Esports

FIFA 20: Release, demo, Volta, cover star, Ultimate Team, online, gameplay & more


The biggest issue with FIFA 19 was the gameplay. Before a series of patch updates, we had defenders running into each other, and the game’s meta was being exploited by first-time finesse shots flying into the top corner time and time again. For FIFA 20, the developers need to get it a lot closer to being right when the game is released, with still back post crosses heavily overpowered and defending after a kick-off weirdly difficult. FIFA 19’s sales were 35% lower than FIFA 18 in its first week, and this is likely to worsen for FIFA 20.

Well, there is hope. Even before E3, it was released in The Pitch Notes what the areas of focus were for FIFA 20. More realistic finishing, improved defending, a passing overhaul, more difficult chained skill moved and goalkeeper movement being reduced were all mentioned, marking a fantastic start for the FIFA 20 cycle. 

So what needs to improve? Well, timed finishing is as brilliant as it is frustrating. We all love to see a ball fly into the top corner from 25 yards, but when it happens again and again, some of the magic is lost. The timing window will be reduced for FIFA 20, making them more difficult to perform, and less precise timed shots will have reduced accuracy. Shots on the spin will have less powerful even if timed perfectly.

Death by first-time finesse New ball dynamics and improved 1v1will stop you tearing your hair out when your striker misses a sitter, with overpowered goalkeepers also heavily reduced. Volleyed crosses have also been toned down, making the destructive back post header on FIFA 19 far less damaging. 

Goalkeeper movement has also faced much criticism, with the concept highly unrealistic. Goalies will now move with a slower and more realistic speed, and players controlling the right-stick manual movement will have to commit to a direction.

Tactics received a massive overhaul for FIFA 19, but they have been slightly overpowered. Take Liverpool’s Gegenpress under Jurgen Klopp, they press hard, but if the opposition can keep the ball for 20 seconds or so, the press is beaten, and the defence is exposed. As a result, your defensive depth needs to be incredibly deep, otherwise the opponent can get in behind the back four. Not a huge adjustment is needed, but a tweak to add more realism. 

House rules were a great addition for FIFA 19, and we want to see more of them! Why stop at three ejections for survival mode, why not continue until you have just a goalkeeper. Or how about a winner stays on mode when there are three or more gamers playing. A draft mode has been seen on PES, where you can draft in a squad just to play against your mates, or how about a match where you can mix the world’s best male & female stars?

Dynamic weather has been called for in FIFA games for some time, with Pro Evo taking the lead in this department. On both games, weather affects how you play, with the ball skidding on in wet or snowy conditions. Dynamic weather means the weather could change mid game, going from overcast to rainy, and you may have to change your style of play as a result.

A downpour of snow will slow down your ground passes and cause aerial balls to skid onIt may be a long shot, but FIFA in virtual reality doesn’t look too far away. Oculus Rift co-founder Nate Mitchell claimed FIFA and VR was a “natural fit”.  He told Eurogamer “You can imagine sitting in the stands and confetti is raining down… and the four of us are sitting next to each other and controlling the players on the field – an awesome VR experience.” 

FIFA games suffer from an input lag however – the time taken for a button press to result in an on-screen action, and VR would add to this delay slightly. With new consoles potentially on the way in 2020, we may see this in FIFA over the years ahead. 

Women’s clubs may seem a long way off for FIFA fans, but after highlighting the 2019 World Cup in France on the Journey in FIFA 19, EA may need to step up again this year. A FIFA graphic of Chelsea’s Fran Kirby modelling the Blues new kit for 2019/20 was revealed on the Blues’ Instagram story, giving us hope of seeing Women’s Super League and maybe even Champions League clubs on FIFA 20. 

The first ever graphic of a woman in club kit in FIFA history READ MORE: Head here for more on FIFA 20 Gameplay.

Career Mode

Ultimate Team will always be the main focus for EA, with the thousands of in-game purchases an absolute goldmine for the game’s publishers. The old-school FIFA players love Career Mode, setting up with their favourite club on the game or embarking on a journey taking a League Two club all the way to the Champions League. It’s high-time these gamers were repaid with some new features, or revisiting things from yesteryear. 

