As with any sports sim, the key changes this year are minor, iterative enhancements, the sort that only invested fans really pick up on. That said, FIFA 15 feels as polished and accessible as it ever has thanks to another year of work on Ignite. Look for it this fall when it comes to PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as well as — for the first time — PC.

If all this adds character to proceedings, it's the goalkeepers who provide the muscle. EA's calling them 'next-gen keepers', which doesn't really mean anything, but they're noticeably better than they ever have been, That doesn't just mean they're harder to beat either - they also make more believable mistakes. It's infinitely more gratifying to score five on-on-ones that see the goalkeeper react in different ways than it is to score the exact same goal five times, even if the end result is the same.



The change in tackling is likely to frustrate at first, with opponents getting through on goal with perhaps too much regularity. Winning the ball back can also take some time and become a little tiresome. That the referees are only too ready to pounce if a challenge is just a little mistimed, a feature that means a few more stoppages and red cards than would be desirable, is a little irritating too. But it’s a move in favour of offence, and that’s usually a good thing. When playing against a human opponent rather than the computer it also becomes a level playing field and if it results in high scoring games rather than 0-0 draws that’s got to be a good thing too. Possibly in anticipation that the new system might not be to everyone’s taste, EA have made it possible to switch to 'Legacy Defending' which makes the title feel much like previous incarnations.

In fact, I say floaty ball mechanics, but it feels like the whole ball physics of FIFA 15 have been completely reworked since FIFA 14. So much so that I was able to score 30-yard screamers with Accrington Stanley – a League 2 team in England. If anyone wants to see my A. Proctor screamer, I’d be more than willing to bust it out for you. It’s bordering on the ludicrous. The gulf between a League 2 player like Proctor and one of the world’s greatest, Ronaldo, aren’t as far apart as they should be, not just from shooting, but balance, pace and positioning as well.

This is what I mean when I say you play the game co-operatively with the computer. The problem, of course, is that the computer doesn’t always get it right. “NOT HIM,” is the common frustrated yelp of every FIFA player. Of course I wanted to pass it to the unmarked man, not the fellow on the ground with three defenders atop him. Of course I wanted to pass it to the person on-side with a scoring opportunity, not the person 20 yards off-side down near the corner flag. To play FIFA is to be constantly reminded that you are not solely in control, and it’s infuriating to lose and struggle against a system you can’t dominate.  It also means you want to grab as many packs of players as you can, and that it's worth keeping a strong squad of reserves to switch things around if it's not working out.