After spending a few hours on a first playable build of FIFA 23, here are the first impressions and the most important news of this chapter.
Solved the puzzle of the covers – Kylian Mbappé will be on the International Standard Edition alone, while he will be assisted by the Australian Sam Kerr on that of the Ultimate Edition -, FIFA 23 is ready to let the field talk. In a presentation reserved for the press, EA Sports anticipated the main key points of this year’s edition, and unlocked a very first playable build with which we could taste the most important news.
The presentation we attended, which was attended by all the producers of the different modes of the title, opened with a video celebrating the thirty-year history of the EA Sports FIFA franchise, which saw the Californian label and the football government collaborate fruitfully .
Closing in beauty –
The closing of the partnership with this last chapter has not been kept hidden or made any secret, and how Electronic Arts intends to close with a flourish. This year’s release is that of inclusivity – “The World’s Game”, as it is defined, it will not only be the game of the World Cup, but of the World Cup, the men’s one in December in Qatar and the women’s one in New Zealand and Australia next summer; she will launch some national women’s football leagues for the first time, such as the FA Women’s Premier League in which she dominates cover star Kerr; it will include a training center for beginners, with ad hoc challenges and guides to learn the fundamentals of sport.
EA wanted to close on a high note, before moving on to its new brand, and what it believes is the “greatest FIFA ever” will also introduce a feature that has been requested for years, always in the name of inclusiveness. The cross-play will allow users on PC – which will finally switch to next-gen graphics -, PS5, Xbox Series X | S and Stadia to play together in barrier-free online multiplayer. Due to the different technical characteristics between the console generations, PS4 and Xbox One will have a pool dedicated only to them, even if they are working in the direction of bringing them all together passionately. Another caveat is that cross-play will be limited to 1v1 modes.
FIFA 23, the news on the field –
But how does FIFA 23 fare on the pitch? The game looks like the “perfect” version of the type of football that EA wants to propose: basically, there have been no changes at a macroscopic level, and this was foreseeable considering the imminent closure of the collaboration with FIFA, but the developer has added many details to icing on the cake, similar to the times when Konami had found the right formula with its PES and added only touches of luxury year after year.
Not that the more or less important renovations in the gameplay are missing. A new shooting mechanic, the Power Shot, can be activated, for example, with the simultaneous pressure of R1 + L1 during the kick: similar to as seen on eFootball 2022 since version 1.0, this special shot promises greater accuracy and power, and it is partly so, but fortunately in practice it is not a guarantee of a network. You have to learn to orient it and after that, from a good distance, it helps to throw impressive stones with the most gifted footballers, but the stainless shooting around continues to seem a more reliable solution.
The new set pieces –
Still on the subject of novelties, set pieces have been extensively rewritten. The system is now much drier and more linear: you change the type of shot by sliding a cursor with the right stick into a sphere at the foot of the player, which presents a range of choices ranging from cursed à la Pirlo to shooting. If this applies to free kicks and corners, the penalties have also changed in the name of a minimal interface: even here you can see a circle on the ground that opens and closes quickly, and you have to hit the right timing to do so. that it is effective. The additional difficulty it is represented by the fact that the orientation of the strike with the left stick is very sensitive and, in our test, often led to driftwood or shots out of the door mirror.
If this is the macroscopic dimension of the changes in FIFA 23, the aforementioned luxury touches are so many that it is difficult to keep track. From a technical point of view, the game features more connecting animations – even more: already the leap with FIFA 22 and HyperMotion technology it had been impressive – and this is especially noticeable in the high ball game, where the players now throw themselves into thigh-oriented controls and the like in a natural way. New tools have also been added for defenders, such as more varied shoving and sliding (now even heel), and likewise there are more ways to shoot and pass (even back).
Weak defenses, strong attacks –
In practice, during the playable build we accessed, we could see how the AI struggles or almost refuses in many circumstances to follow the opponent, and this has meant that every game played is finished with tennis scores. This aspect seemed to have improved with FIFA 21 and 22, when for example the midfielders with good defensive characteristics followed the cuts of the attacking midfielders, but now it seems that it is not possible to release a central because the full backs and his colleague will not care. minimally cover the absence or even just take a step to the side. The road to the exit is still long, of course, and there is time to rebalance the team dynamics – and it is good to observe how, with the top clubs made available (albeit with a tendency to stretch too soon) for the moment, stars like Mbappé, Messi and Neymar Jr. they are authentic tanks and play almost to themselves.
New details can be appreciated on the players themselves such as goalkeepers’ fingers that deform individually when they parry or graze a shot, and goalkeepers always “look out” when covered to try to understand where the shot will start – this has an impact. concrete about how ready they will be to dive. On the field, however, the signs of the slips that raise clods and leave the earth bare (perhaps a little too markedly), and a detail that will not escape the experts is the race: for certain players the way they run on the pitch has been replicated exactly, as in Davies, Vinicius and Mbappé ; with hand we touched that of Sterling, who has the characteristic replicated here very well to run (very fast) as if he were carrying two trays in his hand. Staying in the top player theme, left-handed footballers in FIFA 23 will finally perform their left feints, something the community has been asking for years.
FIFA 23, just the beginning –
In the coming weeks we will have a lot more to tell you about the news and optimizations of FIFA 23, some of which are very deep in the pack of modes, so keep following these pages: EA Sports season has just begun.
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