Something that is coming more common in real life football, is deals being agreed outside of transfer windows, with players joining their new clubs the following season. Think Ajax’s Frenkie de Jong, who is on his way to Barcelona in the summer. It can help you use some of that transfer budget and prize money that goes to waste after the season ends. 

It can be frustrating on Career Mode, when one of your star players decides to leave the club, and there is little you can do about it. How many times have we seen in real life football players claiming to want to leave, but a week or two later, sign a big fat new contract. You should have the option to tempt them with a new deal, with older versions of FIFA, players asking you for a wage review if they were playing at their very best. 

Older FIFA versions also had an adjust ticket prices feature, meaning that if you were playing well or had a big match coming up, you could raise the prices knowing the game would sell out either way. Conversely, if you are playing poorly, you can lower the prices to ensure you get more fans into the stadium. 

The player manager feature was arguably better than the other two career mode options, with you being allowed to both manage the team and have your star man on the field. It is a rarity in real life, but that didn’t matter when you were bending in free kicks with your player and making tactical adjustments.

Be the star and the boss in player manager modeREAD MORE: Click here for more on FIFA 20 Career Mode.

Ultimate Team

Ultimate Team is the most popular mode in FIFA, but players are still frustrated by the imbalance of purchasing packs from the FUT store, and what you actually get in return. FIFA’s in-game currency has been banned in Belgium due to it breaching gambling laws, defining it as an “illegal game of chance”. It has been shown that the chances of getting an 84+ rated card is just 4.4% in a premium gold pack. 

The new Champions League and Europa League licenses made their way to Ultimate Team, but FIFA didn’t use it to their advantage. A Champions League item rated +1 higher than the base card was a touch lazy, with more man of the match cards surely the way to go. Combining the FUT Icons with historic Champions League performances gone by would get the masses excited, just imagine UCL versions of, Ronaldinho or Steven Gerrard, or even of current stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. 

A Champions League Icon Moments Gerrard anyone? A Man of the Match Cristiano Ronaldo would be a hit 

Ultimate Team was stripped down on the Nintendo Switch, with the new Division Rivals not even featuring. No Frostbite engine meant there was even less to shout about on the at home or handheld platform and knowing that the Switch has the capacity to run it, it would be a huge surprise to not see it appear, or a greater custom engine on FIFA 20. 

READ MORE: All there is to know about Ultimate Team and Pro Clubs on FIFA 20.

The Journey

The Journey: Champions marked the end of Alex Hunter’s journey mode over the last three versions of FIFA, so what’s next? It looks as if Volta Football is replacing the Journey, but this isn’t confirmed. 

The UEFA rights were secured for the Champions League and Europa League last year, and it wouldn’t surprise to see the European Championships appear on the new story mode, as you look to make it into the national squad and challenge for the European crown. Euro 2020 is being staged throughout Europe, creating scope for fantastic stadium atmospheres on the continent on the new FIFA. 

The near 69,000 Baku Olympic Stadium is hosting group stage games and quarter-finals for Euro 2020

Anything else?

What we’d love to see is something similar to in the in-depth club creator that appeared on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. You could go on the FIFA Creation Centre website and create a club complete with budgets, stadium and roster. You could then download this team on the game and then play with them in kick-off, tournaments and career mode.

Bring back the Creation Centre!It is becoming less common to go out and buy the hard copy of games, with everything now available from the PS or Microsoft stores online via download. Physical sales have fallen 25% year-on-year due to online purchases, with the possibility of an update and subscriptions model expected in the years ahead. The new Sony PlayStation console will have a disc drive, but perhaps only for backwards compatibility, whereas the new Xbox One S All-Digital Edition has experimented in removing the drive. 

For FIFA 19, La Liga followed suit of the Premier League by 16 stadiums and over 200 player arriving on the game. Licenses for the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 are already obtained, but it’s time to add more depth and realism to the game. Those three leagues combined have just 11 stadiums between them, something that EA should look to improve. 

If EA can have full coverage of Europe’s big five leagues, it will only strengthen their hold as the most dominant football game on the planet. There could be some good news for Barcelona fans though, with the club’s three-year deal with PES ending this summer. This paves the way for the Camp Nou to return to the FIFA franchise for the first time since 2016. 

More news is coming on FIFA 20 in The Pitch Notes over the next couple of months. Keep tuned to RealSport for more news in the build up to the new release. 



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