14 DAY TRIAL // EA Sports revealed that Seattle Sounders star Clint Dempsey, a US soccer hero, will be featured on the North American cover of FIFA 15, alongside Lionel Messi.
Lionel Messi, the Argentine football superstar who currently plays for Spanish club FC Barcelona, graces the cover of the EA Sports video game for the fourth time, apparently being the embodiment of everything that the popular sport stands for, as well as what EA wants to convey through its work.
Dempsey is the face of football in the United States, being the captain of the US team during the recent World Cup, where it managed to advance to the knockout rounds.
The North American edition of FIFA 15 features different packshots for the PlayStation and the Xbox editions. Thus, on the cover for the Xbox edition of the game, Dempsey sports his Seattle Sounders kit, including the Xbox logo, as the team is sponsored by Microsoft.
The PlayStation edition of the title will feature Dempsey wearing the US Men's National Team uniform that the team wore at the recently concluded World Cup.
While it is unclear what uniform Dempsey will be shown in on the PC and Wii covers, the Xbox uniform is most likely platform-exclusive.
The upcoming sports game will have a greatly enhanced artificial intelligence, in an effort to convey the emotional tenor of every match and the players and supporters' involvement. All the players will feature their own attitudes about one another, which will evolve as they interact on the playing field, especially during moments where big opportunities are missed or come to fruition.
When the fate of a match is decided in the final moments, through a goal scored just before the whistle, the entire team will pile on the striker in celebration, for the first time in the entire series.
The move is designed to present a more immersive and organic experience, as well as to allow for less repetitive reactions, camera angles and commentary, which is a goal of all games that attempt to replicate a live broadcast.
The supporters will also be modeled in more detail and will enact displays of emotion in the stands as the tension builds, a fact which will be noted by the commentators, based on how the context of the game evolves.
FIFA 15 is scheduled to come out on September 25 in North America and on September 26 in Europe, for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U consoles.
The 3DS and Vita edition will be a slightly pared-down version of the full game, and the owners of the Xbox platform will get exclusive access to the game's Ultimate Team Legends feature.
