This year's gimmick, quick subs-which allow you to press R2 / RT during stoppages in play to substitute a player without having to pause the game-are a nice touch that is limited by the fact you can only apply it to three pre-planned changes organized before the match or go with the game's suggestion. Different players still don't feel unique enough: other than Ronaldo and a handful more of the world's elite, every footballer in the game feels roughly the same, the vast majority of them displaying the same animations and only feeling different in their heights and speed stats. However, despite the numerous small-but-important enhancements, there a number of lingering flaws holding FIFA back. They're still unnecessarily obtuse, requiring you to be mindful of shot power, direction, and height, as well as your run-up, all at the same time, but at least you now have time to think about your approach, rather than the run-up being mapped to the same stick as shot direction.Įlsewhere, EA has finally got the balance of individuals' pace just right-slow players feel slow and fast players feel fast, and utilizing the latter no longer feels over- or under-powered. That doesn't translate to set pieces, however, which are still useless-even if penalties are slightly less complicated than FIFA 17's approach, which felt like trying to solve a Rubik's cube with your hands tied. Players' continued slow turning circles and lengthy animations can feel like there's a split-second of input lag Crucially, unlike last year, it is now actually possible to score by crossing it into a target man or poacher, and doing so feels better than it has in any FIFA to date. Crosses, meanwhile, have been reworked, dropping the old low cross in favor of a new three height system: holding R1 / RB while crossing produces a driven, ground cross L1 / LB creates a floaty ball similar to FIFA 17's efforts and just the standard X / Square input whips the ball behind the defenders with pace. Shots carry a little more weight than before and are responsible for the game's most satisfying moments-seeing a volley fly into the top corner is a great feeling, and it happens far more frequently in FIFA 18 than last year. It's a good job, then, that these are the areas that have seen most improvement. Many attacks end in your wingers or full backs crossing the ball into the area or an attacking midfielder having a pop from the edge of the box. Unfortunately, however, non-driven passes remain as limp as before: long passes and chipped through balls still slowly float towards their target before inevitably getting cut out, and ground passes are similarly weak, rarely possessing enough zip to carve a defense open. AI teammates now make more frequent and intelligent runs to give you greater options when you're on the ball, and players' first touches keep the ball closer to their body, finally making driven passes a viable option in the attacking third. This results in a more thoughtful game that's less concerned with beating defenders using trickery or pace and more about-as your youth coach probably told you every week-letting the ball do the work. This is still a problem in FIFA 18, where players' continued slow turning circles and lengthy animations can feel like there's a split-second of input lag-but their slower sprinting does mean the game's speed as a whole feels more consistent. That meant you could sprint pretty quickly, but would take an age to accelerate or change direction. Combined with outstanding presentation and more ways to play than ever, FIFA 18's on-pitch improvements represent the beginnings of a recovery for the series.įIFA 17's problem, I realized after far too many sleepless nights, was that it slowed players' turning speeds to Titanic levels but left much of the rest of the game at a higher velocity. Finally, with FIFA 18, the franchise has managed to arrest its decline, and while the series' latest entry still feels slow, it at least feels a little more responsive, and less frustrating as a result. It's a trend aimed at making soccer games more realistic, but upto and including FIFA 17, it had caused EA's series to suffer, with every title since FIFA 15 feeling less responsive than its predecessor. In the Age of the Internet, where we demand everything faster and our attention spans shrink to that of a goldfish, it's interesting that both PES and FIFA are slowing down.
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