'FIFA 16' Review: Gameplay Videos, Features and Impressions

Competition between FIFA and the Pro Evolution Soccer series has gotten more intense over the last two years. After two straight solid efforts from PES (2015 and 2016), FIFA is under the microscope in a major way. With FIFA 2016, the iconic series holds on to the virtual soccer crown again, but not by the same margin it has in previous years.

Visually, FIFA 16 gets the job done with tons of accurately scanned heads. There are 350-plus new scanned players in the game, per literature provided by EA Sports, and even the players who aren't scanned look good. The running animations don't look as choppy as they did in the past, or even as they did in the demo.

image provided by EA Sports

The same can be said for some of the dribble moves. The herky-jerky movements seem to be handled better with far smoother transitions.

The stadiums are a thing of beauty. Their visual appeal is augmented by a variety of different lighting effects dictated by the time of the match and weather conditions.

Rain and even snow flurries accurately impact the look of the game. It's just too bad they don't have more of an effect on the player's footing, etc. Nonetheless, the game scores major style points based on the way it looks on your television or monitor.

image provided by EA Sports

As far as gameplay, the passing and defending are more realistic than they were in the past. There are some hiccups with physics and collision detection. For example, there were some instances when a player's plant foot went straight through the ball before a shot. There were other sequences in which the ball passed through the leg of a defender en route to the net after a shot as well.

These are the moments that make you cringe as a sports gamer who so desperately longs for realism in every aspect of the game.

The good thing is these instances are far less frequent than the logical and cool moments of gameplay. I scored a fantastic goal with Robin van Persie that hit off the top of the goal and caromed down to fall just inside the line. However, this was not immediately clear in fast motion.

A Manchester City defender slid to quickly keep it from going to the back of the net, but the replay showed the ball had already ventured beyond the necessary point. Those instances are a big reason FIFA 16 is still well worth your time to play.  For every head-scratching moment, there are five good or great sequences.

Another one of the game's top qualities is its excellent presentation. The announcers tell a great story in kickoff matches with details that come from the sport's real-life headlines. When you play a career mode, the Story of the Season initiative makes it feel different than exhibitions.

Narratives from the announcers and stat overlays related to your team or manager's journey add to the immersion.

The match recap and instant replay suite are perhaps the best in all sports games. Watching the match highlights in this game is a blast. With the in-game commentary kept in place for goals, the postgame presentation tells a story.

Some of those qualities have been slightly improved from years past, but there are also brand-new features.

The 12 women's national teams are a big addition to the game. EA Sports has been a pioneer on this front, as they also featured women in EA Sports UFC. You can play with your women's team of choice online or offline, but you can't take one of them into career mode. That would have been interesting.

Still, the ability to play with female teams in FIFA 16 is unprecedented in terms of team selection.

The other huge addition to this year's game is FIFA Ultimate Team Draft (FUT Draft). Much like Madden 16's Draft Champions mode, FUT Draft adds another layer to the game's options and features. Unlike Madden, FIFA already had a boatload of options to choose from. FUT Draft just makes the game an even deeper experience.

Gamers who are intrigued by the ultimate team concept but don't have the time or the willingness to invest money into gaining the top stars on their team should love FUT Draft. The player selection process is fun, and best of all, it changes each time you play.

FIFA 16 delivers with visual and audio authenticity, but it could stand to tighten up some loose ends in gameplay. All in all, it's still a solid effort, but there's room for improvement in a suddenly far more competitive market.

Review Score: 8.5

XBox One version used for review.