Fortunately Vita owners won’t have to suffer alone. EA has also revealed that FIFA 16 will also not be coming to the Nintendo 3DS or the Wii U. FIFA was once a staple game that could be found on every platform in existence, but that has all changed. The versions for the PS2 and PSP were only recently dropped, but it seems that with FIFA 16, EA is being more selective with which platforms they release on. Details on mobile versions for the game on IOS and Android have not yet been announced.

 

As for comments about the addition of women in FIFA 16, a lot of people on YouTube and Twitter have been saying some pretty nasty stuff. I won’t go into detail on what people have posted, but some of the tamer ones are just people protesting that they aren’t buying the game now. Others are saying EA should have concentrated their efforts on the gameplay instead of adding women. Specifically the game will include the Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and USA teams.

 

For many, the eBay-style open-auction transfer market that underpinned the mode’s gameplay - which involves building a “deck” of player trading cards into a fantasy team - was one of its biggest pulls. Bagging an in-form player at a bargain price, usually by purchasing their card at 2am when fewer participants are online, led to moments of punch-the-air euphoria. With some Harry-Redknapp-style wheeler and dealing the purchase could be immediately flipped back onto the market with a higher starting price - a much faster way of acquiring in-game currency than actually playing matches. And the faster you made coins, the quicker the world’s best players could be secured for your fantasy line-up.

 

It begs the question whether reviews keen to be out prior to launch are always a good thing, and whether a Destiny-like approach is more acceptable in this more online world we live in. But maybe that’s a discussion for another time. The main bug in question being one where, even offline, the game has horrible lag/slowdown. It’s like playing the world’s worst online game, and that’s just going through the main menus. Then there are the server issues where FIFA 16 Ultimate Team was pretty much dead, online ranked wins don’t count to your total, then there are a few minor animation issues which compared to what has come before, are easily ignored. All point to the conclusion that FIFA 16 may have been a little rushed.

 

In all honestly who really gives a rat’s ass about the menus if the gameplay stinks, right? Fortunately the gameplay is as tight as ever and fans of the franchise should like the changes that have been implemented. Before I get into some of the gameplay aspects I enjoyed and others not as much, I should point out that by in large all the features and modes you have come to love from the FIFA 14 experience return in FIFA 16. So for those of you wondering if FIFA 16 suffered the same stripped down fate as previous you can breathe a sigh of relief as that is not the case at all. So Ultimate Team and Career Mode fans alike can rejoice and expects a slew of new features for each mode.

 

On second thought, forget that. There really is nothing better. "FIFA 16" connects on a visceral level to the point where, after I conclude a match, I feel an OCD urge to give a news conference -- the people NEED to hear about United's exploits. No stumbles, no wayward Rooney, no shambolic back line; the moves I've made in the transfer window and on the pitch have worked, brilliantly, to propel United atop the table... as I told my beloved dog Mickey after one particularly successful Premier League tilt against giant-killers Leicester City. So what if I was on the "amateur" setting, I told my faithful companion, who sat in rapt attention. This was about rewriting history and creating new, uplifting chapters for Manchester United. This will be a season to remember.

 

Don’t expect huge changes with FIFA 16, the core elements remain the same; however, there are plenty of small new additions which make this the best FIFA game ever released. You won’t find a better game on the market, generally because there aren’t any, perhaps PES 15 might offer something really special and give us all a real alternative, but for now your best option is FIFA 16.