Despite bowing out of the World Cup with a 1-0 defeat to Japan, the Matildas have been kicking some sporting ass lately. I mean, they beat BRAZIL. That someone is the Matildas' Stephanie Catley: 21-year-old defender, winner of the domestic Young Player of the Year award (twice), and now able to play as herself in a video game in which she features on the cover. With Messi. Life goals, man. Liverpool’s captain will join Messi on the FIFA 16 cover! That’s right FIFA fans, Jordan Henderson has won the race to join Lionel Messi on the front of your favourite game!

 

In the UK version Messi will be joined by newly-appointed Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson after he won a public vote, beating off competition from Tottenham striker Harry Kane. Despite finishing third at the Women's World Cup none of the England team were included in the vote. Fifa 16 is released on September 25 in the UK. In Career Mode, we can get a random shirt from the opposition and add it to our ‘locker’- where we could keep track of the players we have faced, the result and whether we scored or got man of the match. It’s a small feature and won’t affect the game too drastically, but if it is done correctly it could be huge.

 

Meanwhile, EA Sports has announced a new feature to “FIFA 16” that had gamers really excited. Last year the bridge to next-gen was an understandable reason for a more modest input to Career Mode's feature set but with the power of the new consoles now fueling the mode I think we all assumed that this would be the big leap towards the wish list we penned some months ago. "The first thing I always encourage people to do is really try and think about getting a team with good chemistry because that's the bit where they kind of will perform the best that they can," Shaikh explains, before going on to discuss how even relatively modest-quality teams can perform better thanks to good team chemistry. "Chemistry makes a really big difference and you can get a lot out of a lower quality team."

 

One of the main causes of terrible goalkeeping in FIFA 16 is simply down to a lack of goalkeeper animations. It is important to remember that the little people on screen on a computer game aren't real and can only do what they've been told to, thus if a goalkeeper doesn't have the capability of turning backwards and trying to stop a ball from being lobbed over his or her head, he or she cannot do it. EA Sports have introduced several new animations to try and fix some of this mayhem. Of course, occasionally animations go wrong... Apparently, the game will already give players the ability to make the signature sleek move of Argentinian football superstar Lionel Messi.

 

A young starlet can emerge through your virtual academy, or be picked up for pennies through the scouting system, or they could have taken huge chunk out of your budget, but still with so much time and development ahead of them, it’s an exciting feeling to have a squad of ‘tomorrow’s’ world-beaters at your disposal. However, the hype that surrounds young players, particularly in the Premier League, is overwhelming. One game can transform a career, and skyrocket a young player’s value and reputation, though that’s not always a good thing as the weight of expectation and pressure wears them down.

 

EA sports showed a overhaul of FUT 16 with the introduction of new feature in FUT as FIFA 16 FUT Draft. FIFA 16 is going to release in September 22 and it seems EA Sports has done some pretty things to make the launching event a grand one. Gamescom was an enlightening experience for Moviepilot. We tried everything we could possibly get our hands on, from Cuphead and Dark Souls 3, to Star Wars: Battlefront and Crytek's new dinosaur VR game! Everything took me by surprise - for instance, I spent way too much time playing Guitar Hero Live and one other fantastic game, PES 2016. I engaged with something like 6 matches with various individuals at Gamescom with PES and it was genuinely fantastic.

 

It may be asking a lot, but bizarrely, EA's lack of a licensing deal over European football harms the career mode. PES has the Champions League deal, yet despite EA's dominance in the charts, and all its financial clout, it cannot hold a candle to the feeling you get when Champions League theme starts playing, with all its orchestral majesty. Worse still, cup competitions feel unimportant, and having a poorly done cut-scene of your players celebrating a generic cup with ticker-tape falling on them is just lame.