckle Shot, a curved trajectory shot that is good for knocking down meddlesome blockers.

But seriously, Isaac Newton? What is this, I don’t even.

FIFA 14 is scheduled to release on September 24th in North America and September 26th in Europe for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and many other platforms. It will also be launching alongside the PS4 and Xbox One in November, with both versions featuring the next-gen Ignite Engine.