This year's addition of FIFA is primarily focused on polishing up the graphics, the physics, and the AI. Player movement in particular is more fluid, granting a greater degree of control when dribbling the ball, as was apparent when my alter ego broke past two RSL defenders to get a shot at a game-winning goal. The stadiums are also noticeably livelier than before, featuring crowds that will actually make the screen shake after a particularly momentous goal, holding up their scarves and singing afterward. 

 

Nowhere is this more apparent than with goalkeepers. They’ve been noticeably refined, and for the most part this turns them into truly great shot-stoppers. They’ll now react to deviations in the ball’s flight path, twisting their bodies in mid-air when it takes a deflection off a lunging defender’s knee, jabbing out a leg to turn aside a shot that seems to be squirming past them, and sticking out gloves to palm aside rebounds on the rare occasions the ball falls kindly to your striker. (It’s more common to see a parry picked up by an AI forward, of course.) Unlike last year’s game, you won’t see them hurl themselves full length to the right of their goal as the ball trickles into the bottom left-hand corner. This is undoubtedly a good thing. 

 

But on the other hand, they’re often comically panicky in goalmouth scrambles, and alarmingly prone to letting daisy-cutters through their legs. During a thumping early win with my Ultimate Team, I nutmegged the keeper for four of my goals. In another game, I saw Joe Hart suddenly sprint out of his goalmouth as if called forward for an injury-time corner. Which would have been fair enough, but the ball was still in play at the time, and I was 3-0 up. Soon to be 3-1 up.

 

Off the pitch, shiny new menus hide a distinct lack of new modes--that's FIFA 15 in a microcosm. Not that there's anything extra EA could possibly cram in. Career lets you manage or play with anyone, from Bursapor to Shrewsbury. Highlights of the Week let you relive recent high-profile games. Match Day alters player stats based on real world form, and Match Day Live gives you a stream of stats and stories based on a team of your choice. In Career, these stories are tailored to your own team. Enquire about a transfer and the media will sniff out the story; score with Di María on his debut and you can read about him starting with a bang. FIFA's growing relationship with the real thing makes you feel more connected than ever, whether you carve through mountains of text or merely catch it in your periphery.

 

"Feel the game" is the advertising slogan this year. At first it sounds like another meaningless phrase spun by marketing men, but the more you play FIFA 15 the more it makes sense. The new stadia, the remodeled players, the live news feeds, the ultra-slow replays of crunching tackles - FIFA 15 feels more like football than ever.

 

Maybe, but none of this stuff spoils the fun. And here's the thing with FIFA: every year it really gets two verdicts, the first arriving when the game comes out and we all play it, and the second, more lasting verdict coming months later when the game and the players have settled down. In some cases (see FIFA 14) a consensus emerges that this is not a vintage year. FIFA 15, though, leaves us feeling just a tad more confident. It's a good FIFA. With time, some fixes and some extra polish, it could be great.