I’ve been playing Fifa since the international soccer days on the good old trusty Super Nintendo. We are 25 years later and the Fifa series has been a major success for EA sports. With yearly releases, people can’t seem to get enough of battling it out on the virtual green grassy battlefield. Is the new Fifa 19 release worth your money or is it just an expensive squad update? Let’s find out…
Timed finishing and Active Touch system
While installing, Fifa lets you play an exhibition match between Juventus and PSG. It won’t take you long to being introduced to the new Timed Finishing addition. This lets you have more control over your shots on goal. Like the previous entries, the timing of your shots and the duration you press the button determines the way you release your shots. The Timed Finishing adds a possibility to perfect your shot even more by pressing the shoot button again at the moment your controlled player unleashes. This new addition can grant you an epic finish but also holds much more risks, sometimes resulting in you just fumbling the ball. I struggled at first but eventually got the hang of it and could see more experienced players really liking this feature. The good part for more casual players, is that it’s completely optional.
The second mayor addition to Fifa 19 is the Active Touch system. It’s actually more of an updated “first touch” feature. The Active Touch system improves on the way you can control the ball. This means that the days where the ball was just glued to your feet are over. This finally makes the game feel much more realistic than the previous entries. I still prefer the feel of PES over Fifa’s feel but I must say that EA sports did a nice job improving the realism.
Better overall balance
Previous entries kind off forced you to play a certain way, with some tactics really overpowering others, mainly due to the whole pace exploitation. Fifa 19 feels more balanced. The overall AI seems improved which makes for better runs from your teammates. The strength of players now comes in play more than ever before. You’ll notice this feature especially if you want to go past a sturdy defender. This makes players feel more like their real-life counterpart. Playing games with Real Madrid or with Crawley Town (Football League Two) brings the need for very different tactics.
Champions League finally
Fifa 19 has all the right licenses to offer most of your favorite teams in its full glory. The addition of the Chinese Super League is a handy way to play with the likes of Hulk and Oscar. The real star is off course the well-documented addition of the Champions League License. The license gets used in career mode, as a standalone competition, in FUT with new Champions League cards added and even in the Journey. Complete with new commentary from Derek Rae and Lee Dixon, Fifa 19 made sure to emphasize they hold the license now after PES lost it.
The journey coming to a conclusion
The Journey is back for its third year and lets you continue the career of Alex Hunter. Alex’ half-sister Kim Hunter and long-time friend Danny Williams get an equal part in this 16 hours campaign. It’s been rumored this is the conclusion of the narrative football journey we started on Fifa 17. I hope this means a new story for the next Fifa installment because I actually enjoy this story mode quite a lot despite its often cheesy dialogue.
Kick-off with house rules
Career mode sadly is left untouched. You’ll still experience misplaced demands from your youngsters and crazy transfers. The othersingle-playerr mode, Kick-Off, did get a much needed update. Since we’re all eager to proof how good we are against our friends, you can now actually proof it with stats. Kick-off let’s you link to your online account so every game you play at home or at your friends house counts towards bragging point. To spice things up, EA sports added the ability to choose house rules for those exhibition modes. Only headers and volleys count towards goals gives the game a whole new addition, the no rules mode is especially fun after a night in the pub. The most fun has to be the survival mode where you get a player ejected each time you score a goal.
Dreaded microtransactions
FUT is where EA earns the most. The microtransactions fuelled madness returns every year with great success. Although you don’t really need to buy packs to be able to play this mode, the game still favours those who do. I always hated this trend and hope we get a microtransactions free FUT mode in the future. Although I do understand that servers don’t run for free I do feel cheated when somebody buys their way to a great team in Fifa Ultimate Team instead of earning it through playing greatly.
Conclusion
Fifa 19 made some great improvements towards even more realistic matches, almost rivalling PES. The addition of the Champions League was long overdue. It’s a real shame the single player modes, like career mode didn’t get a much needed update. Kick-off additional house rules are great for late night binge playing with friends. All in all some nice improvements but there is still some work left for future releases. Also… The rumoured 5-a-side fifa street like mode is nowhere to be found.
