FIFA 14: Rounding Up What Critics Are Saying About EA Sports' Latest Release

For the world football fan in your life, you may as well have substituted this week with Christmas. While a majority of the gaming world is still firmly entrenched in their GTA V slumber, EA Sports woke up the sports gaming world with this week's release of FIFA 14. 

Already available to North American customers, those across the pond will get their hands on the year's most anticipated game on Friday. Coming off the unfettered success of FIFA 13, it's safe to say expectations were massive—both from a qualitative and financial standpoint. 

Last year's FIFA 13, sold 14.5 million copies, including the best opening month in sports gaming history. The company claimed 7.4 million were sold within the opening stanza, which was the best total among all games for 2012 at the time.

EA Sports can thank one thing for those massive sales: word of mouth. FIFA 13 generated positive reviews across the gaming specter, with critics lauding the depth of Career Mode and the realism on the pitch. With Christmas sales coming not too long after the release date, it was almost a perfect scenario.

How does FIFA 14 stack up in comparison? So far, so good. Metacritic, which uses an algorithm to give out a base score for top reviewers in the industry, currently rates the release as an 84 on a scale of 1-100. Under their model, FIFA 14 has received "generally favorable reviews." 

Although not quite on the "universal acclaim" level of its predecessor—FIFA 13 was rated 90 out of 100—it's always difficult to come back from an all-time great release with one equally as groundbreaking. By keeping the excellent things about last year's iteration around and making much-needed, sometimes subtle tweaks in other areas, EA Sports went about maxing out its abilities on the current-gen systems.

With that in mind, let's take a look at a few reviews and see what people are saying.

"FIFA 14 Oozes Style, Authenticity, and Bold Design From Start to Finish." - Xbox Magazine

Like many reviewers, Xbox Magazine's Richard Grisham starts by comparing FIFA 14 to its previous iteration. He called last year's release the " best-received and most popular" soccer game of this generation of consoles, which we've noted the numbers quite obviously back up.

What that left developers with, though, is the unenviable task of taking the best and making it even better. 

According to Grisham, the developers succeeded by avoiding massive, sweeping changes. Instead, they worked on refining the game and making it the most realistic soccer sim on the market. They took away tactics that were abused by gamers online and against the artificial intelligence, altered dribbling techniques and other adjustments to make the game feel truer than ever:

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You can almost feel the push to play in the middle of the field; the extension of variable first touch to sprinting dribbles, plus an aggressive defense, turn traditional tactics upside down. It's not as easy to bolt madly down the wings to launch a crossing pass near the goal, and that same defensive improvement diminishes the effectiveness of lofted-through passes, one of the few exploitable moves last year. This will fundamentally change how millions of players around the world approach the game. It's certainly more authentic, and longtime fans will need to learn new - and smarter - habits while they break others.

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Grisham also goes on to compliment the developers on simplifying controls, which too often came with complications in previous iterations. Simplicity plus better game play? OK, we're not off to a bad start on this review roundup.

"The Issues I Had With the Interface in These Modes Were Answered, and EA Sports Deserves Nothing but Praise for That." - Gaming Nexus

Although hailed in the critical community, FIFA 13 certainly wasn't without its flaws. No game is—especially ones that run on a yearly cycle like sports releases. In his review of this year's installment, Sean Cahill opens up about his disappointment in last year's display options—or what he perceived to be the lack thereof.

He had issues with Career Mode, Ultimate Team and the navigation between menus especially. Well, this year EA Sports completely revamped FIFA 14 with new menu screens and options within gaming modes. The designers switched out last year's navigation for a new, sleeker-looking system that's designed to look aesthetically pleasing and be easy to use.

How does Cahill think FIFA 14 stacks up? Let's just say he's impressed:

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EA Sports must have agreed, because the interface this year is vastly improved.  Career mode is now tabbed with different sections and has a very slick, clean look to it, making it far easier to find what a player is looking for, whether it be needing to make a transfer, working on contracts, or changing up settings.  Ultimate team’s interface has received a wonderful cleanup as well.  Searching for your favorite players has never been easier as well as checking on coin prices for players that you want to put up on the transfer market.

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Cahill also praised the increased realism of the action on the pitch, noting that it now takes a true understanding of the sport to dominate the AI. The ratcheted up difficulty of playing against the computer makes the transition to online play much more fluid, making for a more enjoyable experience for gamers overall.

 

What Other Reviewers Are Saying

• "...when it comes to exciting gameplay, impeccable presentation, and a generous year-long experience, FIFA is still in a league of its own." - IGN's Daniel Krupa

• "If EA Canada's goal is to eradicate the arguably cheap 'sprint and through pass' tactic employed by some in the past, they've done an admirable job in doing so with the game's AI alone" - Mike Suszek of Joystiq

• "Rather than aim toward a mass-market audience with an arcade approach, the developers have slowed the game down and required more finesse and skill out of players." - Scott Marriott of Game Trailers

• "FIFA 14 has tons of modes you can get lost in, but this would all mean nothing without quality gameplay. Fortunately, EA has delivered an exhilarating game of football." - Brett Phipps of Video Gamer

• "FIFA Ultimate Team is fast becoming my favourite mode, since it seems to be incorporating more role-playing and collectible elements." - Peter Nowak of The Globe and Mail

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