FIFA 15: Breaking Down Best Gameplay Additions and Demo Observations

With the release of FIFA 15 only a few short days away, gamers are lining up in droves to ready themselves for the months of feverish Ultimate Team playing and online friendly domination. 

New releases every year can make it tough for games to make serious jumps from one year to the next, but EA Sports has done just that in the fall of 2014. In the second year of next-generation consoles, some big-time strides have been made to enhance the user experience both in terms of new features and gameplay improvements.

Simply put, it will feel like a whole new game the first time you fire up your PS4 or Xbox One—something that can't be said year in and year out with any sports platform, but certainly rings true regarding FIFA 15.

Here's a quick rundown of the best features that EA Sports has added, and my initial observations from fiddling around on the game's demo.

Gameplay Additions

Ultimate Team Tweaks

With the millions of hours invested from gamers into Ultimate Team, it's only fitting that EA Sports has once again made the popular game mode a main focus in FIFA 15 as it released on the company's website.

They're hanging their hat mainly on three key improvements to Ultimate Team, starting with the "concept squads." It's exactly what it sounds like—a new feature that allows users to file through the entire FUT (FIFA Ultimate Team) catalog and match up prospective starting lineups to see what combinations improve chemistry most.

The second main addition is the improvements made to player loaning, which will allow users to loan out—or receive—players for a set number of matches as opposed to an entire season.

Lastly, FIFA 15 will allow friends to put their Ultimate Teams to the ultimate test. Similar to the "Seasons" online mode, players can face their friends' Ultimate Team and obtain all those all-important bragging rights.

New-Look Team Management

While actual football is the main staple of the FIFA games, it goes without saying that expert gamers love to spend minutes (often longer than their opponent would prefer) rummaging through team management to assemble the best starting 11.

And as such, EA Sports has completely revamped the team-management screen to make things easier than ever for gamers—although it may take some getting used to for the FIFA aficionados. 

Instead of the basic list of players, squads are broken down visually on the team-management screen. When a player is chosen, suggested substitutes are given by the computer. The regular substitutes/reserves are listed as usual near the bottom.

What's more, users will be given the option on certain game modes to assemble as many as six starting lineups—fit with their own tactics, player roles, etc.—in a new wrinkle called "team tactics." Instead of having to rearrange lineups every match, users will get to save half a dozen starting lineups.

New Goalkeeper AI

Although they've made huge strides in improving player movements and AI over the years, one shortcoming with recent installments is the predictability and unrealistic inconsistency of goalkeepers.

That's a thing of the past now, starting with FIFA 15.

Goalkeepers have been completely re-written in the new game, EA Sports announced on its website. They have retooled everything from goalie reactions to the AI, making their actions more realistic than ever.

But while the goalies will make incredible plays never before seen in the new game, it will also open them up for more trouble as the website explained.

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With keepers more mobile, it opens up new scoring opportunities for attackers. Your opponent recognizes goalkeeper movement and will attempt shots back across goal, nutmegs or quick shots which will leave no time to react. 

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Goalies will be much, much harder to take advantage of in FIFA 15, but also guarantee to leave more goal-scoring options open than ever before. Having an elite goalkeeper figured to be a game-changer in recent games, but this year the wrong goalie could spell doom regardless of your squad's performance.

In other words, you best be picking up Manuel Neuer or Thibaut Courtois in Ultimate Team. 

Demo Observations

Wow. Just, wow. That was my first observation seconds after jumping into my first FIFA 15 demo match.

It's obvious upon your first touch of the ball that the player dynamics have taken a serious step up from last year's edition. Touches are less predictable, but also more fluid if you navigate the pitch correctly.

Contact is tougher than ever to fight through, however. Players will get easily pushed off the ball by opposition if not positioned well, and defenders will pull and tug for positioning to throw off the ball-handler.

Put one shot on goal, and the improved goalie physics are easily visible. A dipping shot from outside the box can warrant no reaction from the goalie as he simply watches it whisk over his head, and quick shots to the near post also prove tough for the goalie to react to in time.

Computer AI looks to be on a whole new level as well. Players will take advantage of open space like never before, and it can prove frustrating to rid the opponent of the ball when the computer rips you apart with skill moves.

Premier League fans get a nice treat with three clubs—Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea—featured while no other league boasts more than one club on the demo. It also automatically starts with the opportunity to play as Liverpool in the final week of the EPL season, and anything short of a win results in Manchester City hoisting the trophy.

But whether you're a fan of the EPL, La Liga, the Turkish league or anywhere in between, FIFA 15 guarantees to be the best installment yet of a world-football platform that continues to dominate the sports video game scene.

Follow Steven Cook on Twitter for more sports news and analysis, not excluding sore-loser complaints after he undergoes a FIFA 15 losing streak.