Powered by Frostbite, FIFA 17 transforms the way you play, compete, and emotionally connect with the game. FIFA 17 immerses you in authentic football experiences by leveraging the sophistication of a new game engine, while introducing you to football players full of depth and emotion, and taking you to brand new worlds accessible only in the game. Complete innovation in the way players think and move, physically interact with opponents, and execute in attack lets you own every moment on the pitch.
Review
Another year and it's time for another iteration into the FIFA franchise... Oooh Dejavu... I have to admit that I do enjoy the new FIFAs coming out, seeing the updated squads, new kits and best of all my beloved Boro back in the Premier League.
As the last few FIFAs before have started, you start with an inaugural match, just something to give you a feel for the game before you jump in. This year is Chelsea v Man Yoo in the FA Cup Final, and it is just your standard match really, you have the tutorial showing next to your player with which buttons to press to pass, shoot, cross etc and it is just one of those matches your play which is a starter to get you into the feel for the game.
Playing through a couple of the first matches I played, one of the first things I noticed was that there are a few issues that I had with FIFA 16 which have made it across to 17.
One of which being the refereeing. I had quite a major issue with this in 16, some of the decisions were just plain terrible, and if I'm going to be brutally honest here, it's a refereeing model that has been in the game for a while and I just don't understand it.
My example for this is when a player is injured on the pitch be it by a bad tackle, landing awkwardly etc the rules state that the referee should only stop play if in their mind it is deemed to be a serious injury. Every single time a player stays down on the floor the referee will always stop play... If he doesn't for a foul straight away then play will be stopped, and 9 times out of 10 it will be when I am on the break and about to score. This winds me up so much because the player will get up and be fine.... No injury, doesn't need to go to the sideline, no substitution... nothing... This really needs to be looked into.
Another refereeing model is the inconsistency which I'm not going to moan about because I know people will say 'That's just like Football in real life, Jon' - Which I know... But the consistency of the inconsistency for me in the games over the last few years has been terrible. I've posted clips showing players of mine getting a red card for winning the ball in inch perfect fashion.
Another quibble that I have with FIFA 17 is the switching players, and how irritating it is when it decides to pick the player on screen furthest away from the ball... seriously... If you could pick the guy in front... I would be grateful, not the bloke on the left flank having a cup of tea cause he hasn't seen the ball all game. I know you're trying to bring him into the game, but when i'm over on the right, he isn't needed at this point. Just a suggestion...
Another thing that has crept over from FIFA 16 is to me I feel that the game will dictate the play slightly, especially when it comes to things such as through balls, or playing on advantage. If a player if due to be booked, the amount of times I have seen the opposition pass the ball a few times then conveniently run it out of play cannot be coincidence... Some of the players I have seen do it, wouldn't just run the ball out in a real game in the league, they would play on and try and score from the advantage. Another thing I've noticed as well is keepers who harness the power of the flash... Through ball comes through and they will be no where near it, I'm about to get my toe to it to chip it over, and oh... look at that... they have it in there hands...
I feel like I have been moaning right throughout this review so far... *read back through* - Might be because I have... Never mind... I will get onto some good stuff, I promise, but not yet... Next thing I'm going to come too is the tackling. Tackling in football is like a fine Picasso piece of art. Beautifully done and when finished it's a joy to behold... Unless you're playing FIFA 17, where in this case you're going to just get barged off the ball, or the defender will tap you and the ball is magically at his feet... You can see when players put there feet in with a standing tackle, but the amount of times I've noticed it, it seems ridiculous. This has to be something to do with the impact engine in the game and I'm not sure whether that is down to the change to the frostbite engine.
It's nice to live by the words, don't fix what doesn't need fixing, however EA seemed to miss this a bit when it comes to Corners and Penalties. This year they have been completely revamped and for me, the worst. For penalties you no longer have the icon in the goal to show where you shooting. Now you just have an arrow on the floor and you point in the direction you want to shoot and then the amount of power you put into it will decide the height it gets... Such hate.
With corners, you now only have an icon in the box which you can move about to where you would like to aim. Then, depending on the power you get into the corners, will determine whether its fired across the box or looped in high,
I will say though that the game play does feel good, it feels nice and smooth and when you get that passing going and you're moving the ball about, you know you're doing something right, especially when you can see holes appearing in the other teams midfield or defence. Satisfaction.
A new mode was introduced this year with The Journey. The Journey is a more in depth career mode where you focus on Alex Hunter, an up and coming Football Star. You start at the bottom and go through trials, then depending on how you do in the trials will depend on what kind of offers you get. I aced mine so had the pick of every Premier League club, which I obviously picked Middlesbrough.
After you pick your team and start training for them, your actions will decide on where abouts you fall in the managers plans, obviously the bigger the team the less game time that you're going to get, which was another reason for me choosing Boro over the likes of Man Yoo, Citeh, Arsenal and the rest.
You follow the ups and downs of Alex's Career from being left out of the squad in exchange for his best friend (Gareth Walker) starting the matches. This all comes about from an Injury to the main striker, which im my case was Alvaro Negredo. I'm not sure how it pans out with other teams as I've only played it the once.
I love the narrative that is placed to this and it's a wonderful story to play through and would recommend it to anyone. I will play through it again, because I would love to see how it works out starting out at a bigger club and how that affects Alex's development.
One thing I will say with this is that next year I would love to see us the players be able to create a player or ourselves and take us through that instead of being limited to just Alex. One thing I really liked in particular was the reactions that you had from what you said to the press or other players.
You could get a fiery reaction or a cool reaction, or play both sides of the fence. Playing it cool, gets you in good stead with your manager, the cooler you are, the more likely your boss is going to play you. Fiery gets you fans and social media subs... But not in the gaffers good books. Playing it neutral will allow your skills to do the talking on the pitch and how you play will make the minds up of the fans and your manager. I played it a little bit cool, I was only a little off centre on the gauge that shows, so I was favoured a little by my manager, but had to mostly use my skills on the pitch to show everyone what I could do.
There are other standard modes within the game which are back such as Career, FIFA Ultimate Team and Pro Clubs. Standard modes which have been with the game for years.
Overall, FIFA 17 was very disappointing this year, there were changes with corners and penalties that didn't need to be made which leaves an empty hole where there former self used to lie.
The game is improved on by the new mode - The Journey. This is the big addition this year and it has gone down a treat, it has a good story to it, and is worth playing.
6/10
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