'FIFA 16': Highlighting Latest Visual Improvements to Players and Stadiums

Photo-realistic visuals are almost standard in sports video games these days. Elite series bring you action that causes you to double take when you glance at the gameplay on your monitor or TV screen.

Because of the size of the field and the amount of teams, soccer is a tough task for developers to take on as it pertains to photo-realistic player renders. That said, EA Sports has expanded its amount of scanned player faces for FIFA 16.

Per EA Sports, there are over 350 new star heads scanned into the game. To put that into perspective, consider this: The NBA has 30 teams with 15-man rosters if you count the three players who may be on the squad but don't dress for games.

If all of those players were scanned for NBA 2K or NBA Live, that would only be 450. FIFA 16 has almost that many new star heads to go along with the ones it had from previous versions of the game.

You see Gareth Bale of Real Madrid in the lead image, but take a look at Eden Hazard from Chelsea as well.

Image provided by EA Sports

Current players aren't the only ones with scanned heads. Per EA Sports, FIFA 16 also features scanned faces for some of the FIFA Ultimate Team legends.

The Stadiums

There are a whopping 78 stadiums included in the game this year. Nine of them are new to the series, and 50 of them are actual licensed venues. Here's a list, per EA Sports:

Stadium	New
Argentine Primera Division
La Bombonera, Boca Juniors
El Monumental, River Plate	New
Barclays Premier League
Anfield, Liverpool FC
Boleyn Ground, West Ham United
Britannia Stadium, Stoke City
Carrow Road, Norwich City	New
Emirates Stadium, Arsenal
Etihad Stadium, Manchester City
Goodison Park, Everton
King Power Stadium, Leicester City
Liberty Stadium, Swansea City
Old Trafford, Manchester United
Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace
St James' Park, Newcastle United
St Mary's Stadium, Southampton
Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC
The Hawthorns, West Bromwich Albion
Vicarage Road, Watford	New
Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth	New
Villa Park, Aston Villa
White Hart Lane, Tottenham Hotspur
English Championship
Loftus Road, Queens Park Rangers
The KC Stadium, Hull City
Turf Moor, Burnley
English League Two
Fratton Park, Portsmouth	New
Bundesliga
Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 Munchen
Borussia Park, Borussia Monchengladbach	New
Volksparkstadion, Hamburger SV
Olympiastadion, Hertha Berlin
Signal Iduna Park, Borussia Dortmund
Veltins-Arena, FC Schalke 04
Eredivisie
Amsterdam Arena, Ajax
International Stadium
Wembley Stadium, England
La Liga
Camp Nou, FC Barcelona
Estadio Vicente Calderon, Atletico de Madrid
Mestalla, Valencia
Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid
Liga MX
Estadio Azteca, Club America
Ligue 1
Parc des Princes, Paris Saint-Germain
Stade Gerland, Olympique Lyonnais
Stade Velodrome, Olympique de Marseille	New
Major League Soccer
BC Place Stadium, Vancouver Whitecaps
CenturyLink Field, Seattle Sounders FC	New
Serie A
Juventus Stadium, Juventus
San Siro - AC Milan and Internazionale
Stadio Olimpico, Lazio and Roma
Saudi Abdul Latif Jameel League
King Abdullah Sports City, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli	New
King Fahd International Stadium, Al Hilal, Al Nassr and Al Shabab
Rest of the World
Donbass Arena, Shakhtar Donetsk
Generic Stadiums
Al Jayeed Stadium
Aloha Park
Arena del Centenario
Arena d'Oro
Court Lane
Crown Lane
Eastpoint Arena
El Grandioso
El Libertador
Estadio de las Artes
Estadio El Medio
Estadio Presidente G.Lopes
Euro Park
Forest Park Stadium
Ivy Lane
Molton Road
O Dromo
Sanderson Park
Stade Municipal
Stadio Classico
Stadion 23. Maj
Stadion Europa
Stadion Hanguk
Stadion Neder
Stadion Olympik
Town Park
Union Park Stadium
Waldstadion

Judging by the images EA Sports has made available to us, one of the most impressively rendered stadiums in the game is Marseille's Stade Velodrome.

image provided by EA Sports

The stadium was originally built in 1937, per the Stadium Guide, but it has undergone some massive renovations to give it the modern look you see in the EA Sports image. This venue will host Euro 2016 matches, and EA Sports has captured it beautifully.

It takes a little more than recreating a stadium to make a virtual environment come alive. FIFA 16 introduces vanishing spray and new weather conditions. The latter is discussed in this passage from EASports.com:

"Expanding on FIFA 15’s sunny, overcast, rain and snow, FIFA 16 features those and includes hazy, partly cloudy, foggy, random variable rain showers and variable flurries. Additionally, we've expanded the number of available kick-off times."

When you package these visual goodies with FIFA's underrated presentation, you have one of the most visually authentic sports series available. The demo for FIFA 16 was released for PlayStation 4 on Tuesday. The full game will be available for the PS4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on September 22.

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