14 DAY TRIAL // FIFA 14 is now an official project under development at EA Sports, but the announcement of this year’s installment of the most popular football simulator has left many of the fans a little underwhelmed, especially when compared to the flurry of excitement that accompanied last year’s reveal.
FIFA 14 has a number of features designed to make headlines and generate talk among fans: Pure Shot, Real Ball Physics, Protect the Ball.
There are also promises for more intelligent teammates and adversaries and for a new multiplayer social mode to complement Ultimate Team.
But everything that EA Sports has shown so far (and there’s plenty more to show before launch) pales when compared to the buzzword associated with FIFA 13: unpredictable.
I loved how the Canadian development team understood that simulated football was too close to perfection and needed to have the surprising and weird moments that often defined matches in the real world.
The concept of unpredictable football opened up a thousand possibilities in the minds of fans and EA Sports managed to deliver on its promise, creating a game that often surprised players, leading me to play it until the disk broke inside by Xbox 360.
FIFA 14 will certainly get a grandiose marketing push and its momentum will guarantee solid sales, but I don’t yet see the same level of interest from the community.
There’s time for that to change as more images and videos are released and as journalists manage to get hands-on experiences with the game.
I love football and I like the way FIFA as a series simulates its unique charms and I want to love the coming game.
But I fear that in the race to deliver a new title each year, EA Sports might be thinking more about its own profits than the interests of the player base.