You can now assign specific training sessions to players and then either execute them in a mini game setting or sim them to improve your players attributes. Gamers asking for a deeper, more immersive career experience will be happy with that addition. Player interactions including trade demands, playing time requests etc also make its return in FIFA 16. Scouting, finances and the Global Transfer Network all play key roles in the success of your team and you can choose to partake in pre-season tournaments to gain reps with your squad as well as money for transfers. As a manager you will also be able to browse jobs and receive offers to coach national teams. You also have the ability to hire youth scouts and set up your youth team and develop these players to one day play for your senior club. All in all Career mode is a deep, immersive experience in which you can find yourself spending hundreds of hours in.
“Skill Games” offers a way to refine your FIFA skills in a mini game type of setting.
“Online Seasons” and “Co-Op Seasons” is also back in which you try to climb divisions by beating online opponents in a setting similar to league play where a win will gain you 3 pts.
“Online Friendlies” give you a chance to test your skill against your buddies and “FIFA Pro Clubs” puts you up against up to 21 fellow FIFA 16 players in an 11 v 11 online match.
In addition to all those game modes, players can now join a “Women’s International Cup” in which you can choose one of 12 officially licensed women’s national teams and play a world cup type of tourney.

Playing the women’s cup felt rather authentic and player models looked very impressive. When it came to physics, the game felt slowed down a bit which also seemed realistic. It would have been nice to see the entire women’s world cup lineup in the game but in no way did this new mode feel gimmicky. It is a nice building block and I applaud EA for adding women’s football to the game.

Ultimate Team also makes its triumphant return and as EA’s “Fastest growing game mode” this comes to no surprise. The money printing machine largely known as “FUT” looks and feels largely unchanged from FIFA 15 with one major exception. A new game mode called “FUT Online Draft” has been added this year. It is an Ultimate Team based online draft in which you are able to draft a full 11 man squad including reserves. You then take this team online and battle against another player’s drafted squad. Each win will reward you with Ultimate Team items and coins. 4 wins in a row will win you the championship and you then can start over with a new draft. If you lose along the way, you also lose your drafted team and must start over. This is very similar to “Draft Champions” in EA’s Madden 16 with one major difference. Each draft will cost you an entry fee of either 300 FIFA Points, 15,000 Coins or 1 Draft Token (available in FUT packs)

It seems like a fairly expensive price to pay to play this mode but it certainly will keep players from quitting their online games just to redraft another team. An interesting approach by EA to funnel a few more people into Ultimate Team and it gives players a chance to play with some of the elite player cards, usually extremely difficult to acquire. Only time will tell how this particular game mode will sit with the FIFA Fanbase but I did enjoy myself playing “FUT Online Draft” quite a bit.

CONCLUSION

FIFA 16 once again looks like a stellar sports gaming title players will spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours on. You will be hard pressed to find another video game, period with this kind of value and replayablility. This years refinements although seemingly minor, actually make a very big impact on the game as a whole. I feel like I sound like a broken record when saying this, but FIFA 16 once again is the best FIFA to date in my opinion. EA Canada built on its extremely solid foundation and listened to their customers when tweaking certain aspects of the game and they pulled it off once again.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5 (GREAT)

I hope you guys enjoyed my FIFA 16 Review, please stay tuned to SGO for all the latest FIFA News, Tips and Tricks. What do you think of this year’s iteration? Like it? Love it? Not so much? I am looking to hear from you guys! Connect with me on Twitter @danielbaesel and subscribe to my YouTube channel as I will be posting fresh FIFA 16 videos regularly!